9 Things Invented or Discovered by Accident

Hi all,

found this article today about how some of the things we take for granted today were found by complete chance!!

9/ Corn Flakes

In 1894, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg was the superintendent of the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan. He and his brother Will Keith Kellogg were Seventh Day Adventists, and they were searching for wholesome foods to feed patients that also complied with the Adventists' strict vegetarian diet. When Will accidentally left some boiled wheat sitting out, it went stale by the time he returned. Rather than throw it away, the brothers sent it through rollers, hoping to make long sheets of dough, but they got flakes instead. They toasted the flakes, which were a big hit with patients, and patented them under the name Granose. The brothers experimented with other grains, including corn, and in 1906, Will created the Kellogg's company to sell the corn flakes. On principle, John refused to join the company because Will lowered the health benefits of the cereal by adding sugar

8/ Microwave Ovens

The microwave oven is now a standard appliance in most American households, but it has only been around since the late 1940s. In 1945, Percy Spencer was experimenting with a new vacuum tube called a magnetron while doing research for the Raytheon Corporation. He was intrigued when the candy bar in his pocket began to melt, so he tried another experiment with popcorn. When it began to pop, Spencer immediately saw the potential in this revolutionary process. In 1947, Raytheon built the first microwave oven, the Radarange, which weighed 750 pounds, was 5.5 feet tall, and cost about $5,000. When the Radarange first became available for home use in the early 1950s, its bulky size and expensive price tag made it unpopular with consumers. But in 1967, a much more popular 100-volt, countertop version was introduced at a price of $495

7/ Silly Putty

It bounces, it stretches, it breaks -- it's Silly Putty, the silicone-based plastic clay marketed as a children's toy by Binney & Smith, Inc. During World War II, while attempting to create a synthetic rubber substitute, James Wright dropped boric acid into silicone oil. The result was a polymerized substance that bounced, but it took several years to find a use for the product. Finally, in 1950, marketing expert Peter Hodgson saw its potential as a toy, renamed it Silly Putty, and a classic toy was born! Not only is it fun, Silly Putty also has practical uses -- it picks up dirt, lint, and pet hair; can stabilize wobbly furniture; and is useful in stress reduction, physical therapy, and in medical and scientific simulations. It was even used by the crew of Apollo 8 to secure tools in zero gravity

6/ Post-It Notes

A Post-it note is a small piece of paper with a strip of low-tack adhesive on the back that allows it to be temporarily attached to documents, walls, computer monitors, and just about anything else. The idea for the Post-it note was conceived in 1974 by Arthur Fry as a way of holding bookmarks in his hymnal while singing in the church choir. He was aware of an adhesive accidentally developed in 1968 by fellow 3M employee Spencer Silver. No application for the lightly sticky stuff was apparent until Fry's idea. The 3M company was initially skeptical about the product's profitability, but in 1980, the product was introduced around the world. Today, Post-it notes are sold in more than 100 countries

5/ Saccharin

Saccharin, the oldest artificial sweetener, was accidentally discovered in 1879 by researcher Constantine Fahlberg, who was working at Johns Hopkins University in the laboratory of professor Ira Remsen. Fahlberg's discovery came after he forgot to wash his hands before lunch. He had spilled a chemical on his hands and it, in turn, caused the bread he ate to taste unusually sweet. In 1880, the two scientists jointly published the discovery, but in 1884, Fahlberg obtained a patent and began mass-producing saccharin without Remsen. The use of saccharin did not become widespread until sugar was rationed during World War I, and its popularity increased during the 1960s and 1970s with the manufacture of Sweet'N Low and diet soft drinks

4/ Slinky

[img][/img]

In 1943, naval engineer Richard James was trying to develop a spring that would support and stabilize sensitive equipment on ships. When one of the springs accidentally fell off a 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 its debut in late 1945, James sold 400 of the bouncy toys in 90 minutes. Today, more than 250 million Slinkys have been sold worldwide

3/ Potato Chips


[img][/img]

If you can't eat just one potato chip, blame it on chef George Crum. He reportedly created the salty snack in 1853 at Moon's Lake House near Saratoga Springs, New York. Fed up with a customer who continuously sent his fried potatoes back, complaining that they were soggy and not crunchy enough, Crum sliced the potatoes as thin as possible, fried them in hot grease, then doused them with salt. The customer loved them and "Saratoga Chips" quickly became a popular item at the lodge and throughout New England.

