Top 10 Amazing Accidental Inventions

Louis Pasteur once said, "chance favors the prepared mind." That's the genius behind all these accidental inventions - the scientists were prepared. They did their science on the brink and were able to see the magic in a mistake, set-back, or coincidence.

No. 10 - Saccharin

Saccharin, the sweetener in the pink packet, was discovered because chemist Constantin Fahlberg didn't wash his hands after a day at the office. Prepare to get icked. The year was 1879 and Fahlberg was trying to come up with new and interesting uses for coal tar. After a productive day at the office, he went home and something strange happened. He noticed the rolls he was eating tasted particularly sweet. He asked his wife if she had done anything interesting to the rolls, but she hadn't. They tasted normal to her. Fahlberg realized the taste must have been coming from his hands -- which he hadn't washed. The next day he went back to the lab and started tasting his work until he found the sweet spot.

No. 9 - Smart Dust

Most people would be pretty upset if their homework blew up in their faces and crumbled into a bunch of tiny pieces. Not so student Jamie Link. When Link was doing her doctoral work in chemistry at the University of California, San Diego, one of the silicon chips she was working on burst. She discovered afterward, however, that the tiny pieces still functioned as sensors. The resulting "smart dust" won her the top prize at the Collegiate Inventors Competition in 2003. These teensy sensors can also be used to monitor the purity of drinking or seawater, to detect hazardous chemical or biological agents in the air, or even to locate and destroy tumor cells in the body.

No. 8 - Coke

There are many stories of accidentally invented food: the potato chip was born when cook George Crum (yes, really his name!) tried to silence a persnickety customer who kept sending french fries back to the kitchen for being soggy; Popsicles were invented when Frank Epperson left a drink outside in the cold overnight; and ice cream cones were invented at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. But no food-vention has had as much success as Coke. Atlanta pharmacist John Pemberton was trying to make a cure for headaches. He mixed together a bunch of ingredients -- and don't ask, because we don't know; The recipe is still a closely guarded secret. It only took eight years of being sold in a drug store before the drink was popular enough to be sold in bottles.

No. 7- Teflon

After all the damage they've done to the ozone layer, chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, are persona non grata. Back in the 1930s, however, they were (pardon the pun) the hot new thing in the science of refrigeration. Young DuPont chemist Roy Plunkett was working to make a new a new kind of CFC. He had a theory that if he could get a compound called TFE to react with hydrochloric acid, he could produce the refrigerant he wanted. So, to start his experiment Plunkett got a whole bunch of TFE gas, cooled it and pressured it in canisters so it could be stored until he was ready to use it. When the time came to open the container and put the TFE and hydrochloric acid together so they could react, nothing came out of the canister. The gas had disappeared. Only it hadn't. Frustrated and angry, Plunkett took off the top of the canister and shook it. Out came some fine white flakes. Luckily for everyone who's ever made an omelet, he was intrigued by the flakes and handed them off to other scientists at DuPont.

No. 6 - Vulcanized Rubber

Charles Goodyear had been waiting years for a happy accident when it finally occurred. Goodyear spent a decade finding ways to make rubber easier to work with while being resistant to heat and cold. Nothing was having the effect he wanted. One day he spilled a mixture of rubber, sulfur and lead onto a hot stove. The heat charred the mixture, but didn't ruin it. When Goodyear picked up the accident, he noticed that the mixture had hardened but was still quite usable. At last! The breakthrough he had been waiting for! His vulcanized rubber is used in everything from tires, to shoes, to hockey pucks.
 

No. 5 - Plastic

In 1907 shellac was used as insulation in electronics. It was costing the industry a pretty penny to import shellac, which was made from Southeast Asian beetles, and at home chemist Leo Hendrik Baekeland thought he might turn a profit if he could produce a shellac alternative. Instead his experiments yielded a moldable material that could take high temperatures without distorting. Baekeland thought his "Bakelite" might be used for phonograph records, but it was soon clear that the product had thousands of uses. Today plastic, which was derived from Bakelite, is used for everything from telephones to iconic movie punch lines.

