Ten Accidental Inventions That Changed the Modern World

Teflon 1938

Dr. Roy Plunkett was born in 1910 in Ohio. After receiving a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Ohio State University he was hired by E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company. He was sent to their Jackson Laboratory in Deepwater, New Jersey. He was then put to work to find a new form of refrigerant that would be a non-toxic alternative to sulfur dioxide and ammonia.

In 1938, Dr. Plunkett was working with his assistant Jack Rebok on a synthetic compound that they hoped would be the answer they were looking for. They created 100 pounds of tetrafluorethylene (TFE) and placed the gas in small cylinders to store them for further testing. It was on April 6^th, that they opened the valve on one of these pressurized cylinders that had been frozen. However, they were shocked when none of the gas came out. They were further surprised that the weight of the of the container was the same as if it were still filled with gas. So as curious scientists they investigated further by cutting open the cylinder.

Once they looked at the now open cylinder they were surprised to find the that the gas has polymerized into a white powder which they called polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE) resin.

The pair started running tests on their new substance and found that it was very slippery, was non-corrosive and had a very high melting point. It was also chemically stable. The Dupont company found that it was interesting enough to continue development and three years later Teflon was patented and trademarked. It was first sold four years later mostly to the military and industrial operations. By the 1960s there were several different kinds of Teflon that were being used in everything from stain repellent fabrics to electrical wire insulation. It was also in the 60s that Teflon started to be used as non-stick coating for cookware, for which it is best known.

Superglue 1942/51

Superglue was invented by accident but unlike other accidental inventions, it’s inventor took years to see the potential in what he had accidentally created. Dr. Harry Coover was born in 1917 in Delaware. In 1942 he was working at Eastman Kodak and started examining cryanoacrylates. Dr. Harry Coover and his team were looking for something that could be used to make clear plastic gun sights. The formula that he created was far too sticky to be used to create gun sights and he therefore abandoned it.

In 1951 he was working on another project. This time the goal was to create a heat resistant acrylate polymer for jet canopies. Cryanoacrylates were tested for this project as well but this time Dr. Harry Coover took a closer look. The formula was perfect as a quick bonding adhesive. It worked on a wide range of materials and it needed very little water to activate. In fact, there was typically enough water on the surface of whatever objects were being bonded.

It took until 1958 for Eastman Kodak to get the product to market. When they did they sold it as Eastman #910 but it was eventually changed to the much catchier name of Super Glue. The product was licensed to Locite who named it “Locite Quick Set 404” but then created their own version called “Super Bonder.” By the 70s the product had caught on and a number of manufacturers were creating super glues. Three main companies for super glue emerged in the 1970s, Eastman Kodak, Locite and Permabond. The product is now found in many households and according to Dr. Harry Coover it even helped saved lives during the Vietnam War. He said that the glue was used to seal up large wounds to keep them closed until the soldier could get to the hospital.

Silly Putty 1943

Silly Putty was invented during World War II when the Allies were growing short on rubber. The United States government put out a call for someone to create a synthetic rubber that could be used for the war effort. This was what James Wright was trying to do while working for General Electric in 1943. He decided to try and create the rubber by mixing boric acid and silicone oil. The resulting goo was nothing like the rubber he was trying to create but he did find that it had a number of very interesting properties. However, he could not think of anything that it could be used for.

In an attempt to find a use for his new “nutty putty” he sent it to scientists all over the world to see if they could find a use for it that he had missed. No one else could find a use for the putty either and so John Wright shelved the putty until he could think of what it was good for. For 6 years, the putty remained in obscurity. It eventually came to the attention of Ruth Fallgatter. Ruth owned a toy shop called the “Block Shop” and she paired with marketing consultant Peter Hodgson in order to put the putty in her catalog. She called it “bouncing putty” and it became the second best-selling item in her catalog (after Crayola crayons).

