New Delhi: We know that the fortunate stroke of serendipity leads to wonderful inventions. Sometimes, the inventions are breakthrough and it serves mankind for a very long period of time. Here are some of them:
Microwave
Did you ever imagine an appliance which can warm your foods in a matter of seconds by just pressing a few buttons. Percy Spencer invented the microwave during World War II. One day in 1945, Spencer observed that candy in his pocket started to melt when he noticed the microwaves from the radar were actually cooking the sweets in his pocket.
With this demonstration, he discovered that foods can be heated up with microwaves setting together. The food Spencer tried in the microwave for the very first time was popcorn!
Fireworks
Celebrations are incomplete without glorious fireworks, but do you know fireworks took birth accidentally almost 2,000 years ago in the 10th century. One day a cook from China mixed three different components (potassium nitrate, substitute of salt used for curing meat, sulphur and charcoal) by mistake and set light to the mixture.
It resulted in colourful flames out of the mixture. Later on, the cook also noticed that if the bamboo stick is filled with the same preparation and set on light, it leads to heavy explosion. After this evolution in history, fireworks happened and became one of the most preferred sources of entertainment.
Petroleum jelly
Product which softens and moisturises our skin was invented mistakenly by Robert Chesebrough. In 1859, he went to the oil field to generate new opportunities for him to come up with fuel products but accidently he discovered something which is the most common product in our skin care routine.
There he got aware about rod - wax, which is used to heal cuts and burns. Robert brought it to his town and separated the sticky substance from the wax and instead filled it with light colour gel. He tried this substance as healing ointments on his cuts and burned out areas but in reality it was not infused with any of the medicinal properties. It just played a role of barrier for water and bacterias to get inside the body through cuts. After this, he promoted his petroleum jelly as "vaseline" to drug stores throughout New York.
Potato chips
Has anyone thought that yummy and crunchy food was actually created by fluke. They were invented in 1853 by George Crum. During that time french fries were highly in demand and one day in Saratoga Springs, New York, at the moon lake sort resort, a customer ordered french fries but he felt them to be much thick. He ordered it to make it thinner. George Crum accepted the order but customer was unsatisfied. He then kept on slicing the potato chips.
The last fries were changed into very thin sliced potato which was not possible to have with a fork and this is how potato chips were created by accident.
Coca cola
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Chemist John Pemberton from Atlanta, Georgia, invented coca cola while finding a cure for headache and hangover. He mixed cordial made from wine and coca extract. He named it Pemberton's french wine cola. Later on, another pharmacist, Asa Candler, added soda to the drink to increase bubbles in it. That's how it became America's most favourite soft drink.
X-ray machine
A German physicist, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen was working with a cathode ray generator. The physicist removed all the air from the fluorescent tube and filled it with different gas. That tube was exposed to high electric voltage and it showed fluorescence. Tube was covered with black paper and later he saw that the barium-coated screen in his laboratory started to glow or radiate. Later on, it was named as X radiation because the origin of radiation was not found.