No. 4 - Radioactivity
 

Two words that you don't ever want to hear said in the same sentence are "Whoops!" and "radioactive." But in the case of physicist Henri Becquerel's surprise discovery, it was an accident that brought radioactivity to light. Back in 1896 Becquerel was fascinated by two things: natural fluorescence and the newfangled X-ray. He ran a series of experiments to see if naturally fluorescent minerals produced X-rays after they had been left out in the sun. One problem - he was doing these experiments in the winter, and there was one week with a long stretch of overcast skies. He left his equipment wrapped up together in a drawer and waited for a sunny day. When he got back to work, Becquerel realized that the uranium rock he had left in the drawer had imprinted itself on a photographic plate without being exposed to sunlight first. There was something very special about that rock. Working with Marie and Pierre Curie, he discovered that that something was radioactivity.
 

No. 3 - Mauve

Talk about strange connections - 18-year-old chemist William Perkin wanted to cure malaria; instead his scientific endeavors changed the face of fashion forever and, oh yeah, helped fight cancer. Confused? Don't be. Here's how it happened. In 1856 Perkin was trying to come up with an artificial quinine. Instead of a malaria treatment, his experiments produced a thick murky mess. But the more he looked at it, the more Perkin saw a beautiful color in his mess. Turns out he had made the first-ever synthetic dye. His dye was far better than any dyes that came from nature; the color was brighter, more vibrant, and didn't fade or wash out. His discovery also turned chemistry into a money-generating science - making it attractive for a whole generation of curious-minded people. But the story is not over yet. One of the people inspired by Perkin's work was German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich, who used Perkin's dyes to pioneer immunology and chemotherapy.

No. 2 - Pacemaker
 

This list wouldn't be complete without at least one absent-minded professor. But it's not flubber clocking in at No. 2, it's a life saving medical device. That pacemaker sewn into a loved one's chest actually came about because American engineer Wilson Greatbatch reached into a box and pulled out the wrong thing. It's true. Greatbatch was working on making a circuit to help record fast heart sounds. He reached into a box for a resistor in order to finish the circuit and pulled out a 1-megaohm resistor instead of a 10,000-ohm one. The circuit pulsed for 1.8 milliseconds and then stopped for one second. Then it repeated. The sound was as old as man: a perfect heartbeat.

No. 1 - Penicillin
 

You read this far into the list looking for penicillin, didn't you? That's OK. As one of the most famous and fortunate accidents of the 20th century, penicillin belongs at No. 1 on this list. If you've been living under a rock for the past 80 years or so, here's how the popular story goes: Alexander Fleming didn't clean up his workstation before going on vacation one day in 1928. When he came back, Fleming noticed that there was a strange fungus on some of his cultures. Even stranger was that bacteria didn't seem to thrive near those cultures. Penicillin became the first and is still one of the most widely used antibiotics.

Deathday: Adventure Author Alexandre Dumas, pere 1870

Alexandre Dumas, père, born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870) was a French writer, best known for his historical novels of high adventure which have made him one of the most widely read French authors in the world. Many of his novels, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After, and The Vicomte de Bragelonne were originally serialized. He also wrote plays and magazine articles and was a prolific correspondent.

Despite Alexandre Dumas' success and aristocratic background, his being of mixed race would affect him all his life. In 1843 he wrote a short novel, Georges, that addressed some of the issues of race and the effects of colonialism. He once remarked to a man who insulted him about his mixed-race background:

"My father was a mulatto, my grandfather was a Negro, and my great-grandfather a monkey. You see, Sir, my family starts where yours ends."

Vancouver Sun: Homes away from Home: Barcelona

Gaudi’s Barcelona not our Vancouver

Neighbourhoods, buildings and homes exquisite pointer to contribution of planning to urban attractiveness, sustainability

Afew years ago, I was surprised to read that Granville Island had taken over from Stanley Park as Vancouver’s No. 1 tourist attraction. I still question whether this is true, but there is no disputing Barcelona’s No. 1 tourist attraction. It is an architect: Antoni Gaudi.

