The world has advanced by leaps and bounds with every passing day and science has been at the helm of this ginormous advancement. Mankind has always been at the top of the food chain because of its amazing brain and science has provided the biggest weapon to the hungry brain.
As the famous English proverb goes that curiosity kills the cat, mankind, though has advanced riding on the stroke of curiosity. Like the way, inquisition has aided mankind’s effort in growing, similarly fortune at times has lent an equally helping hand. We will be looking at twenty inventions that were the scion of accidents.
- Coca Cola
The pharmacist John Pemberton wanted to create a cure that would help the cases of stomach upset but ended up creating an evergreen beverage whose popularity keeps on burgeoning every day.
- Penicillin
Inventor Alexander Fleming left some untested bacteria in the petri dish with some staphylococcus before going on a vacation. After returning from vacation he found the mold in the dish and was amazed to find the ceasing of the staphylococcus’ growth. That was how mankind found its first antibiotic penicillin.
- Safety Glass
When Edouard Benedictus was carrying a flask, he ended up dropping it accidentally and to his surprise, it didn’t break. This phenomenon was followed by a little research that yielded gold for Edouard. He found that the flask was made with liquid plastic. It was the same formula that got applied for safety glass.
- Vulcanized rubber
The aforementioned product was created accidentally as Thomas Goodyear ended up dropping sulfur, lead and rubber on the stove for a long time. It is now used to manufacture shoes and types.
- Stainless Steel
Harry Brearly is a famous English metallurgist who was roped in to make rust-free gun barrels for the English army. He successfully created it and used the same formula for creating cutlery.
- Teflon
Roy Plunkett has invented Teflon which he was given to create refrigerators for DuPont. He accidentally created a material that doesn’t stick and didn’t react to high flames. Hence, arrived the coating for frying pans.
- Pacemaker
While making a resistor for contraption, Wilson Greatbatch had a major setback and ended up creating an incorrect resistor that imitated heartbeats in close lockstep. Thus came the second avatar of hearts to help people with a total heart blockade.
- Slinky
The Slinky is still pretty famous amongst kids but it was invented during the Second World War by Richard James in order to keep sensitive equipment from falling.
- X-Ray
A German scientist called Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen who was trying to carry on with a cathode-ray experiment accidentally ended up creating an X-Ray.
- Viagra
Pharmacists at Pzifer were trying to create a medicine that will lower the blood pressure levels. After several failed attempts, the scientists found out that the side effects can be used as a shield against erectile dysfunction.
- Velcro
A swiss engineer found out how burrs would manage to stick to the fur. He replicated the idea with synthetic material and NASA shot it to popularity in the 60’s. The zipperless zipper was invented.
- Super Glue
The renowned Kodak Laboratories found out something which is super sticky. Initially, the notion was thrown down to the bin, but then it later came to be known as Super Glue.
- Matchstick
John Walker was cleaning up a big blob of chemicals with a wooden stick. He was stunned to see that there were sparks after stroking the wood with fire. It led to the creation of matchsticks.
- Saccharin
A coal worker named Constantin Falhberg tasted some freshly baked biscuits by his wife. He found it sweeter than usual. Later he discovered that he didn’t wash his hands and coal tar made the biscuits tasty. That is how fake sugar was created.
- Microwave
A navy radar specialist was experimenting on microwave emitters and found that his chocolate bar thawed. That was the cue for the invention of the microwave.
- Popsicle
People tend to leave the mixture of Soda pop and water outside in winter which resulted in this refreshing and tasty concoction. Also, to pique your ingenious mindset, a popsicle was invented by an 11-year-old Frank Epperson.
- Laughing gas
British surgeon Humphry Davy had invented nitrous oxide which worked as a deviation during surgery. Later doctors started using it as anesthesia.
- Post Its
Spencer Silver made many attempts to create something that may hold the stacks of paper. He accidentally created Post It which is capable of holding papers together but also keeping them separated.
- Plastic
In the early 1900s, shellac was used for insulation which seemed costly for import-export. A chemist introduced a moldable material that worked as a cheaper alternative.
- Synthetic dye
Synthetic Dye was invented when the research was conducted to cure malaria. A young chemist called William Perkin romanticized the apparel industry by giving a beautiful purple colour.