You may not realize it, but many things you
use every day came about completely by accident! That straw you're sipping out of? Accident.
The Velcro you used to fasten your son's shoes? Accident. The dose of Penicillin that saved
your neighbor's life? Accident. While we've shared other unique invention lists with you,
today we are back to focus on inventions that were completely unintentional. I'm Mike with
List25 and Trust me; you'll want to check out these 25
Accidental Inventions That Changed The World! 25. You know that pink packet of fake sugar that’s always sitting on the restaurant table? Well,
as sweet as it is, you may be surprised to know where it came from. In 1879, Constantin
Fahlberg, a chemist trying to find alternative uses for coal tar, came home for dinner after
a long day of work and noticed that his wife’s biscuits tasted a lot sweeter than usual.
After asking her about it, he realized that he hadn’t washed his hands after work,
and the coal tar remnants had sweetened the biscuit. 24.
Although most students would be a bit upset if their homework all of a sudden exploded
in their face, Jamie Link, a graduate student at the University of California, made the
most of the situation and ended up changing the world. After the silicon chip she was
working on was accidentally destroyed, she realized that the individual pieces could
still function as sensors. Today, smart dust is used to detect everything from deadly tumors
to biological agents. 23.
In 1853, George Crum, a chef in New York, accidentally invented potato chips when an
annoying patron kept sending his french fried potatoes back to the kitchen because they
were soggy. In an attempt to teach the customer a lesson, Crum sliced them extra thin, fried
them to a crisp, and drowned them in salt. To his surprise, however, the complaining
customer actually liked what would become the very first serving of potato chips. 22.
Although these days it's almost common knowledge, this list wouldn’t be complete without
Civil War veteran turned pharmacist John Pemberton and what he originally intended as nothing
more than a medication for several ailments, such as opiate addiction and upset stomach.
Instead, he invented one of the world's most popular drinks. This is also why the original
Coke actually did include cocaine on its list of ingredients. 21.
In 1905, soda pop had just become the most popular drink on the market. 11-year-old Frank
Epperson decided he wanted to save money by making his own at home. Using a combination
of powder and water, he got pretty close but then absentmindedly left the concoction on
his porch all night. Temperatures ended up dropping to below freezing, and when he came
out in the morning, he found his mixture frozen with the stirring stick still stuck in it. 20.
Although ice cream had been served on dishes for years, it wasn’t until the 1904
World’s Fair that the ice cream cone was born. An ice cream stall at the fair was
doing so well that they were quickly running out of plates while the neighboring Persian
waffle stall was hardly selling anything. The two stall owners then had the idea of
rolling up the waffles, plopping the ice cream on top, and voila! The ice cream cone was
born. 19.
If you have ever cooked an omelet, you can thank Roy Plunkett, a chemist who worked for
DuPont in the early 20th century for accidentally stumbling across a non-reactive, no stick
chemical while experimenting with refrigerants. Dupont quickly patented it, and today we know
it as Teflon, the coating on your pan that keeps your eggs from sticking. 18.
Charles Goodyear had spent ages trying to find a way to make rubber resistant to heat
and cold. After a number of failed attempts, he finally stumbled across a mixture that
worked. Before turning out the lights one evening, he accidentally spilled some rubber,
sulfur, and lead onto a stove, resulting in a mixture that charred and hardened but could
still be used in shoes and tires. 17.
In the early 1900's, shellac was the material of choice when it came to insulation, but
due to the fact that it was made from Southeast Asian beetles, the material was not cheap
to import. For this reason, chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland thought he might be able to make
some money by producing an alternative. What he came up with, however, was a moldable material
that could be heated to extremely high temperatures without being distorted, also known as plastic. 16.
In 1896, physicist Henri Becquerel was trying to get fluorescent materials to produce X-rays
by leaving them in the sun. His experiment, however, suffered a week of cloudy, overcast
skies. After leaving all of his materials in a drawer, he returned one week later to
find that the uranium rock he had left there had managed to imprint its image on a nearby
photographic plate without any exposure to light. 15.
Strangely enough, it was while 18-year-old chemist, William Perkin, was busy researching
a cure for malaria that he accidentally ended up changing the fashion world forever. The
year was 1856, and one of his experiments ended up going terribly wrong, creating what
seemed to be nothing more than a murky mess. As he examined it, however, William noticed
a beautiful color radiating from the petri dish. Thus, it became the world’s first
synthetic dye and introduced the world to the color mauve. 14.
