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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SUNGLASSES

Throughout the 1300s and 1400s, Chinese judges would wear quartz lenses tinged with smoke to hide their expressions in court- the need to keep impartial, after all. Vision-correcting glasses were introduced to China not long after but were still tinted for the same reasons. However, it wasn’t until the 1930s that tinted glasses were used specifically to protect against the sun.

WHITE-OUT

Nesmith Graham was a typist by profession, albeit not an exceptional one. She began mixing water-based paints in her blender at home, and using a fine brush, was able to fix her mistakes in seconds. Other typists at her work began making requests for the mixture, which she called “Mistake Out.” It ultimately cost her her job, but she was happy to use her free time to work on the product and patent it in 1958.

FLASHLIGHT

Conrad Hubert was an inventor who specialized in novelty electronics. While most of his devices never caught on, he did experiment with lighted stick pins and illuminated flower pots. Eventually, he had a bright idea: a lightbulb and a reflector inside a paper tube. Easy to hold and use, Hubert patented his flashlight (or “torch,” in the UK) in 1902. While other designs exist, this tubular shape is still the most popular worldwide.

DUCT TAPE

If you’ve ever misspelled it as “duck tape,” don’t worry. This was the original nickname for the adhesive back during WWII, due to its waterproof properties. The color was standard army green until the war ended, and the tape became a common household item. It was changed to silver and renamed “duct tape” due to the frequency it was used to, well, repair air ducts.

CAN OPENERS

Even though canned food was first introduced in 1810, it wasn’t until 1850 that Ezra Warner gave the world the can opener. Previously, people used hammers and chisels to get their food out of cans, but Warner’s alternative wasn’t much better. Her version used a bayonet to hold the can while a sickle was moved around. Not exactly safe for the fingers. Thankfully, we’ve come a long way.

T-SHIRTS

Up until 1904, men wore almost exclusively button-down shirts. While stylish, this did cause problems as the buttons were prone to popping off. However, that year was when the Copper Underwear Company began advertising their line of shirts that could be pulled over the head. It heavily appealed to bachelors who didn’t have a wife to sew for them, and the US Navy began issuing them to sailors. The name “T-shirt,” though? Still an enigma.

BENDABLE STRAW

During a visit to his brother’s soda shop in 1937, Joseph Friedman noticed his daughter struggling with her milkshake. At the time, straight paper straws were the norm, and not exactly useful for thicker drinks. Friedman used a screw and floss to create a ribbed texture in the straw, one that could be bent over the lid of the glass. He patented it and started his own bendable straw company in 1939.

COAT HANGERS

Albert Parkhouse came into work one day in 1903 wet and cold from the rain. Unfortunately, there was no place to hang his coat, so he bent some wire he used to make lampshades for customers. He looped the wire over a rack and hung his coat up. It caught on among his fellow employees and Parkhouse’s boss patented the creation. Yes, even then, bosses were taking advantage of their employees’ ingenuity.

ESCALATOR

The escalator may seem like nothing more than a staple of malls everywhere now, but in 1891 it was marketed as an attraction. Jesse Reno installed a version of his moving ramp in Coney Island, where more than 75,000 guests enjoyed it over two weeks. Coincidentally, Charles D. Seeberger came up with a “moving staircase,” and both inventions were featured at an exhibition in Paris in 1900.

COMPUTER MOUSE

Ten years before there was a mouse for every computer, the trackball was being used as part of top-secret military research. Donald Englebart, inventor of the mouse, originally had a prototype that sensed head movements to replicate the clicking of the buttons. Needless to say, it didn’t catch on.

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