Accidents happen all the time. People become distracted and drop items from their hands, clumsily knock things off shelves, and misinterpret kitchen recipes that sometimes produce disastrous results.
While everyone suffers from clumsiness or preoccupation now and then, inventors, chemists, and engineers typically do everything they can to prevent accidents on the job. As they develop ideas they believe could possibly change the world – for better or worse – experts meticulously calculate their every move to ensure they can replicate the results, should they succeed.
Still, inventors are human, and just as prone to accidents as the rest of us. Usually, after noting what went wrong, they record their mistakes so they aren’t as likely to repeat them. However, occasionally inventors realize the creation that stemmed from their errors has the potential to serve a greater purpose than they imagined. Occasionally, these happy accidents can even revolutionize society.
Read on to learn about some of the most influential inventions that engineers, scientists, and entrepreneurs discovered by complete accident.
1.A British Pharmacist Aimed To Invent A New Paste For Guns, But A Messy Mistake Introduced The World To Matches Instead
British pharmacist John Walker was striving to create a new gun paste in November 1826. After concocting a mixture of antimony sulfide, potassium chlorate, and gum arabic and stirring it with a wooden stick until it combined, he moved to clean the blending tool. As he struck it on his fire hearth, it immediately burst into flames.
Realizing the possibilities of his discovery, the pharmacist sold the first “friction light” in his store in April 1827. The original matches were made with cardboard, but Walker eventually hand-cut wooden splints for his invention. As they became more popular, he packaged them in boxes with small sandpaper attached to make lighting a fire simpler than it had ever been.
Though Walker was credited with revolutionizing the ease and transferability of an instant fire with his invention, he never patented the matchstick. Because the igniting paste sometimes fell from his hand-cut sticks, he felt they were a safety hazard and needed more revisions. Two years later, another Briton named Samuel Jones stole his idea, rebranded the matches as “Lucifers,” and patented the invention.
2.A Chemist Invented Synthetic Dye While Trying To Treat Malaria
William Henry Perkin, 18, was committed to inventing a synthetically produced quinine to combat malaria in 1856 when he stumbled upon an utterly unrelated discovery. His beakers, full of a chemical he hoped would treat or cure the disease, had instead turned into a useless cloudy brown sludge.
As the young British chemist began cleaning his equipment with alcohol, he noticed that the wasted murky concoction suddenly transformed into a radiantly colored dye described variously as mauve, fuchsia, or aniline purple. Although garment dyes existed long before this, they were made from plants and minerals through an expensive and time-consuming process. Additionally, Perkin’s synthetic product created a more brilliant hue and lasted much longer than natural dyes, making it an ideal substitute for the traditional means of coloring clothing.
Realizing the genius in his discovery, Perkin quickly patented the invention and set out to discover other synthetically created hues. By 1862, even Queen Victoria was sporting dresses made from his distinctly dazzling synthetic pigments.
3.An Attempt To Create An Immortality Elixir Led To The Invention Of A Deadly Weapon
In a strange twist of events, the element that revolutionized warfare tactics and prematurely ended many lives was originally supposed to extend lives. Around 850 CE, Chinese scientists worked to discover a potion to create longevity and perhaps even immortality. They chose a common chemical compound, saltpeter (potassium nitrate), as one of the primary ingredients.
To the shock of one experimenter who added sulfur and charcoal to the saltpeter mixture, the combined substances sparked intense fire and smoke, burning the hands and faces of the chemists and setting fire to the home they used as their laboratory.
Realizing that they had potentially created a highly lethal weapon, the Chinese first deployed arrows carrying the burning gunpowder in a war against the Mongols. After successfully defeating their enemy in multiple battles with the new substance, the Chinese adopted gunpowder as one of the most technologically advanced weapons of the era.
4.A Chemist Accidentally Invented Vulcanized Rubber When He Dropped A Compound Over A Hot Stove
When Charles Goodyear of Connecticut first entered the rubber industry in the 1830s, the product wasn’t considered overly useful. Natural rubber was incredibly sticky, melted at high temperatures, and froze and cracked when introduced to cold weather. On a mission to revolutionize the industry, he began experimenting with different compounds to help strengthen the product and improve its flexibility.
The self-taught chemist developed a nitric acid treatment in 1836 that demonstrated a slight improvement in rubber’s flexibility during extreme temperature changes, but he otherwise failed to concoct the perfect recipe for a durable product. Undeterred, Goodyear continued to experiment with different compounds.
Oddly enough, his efforts did eventually reap a reward, but not in the way he anticipated. In 1839, Goodyear dropped a mixture of India rubber and sulfur on a hot stove. The heat bound the two elements to create an entirely new compound that held the consistency of the rubber while allowing it to twist and return to its original shape. Additionally, the accidental invention strengthened the rubber to withstand drastic temperature changes. In 1844, Goodyear patented the process now known as vulcanization.