Wilson Greatbatch was working on a contraption that would record human heart beats when he
accidentally inserted the wrong resistor. It ended up perfectly mimicking the heart’s
rhythm, creating the first implantable pacemaker. 13.
In 1968, Spencer Silver, a chemist working for 3M, stumbled across a “low-tackâ€
adhesive that he found was just strong enough to hold paper to a surface but weak enough
that it wouldn’t tear upon removal. After many failed attempts at finding a marketable
application, one of Silver’s colleagues, Art Fry, realized that it would be perfect
as a no-slip bookmark, and the Post-it Note was born. 12.
Every reluctant cook should be grateful to Percy Spencer, a navy radar specialist who
was tinkering around with microwave emitters, when he felt the chocolate bar in his pocket
start to melt. The year was 1945, and the world, or rather the kitchen, hasn’t
been the same since. 11.
During World War II, navy engineer Richard James was trying to figure out a way to employ
springs aboard navy ships to keep sensitive instruments from bouncing around when he accidentally
dropped one of them. To his amusement, the spring immediately righted itself and landed
upright on the floor. Since then, kids everywhere have enjoyed playing with this springy, metal
toy. 10.
Maybe it comes as no surprise that the smelly, gooey stuff kids have been playing with for
decades was originally intended as wallpaper cleaner. In the early 20th century, however,
people stopped using coal to heat their homes, which meant that their wallpaper stayed relatively
clean. Luckily for Cleo McVicker, the original inventor, his son discovered another use –
modeling clay. 9.
Harry Coover, a researcher at Kodak Laboratories, was developing plastic lenses for gun sights
when he stumbled across a synthetic adhesive made from cyanoacrylate. At the time, he rejected
it as being far too sticky to be of any use. Years later though, it was “rediscoveredâ€
and is today sold under the trade name of “super glue.†8.
Swiss engineer George de Mestral was on a hunting trip with his dog in 1948 when he
noticed how burrs would stick to its fur. Eventually, he managed to replicate the effect
in his laboratory, but it wasn’t until NASA came along in the 1960's and began using
the material in its space program that this "zipperless zipper" was really popularized. 7.
In 1895, Wilhelm Roentgen was performing an experiment using cathode rays, and he realized
that some fluorescent cardboard across the room was lighting up. This was in spite of
the fact that there was a thick block between the cathode ray and the cardboard. The only
explanation was that light rays were actually passing through the solid block. 6.
Édouard Bénédictus, a French chemist, accidentally knocked a flask off of his desk
one day. It fell to the ground, but rather than shattering, it had only cracked. The
flask had been filled with plastic cellulose nitrate, or liquid plastic, which had evaporated
and left a thin but durable film on the inside. This led Bénédictus to securing the
first patent for safety glass, which is most commonly used in vehicle windshields. 5.
Will Keith Kellogg began helping his brother, John, cook meals for patients at the Sanitarium
at which he worked when he left some bread dough to sit out for several hours. Deciding
to bake it anyway, the result birthed the first batch of Cornflakes. 4.
It’s not like humanity just recently discovered how to blow things up. Gunpowder
and nitroglycerin have been around for ages. The issue however, especially in the case
of nitroglycerin, is its instability. It wasn’t until Alfred Nobel accidentally discovered
a method of containing the substance without hindering its power that people could really
have a blast. 3.
Although there is no single person to credit with discovering anesthesia, Crawford Long,
William Morton, and Charles Jackson are all contributors to finding a practical use for
it. They noticed that drugs such as nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, then used for recreational
purposes, was an effective sedative. Eventually, surgeons started to use ether during their
procedures, paving the way to the modern anesthetics we use in surgeries today. 2.
Next time you enjoy your dinner with a rust-free fork, remember to thank 20th century arms
manufacturers for hiring Harry Brearly. An English metallurgist, Brearly was asked to
develop a gun barrel that wouldn't rust. After testing his creation on various corrosives,
such as lemon juice, he realized that it would be the perfect material for cutlery. 1.
While studying staphylococcus, microbiologist Alexander Fleming added some of the bacteria
to petri dishes before leaving for vacation. He had expected the bacteria to grow, but
upon returning, he was surprised to find a mold growing in the dishes instead. A close
inspection found that the mold released a byproduct which inhibited the growth of the
staph, giving birth to the first antibiotic, penicillin. Enjoying our lists? Be sure to click that
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