"Viagra", matches, plastic and seven more random scientific discoveries

Most scientific discoveries are the result of hard, hard and focused work. If a case intervenes in the process, then, as a rule, it only spoils the results and everything has to be started anew. But there are exceptions to the rules - and then it is an accident that becomes the cause of a brilliant invention.

Vulcanized rubber.

In 1839, the American Charles Goodyear, who had studied the methods of processing rubber for many years, dropped the rubber mixture with sulfur and lead on a hot plate, creating the first sample of vulcanized rubber. Resistant to temperatures, it is used to this day - for example, in the manufacture and repair of tires. It is wrong to assume that Goodyear received nothing from his discovery: he successfully patented the technology and began the production of such rubber with his brothers. The tragedy of his life was not in the inventive failures, but in the early death of his daughter, crushing his own psychological and physical health.

Safety glass.

Today, each car is equipped with windshields, which in an accident can crack, but will not scatter into fragments. We owe this vital invention to Edouard Benedictus, a French composer, writer and scholar. In 1903, he inadvertently dropped a flask of nitrocellulose on the floor and noticed that with a strong blow, the glass only cracked. In 1909, he received a patent for the world's first protective glass.

Sildenafil.

The whole world knows this drug to improve potency under the brand name "Viagra". But his discovery was also accidental - in the 1990s, a group of British chemists tried to synthesize a medicine to treat angina and ischemic heart disease. But the resulting substance, UK-92480, turned out to be not very beneficial for blood flow in the heart region. But in the field of the pelvic organs - even how! The funny thing is that among the side effects of Viagra is ... "heart attack".

Matches.

At the beginning of the XIX century, they invented chemical matches, extremely unreliable and difficult to handle. The first matches, which did not require additional devices for ignition, were created by the English chemist John Walker in 1826. According to legend, it was inadvertently, because the combustible mixture in which the wooden stick fell was not designed as a coating for matches. Apart from the terrible smell when burning, these were the best possible matches of their time.

Teflon.

Polymer tetrafluoroethylene, known to us under the brand name "Teflon", is one of the most widely used coatings in the modern world. Its creator, Roy Plunkett, in 1938 tried to create a new type of cooler for refrigerators. But he discovered that gaseous tetrafluoroethylene under pressure polymerizes into a paraffin-like powder. In 1941, Plunkett received a patent for Teflon.

Cornflakes.

One of the most popular breakfasts all over the world was accidentally discovered by two brothers, the owners of the sanatorium, by preparing a dough from a spontaneous flour and frying the resulting flakes. It was in August 1894, and the flake production company founded by Will and John Kellogg is still the world leader in its field.

X-ray radiation.

At the end of the 19th century, the German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen studied cathode rays, when he suddenly noticed an unusual glow in the room. The source was a cardboard coated with platinum-synergistic barium. X-rays called his discovery "X-rays", then the invention received his last name as a name (at least in Russian).

Microwaves.

Microwave waves were discovered in 1939, but then nobody thought of using them for cooking. This opportunity was discovered in 1945 by American engineer Percy Spencer, an employee of Raytheon, after experiments with a magnetron. According to one version, a chocolate melted in his pocket, and according to another, sausages burst out or an egg exploded. One way or another, Spencer soon patented the first microwave oven.

Plastic.

The first plastics were invented in the middle of the 19th century, and most of them were created with the help of shellac, an extremely expensive natural resin secreted by worms. In 1907, the chemist Leo Backeland, trying to find a replacement for shellac, discovered bakelite - plastic of universal use, cheap and incombustible.

Penicillin.

The Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming, who in 1922 had already accidentally discovered lysozyme, in 1928 also accidentally discovered the first antibiotic in the world. In one of the Petri dishes with staphylococcus bacteria, a colony of mold has grown, which has destroyed the bacteria around it. A year later, Fleming was able to isolate the active substance penicillin from the mold.