Wednesday Post

Generally, it is said that “Necessity is the mother of invention”, but there are many inventions which have been discovered accidentally, as the person was doing something else when he discovered another particular thing which turned into a great invention. And looking at how useful some everyday products are, it is hard to imagine these were discovered by accident.

Given below are a few of such inventions/discoveries:

1 Potato Chips– In 1853, in a New York restaurant, when a customer complained that the fried potatoes were too soggy and thick, and repeatedly sent them back to the waiter, the chef George Crum got so fed up, that he took the request for thinner potato quite literally- he cut the potatoes into thin slices, fried them and covered them in salt. That is the way the world’s most favourite snack was born.

2 Microwave Oven– In 1945, Percy Spencer was working with a microwave emitting magnetron when he felt an odd sensation and a chocolate bar kept in his pocket started melting. Utilising this new knowledge, he patented the microwave oven.

3 Post-it Notes– Spencer Silver, a researcher in 3M Laboratories was trying to make a strong adhesive. While working, he created an adhesive that was rather weaker than what really existed. It stuck to objects but could be pulled off easily without leaving a mark. No one thought there was any use for such a product, until another scientist, Art Fry, realised that the little piece of paper made great bookmarks for his church songs without leaving residue on the page.

4 Corn Flakes– The Kellogg brothers John and Will discovered breakfast cereal when accidentally left a pot of boiled grain on the stove for several days.

5 Penicillin– A Scottish scientist Sir Alexander Flemming is credited with the discovery of penicillin in 1928. He came across the antibiotic entirely by chance when he left out cultures of Staphylococcus aureus in his lab for two weeks and returned to find that their growth had been prevented by a mould called Penicillin notatum.

6 Non-Stick Pans (Teflon)- If you are cooking food in non-stick pans then it’s thanks to Chemist Roy Plunkett. Long before OFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons) became the environmental super-villain depleting the ozone layer. Plunkett was aiming to create a new type of CFC. But this experiment turned out to be the high melting point lubricant now consistently applied to all non-stick pans. Teflon was first used in military applications and now is famously applied to cookware around the world.

7 LSD– The psychoactive properties of the acid were discovered by accident by Dr Albert Hoffmann, a research chemist working for the Sandoz company in 1943. He had been synthesising LSD-25, and sone crystals of the substance made contact with his fingertips and were absorbed through the skin.

8 Matchsticks– In 1826, British Chemist Johny Walker discovered what are now matchsticks when he accidentally scraped a stick coated in chemicals across his hearth and found that it caught fire, and the idea struck him to convert these to proper matchsticks.

9 Safety Glass– In 1903, chemist Edward Benedictus was working in his lab when he accidentally knocked over a flask. However, when he looked down, he noticed that rather than breaking into a thousand little pieces, the glassware had actually just cracked slightly while maintaining its shape. The scientist learned that what kept the glass together was cellulose nitrate coating inside the glass, and this safety glass was created.

10 X-Ray Images– 1n 1895 a physics professor Wilhelm Rontgen was working on a cathode ray tube when he shielded the tube with thick paper and discovered a fluorescent light generated by a material located near the tube. He concluded that a new type of ray was being emitted from the tube. Further investigating soon found that the new ray could pass through most substances while casting shadows of solid subjects and paving the way to X Rays as we know them.

11 Coca Cola– Atlanta-based pharmacist, John Pemberton, capitalised on the trend by selling a French wine coca concoction that was touted as the cure for headaches and nervous disorders. His business hit a bump in 1885, when Atlanta banned the sale of alcohol, so he omitted the wine and created a coca based syrup that could be mixed with carbonated water and drank as soda. He named this new tonic Coca-Cola, and the rest is history.

12 Brandy- A Dutch shipmaster was trying to make wine easier to transport, and so he decided to use heat to concentrate the alcohol, with a plan to add water to it once he arrived at his destination. However, what he discovered was that the taste of concentrated wine is much better than that of watered-down wine, and so he went ahead and called this new alcohol Brandewijin meaning burnt wine in Dutch.

13 Viagra– The sildenafil compound was originally developed by Pfizer for the treatment of hypertension and angina pectoris. During the heart, clinical trials researchers discovered the drug was more effective at inducing erection than treating angina.

14 Slinky– Naval engineer Richard James was trying to develop a spring that would support and stabilise sensitive pieces of equipment on ships. When one of the springs accidentally fell off-shelf, it continued moving, and James got the idea for a toy. His wife Betty came up with the name, and when the Slinky made his debut in late 1945. He sold 400 of the bouncy toys in 90 minutes.

15 Ink-Jet Printers- According to a Business insider, a Canon engineer accidentally left a hot iron on his ink pen. Due to heat pressure, the ink pen almost started dropping ink from its point. Hence, the incident gave him the idea to create ink jet printers.

Hope you all liked the above information.

Waiting for your views/comments.

Anil Malik

Mumbai, India

11^th August 2021