What was discovered accidentally?

A little over a century ago, the Belgian scientist, Leo Baekeland, accidentally made plastic. Originally naming the mixture of formaldehyde and phenol after himself, Bakelite, the scientist accidentally revolutionised pretty much everything in production and manufacturing.
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What things were accidentally discovered?

9 Successful Inventions Made by Accident
  • Implantable Pacemaker. An implantable pacemaker is a battery-powered device that is placed under a person's skin that helps the heart perform normally. ...
  • The Slinky. ...
  • Post-it Notes. ...
  • Play-Doh. ...
  • Chocolate Chip Cookies. ...
  • Velcro. ...
  • Popsicle. ...
  • Super Glue.
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What are 10 accidental inventions?

Here are 10 more.
  • Cornflakes, 1894. Will and John Kellogg, Seventh-day Adventists, experimented with producing vegetarian food in 1894. ...
  • Cellophane, 1900. ...
  • Penicillin, 1928. ...
  • Antabuse, or disulfiram, 1937. ...
  • Teflon, 1938. ...
  • Slinky, 1943. ...
  • Microwave oven, 1945. ...
  • WD-40, 1953.
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What is an accidental discovery called?

Serendipity is an unplanned fortunate discovery.
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Are most inventions by accident?

We quite rightly hold inventors in high esteem: the brilliant people who make leaps of imagination and engineering that the rest of us can't even dream of.
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Accidental Discoveries That Changed The World



What was created by mistake?

Corn Flakes

How it was created: The brothers accidentally left a pot of boiled grain on the stove for several days. The mixture turned moldy but the product that emerged was dry and thick. Through experimentation they eliminated the mold part and created corn flakes.
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Was Coca Cola an accidental invention?

Coca – Cola

Accidentally, his lab assistant ended up mixing the two ingredients with carbonated water – resulting in the first Coca-Cola.
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How was Vaseline accidentally discovered?

Vaseline was discover in 1859 when Robert Chesebrough visited an oil field and saw that workers were complaining about 'rod wax', an annoying waxy substance that had to continuously be removed from pumps because it was clogging them up.
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Was plastic an accidental invention?

Plastic. Although earlier plastics had relied on organic material, the first fully synthetic plastic was invented in 1907 when Leo Hendrik Baekeland accidentally created Bakelite. His initial quest was to invent a ready replacement for shellac, an expensive product derived from lac beetles.
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Are most scientific discoveries accidental?

Some scientific discoveries come about after painstaking, goal-oriented lab work finally yields the result that a researcher is trying to find. But many of the most incredible discoveries in world came about when someone found something they weren't looking for. In some cases, these are the result of a true accident.
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What was invented in 1938 by accident?

Teflon, discovered by Roy J. Plunkett at the DuPont Company's Jackson Laboratory in 1938, was an accidental invention—unlike most of the other polymer products.
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How was the Slinky made by mistake?

Mechanical engineer Richard James invented the Slinky by accident. In 1943, he was working to devise springs that could keep sensitive ship equipment steady at sea. After accidentally knocking some samples off a shelf, he watched in amazement as they gracefully “walked” down instead of falling.
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Was the microwave invented by accident?

The microwave was invented accidentally in 1945 by a self-taught engineer named Percy Spencer, who was leading a radar project for the defence giant, Raytheon. While testing a new vacuum tube called a magnetron, he discovered that a chocolate bar in his pocket had melted from the heat.
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How was insulin accidentally discovered?

In 1889, two German researchers, Oskar Minkowski and Joseph von Mering, found that when the pancreas gland was removed from dogs, the animals developed symptoms of diabetes and died soon afterward. This led to the idea that the pancreas was the site where “pancreatic substances” (insulin) were produced.
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How were matches accidentally invented?

In 1826, John Walker, a chemist in Stockton on Tees, discovered through lucky accident that a stick coated with chemicals burst into flame when scraped across his hearth at home. He went on to invent the first friction match.
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What is accidental research?

A sample gathered haphazardly, for example, by interviewing the first 100 people you ran into on the street who were willing to talk to you. An accidental sample is not a ∗random sample. The main disadvantage of an accidental sample is that the researcher has no way of knowing what the ∗population might be.
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Can u eat Vaseline?

Petroleum jelly (petrolatum) can be harmful if someone swallows it or it gets in the eyes.
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Does Vaseline owner eat Vaseline?

Chesebrough lived to be 96 years old and was such a believer in Vaseline that he claimed to have eaten a spoonful of it every day. He died at his house in Spring Lake, New Jersey. He also, reportedly, during a serious bout of pleurisy in his mid-50s, had his nurse rub him from head to foot with Vaseline.
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Who ate a spoonful of Vaseline?

The inventor of Vaseline, Robert Chesebrough, believed in the product so much that he ate a spoonful of it every day until his death at 96.
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Was WIFI an accident?

Invention: Wi-Fi is an accidental Invention

To be specific from technical point of view, Wi-Fi represents a type of wireless LAN (Local Area Network). It works on the 802.11 IEEE network standard.
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Was Velcro an accident?

Velcro (1955)

Sixty years ago this year, Velcro was patented. Yet, the ever-popular hook and loop fastener – used the world over for anything from stopping jackets gaping open to preventing cushions from sliding off chairs – was actually the result of a mishap.
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Was Coca-Cola made by a dying soldier?

John Stith Pemberton (July 8, 1831 – August 16, 1888) was an American pharmacist and Confederate States Army veteran who is best known as the inventor of Coca-Cola. In May 1886, he developed an early version of a beverage that would later become Coca-Cola, but sold his rights to the drink shortly before his death.
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Was the potato chip an accident?

Potato chips were invented accidentally in 1853. George Crum, who was a chef at the Moon's Lake House in New York, accidentally invented potato chips in 1853.
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What are some failed inventions?

These failed inventions were supposed to be a big deal
  • Thomas Edison's Electric Pen. The man who invented the lightbulb also created a pen powered by a plugged in battery that wrote by continually punching small holes—like a tattoo gun without ink. ...
  • The Monowheel. ...
  • The Microsoft Tablet. ...
  • Ask Jeeves.
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What foods were a mistake?

6 foods you love that were invented by accident
  • Popsicles. Popsicles were accidentally invented by an 11-year-old in California. ...
  • Ice Cream Cones. Ice cream cones gained popularity after a man at a county fair came up with a solution to a dish shortage. ( ...
  • Potato Chips. ...
  • Coca-Cola. ...
  • Corn Flakes. ...
  • Worcestershire Sauce.
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