‘Accident is the name of the greatest of all inventions ‘Mark Twain Accidental inventions are proof that mistakes are nothing to be ashamed of. Some things weren’t meant to be, but in the end, turned about to be something great. These are the inventions that were discovered with no intention. But no doubt, these inventions have changed our lives and made our lives much easier.
You will be surprised to know that things you use in your daily lives and the food you eat are inventions that were made by accident. The inventors themselves didn’t know that they would invent these discoveries which would later be changing the lives of human beings. There is also a saying ‘sometimes genius arrives not by choice but by chance.
Let’s dig deep into these inventions which were accidentally discovered and have a look at the stories of how they were discovered.
1. CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
Now, these cookies are almost loved by everyone, and hard to believe that they were invented accidentally. There is no particular age group that prefers cookies, young children to old people, everyone loves to have cookies. Your favorite cookies were invented accidentally and all thanks to Mrs. Wakefield.
Mrs. Wakefield and her husband were running a Toll House Inn guests and she was known for her desserts. One day Mrs. Wakefield was preparing food for her guests and was making Chocolate Butter Drop cookies. While making, she realized that she was out of baker’s chocolate, and then to avoid any delay she added chopped Nestlé’s semi-sweet chocolate. She expected the chopped chocolate will melt but the chopped chocolate pieces were in the cookies as it is and came out to be Chocolate Chip Cookies.
2. POTATO CHIPS
Surprisingly your favorite potato chips were invented accidentally to annoy one of the fussy customers.
George Crum was a chef at the Moon’s Lake House in New York. One day he was serving fried potato to a fussy customer. That customer was repeatedly coming to him and demanded to cut even thinner. So Crum made that potato so thin that it would be difficult to eat with the fork to annoy him. But this time the customer was happy and potato chips were invented. These chips were called Saratoga Chips.
3. ICE CREAM CONES
Ice cream is the most loved dessert by everyone. Some of us eat ice cream in dishes and some of us in cones but I think almost no one knows that these cones were invented accidentally.
In the year 1904 world fair; an ice cream maker was out of bowls to serve ice cream because demand was too high. Luckily, he had a waffle maker stall and seeing him struggling the waffle maker jumped to help him and began to roll his waffles into the shape of cones and this is how cones were invented.
4. MICROWAVE OVEN
Yes! The Microwave Oven we use was accidentally invented. This has also its own story.
Percy Spencer was a self-thought engineer who was leading a project called Raytheon. While a new vacuum tube called a magnetron, he discovered that the chocolate in his pocket has melted with the heat. He did another experiment by placing some popcorns near the magnetron and he saw that popcorns were converted into fluffy popcorns. He also placed eggs and finally, he placed his food in a metal box, and the heat generated by the energy cooked the food. In this way, the microwave was born.
5. SAFETY GLASS
The glass you see on the windshield for cars, goggles for machinists, and windows and doors of many houses and buildings. Shockingly, this invention was the result of a clumsy mistake of a French scientist.
Edouard Benedictus was working in his laboratory. He climbed a ladder to fetch a thing from the upper shelf, he accidentally knocked a glass flask on the floor. He saw that the flask was not broken. He learned from his assistant that a liquid plastic was held in that glass which has evaporated. He did experiments on this for continuously 24 hours. And the safety glass which is almost impossible to break was born.
So these were some of the inventions which were accidentally invented and there are many more. As you read these inventions were made by mistake or you can say silly mistakes. This can be motivation for you all, if accidents can make such inventions why not your thinking brain? This is for all people keep your thinking power always open, try to How, Why, and Which in every situation.
Think deeply and you can be the next Inventor!