Eventually, the chips were mass-produced for home consumption, but since they were stored in barrels or tins, they quickly went stale. Then, in the 1920s, Laura Scudder invented the airtight bag by ironing together two pieces of waxed paper, thus keeping the chips fresh longer. Today, chips are packaged in plastic or foil bags or cardboard containers and come in a variety of flavors, including sour cream and onion, barbecue, and salt and vinegar

2/ Fireworks

[img][/img]

Fireworks originated in China some 2,000 years ago, and legend has it that they were accidentally invented by a cook who mixed together charcoal, sulfur, and saltpeter -- all items commonly found in kitchens in those days. The mixture burned and when compressed in a bamboo tube, it exploded. There's no record of whether it was the cook's last day on the job

1/ Play-Doh

[img][/img]

One smell most people remember from childhood is the odor of Play-Doh, the brightly-colored, nontoxic modeling clay. Play-Doh was accidentally invented in 1955 by Joseph and Noah McVicker while trying to make a wallpaper cleaner. It was marketed a year later by toy manufacturer Rainbow Crafts. More than 700 million pounds of Play-Doh have sold since then, but the recipe remains a secret

Pretty Interesting article!! Never knew any of this at all. My personal favorite is the Fireworks. And the size of the original microwave is crazy too!!!



science.howstuffworks.com...

G.

[edit on 2-9-2009 by grantbeed]

[edit on 2-9-2009 by grantbeed]

[edit on 2-9-2009 by grantbeed]

I would like to add '___' to the list

Reply to post by grantbeed

I love lists like this, very interesting. Nice find.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

great post, the microwave caught my attention...as the guy said a candy bar was melting in his pockets...i wonder if he absorbed any radiation?..wonder how long he lived?....

[edit on 2-9-2009 by smitts_lgp]

der pennicillin?

is important mistake, no?

Also going to add Chocolate Chip Cookies to the list.

It is agreed that the chocolate chip cookie was accidentally developed by Ruth Wakefield in 1934. She owned the Toll House Inn, in Whitman, Massachusetts, a very popular restaurant in the 1930s. The restaurant's popularity was not just due to its home-cooked style meals; her policy was to give diners a whole extra helping of their entrées to take home with them and a serving of her homemade cookies for dessert. Her cookbook, Toll House Tried and True Recipes, was published in 1936 by M. Barrows & Company, New York, and included the recipe "Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie", for what have since been widely called Toll House cookies.

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by smitts_lgp


yes, would be interesting to find out more about him!

here is a pic of the first commercial microwave...


[img][/img]

www.odec.ca...
[edit on 2-9-2009 by grantbeed]

[edit on 2-9-2009 by grantbeed]

Originally posted by grantbeed
reply to post by smitts_lgp

 

yes, would be interesting to find out more about him!

here is a pic of the first commercial microwave...


[img]

[/img]

www.odec.ca...
[edit on 2-9-2009 by grantbeed]

[edit on 2-9-2009 by grantbeed]

mmm i can almost smell the pizza pockets

2nd line

I like to think of my self as an inventor .
currently I have a list of about about 200 inventions that I see currently being market'd that I invented at the same time , or befor the company / person .

I suggest , I have never had any invention "stolen "... I have a hard time getting any one to lisen to them .

but good minds think alike , given the same collection of technology , the same inventions will be invented .

the great problem is that inventors can not find support , prototype construction , business and marketing .

great inventor can't just invent the ball and bat ...
they have to build the stadium , players and hot dog as well .

Originally posted by xynephadyn
I would like to add '___' to the list

Funnily enough, i thought it was goingto be on that list. Invented by Albert Hoffman, in the 40s i think, whilst he was searching for a cure for the common cold IIRC. He took a teaspoon full of it

Originally posted by readerone
I like to think of my self as an inventor .
currently I have a list of about about 200 inventions that I see currently being market'd that I invented at the same time , or befor the company / person .

I suggest , I have never had any invention "stolen "... I have a hard time getting any one to lisen to them .

but good minds think alike , given the same collection of technology , the same inventions will be invented .

the great problem is that inventors can not find support , prototype construction , business and marketing .

great inventor can't just invent the ball and bat ...
they have to build the stadium , players and hot dog as well .

Why wouldn't you start with a patent? And if your completely into this then why wouldn't you have gotten a patent package that helps you through it?

