6. Vulcanized Rubber
Thomas Goodyear accidentally spilled sulfur, lead, and rubber on the stove for a long time. This gave rise to an extremely helpful product named vulcanized rubber. This is used to make tires and shoes.
7. Stainless Steel
Harry Brearly was ordered to make a rust-free gun barrel for the soldiers. He experimented with different varieties of metals and studied them thoroughly. He found out that 13% of chromium steel had not corroded over several months. And this is how stainless steel came into existence
8. Teflon
Teflon was invented completely by accident. Dr. Roy Plunkett was trying to make a better coolant gas in refrigerators for DuPont. He left a batch of gas overnight and observed that it had polymerized very rapidly. It left behind a slippery wax-like solid with exceptional properties. Now, Teflon is used as a coating over non-stick pans & for dentistry.
9. Artificial Sweetener
Saccharin was discovered by Constantin Fahlberg. He was working with a coal tar derivative benzoic sulfimide. After a long day at work, he went home. When he sat down for dinner without washing his hands he found out a sweet taste. He later compared the taste with the compound and gave it a trivial name- Saccharin.
10. Post-it notes
In 1968 a scientist ar 3M company created a very weak adhesive that would peel of when removed from any surface. The pun lies in the fact that he was trying to create a super strong glue. Later another scientist found out that the adhesive gets off the paper without leaving any mark.
