Every day, we use products like microwaves and boxes of matches to make our lives easier. But believe it or not, these ingenious inventions that allow us to live out our lives hassle-free were not the product of trial and error, but were created entirely by accident.Yes, you have serendipity to thank for a staggering amount of things in your life, ranging from delicious potato chips to the literal life-saving drug penicillin.
Herein, we’ve gathered some of the most life-changing products that were accidental inventions. And for the flip-side (inventions that’ll never come to pass), check out these 20 Long-Predicted Technologies That Are Never Going to Happen.
Percy LeBaron Spencer was working on magnetrons—high-powered vacuum tubes that generate short radio waves called microwaves—when he accidentally discovered microwave cooking.
The engineer was doing his job as usual when he noticed that the candy bar in his pocket had melted. Quickly Spencer realized that it was the magnetrons that were causing this phenomenon.
By 1945, he had filed a patent for his metal cooking box powered by microwaves.As the Post-it website tells it, 3M scientist Dr. Spencer Silver was doing research on strong adhesives when he came across quite the opposite: one that,
“stuck lightly to surfaces but didn’t bond tightly to them.” Silver initially had no idea what to do with his discovery, but years later another 3M scientist, Art Fry,came to him with the idea to create a bookmark that could stick to paper without damaging it. Eventually, that bookmark became the Post-it note.