You realize you only needed 1 of those 200 to go well and you're a millionaire. But you couldn't be bothered? Of course.

Originally posted by grantbeed
reply to post by smitts_lgp

 

[img]

[/img]

www.odec.ca...
[edit on 2-9-2009 by grantbeed]

[edit on 2-9-2009 by grantbeed]

FEEEEEEEEEEEED MEEEEEEEEEE!

reply to post by king9072


A patent might seem to be the way to go, but the first step is to research what's called the literature on your idea.

Anything and everything which is similar to or uses a process that your invention uses is regarded as literature. Even a drawing by someone on the back of an envelope.

An invention to be granted a patent, the patent office must be satisfied that it hasn't been thought of before, and you are the one who must prove that it hasn't been by providing them with the literature.

Most inventors just go somewhere like freepatentsonline and search for keywords.

The Patent Office is a strange place to deal with.

Instead of just filing my ideas away, I now find someone on the net who could make the prototype and just give them the idea in a letter. Take a screen shot of the letter. print it out and mail it to yourself via registered mail, which you never open so that the date and time stays intact. If they try and patent it without you, you've got a very good case to challenge because they didn't present your letter as literature (assuming of course they don't make you a partner). It gets your ideas out there to people who could make them happen, for the cost of mailing a registered letter. WARNING: Not to be taken as legal advice/

Originally posted by xynephadyn
I would like to add '___' to the list

Wow - you beat me too it.

That was gonna be my starred post

reply to post by king9072


You've obviously had no experience with patent laws king. I have provisional patents on several inventions, and applications. I actually have no intention on going the whole route, and getting the final patent #. There are several reasons for this. Only 3% of patent applications ever get approved. The process can take years, and cost $100Ks. The patent is only good for 20 years from the date of application, after that it is public domain, and is free for anyone to copy. If it takes 19 years, and 6 months for your application to go through you get a patent # good for 6 months. It is better to develop your ideas, keep them as guarded trade secrets, apply for a provisional patent which only costs about $150, and offers the same protections, but for a more limited amount of time, until you get your idea off the ground. Then when you are the first/best at doing/building whatever your idea was, who cares who copies you. The next guy in line will always be playing catch up.

The patent system only works for Mega corporations with a team of lawyers to push things through the system with lots of time, and huge sums of money. The little guy doesn't have a chance with the patent office. The "inventors helper" businesses are scams designed to part you with your cash. Even if you have the greatest idea of all time, and get a patent. You will spend at least a year, and a half, and $10K or $20K on the fast/cheap side for said patent, and then there is no guarantee that you would be able to even sell it. In fact, the better the idea, the less marketable it usually is. People don't buy good ideas. They buy fun, flashy, popular ideas. Readerone is right most good ideas are trash canned before they even leave the paper stage because there is no market for good ideas.

I can build refrigeration systems for home, and automotive applications that work better the hotter the environment is, and use NO POWER from the grid, or your car's motor. I have developed an emissions system for gasoline ICEs that virtually eliminates tailpipe emissions, and wastes no fuel to do it, and would actually reduce the cost of manufacturing an automobile. You will never see them in production because no one in the industry is the least bit interested. The EPA says it is illegal because it bypasses federally mandated emissions equipment developed in the 1950s, and the green groups have no real interest in saving the environment. They are after your cash too. The general public is just stupid enough to believe their propaganda, and the talking egg heads that convince you that we have to destroy industry to save the planet. We can have both a clean planet, and a booming industry right now with the technology already at hand, but you, and I will never see it because of the current world system of greed, narcissism, and bureaucrats to whom logic is an incomprehensible tongue, and environmentalists whom the majority of which are in an unofficial religion, not a true scientific endeavor. "Green" is popular, and a lot of ideas from their collective are needlessly detrimental when much better options exist, but go against their hidden agenda.