5.Artificial Sweeteners Came About Because Someone Forgot To Wash Their Hands
John Hopkins University researcher Constantin Fahlberg had no intention of inventing a zero-calorie sugar substitute when he stumbled across it in his lab in 1897. Instead, he was working on developing innovative uses for coal tar derivatives.
After working all morning, he sat down to eat lunch without washing his hands. When he realized there was a sweet residue on his fingers, he returned to the lab to investigate its origins. By sampling small traces of every chemical he’d used that day, Fahlberg eventually realized the distinctively sweet substance was benzoic sulfimide, a chemical 300 times as sweet as regular sugar.
Monsanto opened its corporate doors in 1901 by selling the chemical as a product named saccharin (the Latin word for sugar). Although it was widely used in prepackaged items like sodas and canned goods by 1907, the public had no idea they were ingesting the artificial sweetener. The US Department of Agriculture argued that the sugar substitute was toxic and eventually attempted to ban saccharin. However, then-President Theodore Roosevelt nixed their efforts. At the time, he was on a diet, and his doctor had prescribed he ingest saccharin in lieu of sugar.
By 1912, the Department had won the battle, and saccharin was briefly banned from the food industry. However, once the US entered WWI, sugar became a luxury that was hard to find. Hence, saccharin once again entered the American diet. Officials made no effort to eliminate the artificial sweetener once the war was over, so it remained a popular choice for those looking to cut calories or eliminate sugar from their daily diets.
6.An Engineer Discovered A Toy That Remained Popular For Generations While Working To Invent A Ship Spring
American mechanical engineer Richard James wanted to develop a sensitive spring that could hold fragile equipment on ships steady while at sea. One of his experiments proved to be particularly bendable – when he accidentally knocked the samples on the shelves that auspicious day in 1943, they immediately began crawling down to the floor instead of falling. Amazed at his unique discovery, James recruited his wife to come up with a name for the walking spring.
After thumbing through a dictionary, Betty James determined that “slinky” best described her husband’s unintentional invention. The couple marketed Slinkys as children’s toys and demonstrated their mesmerizing movements at a Philadelphia department store during the holiday season. Within minutes, 400 were sold. Decades later, the classic toy still appears on children’s holiday wish lists.
7.French Monk Dom Pérignon Was Initially Hired To Eliminate The Bubbles In Poorly Fermented Wine
Champagne is now thought of as a fancy alcoholic beverage reserved for celebrations. However, it was once considered a failed product and a distinct indication of substandard winemaking practices.
In the 1400s, the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of Hautvillers in Champagne, France began bottling red and white wines each grape season. For grape juice to evolve into wine, it must go through a fermentation process. While the bottles the monks produced started fermenting in the warmer months, the process would halt as temperatures grew colder in the high altitudes.
Once the outdoor temperatures became warmer again, the fermentation would restart. However, the pause in the process and the changes in temperature caused an excess of carbon dioxide to form in the wine. It wasn’t uncommon for bottles to burst in the cellars before they were ever opened. And once opened, they were often considered too fizzy to drink.
For centuries, the monks’ wine was considered subpar. In 1668, the Catholic Church recruited a Benedictine monk named Dom Pierre Pérignon to control the fizzy problem. Although he temporarily halted the second fermentation cycle, French royalty and their guests grew to love the bubbles in the failed batches of wine.
As it grew in popularity, Dom Pérignon’s new project required that he create a blend that produced more bubbles but wouldn’t burst in the bottle. Now, the world’s most exclusive champagne bottles are bottled and fermented in the same fashion that the 15th-century monks used to accidentally create them.
8.An Engineer’s Mysteriously Melting Chocolate Bar Led To Microwave Ovens
Having never finished grade school, self-taught engineer Percy LeBaron Spencer seemed an unlikely candidate to invent something that would revolutionize the way Americans lived. Still, that didn’t stop him from accidentally discovering the technology to construct the first microwave oven in 1945.
Spencer worked for Raytheon Manufacturing Company (now Raytheon Technologies) in a department conducting radar systems experiments with magnetrons – vacuum tubes that produced microwave radiation. One day while he was experimenting with the tubes, he realized the chocolate bar stashed in his pocket had melted.
Intrigued, he further tested placing other foods near the radioactive waves. As popcorn kernels popped and eggs vibrated before bursting, Spencer considered the notion that the vacuum tubes’ energy might quickly cook foods exposed to lower-density currents.
Spencer constructed a metal box to hold the radioactive waves, knowing that the currents couldn’t pass through metal. After realizing his discovery led to faster food cooking times versus a traditional oven, he filed for a patent in October 1945.
