Top 10 Accidental Discoveries that changed the World

As Thomas A. Edison said, ‘Great ideas originate in the muscles’. The inventions and discoveries are the outcomes of devotion of the Scientist who pursuits of innovation and findings. Here is the list of top accidental discoveries which were not deliberate but in way of progress of findings.

Top 10 Accidental Discoveries that changed the World

1. Penicillin

Source: a.abcnews.com

Year: 1928

Country: Scotland

Scientist: Alexander Fleming

Incident: He independently discovered healing properties of P. glaucum, during the cure process of infected guinea pigs from typhoid. It is not known, however, whether the active chemical in these studies was in fact penicillin. He used the term "penicillin" to depict the filtrate of a broth culture of the Penicillium mould.

2. The Microwave

Source: www.scientificamerican.com

Year: 1945

Country: United States of America

Scientist: Percy Spencer

Incident: The concept of Microwave was invented when Spencer was working on building magnetrons for radar sets, he was standing in front of an active radar set then he got to know the candy bar in his pocket melted. Hence, he was the first who invested the reason and finally he gave the world “Microwave” by using electromagnetic waves.

3. Velcro

Source: www.instructables.com

Year: 1948

Country: Switzerland

Scientist: Georges de Mestral

Incident:  He discovers the Velcro when he went for a walk in the woods then suddenly he realised that something clung to his trouser. He investigated and came with the product named Velcro that was consists of two components- fabric strip with tiny hook and another fabric with fabric loop that attached each other by combining them.

4. Teflon

Year: 1938

Country: USA

Scientist: Roy Plunkett

Incident: During his work at DuPont, he found that the bottle's interior coated with a waxy white material that was oddly slippery. Analysis showed that it was polymerized perfluoroethylene, with the iron from the inside of the container having acted as a catalyst at high pressure. In this way Teflon was invented which is now used as pelting material on cookware to avoid sticky tendencies.

5. Pacemaker

Source: www.drugline.org

Year: 1985

Country: USA

Scientist: Wilson Greatbatch

Incident: The invention came into existence when assistant professor at the University of Buffalo rejected his project. Then he designed 10,000 ohm resistor of box to use on a heart-recording prototype that resulted a circuit produced a signal that sounded for 1.8 milliseconds, and then paused for a second — a dead ringer for the human heart. In this pacemaker was invented which is now widely used for the people who have heart problem especially related with the problem heart-beat.

6. Radioactivity

Source: www.ecowatch.com

Year: Early 1900

Country: France

Scientist: Antoine Henri Becquerel

Incident: On the Basis of Roentgen method, Becquerel surrounded several photographic plates with black paper and florescent salts. With the intention of further moving forward the study of x-rays, He intended to place the disguised photographic paper in the sunlight and observe what transpired. After a few days Becquerel returned to his experiment unwrapping the photographic paper and developing it, expecting only a light imprint from the salts. Instead, the salts left very distinct outlines in the photographic paper suggesting that the salts, regardless of lacking an energy source, continually fluoresced. What Becquerel had discovered was radioactivity.

7. Newton and Gravity

Source: scientificgems.files.wordpress.com

Country: United Kingdom

Incident: The concept of gravity came into existence when Newton was sitting under apple tree in his yard then suddendly one apple fall from a tree. He was bit surprise of apple fallen. He made numerous experiment and then realized that it was a property of all matter to have an attractive force. On the basis of his experiment, he had given the detailed theory of gravity.

8. Bakelite

Source: www.university.langantiques.com

Year: 1907

Country: New York, USA

Scientist: Leo Baekeland

Incident: During invention of Velox photographic paper, Baekeland discovered a hard mouldable material by controlling pressure and temperature on phenol and formaldehyde which he named as ‘Bakelite’ which was the first thermostatting plastic.

9. Slinky

Source: www.d3sje6yujxb175.cloudfront.net

Year: Early 1940s

Country: USA

Scientist: Richard James

Incident: During his work at William Cramp and Sons shipyards in Philadelphia, he was surprised when accidentally knocked one of the springs from a shelf and watched as the spring "stepped" in a series of arcs to a stack of books, to a tabletop, and to the floor, where it re-coiled itself and stood upright. This incident compels him towards the fact finding and as result ‘Slinky’ was discovered.

10. Coca-Cola

Source: www.wallpaperscraft.com

Year: 1886

Country: Georgia, USA

Scientist: John Pemberton

Incident: In his time, the soda fountain was rising in popularity as a social gathering spot. Temperance was keeping patrons out of bars, so making a soda-fountain drink just made sense. And this was when Coca-Cola was born. He patents the Coca-Cola formula. He also wrote the slogan, "The Pause That Refreshes."

In the above 'Top 10 accidental discoveries' which were not deliberate, but in the way of progress of findings. This show how human is curious to find unveiled things.

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