Accidental Inventions

A lot of inventions can take years or decades to develop fully. On the other hand, there are some inventions that were made accidently while people were trying to create something else.

Here are three examples:

Saccharin (artificial sweetener): Working in the laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, Ira Remsen and Constantine Fahlberg accidently discovered saccharin in 1879 when they stopped for lunch. Fahlberg had neglected to wash his hands before eating and he noticed a strange sweetness in his meal: artificial sweetener! He quickly realized that the sweetness originated from the substance he was working with in the lab. After running tests on the sugary substance, Fahlberg decided to patent saccharin by himself. Ira Remsen was very angry at him as they had worked to create the compound together.

Play-Doh: The modelling ‘doh’ that children and some adults love to play with was not originally intended for enjoyment. In fact, it was created as a cleaning product to remove coal stains from walls. In the early 1950s, Joseph McViker learned that school children were using it as modelling dough and Play-Doh was born. It still smelt like a cleaning product and the ‘play-doh smell’ originated in an attempt to mask the aroma.

Corn Flakes: William Kellogg and his brother, John Kellogg, were the masterminds behind one of the world’s most popular cereals. Both brothers were working in a sanitarium when they became interested in health and nutrition. They started to search for good, wholesome vegetarian food which led them to boiling wheat to make dough. But it never turned into dough. They let the wheat boil for too long. Then they rolled out the wheat and it separated into large, flat flakes.

The two brothers then started experimenting by adding more ingredients, but after Will decided to add sugar to some recipes, John left the company. He thought it was against their initial goal.

Such accidental discoveries or inventions aren't that rare, actually. There are many other things that were created by accident including the microwave, chewing gum, dynamite, and anaesthesia. Obviously, Thomas Edison did not like the idea of inventions happening by chance as he said “I never did anything by accident, nor did any of my inventions come by accident; they came by work!”