Wondering about Accidental Inventions.

I bet you thought that an awful lot of hard work, many hours of thought, and lots of trials and errors are involved in great inventions.  I have to agree that most are like that, but there are a few exceptions.  Some were accidents.  Do you want to hear about them?  No?!?!?  Well then, quit reading now and go to another blog, because I am going to tell about them.

Let me start with X-ray.  No, no one invented X-rays.  They have been around since the beginning of the universe.  But someone did invent a way for man to produce them and it was by accident.  Wilhelm Roentgen was performing a routine experiment involving cathode rays, when he noticed a piece of fluorescent cardboard across the room was lighting up.  He went on from there to X-ray his wife's hand, the first X-ray image of a live human part:

This next item was invented by a dog.  What??  Yep, you heard right, by a dog and exploited by its owner.  The dog and its owner, George de Mestral, were out hunting and the dog got a bunch of burrs stuck in its fur.  Old George got curious and took some burrs home and put them under the microscope and discovered tiny hooks that allowed the burrs to stick to the dog's fur.  And thus bloomed the invention of Velcro.

Then there was the fellow who was trying to make a heart-recording device.  He mistakenly used 1 megaohm instead of a 10,000-ohm resister in his prototype.  This produced a signal identical to a human heart beat, so the pacemaker was another accidental invention.

There were many more, but will not take the time to write about them all.  They include the microwave, Teflon, Play-Doh, Super Glue, the Slinky, Sweet'n Low, and many others.  I suppose that an accident would be the only way I could ever invent something and I would hope I had enough wisdom to recognize it when it happens.  Now, you all go invent something and have a great day, you hear?