The first restaurant to commercially test the “Radarange” microwave oven was Hotel Statler in Boston (now the Park Plaza Hotel) in May 1947, but it took time before the trendy appliance landed in 90% of American households. The first ones were costly and almost the same size as a standard oven, making them inconvenient for most homes. Additionally, many potential consumers worried that exposing food to microwave radiation might produce harmful side effects.
In 1967, Raytheon finally produced the first system small enough to fit on a typical American countertop. To add to the appeal, the appliance cost less than $500.
9.Two Men Attempted To Create A Unique Textured Wallpaper But Instead Created Bubble Wrap
At the time, Alfred Fielding wasn’t contemplating how to revolutionize how packages were sent in the mail. Instead, he and his business partner Marc Chavannes hoped to create a textured wallpaper that would appeal to the growing Beat crowd in the late 1950s and early ’60s.
The original concept included two plastic shower curtains melted together to create a unique wall covering. Regrettably, the end result was speckled with air pockets and wasn’t as visually appealing as Fielding and Chavannes anticipated. Giving up on the wallpaper idea but believing their invention could lead to something great, the duo registered for more than 400 patents concerning laminating and embossing machines and techniques.
Then, in 1960, IBM revealed its 1401 Data Processing System, now considered the Model-T of the computer industry. The company needed a safe way to transport the delicate equipment, which made it a perfect customer for Fielding’s and Chavannes’s product. After IBM proved that it trusted “Bubble Wrap” to deliver its computers without damage, other small companies quickly invested in the material. And the rest is history!
10.Silly Putty Was Born From A Wartime Attempt At Making Synthetic Rubber
During WWII, laboratories throughout the US searched for ways to manufacture less expensive synthetic rubber. James Wright, a chemical engineer for General Electric, discovered a possible solution in 1943 by combining silicon oil and boric acid to create a versatile rubbery substance that held up to high temperatures.
The experiment was successful, but the US War Production Board didn’t find the invention any more practical or valuable than the synthetic rubbers already manufactured. Subsequently, the product was never put to use.
Years later, unemployed copywriter Peter Hodgson stumbled across the material and realized its potential as a children’s toy. He bought the production rights from General Electric and quickly went to work rebranding the invention, including renaming it Silly Putty to appeal to the younger crowds. Because Easter was drawing near, he chose to package pieces of putty in plastic eggs to entice parents looking to fill their children’s Easter baskets.
While the product initially only appealed to adults, its novelty eventually won over children worldwide. As a result, Hodgson was a multi-millionaire by the time he passed in 1976.
11.The Inventor Of Velveeta Wanted A Way To Reuse Broken-Off Bits Of Old Cheese
The Industrial Revolution forever changed the way Americans did business. Large, mass-producing factories quickly replaced small companies, and the cheese industry wasn’t an exception. Although cheesemakers had always experienced a small amount of inevitable waste during the production process, cheese manufacturing companies realized that the faster they churned out a product, the more excess, unusable pieces they inevitably had to throw away.
To rectify the problem, Emil Frey of New York – originally from Switzerland – began experimenting with combining the misshapen and broken pieces to create one seamless block. By 1918, he realized that by adding whey to the leftovers, he could successfully melt and remold the once-wasted inferior product into a new block of cheese. Frey called his invention Velveeta, and the Kraft company began marketing it in 1927.
Because the added whey provided more carbohydrates and minerals, Kraft marketed the new product as a healthier alternative to other cheeses. While the brand initially tried to compete with other sliced cheeses, the advertisement strategy slowly evolved to display the cheese’s most unique quality: its ability to stay creamy and smooth as it melts.
12.The Inventor Of Post-It Notes Was Trying To Make A Very Strong Glue, But Got A Weak One
When chemist Spencer Silver developed sticky microspheres that transformed the Post-It note into a standard office and household item in 1968, he wasn’t aiming to create an easily peeled substance. 3M initially hired Silver to invent a powerful adhesive, and the company viewed his microsphere substance as an epic failure.
While the easily removable adhesive wasn’t what the company had hoped for, Silver remained adamant that the invention had to be somehow helpful. It wasn’t until 1975 – when a coworker with a niche problem approached Silver – that the patent for the sticky notes began falling into place.
3M colleague Art Fry regularly participated in his church’s choir and ran into a consistent problem each Sunday. Although he marked the songs he planned to sing in his hymnal on Wednesday night, by Sunday, many of the bookmarks had fallen from their pages. Realizing Silver’s easily removable adhesive would be the perfect way to keep a bookmark in place, the two campaigned for six years for 3M to market the sticky notepads.
When 3M finally launched the product in 1980, the Post-It note became an instant hit. Fry described the product’s success:
It’s like having a cell phone with a camera on it… Who would have thought that would have been useful for anything, but you can’t buy one these days without a camera or music on it.
