Accidental Discoveries

The Breakroom > The Water Cooler

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Lew_Merrick_PE:
Not really accidental, but at the end of the (American) Civil War, the Navy had to decide which of its junior officers it would keep and which would be mustered out. One group was stationed at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. Being that they were there with not much to do, if they did not look busy some senior office would find something for them to do. Being Canoe U, there were workshops and a couple of warehouses of "stuff" brought back from the Orient by Admiral Dewey that had been stored away -- among them were hundreds of pieces of bamboo and several bolts of silk cloth.

They started out screwing around making kites. After that bored them, they made turbines of several varieties. They connected the two areas of interest together and made a heavier than air craft powered by a turbine fed from steam stored in an insulated bamboo & silk "bottle." Their first flight ran five miles down the Chesapeake Bay. They brought in a wagon-mounted boiler, refilled the "bottle," and flew back to Annapolis. On the return flight, they screwed up and crashed. Two of the people were killed and the other two were seriously injured. This was 1867.

I worked a project at "Canoe U" many years ago. The project manager taught military technology/history at West Point. He dug out the records of this "incident" and had fun taking money from us by getting us to be on when the first heavier than air powered flight had been made. However, they flew more than 5 miles each way with a passenger load of 4 one way and 3 the other. Compare that to the minor exercise of the Wright Brothers (who were so bad at making airplanes that the U.S. Army kicked them out of the company that the U.S. Army had funded into existence after only three years)!

vtsteam:
One day somebody named Ogg was twirling a stick on top of a piece of wood by rubbing it between his hands thinking he was going to invent the drill, when all of a sudden smoke started to come out of the small depression he was making. Thinking he'd encouraged an evil spirit in the wood he quickly threw some leaf litter onto it to stop the smoke, when suddenly the wind picked up and a small fire erupted. Disgusted by this turn of events he threw more dirt on top of the fire until it was out and went back to his cave to ponder inventing the wooden bowl, so that dirt might be carried anywhere needed.

bhowden:
I think silly putty is another of those product looking for a use stories:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_Putty

Brian

DaveH:
Bakelite or polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride :Doh: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakelite

I can see why they named it Bakelite.
:beer:
DaveH

cidrontmg:
Scotchgard
a 3M brand of products, a stain repellent and durable water repellent applied to fabric, furniture, and carpets to protect them from later stains.
The original formula for Scotchgard was discovered accidentally in 1952 by 3M chemists Patsy Sherman and Samuel Smith. Sales began in 1956, and in 1973 the two chemists received a patent for the formula.
P.S. the common ingredient was fluorine, but that was incidental. And fluorine is (still) used for synthesizing freons, but there's nothing accidental in their discovery.

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