Unfortunately we will have to destroy ourselves before we will learn. It's just human nature, and the cycle of history. Progress takes initiative, and passive indifference is the path of least resistance. Until your power goes out, and your refigerator is bare you will do nothing. When we have to use all our good ideas to survive then the man with good ideas will be king, until then we are disruptive, inconvenient, and unpopular.

reply to post by Binder


I'd suggest taking a few of your ideas to the nearest university who offers engineering or industrial design. The students would likely jump on the chance to develop a prototype with you.

reply to post by Vilyariel


Most of my ideas are developed in cooperation with our local community college which is totally kick arse. We have presented several companies working prototypes. Including the car with 5 gas analyzer strips reading all zeros at multiple load, and speed sites, without a catalytic converter. Plus it gets 20%- 30% better gas mileage because it is not wasting fuel through the cat. Same response: Yes, you're brilliant, not interested, not marketable. Come back when it will run an Ipod playing U2, and make the car get 2 mpg, while being made out of recycle material so we can still have our "green" spin.
The refrigeration units: Not marketable because you have to wait about 4 hours for the absorption refrigerant to build enough charge to handle the door being opened, and still keep the food cold. Screw the fact that you now have a fridge that runs forever, no moving parts, for free! Or an AC unit that costs nothing to run, and when it's 105 F. outside it'll turn your house into an ice box if you want because it gains efficiency when it's hot outside, or pulls no power from your car's engine so you can have a cool car, and get good gas mileage. Not marketable because it doesn't get cold instantly like the inefficient compressor system on there now that uses up to 10 horsepower. People don't want to wait 3 minutes extra for cold that costs nothing but recycled waste heat from the exhaust. These technologies have existed in various forms since the early 1900s it is nothing new. It is just not being used because it doesn't fit lazy industry's selfish agenda. People will pay big bucks and waste energy like pigs to not have to wait, or change just a little bit. The old way is familiar, and convenient. We can build coal fired power plants that run so clean, and efficient it would blow your mind, but coal is not popular any more, and the current administration has declared war on the coal industry. Solutions abound, but politics will kill us before any of it is implemented. Guys like us are the enemy of both sides. The big mega corp. giants, and the "greenies" because we expose the flaws in both sides of their thinking. The greenies would blow up the planet if it meant winning the debate, and the mega corps will suck it dry to fill their pockets, and not care that they now rule a sterile, lifeless husk. It's all about control, not reason, progress, or the good of mankind, and it applies to both sides of the debate.

Now not to sound too negative. The positive outcomes of my research is that I have shown a couple dozen brilliant young minds to think outside the box, and exposed the corruption, and greed in the current system. Hopefully someday when they are running things they will remember that win/win situations exist, and that one side doesn't always have to loose. They also have learned that the traditional "thou shalt nots" of current policy regarding most emissions standards are largely outdated, and incorrect, and that mandating something because it used to work 50 years ago, and we don't want to change it is insanity. I just hope we survive long enough for clear thinking to prevail. At the current rate of "greenies" Vs. "mega corp." insanity I'm not too hopeful.

reply to post by Binder


Just remember - the generation you are showing your ideas to are the ones who will run the world in the future - educate as many of them as possible and hope they use their influences to change things in the future! Once all the money-grubbing fuddy duddy companies are being run by these out-of-the-box thinkers, they'll start to consider environmental impact and such and start really R&Ding further into implementing ideas like yours

reply to post by Vilyariel


That is my sincere hope. The frustrating thing is most of this stuff doesn't need R&D. It is already in prototype, and just needs someone to throw some money at it, and build it. Absorption refrigeration is over 100 years old, and you can use solar, gas, heck even a wood fire! Most solar ACs you see on the market are PV cells that run a 24VDC compressor. That is so inefficient it is ridiculous. PV cells are only about 30% efficient. If you use solar THERMAL it is over 80% efficient. You just distill your refrigerant with the thermal energy. The solution is so simple it's really childs play, but no one wants to do it.
On an automobile you use the exhaust heat collected from the manifolds to distill the refrigerant. Remember the old natural gas freezers back in the 50s? Same principle, just use heat that is normally wasted, and viola! free cold, and the hotter it is the better it works.
Some of the students I work with are building solar ice boxes out of stuff you can get at Home Depot etc... for camping, and they work pretty well. In 4 - 6 hrs of strong daylight you get about 24hrs worth of cold dependent on how often you open the cooler lid. For a real commercial application you just have a really big collector to save up more distilled refrigerant to get you through times of low or no sunshine. If you wanted you could have a small gas burner that could serve as a fail safe so you never had to worry about running out of cooling. You just modify the same panels as are used for solar water heating. It's all already in place it's just putting component A which already exists together with component B that already exists. Many countries in europe, and asia use absorption refrigerators because natural gas, or propane are easier to get than electricity. Just modify the collector to use the panels instead of relying on the gas burner. We should have been doing this as THE STANDARD for the last 50 yeas. Think of the millions, and millions of Kilowatt hours that would have been saved.