John Wright finally had a use for his product. He was deep in debt but he borrowed money in order to make more putty and get the production rights. He named it “Silly Putty” and put it in to bright red egg containers in one ounce portions. It was close to Easter so he thought the egg shapes would be popular. He was right and sold 250,000 units in 3 days and 6 million eggs in the first year. Silly Putty remains as one of the fastest selling toys in history at just $1 an egg.

Plastic 1907

Leo Baekeland was born in Belgium in 1863 and went on to study chemistry at the University of Ghent. After that he went on to work at a number of universities and made a name for himself as the inventor of Velox photographic paper. Not content with just one monumental invention to his name he sought out a new area of research. He turned to the field of synthetic resins because he saw it as an opportunity to make money.

He sought out to investigate the reactions of phenol and formaldehyde. He followed through all the previous research on the subject and then expanded it. The first thing he noticed was that one of his formulas might have been adequate as a synthetic replacement for shellac (which at the time was only made from the excretion of lac beetles). However, no matter what he tried the properties remained inferior and it never became a success on the market. He continued working with it and during one experiment, instead of a shellac, he created a polymer.

The polymer was very unique in that it did not melt under heat and maintained its shape even under stress. He called it Bakelite and it became the first synthetic material that really stood on its own and was not created to mimic something else. It was the first fully synthetic plastic and it was the first one to maintain its shape after being heated. It’s heat resistance, strength and electrical insulation meant that nearly every industry could find a use for the new material.

Saccharin 1879

Saccharin was invented partially through bad lab practices and partially due to a man who was willing to go above and beyond for the sake of science. Constantin Fahlberg was born in 1850 in Tambov, Russia. He went to work at Johns Hopkins University under professor Ira Remsen. It was actually during his lunch break that he revolutionized the food and beverage industry forever. He left his lab and went to lunch. As he started to eat he noticed that the bread tasted sweet. He examined the bread but saw that there was nothing unusual about it to make it taste sweet, unlike how the bread normally tasted.

That was when Fahlberg remembered that he had spilled a chemical on his hand while working in his lab. He had never bothered to wash his hands after leaving his lab and it was that chemical that was still on his hands that was making his bread sweet. He ran back to this lab and began tasting the different chemicals in his lab to see which one was the one that has been causing his hands to taste sweet. In 1880 he published a paper with Ira Remsen on the discovery that the chemical saccharin had the benefit of making things taste sweet.

In 1884 Fahlberg filed for a patent without Remsen and began producing saccharin as a sweetener. It did not really come until use until World War I when sugar was rationed. Then the popularity of the sweetener increased further in the 1960s and 70s with the introduction of diet drinks and Sweet’N Low. Today it remains as the oldest artificial sweetener in the world and it all came to be because one scientist failed to wash his hands.

Slinky 1943

Richard James was born on January 1^st, 1914 and from there he graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University. He never expected that his education would lead to him creating one of the most popular toys in history. It was during World War II that he was working on a device that would allow naval vessels to suspend sensitive shipboard instruments even when the seas were rough. In 1943 he was experimenting with tension springs as he thought they might be used for this purpose with the right amount of tension.

While he was working with one of the springs he dropped it. As he watched it fall he was fascinated by the fact that the spring continued to move after hitting the ground. He thought it would fascinate children as well and decided to try and market the spring as a toy. He took out a $500 loan and used it to develop a coil winding machine. The machine allowed him to mass produce tension springs and he started the James Spring & Wire Company. His wife, Betty, named the little toy the Slinky and together they made 400 of them.

It was approaching the Christmas season and the pair managed to convince Gimbels department in Philadelphia to put the toy on their shelves. Richard even convinced them to display the toy on a ramp so that children could see how the spring would move. The toy was marked at just $1 each and within 90 minutes of being on the shelves all 400 were sold. Around 1960, Betty James took over the company when her husband traveled to Bolivia to join Wycliffe Bible Translators. She created a massive advertising campaign and today more than 250 million Slinkys have been sold.