While I was familiar with images of his work, I did not appreciate his creative genius until I saw his projects during a recent visit to Barcelona.

Born in 1852, Gaudi was the leader of a group of architects known as the Catalonian Modernistas. Their work was inspired by the Art Nouveau movement, which spread throughout Europe at the turn of the 20th century. However, the Spanish version was more eclectic than that of other countries.

A number of Gaudi’s major works are in L’Eixample, ( the extension) a master-planned mid-19th century “ suburb” of Barcelona. The area is characterized by a very formal grid of wide streets lined with mid-rise buildings and central courtyards. It is a form of city planning that dominates much of Europe, and is now starting to become increasingly popular with Vancouver planners.

One of the striking features of L’Eixample is the network of small plazas formed by cutting off the corners of each building at every intersection. From the air, the district looks like a series of geometric doughnuts, with a few diagonal streets increasing accessibility and interest.

The initial plan included a significant number of public green spaces; however, many were not built. Instead, they were replaced by more buildings. Sound familiar? Many of the remaining public spaces were designed as linear parks, filled with children’s play areas. Unlike North American kids, most of Barcelona’s children grow up in dense apartment neighbourhoods.

In the heart of L’Eixample is Gaudi’s most famous project: the still-unfinished cathedral La Sagrada Familia. Gaudi started it later in his life, but was not concerned that it would not be completed before he died since, as he noted, his client had all the time in the world. It is now scheduled for completion in 2026, the 100th anniversary of his death.

It is one of the most dominant buildings on the city’s skyline, and appears, up close, like a hallucinogenic vision of a medieval cathedral. According to guidebooks, it is Spain’s most visited monument.

Two other notable Gaudi works can be found along Passeig de Gracia, L’Eixample’s most fashionable street. La Pedrera, with its wavy facade and highly decorative wroughtiron balconies, was designed as a mixed-use apartment and office block. On the roof are decorative and whimsical chimneys, around which nightly musical concerts are held in the summer. Another major work is Casa Batllo, one of three extraordinary houses on a prominent block known as the Manzana de la Discordia or Apple of Discord. ( In a play of words, ‘ manzana’ means both apple and city block.) The two adjacent houses designed by two of Gaudi’s Modernista colleagues have very different esthetics.

With its ornate tiled curvilinear facade, the Casa Batllo is one of the most extraordinary houses I have ever visited. This six-storey-and-attic residence was a renovation of an earlier building and is designed around a very large central light well, faced in decorative blue tiles. The hue is darkest at the top floor and becomes lighter on lower floors to compensate for the brightness of the sun. Similarly, the windows at the top are smaller than below for the same reason.

The curvaceous windows with blue and green stained glass and flowing walls and ceilings are inspired by the sea, while the front facade is topped by a sculptural element representing St. George and the Dragon.

In many ways, the house is an early testament to sustainability, with its careful attention to natural ventilation and reuse of materials.

Many of the doors and windows are designed with movable louvres to facilitate air movement through the rooms. The incredibly ornate windows, some of which fold open to create large openings, and large light well allow natural light into every room. Much of the decorative tile work recycles broken ceramics and glass, a Gaudi trademark. While these buildings are breathtaking, one of Gaudi’s most remarkable projects is Park Guell, originally planned as a new residential subdivision on the outskirts of Barcelona. Inspired by Ebenezer Howard’s new Garden City movement, it was initiated by Eusibi Guell, a wealthy and visionary industrialistturned property developer and politician.

Guell hired his friend Gaudi who designed the new community like a large work of art. One of the goals was to bring its wealthy residents into closer contact with nature. Another was to transmit Christian values, while enhancing local traditions. This was to be achieved through conditions on the sale of the 60 large triangular lots. In order to allow residents to fully enjoy the natural setting, only one-sixth of the property could be built upon, in sharp contrast to the rest of the city.

