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7 Accidental Discoveries In History And How They Were Discovered

7 Accidental Discoveries In History And How They Were Discovered

Human evolution has been marked by a long succession of chance discoveries and accidental inventions; in fact, experts estimate that between 30 and 50 percent of all scientific discoveries are in some way accidental.


Here are 7 accidental discoveries in history and how they were discovered:-


1. Penicillin

The first name for penicillin was "mould juice." In 1928, the Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming accidentally discovered the antibiotic when he came back from his vacation and found that a green mold called Pennicilium notatum had contaminated Petri dishes in his lab and killed some of the bacteria he had grown. The discovery of penicillin has enormously changed the world of medicine. With its development, infections that were previously serious and often fatal, such as bacterial endocarditis, bacterial meningitis, and pneumococcal pneumonia, could easily be treated.



2. X-rays Machine

Wilhelm Roentgen, Professor of Physics at Wurzburg, Bavaria, discovered X-rays in 1895 —Röntgen 's discovery occurred accidentally in his Wurzburg, Germany, lab, where he was testing whether cathode rays could pass through glass when he saw a glow coming from a nearby chemically coated screen. He dubbed the rays that caused the X-rays to shine because of their unknown nature.


3. Matchsticks

In 1826, chemist John Walker discovered matchsticks when he accidentally scraped a chemical-coated stick across his hearth and found that he caught fire. Walker commercialized the first friction matches as "Friction Lights" and sold them at his pharmacy.


4. Plastic

It wasn't until 1907, however, that Leo Hendrik Baekeland invented the first fully synthetic, commercially successful plastic. ... Bakelite was produced by combining phenol with formaldehyde under heat to produce a condensation reaction that produced a polymer resin called Bakelite. Since then, plastic has taken over the world. Due to its ability to remain sterile while acting as a container, plastic was used in the production of bottles for items such as milk, which no longer had to be delivered in glass bottles. Plastic has had an incredible, enormous effect on the food industry.


5. Safety Glass

Safety glass was accidentally discovered by Edouard Benedictus, a French scientist, in 1903, when he dropped a glass flask while working in his laboratory. This flask had contained cellulose nitrate, a liquid plastic, which allowed it to retain more or less its original shape when it was dropped.


6. Microwave Oven

In 1945, Percy Spencer, an American self-taught engineer from Howland, Maine, accidentally discovered the heating effect of a high-power microwave beam. Employed by Raytheon at the time, one day while working near the magnetrons that produced microwaves, Spencer noticed that the microwaves from the active radar set he was working on began to melt the chocolate bar he had in his pocket.


7. Potato Chips

If you can't eat just one potato chip, blame chef George Crum for that. He reportedly made a salty snack at Moon's Lake House near Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1853. One day, Crum was annoyed by the complaints of a wealthy patron who repeatedly returned his thickly cut French-style potatoes, and Crum wanted to teach the patron a lesson. So he cut a new batch of potatoes as thin as he could, and then fry them until they were hard and crunchy. And they were covered in what he thought was a prohibitive amount of salt. Much to his surprise, the patron adored them and ordered another round. They quickly became the specialty of the house, and the history of snacking had changed forever.

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