Epapermagazine: Everyday Tech That Was Created By Accident

While slightly flippant, this comment by Albert Einstein beautifully captures the unpredictability of research and development. Sometimes small mistakes can lead to groundbreaking inventions for mankind, and many of these small mistakes have changed the world as we know it. Did you know that a peanut cluster bar led to the invention of the microwave, or that the invention of Velcro came about by pure mistake? Post-it Notes, too, were born of research gone haywire (despite the claims made in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion. 

As noted real-estate developer Albert M. Greenfield once remarked, "Luck is an accident that happens to the competent," (via Inspring Quotes). It also happens to the persistent, as any inventor can attest to.

Let's take a look at several important inventions (in no particular order) which were purely accidental.Believe it or not, the pacemaker were not what developer Wilson Greatbatch was out to create. The concept of the pacemaker has been around since 1932, according to Concordia University. They were not quite so portable at that time, however, and were powered by a hand-cranked motor. Not nearly as convenient as the automated machines we have today.

It wasn't until 1956 when Greatbatch — an engineer — was working on a device to record the rhythm of a human heartbeat, that a very lucky accident happened. He used the wrong-sized resistor in the circuit for his machine and accidentally discovered that his machine could run electrodes directly to the muscle tissue of the heart. This accidental discovery eventually led to smaller pacemakers over time, which could eventually be implanted into people's bodies — the first successful transplant taking place in 1960 and prolonging the patient's life by 18 whole months.

Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X-Rays and thus changed the world. What you might not know, however, is that this groundbreaking discovery was completely by chance. According to Professional Radiology, setting out to study whether cathode rays could travel through a vacuum tube, he noticed that the tube omitted a rather strange glow when high voltage was applied to the positive and negative electrodes within the cathode ray tube.

Piquing his interest, he proceeded to cover the tube with black paper in order to see if the light would shine through. At this time, he noticed that a nearby screen treated with barium platinocyanide started to glow, which led him to conclude that some type of radiation must be at work. He named this radiation X-Ray, with the X representing the unknown. Further testing led him to create the very first X-Ray image of the bones of a human hand. 

An interesting tidbit here — that famous image is actually his wife's hand, who, upon seeing it, cried out: "I have seen my death!" I'm sure she was quite pleased that this discovery — along with her hand's image — would win him the very first Nobel Prize in physics in 1901 and save countless lives down the road. Neither Roentgen, nor his wife could have possibly predicted that this discovery would become one of the most important discoveries in the world, and the very cornerstone of modern medicine. A discovery, which is used in daily life all over the world.

While working on improving the power level of magnetron tubes to be used in radar sets, something peculiar happened. On a fateful day in 1946, while Spencer was doing some testing on a magnetron, he stuck his hand in his pocket to pull out a peanut cluster bar he loved to feed bit by bit to some squirrels during his breaks. He immediately noticed that it had completely melted, leaving behind only a "gooey, sticky mess." Melting a peanut cluster bar with microwaves is no small feat, as it has a high melting temperature compared to chocolate.

Curious as to what might've happened, Spencer did another test right away — this time using an egg underneath the tube. Mere moments later, the egg exploded, covering his face in egg debris. Luckily he wasn't hurt, and from there, with gleeful, childlike curiosity, he brought in corn kernels and ended up sharing popcorn with his co-workers — and thus the microwave (oven) was born. Just a year later, this invention officially hit the market, and the rest — as they say — is history