Dear sailguy-ga;
I love this kind of question. Thank you for allowing me an opportunity
to answer it.
The invention that came to mind first after reading your question was
SILLY PUTTY. The substance was invented by accident in 1943, when
James Wright, working under government contract in General Electric's
New Haven, Connecticut labs, in an effort to create a synthetic rubber
for the War Department, accidentally dropped some boric acid into
silicone oil. He immediately noted that result was a kind of stretchy
goo and thought that he has created the ultimate synthetic rubber.
As it turned out, no one, including the US War Production Board
thought the substance was any better that the rubber that was already
being produced and unfortunately the stuff’s future looked pretty
bleak. In 1949 though, an unemployed ad man named Peter Hodgson saw a
marketing potential for the substance as a simple and inexpensive
children's toy, so Hodgson borrowed $147 and bought the production
rights from GE. He soon began producing the gooey “putty-like” clay
and renamed it Silly Putty®. He came up with the unique idea of
packaging it in plastic eggs simply because Easter was on the way and
thought it might help to sell the putty around the holidays. Since
then Silly Putty has become a multi-million-dollar seller and is also
used for more pratical uses. It was soon disvoered that the putty
picks up dirt, lint and pet hair, and can stabilize wobbly furniture;
but it has also been used in stress-reduction and physical therapy,
and in medical and scientific simulations. The crew of Apollo 8 even
used it to secure tools in zero-gravity.
At the time of his Death, Peter Hodgson's estate was valued at $140
million.
Along those same lines comes Richard James, who in 1943 was trying to
create a spring device that would make battleship rides less bumpy. IN
doing so he happed to drop one and it simple “walked off”. The ship
manufacturers showed no interest in his walking coil as means
stabilizing seagoing vessels so instead he gave up on it and brought
the thing home to his kids to play with. Oddly enough, it became the
neighborhood sensation almost overnight! When James realized the
potential, he contacted a machine shop which agreed to make more of
the “toys”, and on a snowy night in 1945, Richard James handed out
free gifts to 400 children who lined up in Philadelphia to be the
first recipients of the “SLINKY”.
In 1965, Dr. James Schlatter was developing a new drug to treat ulcers
when he spilled some on his fingers. In true scientific form, he
decided to taste of the substance and noticed that it tasted sweet.
Since it contained very few calories and never proved to be beneficial
in the treatment of ulcers, the substance was marketed as a sugar
substitute under the name NUTRASWEET.
A spilled bottle of collodion, a solution of cellulose nitrate in a
mixture of ether and alcohol, that was popular as a treatment for cuts
in the mid-1800s, led to the first semi-synthetic fiber. In 1878
Hilaire de Chardonnet spilled a bottle of the substance and upon
cleaning it up noticed that the viscous liquid produced fibers. Within
six years he had produced the first artificial silk using collodin,
which was called rayon in 1924. His invention led to xanthate and
acetate rayons and on to an entire range of synthetic fibers that we
enjoy today, such as nylon and polyester.
And there are more stories of alternative uses involving collodion
too. Another accident with the substance led to the invention of
laminated glass. In 1903, a French chemist named Edouard Benedictus
accidentally dropped a glass flask on the floor of his laboratory and
noticed that the pieces of glass didn't fly apart and that broken
flask retained its shape. He saw that a film had coated the inside of
the flask, produced by the evaporation of a solution of collodion,
leaving a cellulose nitrate film on the glass. Some time later he read
about young girl who had been badly cut by broken glass in a car
accident and he the incident in his lab. He began working on a coating
on glass that would prevent such accidents and was granted a patent
for it in 1909. His ability to see alternative uses of collodin has
since save countless lives.
Avon Skin-So-Soft, a lotion product used by women, became co popular
as a bug repellent that the U.S. Military has adopted it as their
insect repellent of choice. It works well, provides an alterative to
the chemical called DEET (which is questionable in terms of human
toxocicity) and the only drawback is that it needs to be re-applied
every few hours. Since then Avon has even re-formulated Skin So Soft
into a line of bug repellants called the Skin-So-Soft Bug Guard Plus
When nitroglycerin was invented in 1847 and as you know if proved very
valuable because of its explosive properties. But it wasn't long
before people working with nitroglycerin began to complain of terrible
headaches. This eventually led to the discovery that nitroglycerin
could be used to treat angina, the chest pain caused by heart disease.
It is still in use today.
As is the case with many illicit drugs, Methylenedioxymethamphetamine
(MDMA), or “Ecstasy”, was originally developed for use as an appetite
suppressant, however it was never marketed because of it’s adverse
mental effects. Currently MDMA is DEA schedule I and is illegal to
manufacture, possess, or sell in the United States. Most other
countries have similar laws. It is now being used as a recreational
drug in many parts of the world.
In 1894, while working at the internationally famous Seventh Day
Adventist hospital and health spa in Battle Creek, Michigan,
sanatorium superintendent, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and his brother
Will Keith Kellogg, conducted a number of experiments to look for ways
to improve upon the hard and tasteless substitutes on the hospital’s
menu. Wheat was commonly cooked in the kitchen, forced through granola
rollers, and then rolled into long sheets of dough. One day after
cooking the wheat, the workers were called away and when they
returned, they discovered that the brothers had decided to see what
would happen when the tempered grain was forced through the rollers.
Instead of the normal long sheets of dough, each wheat berry was
flattened into a small, thin flake, and of course, this created a huge
mess. The Kellogg brothers decided to serve the light, crispy flakes
of food rather than waste it and surprisingly the patients actually
liked it. Thus was born Kellogg’s Cereal.
Frank Epperson, then only eleven-years-old, is credited with
accidentally inventing the Popsicle. One day Frank mixed some soda
water powder and water, which was a popular drink at the time, and
absent mindedly left the mixture on his back porch overnight with the
stirring stick still in it. The temperature, as you’ve probably
already guessed, dropped below freezing that night and the next day
Frank had a stick of frozen soda water to show his friends at school.
In 1923, some 18 years later, Epperson remembered his frozen soda
water mixture and started his own business producing and selling
“Epsicles” in seven fruit flavors (the name was later changed to the
“Popsicle”). Today, more than three million Popsicle frozen treats in
30 different flavors are sold each year.
I hope you find that that my research exceeds your expectations. If
you have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. I welcome your rating and your
final comments and I look forward to working with you again in the
near future. Thank you for using Google Answers.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
INFORMATION SOURCES
“Invention Dimension”
http://web.mit.edu/invent/www/inventorsA-H/sillyputty.html
“GPK4”
http://www.gp4k.com/frontpage/Article.asp?ID=307
“Discover.com”
http://www.discover.com/dec_00/bogglers.html
“Wacky Uses”
http://www.wackyuses.com/uses.html
“Costa Rica Insect and Insect Repellents”
http://www.puertoquepos.com/store/insect-repellents.html
“Agilent”
http://www.chem.agilent.com/cag/feature/07-01/feature.html
“Ectasy”
http://www.teennewhorizons.com/ecstasy.htm
“Welcome to Kelloggs”
http://www.kellogg.com.au/DisplayPage.asp?PageID=414§ionid=2
RECOMMENDED READING
“Mistakes That Worked!”
http://www.ideafinder.com/resource/books/featured_books/raa113.htm
“Inventions That Changed the World”
http://www.sisobooks.net/siso/books/invention_e.html
SEARCH STRATEGY
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SEARCH TERMS USED:
Accidental inventions
Accidental innovations
Alternative uses inventions
Undiscovered used inventions
Serendipity inventions
Accidental discoveries
Coincidental inventions
New uses for common items |
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