There’s a popular saying that goes “necessity is the mother of invention” – and there’s a lot of truth in its meaning. It states that the main driving force behind the invention of something is the earnest need for a solution to a given problem.
Many of our greatest inventions have come about as a result of this, from Thomas Edison’s lightbulb which offered a safer and better source of light than the gas lamps and candles of the time, to the discovery and application of penicillin by Alexander Fleming, the first modern antibiotic.
But the history of inventions is more nuanced than this simple story would have you believe. In fact, there have been many surprising and exciting inventions that have come about purely through accident, happenstance and luck. Below we’re going to take a look at some of the most surprising and impressive of these accidental inventions.
That’s a Wrap
Designers the world over are constantly exploring new materials and methods in a bid to come up with the next big thing in fashion or interiors. So it was when, in 1957, designers Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes explored sealing shower curtains together with heat in order to trap bubbles within the membranes. This novel new material was envisaged as a hip and somewhat psychedelic wallpaper that could be used to deck out cool 60s interiors.
Despite some limited success, this bubble-laden wallpaper failed to make a lasting impression. Though of all the inventions we’re exploring here today, it has perhaps had the largest impact when turned to a novel – and altogether more suitable – application.
That’s because this wallpaper would be refined and come to be known as bubble-wrap, the wrapping and packaging material used across the globe to secure fragile and breakable items. Today it is among the most widely used and manufactured materials on earth, giving testament to the experimental nature of its creators.
From Perpetual Motion to Monte Carlo
Blaise Pascal was a French theologian and inventor from the 1600s best known today for his contributions to mathematics, and for the creation of the world’s first mechanical calculator. As a direct ancestor of the modern computer, this device occupies a special place in our technological lineage.
But Pascal did not limit his tinkering to computers. At one stage, he set out to construct a perpetual motion machine capable, theoretically, of generating infinite energy. This lofty goal had been pursued throughout history by some of our greatest minds, from Leonardo Da Vinci to Archimedes.
For Pascal’s own attempt, he sought to utilize a low-friction spinning wheel that, he hoped, would be able to continue spinning indefinitely. Unfortunately, this was not to be, as the resistance of friction – however slight, and the influence of air pressure all contributed to inevitably slowing the wheel to a stop. But his device, the little wheel – roulette in French – found a second life in the gaming parlors of Paris, where it formed the focal point of a new table game based upon the Italian title Biribi.
Thus Pascal’s work was not entirely in vain, and the game – named after its central spinning apparatus – is enjoyed today the world over by a new generation of tech-savvy fans on reputable online platforms, ensuring that the French thinker’s ingenuity survived him in the unlikeliest of ways.
Incidental Popsicles
Not all inventions come about due to inventors with deep pockets and great ambitions stumbling across something for the betterment of humanity. Sometimes, it’s about being in the right place at the right time.
When the 11-year-old Frank Epperson accidentally left a stirring stick outside in a mixture of water and powdered soda back on a cold night in 1905, one can only imagine his surprise and delight when he retrieved the world’s first popsicle the next day.
Epperson originally named his discovery the Epsicle before settling on the name we all know it today upon patenting the tasty invention in 1923.
