MICROWAVE OVEN

One day in 1945, an employee of the Raytheon Corporation named Percy Spencer was experimenting with a magnetron vacuum tube. When he noticed the candy bar in his pocket starting to melt, he tested some popcorn with the device. When it began to pop, he knew he found something huge. Raytheon began selling the Radarange in 1947, and it flopped commercially. A cheaper, smaller version came out in 1967 to much better reception and now over 95% of homes in the United States have a microwave.

ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS

While you should always wash your hands before eating, there are cases where a bathroom break would change the course of history. For example, if chemist Constantin Fahlberg had washed his hands before dinner in 1879, he would’ve cleaned all the coal tar off his skin. Then he would’ve never tasted how sweet his food was due to the saccharin from the tar. (This is the exception, though- please practice good health and grooming habits.)

POTATO CHIPS

George Crum was the Gordon Ramsay of his day, easily angered but resourceful. When a customer complained that their French fries were too thick and soggy, Crum angrily sliced potatoes as thin as he could, fried them, and served with salt. The customer loved them. That day in 1853, the world’s favorite snack food, the potato chip, was born…entirely out of rage and spite.

IMPLANTABLE PACEMAKER

The idea of a pacemaker wasn’t new before 1956, but few could think of a practical way to insert one into the human body. Wilson Greatbatch, an assistant professor of electrical engineering at the University of Buffalo, wasn’t looking to create an artificial heartbeat. He just needed a resistor to build a heart rhythm recorder. The resistor was the wrong size, and when installed, made the circuit produce intermittent electrical pulses. It reminded him of a heartbeat and he began experimenting further and eventually the implantable pacemaker evolved.

POPSICLES

Eleven-year-old Frank Epperson wanted to try some soda pop, the latest beverage craze, in 1905. Instead of spending his money, though, he’d experiment and make his own at home. He mixed powder and water and nearly hit the jackpot- until he left the concoction on the porch overnight. The mixture froze overnight, stirring stick stuck inside… the perfect handle for the new frozen confection he just created.

RADIOACTIVITY

Chalk this one up to both Mother Nature and Henri Becquerel. The chemist was trying to make fluorescent materials produce X-rays through sunlight in 1896. Unfortunately, it was a week of clouds and overcast, forcing him to leave the supplies in his drawer. When the sun finally came out, he opened the drawer to find the uranium rock he was using imprinted in a nearby photographic plate- all without any exposure to light.

SLINKY

Navy engineer Richard James wanted to use springs to keep sensitive instruments steady during World War II. When he dropped one of the springs, it righted itself and landed upright…much to James’ amusement. It caught on among other members of the Navy and children alike, thus creating what might be the simplest toy in existence.

STAINLESS STEEL

Metallurgist Harry Bearly was hired by a 20^th-century arms manufacturer to create a gun barrel that was rust-resistant. He did so but conducted a few experiments on his own on the side. When the metal held up against corrosives like lemon juice, he saw the potential for food-grade silverware, and the elimination of nightly washing, polishing and putting away of the silverware was currently used. Stainless steel appliances, however, were still a bit beyond his imagination.

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Post-It Notes
It was during one man’s search for a powerful adhesive that the sticky paper known as Post-Its were created. Spencer Silver, a chemist who worked for a 3M Laboratory, was working to create a strong adhesive and accidentally developed one that was a little too weak Fast forward to several years later when Arthur Fry, another chemist, was looking for a better bookmark for his hymnal. Specifically, something with a low-tack adhesive which he could continue to use over and over. Silver’s accident came to mind and the rest is history. The original yellow color of the paper can be attributed to an accident as well: the lab next door to Silver’s had large amounts of scrap yellow paper that he ended up using. Today, Post-It Notes remain one of the top-selling office products in the world.

Popsicles
Most kids (and adults) love a good popsicle. Little did we know that when we were sitting on the porch with red or blue stains around our mouths, we were eating an accidental invention. In 1905, mixing soda-water powder into drinking water was a popular beverage. Eleven-year-old Frank Epperson mixed the drink, left the stir-stick in it, and overnight the temperatures dipped below freezing. The next day Frank went outside and was awestruck by his frozen soda-pop. When Epperson grew up, he remembered how he’d created his frozen treat and began his own business at Neptune Beach, California. He later received a patent for his product: the “Epsicle,” which was shortly changed to “Pop’s” Sicles (aka Popsicles) at the request of his children. Though the original release of the Popsicle included 7 flavors, now there are over 30 flavors available worldwide.

The Slinky
Most of us have owned at least one Slinky in our lives. Whether it was a small gift for surviving a visit to the dentist’s office or something you won at the county fair, these plastic or metal toys are widely known and enjoyed on staircases around the world. The Slinky was accidentally invented in 1943 by a naval engineer who was looking for a way to secure his equipment to the vessel he was working on. To his surprise, he dropped the metal device and it started to walk away from him, which he found rather fascinating. In 1945, the toy made its debut at Gimbel’s Department Store and then later at the American Toy Fair where 400 sold out within minutes. Today, the Slinky is a permanent fixture in any toy store and over 300 million have been sold.

Sweet’N Low 
It’s a no-brainer that we need to wash our hands before we eat; however, back in 1878 one chemist forgot to wash his hands before lunch and that led to a pretty sweet surprise. Chemist Constantin Fahlberg, who was working on coal tar derivatives, found the biscuit that his wife sent for lunch was a lot sweeter than he was used to. It wasn’t a new recipe; instead, Falhberg was eating his work. He accidentally created the artificial sweetener commonly known as saccharine. This sweetener, which is now known as Sweet’N Low, has since sold over 500 billion packets.  We’re not recommending you stop washing your hands, but we are reminding you that great ideas can happen under any circumstances!

Corn Flakes Cereal
Many recipes, from cakes to cookies to breads, require a small amount of Corn Flakes to provide that extra sweet crunch. This cereal, which was invented in the early 1900’s, was invented when Will Kellogg left some cooked wheat on the stove top past its expiration. Since the Sanitarium that Kellogg worked in was on a tight budget, he scraped away the mold, forced the stale wheat through rollers, and toasted it before serving it to patients. Corn Flakes became their solution to creating a vegetarian diet for the Seventh-Day Adventists. Today, Corn Flakes are the second most popular cereal in the United States.

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