Popsicles 1905

Popsicles seem like an obvious invention today almost something that you should not even need to invent. But in 1905 no one had thought to freeze juice or soda on a stick and turn it into a cool treat for summertime. The story begins with 11-year-old Frank Epperson. He was enjoying making his soda by mixing sugary soda power with water. He was mixing the soda in a cup with a wooden stirrer and ended up leaving it outside overnight. It was a cold night and the soda concoction froze solid in the cup.

In the morning, Frank awoke to find his frozen drink and curiously pulled the stick out of the cup. The frozen drink came with it and Frank began to lick the flavored ice from the stick. He found the treat to be delicious and thought kids around the neighborhood would too. He called it an Episicle and started selling it. The treat became very popular with the local kids and so in 1923, Epperson decided to start thinking bigger. He started selling the Epsicles at Neptune Beach where tourists and beach-goers loved the new treat. In 1924, Frank filed for a patent for his Epsicles and continued to build his business. Eventually his children convinced him to change the name to Popsicles because that it was they had come to call it.

Despite the popularity of the treat Frank Epperson was not the best businessman and he ended up broke and forced to sell the rights to his Popsicles to Joe Lowe Co. sometime in the 1920s. It devastated him to liquidate his assets and sell the rights but he was given no other option. The Popsicle became a national success due to the support and marketing of Joe Lowe Co. and it is now a treat that is synonymous with summertime.

Laminated Glass 1903

Laminated Glass was invented through a stroke of luck by chemist Edouard Benedictus. He was born in 1878 in and was a bit of a jack of all trades. He was an artist, a bookbinder, a writer and composer but he also studied as a chemist. It was in 1903 that his work as a chemist led to an invention that continues to affect the world today.

As he was working in his lab he knocked a glass flask off his desk, after all he was a better painter than he was a chemist. However, instead of shattering he was shocked to find that while the glass did break the flask kept its shape. Intrigued, Edouard Benedictus examined the flask further. He realized that the flask had once contained plastic cellulose nitrate. It had not been properly cleaned, probably because he was a better artist than a chemist, and the plastic cellulose nitrate had dried on the flask. When it dried it created a thin, adhesive film coating all around the inside of the flask. This allowed the pieces of glass to stay together even when the glass broke into pieces after falling on the ground.

He saw that this could be re-created in order to make a shatter proof safety glass. He continued working on the project and found that if he put a layer of the cellulose between two layers of glass he could make the perfect safety glass. He filed for a patent in 1909 but found that automobile manufacturers were not immediately interested in the new glass. It did gain popularity during World War I when it was used to make the eye pieces in gas masks. In 1927 it did start to find its way onto automobiles.

Scotchguard 1952

It may seem like something a woman would think to invent, after all who in the 1950s did more cleaning (and would therefore want a way to reduce cleaning) than women? But even though Scotchguard was created by a woman, she never intended to and she did it when she was working as a research chemist. Patsy Sherman was born in 1930 in Minneapolis. She went to college and became one of the few female chemists in her field in the 1950s. In 1952 she was hired by the 3M company and was put to work fluoruchemicals. The goal was to develop a new kind of rubber for jet aircraft fuel lines.

It was due to a lab mishap in 1953 that her direction would change. She was working with her colleague Sam Smith when an assistant dropped a bottle of synthetic latex that Patsy Sherman had developed. The compound splashed all over the assistant’s tennis shoes. Both Patsy Sherman and Sam Smith attempted to clean the stain off the shoes of the assistant. While the compound did not change the look of the shoes, neither Sam Smith nor Patsy Sherman could figure out how to get the compound off. Patsy then realized that the compound not only didn’t come off but it also resisted other chemicals that caused stains.

Patsy Sherman and Sam Smith went to work turning the fluorochemical in a successful stain repellent. They spent a few years in development and then in 1956, Scotchguard was created as a versatile fabric stain repellent. They continued their research to improve and expand the Scotchguard line of products throughout the 1960s.