FIVE ACCIDENTAL INVENTIONS

         FIVE ACCIDENTALINVENTIONS

Ice-cream cones:

An ice-cream stall at the 1904 World Fair in St Louis, USA, ran out of dishes. The neighboring stall sold wafer-thin waffles and the stall holder came up with the idea of rolling them into a cone and topping with ice cream.

X-ray:

While setting up a cathode ray generator in 1895, Wilhelm Roentgen noticed a faint fluorescent effect on a chemical coated screen in the room. He had discovered invisible X-rays, which pass through cardboard, wood, and paper, but not through bones.

Synthetic dye:

In 1856, William Perkin was attempting to produce synthetic quinine to treat malaria but the experiment produced nothing but a purple mess. Perkin spotted an opportunity at once, and set up a factory to produce the first synthetic dye.

Microwave:

A chocolate bar in Percy Spencer’s pocket melted as he stood in the path of radiation from a radar-generating machine in 1945. He put corn kernels in the path of the beams, and they popped. He has discovered the principle behind the microwave oven.

Post-it® Notes

In 1968, Spencer Silver was trying to find a new strong adhesive and came up with glue that didn’t even hold pieces of paper together firmly. In 1974, co-worker Arthur Fry thought of a use for the non –sticky adhesive and the Post-it® note was bone.