More Inventions Discovered by Accident There have been so many inventions which were invented by mistake that left a big impact on the world. Sometimes, something completely different was trying to be achieved, and it was almost divine intervention which took place and voila, something unexpected was discovered. Other times accidents accounted for what was discovered. Take Wheaties for example. A chef was making bran gruel, but he had an accident and spilled some on a hot stove. The gruel sizzled and became flakes. He decided to see what the flake would taste like and was surprised; it was pretty good. Thus began the development of creating a breakfast cereal. After a number of tries Wheaties was born. Work was being conducted on adhesives. Spencer Silver was working on a super strong glue. While using a hymnbook the bookmark he was using fell out. He added a mild glue to the back and it was enough to hold the bookmark in place and also weak enough to allow the bookmark to be easily removed without leaving a residue. From that idea he developed what has become a world-wide success, Post-it notes were born. I think I can safely say almost all of us know what they are. The story of the invention of the ink jet printer is a story of an engineer making a mistake which might have caused a fire, but didn’t. An engineer at Canon was using a hot iron and without thinking put it down on a ball point pen where it rested for a few seconds. When he saw what he did, he also noticed ink was ejected from the pen’s point and this led to the creation of the ink jet printer. Now I am going to talk about the invention of one of my favorite snacks. The year was 1853. A customer was ordering food in a restaurant and when he received it, he sent it back an said the potatoes were too soggy and thick. This was done several times to the disgust of the chef. The chef angrily cut potatoes into thin slices, fried them and salted them. The potato chip had been born. In 1905 an 11 year old boy decided to try and make his own soda pop. He kept trying, but one time had an accident. He had left the stick which he was stirring in the concoction and left the whole thing outside. The temperature dropped overnight and froze it and when he went to get it, he found the first popsicle. Sanitary pads for women didn’t start out that way. Originally, they were used to dress the wounds of soldiers. A nurse in the Red Cross discovered the fact they also worked great for women’s hygiene needs. In 1933 an invention was made which created the most popular material in the world. That was the year polyethylene or what we call plastic today was invented. There were other types of what we might call plastic before, but this became the one type used everywhere. Scientists were attempting to create a material which could stand extreme pressure. They gave up but other scientists decided to continue the work. While they were working on the material, oxygen leaked into the formula and accidently created Polyethylene. It wasn’t long before plastic took over the world. There are strange things in history many of us know nothing about. The recreational drug of the 1800s was ether. Parties used to be thrown which large amounts of ether were injected. A doctor notice that when this happened, some people would sustain injuries and not know it. Several years later a dentist was the first to use ether as an anesthetic. Thank goodness for the invention of anesthesia. Did you ever wonder how fireworks were invented? This is a legend about its invention which states a Chinese cook was experimenting with different ingredients in his kitchen. Common kitchen items back then included sulfur, charcoal and saltpeter. He accidently mixed these ingredients together and compressed them in a bamboo tube and they exploded. A scientist was working with different ingredients in Switzerland. He was doing research into lysergic acid derivatives. He didn’t mean to, but he accidently swallowed a small amount of what turned out to be LSD, which he invented and experienced what is known as a drug trip. A scientist was working for DuPont, a famous chemical company. He was assigned the task of trying to find a safer refrigerant. As he was testing the different samples of his work, he noticed one sample had left a very slippery film and the film was chemical and heat-resistant. He had invented Teflon. One of the discoveries which changed things, you may not have ever heard about. It is called Smart Dust. Chemistry students were working on a silicon chip, but they had an accident. They had dropped it and it shattered. Amazingly the pieces of the chip were still sending out signals. Smart Dust is not only used to track and attack tumors, but it had other uses for covert operations. It has the ability to cling to shoes and clothes unseen and can be used to track people. The year was 1945 and Dr. Harry Coover was working with different substances. One of them was annoying him because it stuck to everything. What he didn’t realize at the time was he had invented Krazy Glue. Just before the First World War an invention was discovered which would make metal a lot better in some circumstances. It was discovered in 1912. Work was being done on a gun barrel which would resist corrosion. The work went on for months without success, then it was decided to add chromium to the steel. It was enough to prevent rust and stainless steel was born. In 1903 a very handy invention was made. It came about during a small accident. A scientist was working in his lab and dropped a flask. The flask was glass, but when it hit the floor, it didn’t break. This surprised him and he examined the glass more closely. It only exhibited a small crack and he was determined to find out why. He realized he had stored cellulose nitrate in the beaker and it had coated the glass and made it stronger. This was how safety glass was discovered. Not all inventions are discovered by scientists and engineers and sometimes even natives might make a discovery. Quinine was discovered when the bark of the cinchona tree had fallen into a pool of water. A South American Indian had been infected with malaria and drank water from the pool and almost instantly began to feel better.
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