Some scientific discoveries happen after painstaking, goal-oriented lab work finally yields the result that a researcher is trying to seek out.
But frequently, some lucky accident results in a transformative finding provided the proper person is there to understand the potential implications of that accident.
Then, within the part that may not an accident, they turn that observation into something useful.
All of those discoveries began with an accident.
In some cases, a careless spill or drop led to the creation of some new substance. In others, unclean or unsafe lab practices revealed the hidden properties of something. And sometimes, a researcher (or even a schoolteacher) checked out something within the world around them and realized that it might be repurposed to great utility and regularly, great profit.
Here are 5 of those discoveries.
The microwave
In 1945 Percy Spencer, an engineer for the Raytheon Corporation, was performing on a radar-related project. While testing a replacement tube that drives a radar set referred to as a magnetron, he discovered that a chocolate candy he had in his pocket melted.
He became intrigued and began experimenting by aiming the tube at other items, like eggs and popcorn kernels. He concluded that the warmth the objects experienced was from the microwave energy.
Soon after, on October 8, 1945, Raytheon filed a patent for the primary microwave.
The first microwave weighed 750 pounds and stood 5′ 6″ tall. the primary countertop microwave was introduced at 1965 and price $500.
X-rays
In 1895, a German physicist named Wilhelm Roentgen was working with a beam tube.
Despite the very fact that the tube was covered, he saw that a close-by fluorescent screen would glow when the tube was on and therefore the room was dark. The rays were somehow illuminating the screen.
Roentgen tried to dam the rays, but most things that he placed ahead of them didn’t seem to form a difference. When he placed his hand ahead of the tube, he noticed he could see his bones within the image that was projected on the screen.
He replaced the tube with a plate to capture the pictures , creating the primary x-rays. The technology was soon adopted by medical institutions and research departments.
Velcro
In 1941, Swiss engineer George de Mestral went for a hike within the Alps together with his dog. Upon returning home, he took a glance at the tiny burdock burrs that stuck to his clothes, and noticed that the small seeds were covered in small hooks, which is how they became attached to fabric and fur.
He hadn’t begun to make a fastening system, but after noting how firmly those little burrs attached to the fabric, he decided to make the fabric that we now know by the name Velcro.
It became popular after it had been later adopted by NASA, and have become commonly used on sneakers, jackets, then far more .
The pacemaker
In 1956 Wilson Greatbatch was building a cardiac rhythm recording device. He reached into a box for a resistor to finish the circuitry, but pulled out the incorrect one — it wasn’t quite the proper size.
He installed the ill-fitting resistor and noticed that the circuit emitted electrical pulses. It made him consider the timing of the heartbeat, also because of the electrical activity of the guts itself.
He thought this rhythmic electrical stimulation could catch up on a breakdown within the heart’s ability to pump its own muscles, a thought that had intrigued him within the past, but one that he hadn’t thought was possible at the time.
He began to shrink his device and on May 7, 1958, a version of his
pacemaker
was successfully inserted into a dog.
Play-doh
The clay that youngsters play with has been around since the 1930s, but when invented, it wasn’t alleged to be a toy.
The clay was first designed by Noah McVicker, who worked together with his brother Cleo at a soap company. But they didn’t make a kids toy. Instead, that they had created a wallpaper cleaner.
One of the byproducts of the coal fires that folks want to keep their homes warm was soot, which coated the walls. Rolling the clay over the soot removed it.
However, after the introduction of vinyl wallpaper, which might be cleaned with water, wallpaper cleaner was not as necessary, since a wet sponge could do the work.
But before the McVickers went out of business, a preschool teacher named Kay Zufall came up with another use for the merchandise. She had heard that youngsters could make decorations out of the wallpaper cleaner, so she tried it in school, and her students loved it.
She told her brother-in-law Joe McVicker, who worked together with his uncle Noah.
The McVickers decided to get rid of the detergent and add coloring, and after Kay suggested the name “Play-doh” rather than “Kutol’s Rainbow Modeling Compound,” their original suggestion, the clay that we all know and love was created.
That was all for today. We will come back again with Part 2 of these crazy accidental inventions.
Let us know if you want us to write about any particular topic.
And, which one did you like the most among these inventions? Comment down below!