MadModder
The Breakroom => The Water Cooler => Topic started by: dsquire on May 22, 2013, 04:08:36 PM
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Hi Guys and Gals
I am going to start this new topic off with Ivory Soap. I would appreciate if you know of any products or procedures that were discovered by accident if you would add them to this thread.
Ivory Soap
A soap maker at the Procter and Gamble company had no idea a new innovation was about to surface when he went to lunch one day in 1879. He forgot to turn off the soap mixer, and more than the usual amount of air was shipped into the batch of pure white soap that the company sold under the name, ‘The White Soap.’ Fearing he would get in trouble, the soap maker kept the mistake a secret and packaged and shipped the air-filled soap to customers around the country. Soon customers were asking for more “soap that floats.” When company officials found out what happened, they turned it into one of the company’s most successful products, Ivory Soap.
Cheers :beer:
Don
PS: For anyony wanting more information on the history of soap go here. http://dirtsecrets.wordpress.com/2009/03/30/chapter-10/
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Here's a classic favourite of mine, Don:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-it_note
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Here's a classic favourite of mine, Don:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-it_note
Sparky
Thanks. I was expecting someone to post that one but had not figured on it being the first one. It's amazing to read about how some things were really discovered. :D
Cheers :beer:
Don
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Arc welding.
Not too hard to imagine how that accidental discovery came about. :zap: :smart:
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Probably quite shocking!
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Probably quite shocking!
Just be sure that you don't retry that discovery on your current project. :lol: :lol: :lol:
Cheers :beer:
Don
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Teflon (PTFE). It is commonly believed that Teflon is a spin-off product from the NASA space projects. Though it has been used by NASA, the assumption is incorrect.
PTFE was accidentally discovered in 1938 by Roy Plunkett, in New Jersey while he was working for Kinetic Chemicals. As Plunkett was attempting to make a new chlorofluorocarbon refrigerant, the tetrafluoroethylene gas in its pressure bottle stopped flowing before the bottle's weight had dropped to the point signaling "empty." Since Plunkett was measuring the amount of gas used by weighing the bottle, he became curious as to the source of the weight, and finally resorted to sawing the bottle apart. Inside, he found it coated with a waxy white material which was oddly slippery. Analysis of the material showed that it was polymerized perfluoroethylene, with the iron from the inside of the container having acted as a catalyst at high pressure. Kinetic Chemicals patented the new fluorinated plastic (analogous to known polyethylene) in 1941, and registered the Teflon trademark in 1945.
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I'm sure none of you are familiar with this accidental product...Viagra. Would someone care to describe?
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Yes, Viagra is a nonsense word used to test email spam filters. If the term Viagra is sent to a recipient without bouncing it means the server has not been hardened, and is a fertile recipient for spam.
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Blu-tack was one of those...
For the dryest telling of the story I've ever seen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-Tack
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Another one most of us use
By accident after a candy bar melted in a pocket and an egg exploded in a man’s face in 1947, Raytheon demonstrated the world’s first microwave oven and called it a “Radarange,” the winning name in an employee contest. Housed in refrigerator-sized cabinets, the first microwave ovens cost between $2,000 and $3,000. Somewhere during the years of 1952-55, Tappan introduced the first home model priced at $1295. In 1965 Raytheon acquired Amana Refrigeration. By 1975, sales of microwave ovens exceeded that of gas ranges.
Cheers :beer:
Don
PS: For more info http://dirtsecrets.wordpress.com/2009/03/30/chapter-5/
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Penicillin.
Andy
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Reputedly, Percy Shaw was driving home to Halifax from his local pub in the dark when he saw the reflection from a cat's eyes. This led to the invention of the 'cat's eye' - a feature of Britain's roads since the 1920s.
What is less well known is that he saw the same cat the following day in the daylight but this time the cat was facing away from him. This gave Percy the idea for the pencil sharpener! :D
:beer:
Phil.
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I'm sure none of you are familiar with this accidental product...Viagra. Would someone care to describe?
Years ago before I retired and was in charge of a team of Process Control Computer Engineers, we had a hush hush project we were supporting at Pfizer Sandwich known to us as 'Pfizer Fermentation' - all secret squirrel stuff, need to know basis etc . Our process control computer (a Ferranti Argus) was up a steel framed tower that swayed as the fermentation vat bubbled! Turned out it was Viagra they were working on - trying to sort out the scaling up of production. Same Sandwich plant that has been in the news in the last few months being mothballed.
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That's pretty good, but I bet you can come up with a better one for the ostensible hypertension drug that could.
Mosey
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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)!
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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.
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I think silly putty is another of those product looking for a use stories:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_Putty
Brian
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Bakelite or polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride :Doh: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakelite
I can see why they named it Bakelite.
:beer:
DaveH
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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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As to the notice about steam powered air planes, I have know knowledge of the incident mentioned I can post this link.
http://www.stanleysteamers.com/papers/Besler-aviation.pdf
Their was at one time a u tube vid the location is now private. It was about the Besler-aviation.
there also for a time back in the day a large body of published info and planes on model steam air planes. Most were in the hobby magazines of the day, a number are in the current reprints of some of the older steam hobby books.
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Glen
I think that I may have found the video that you are talking about or it is something else related to the same subject.
Cheers :beer:
Don
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Aspartame, the sweetener, is another one.
"Aspartame was discovered in 1965 by James M. Schlatter, a chemist working for G.D. Searle & Company. Schlatter had synthesized aspartame as an intermediate step in generating a tetrapeptide of the hormone gastrin, for use in assessing an anti-ulcer drug candidate.[18] He accidentally discovered its sweet taste when he licked his finger, which had become contaminated with aspartame, to lift up a piece of paper.[7][19][20]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspartame#Discovery_and_approval
I guess he's lucky he didn't accidentally discover it was highly toxic instead.
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Don close enough for government work! The other didn't have the snappy music :ddb: