Accidents of Invention

(1) During the 1900’s, a man named Harry Brearley was trying to find ways of preventing rust in rifles when he accidentally invented stainless steel. In 1913, while he was working with his gun barrels, he mixed 0.24% carbon and 12.8% chromium, creating the first stainless steel. He then explored the full properties of stainless steel – namely, the fact that it didn’t rust and the fact that it was resistant to acids – and realized the value of what he’d created.

(2) During the 1940s, an American engineer (employed by the Raytheon Company) named Lebaron Spencer was doing work with magnetrons, which were crucial radio signal devices in radar use. One day Spencer was standing near a magnetron when a chocolate bar in his pocket melted. He tested the impact of the magnetron on other food items and his discoveries led him to invent the first microwave oven 

(3) Teflon was invented accidentally in 1938 by a DuPont research chemist named Roy Plunkett. He was doing work with a specific coolant to test its use in refrigeration when something unexpected happened in one of the pressurized gas cylinders. He found that the gas had solidified in the cylinder to form a slippery powder. Further tests showed that the powder had an extremely high melting point. Shortly after that, DuPont started creating products coated with Teflon and they sold with great success - Teflon was providing a valuable protective layer in many items such as frying pans, microchips and even space suits.