Not every outstanding invention starts with a brilliant plan. Sometimes, scientists are trying to create one thing and stumble across something far more useful. In other cases, a simple complaint from a customer or a misunderstanding of a clear instruction has led to incredible discoveries.
Here are 9 accidental discoveries that changed our everyday lives.
1. Potato Chips
In 1853, George Crum was working the kitchen at some fancy diner somewhere in Saratoga Springs, and one picky customer kept complaining about the thickness of his potatoes. After hearing that, Crum decided to teach the guy a lesson and sliced the next batch paper-thin, fried them until crisp, and covered them with salt, essentially creating the "Saratoga chips." Or at least that's how the legend goes.
2. Microwave Oven
In 1945, engineer Percy Spencer was working with radar equipment at Raytheon when suddenly he noticed that a candy he had in his pocket got all warm and gooey.
It wasn't the room temperature, nor was it his body heat, so what was the reason?
Spencer suspected that all those microwaves radiating from the equipment were the real culprit. He began experimenting with other foods, including popcorn, and discovered that this microwave energy was pretty useful for heating food in mere seconds.
3. Tea Bags
In the early 1900s, American tea merchant Thomas Sullivan sent customers samples of tea leaves inside small silk pouches. The bags were meant to keep the leaves apart, but some customers got confused and dropped the entire pouch into hot water. To their surprise, it worked perfectly and was much less messy than dealing with loose leaves.
Sullivan was motivated to continue developing the concept as an increasing number of people requested this packaging method for their tea. Silk was, of course, replaced by paper, and thus the modern tea bag was born.
4. Velcro
One sunny day, Swiss engineer Georges de Mestral was taking a hike with his dog and noticed that burdock burrs were stubbornly attached to his clothes and the dog's fur.
Rather than simply ripping them off, de Mestral took a closer look at the burrs under a microscope and discovered that their tiny hooks grabbed onto loops in fabric and hair.
It took him years to develop the first prototype, but even then the invention struggled to attract attention. Today, it's widely used in clothing, sports equipment, medical products, and even space gear.
5. Viagra
Sildenafil, better known by the brand name Viagra, wasn't originally designed to treat erectile dysfunction. Pfizer researchers were testing it as a possible treatment for angina. The drug didn't work particularly well for its intended purpose. However, trial participants reported an unexpected side effect.
Pfizer quickly recognized they were sitting on a gold mine, and after further clinical testing, Viagra was approved in 1998.
6. Super Glue
During World War II, chemist Harry Coover was searching for transparent materials that could be used in precision gun sights. One substance his team tested, cyanoacrylate, was unbelievably sticky.
It clung to practically everything, which made it useless for their original project. Years later, Coover realized that its stickiness was actually its greatest advantage.
The adhesive was eventually sold as Super Glue and became useful for everything from household repairs to industrial and medical applications.
7. Insulin
In 1889, physicians Oskar Minkowski and Joseph von Mering were studying the role of the pancreas in digestion. After removing the pancreas from a dog as part of an experiment, they noticed flies gathering around the animal's urine. Tests revealed that the urine contained unusually high levels of sugar.
This accidental observation helped show that the pancreas played a vital role in managing blood glucose. Decades later, researchers in Toronto used that research to successfully develop insulin.
8. Anesthesia
Nitrous oxide was first produced in the 18th century, but back then it was known as "laughing gas" because it made people giggle and feel euphoric.
Scientist Humphry Davy noticed that nitrous oxide could also reduce pain, but the medical possibilities were largely ignored for years.
Then, in 1844, American dentist Horace Wells witnessed a demonstration in which a man injured his leg without appearing to feel much pain. Wells realized the gas might make dental procedures less painful and began experimenting with it as an anesthetic.
9. Teflon
In 1938, chemist Roy Plunkett was trying to develop a new refrigerant when a cylinder of tetrafluoroethylene gas appeared to be empty. Curious, Plunkett cut the cylinder open and found a strange white substance coating the inside. The gas had transformed into a slippery, heat-resistant material that reacted with very few chemicals.
The substance was later branded as Teflon. It was first used in industrial and military equipment, but its nonstick properties were eventually recognized in the 1950s and 1960s.