Visiting Gaudi’s projects, I could not help but think of some of Vancouver’s more creative architects, such as Richard Henriquez and Paul Merrick, who over the years have often infused their projects with works of art, and on occasion, whimsy.

I also thought about how Barcelona has truly enhanced its attractiveness as a place to live and as a tourist destination, through its community planning, imaginative architecture and public art.

Let me add....I think there's a lesson for Vancouver here!

Deathday: Horror & Adventure Author Robert Louis Stevenson 1894

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

A literary celebrity during his lifetime, Stevenson now ranks among the 30 most translated authors in the world, just below Charles Dickens. He has been greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Marcel Schwob, Vladimir Nabokov, J. M. Barrie, and G. K. Chesterton, who said of him that he "seemed to pick the right word up on the point of his pen, like a man playing spillikins."

Last years

In 1890, Stevenson purchased four hundred acres (about 1.6 square kilometres) of land in Upolu, one of the Samoan islands. Here, after two aborted attempts to visit Scotland, he established himself, after much work, upon his estate in the village of Vailima. Stevenson himself adopted the native name Tusitala (Samoan for "Teller of Tales", i.e. a storyteller). His influence spread to the Samoans, who consulted him for advice, and he soon became involved in local politics. He was convinced the European officials appointed to rule the Samoans were incompetent, and after many futile attempts to resolve the matter, he published A Footnote to History. This was such a stinging protest against existing conditions that it resulted in the recall of two officials, and Stevenson feared for a time it would result in his own deportation. When things had finally blown over he wrote to Colvin, who came from a family of distinguished colonial administrators, "I used to think meanly of the plumber; but how he shines beside the politician!"

He was friends with some of the politicians and their families. At one point he formally donated, by deed of gift, his birthday to the daughter of the American Land Commissioner Henry Clay Ide, since she was born on Christmas Day and had no birthday celebration separate from the family's Christmas celebrations. This led to a strong bond between the Stevenson and Ide families.

In addition to building his house and clearing his land and helping the Samoans in many ways, he found time to work at his writing. He felt that "there was never any man had so many irons in the fire." He wrote The Beach of Falesa, Catriona (titled David Balfour in the USA), The Ebb-Tide, and the Vailima Letters, during this period.

For a time during 1894 Stevenson felt depressed; he wondered if he had exhausted his creative vein and completely worked himself out. He wrote that he had "overworked bitterly." He felt more clearly that, with each fresh attempt, the best he could write was "ditch-water." He even feared that he might again become a helpless invalid. He rebelled against this idea: "I wish to die in my boots; no more Land of Counterpane for me. To be drowned, to be shot, to be thrown from a horse — ay, to be hanged, rather than pass again through that slow dissolution." He then suddenly had a return of his old energy and he began work on Weir of Hermiston. "It's so good that it frightens me," he is reported to have exclaimed. He felt that this was the best work he had done. He was convinced, "sick and well, I have had splendid life of it, grudge nothing, regret very little ... take it all over, damnation and all, would hardly change with any man of my time."

Without knowing it, he was to have his wish fulfilled. During the morning of 3 December 1894, he had worked hard as usual on Weir of Hermiston. During the evening, while conversing with his wife and straining to open a bottle of wine, he suddenly exclaimed, "What's that!" He then asked his wife, "Does my face look strange?" and collapsed beside her. He died within a few hours, probably of a cerebral haemorrhage, at the age of 44. The Samoans insisted on surrounding his body with a watch-guard during the night and on bearing their Tusitala upon their shoulders to nearby Mount Vaea, where they buried him on a spot overlooking the sea. Stevenson had always wanted his 'Requiem' inscribed on his tomb.

Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

However, the piece is widely misquoted, including the inscription on his tomb, which closes:

Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

Stevenson was loved by the Samoans and the engraving on his tombstone was translated to a Samoan song of grief which is well known and still sung in Samoa.