4 inventions that were discovered during experiments that ended in failure

Sometimes the best discoveries come by chance. Even by accident. In some cases, those responsible for the discovery are not even aware of it, for example, Enrico Fermiwhen he did not yet know that he had first split the nucleus of a heavy atom, laying the foundations Nuclear fission. In other cases, the discoverers notice. In fact, they make the most of this intuition, as do the scientists who discovered the effects Viagra as a side effect of another drug. These are some famous examples, but there are many more inventions of this type.

From microwave to saccharinundergone significant improvement vaccine. In any case, there were scientists or engineers working on something that ultimately had nothing to do with what they eventually discovered.

We are going to see some of these inventions, although this is only a small selection. There are many more of them, and all of them were born with no less curious stories.

Sweet Invention: Saccharin

Saccharin was discovered in 1879 by a Russian chemist Konstantin Fahlberg. He himself admitted that the discovery happened by accident when he analyzed chemical compounds obtained from coal tar. However, it is not clear exactly how he figured out that there was something sweet in there.

Some say they noticed sweet taste in hand while working with one of these compounds: benzoic sulfimide. Another hypothesis is that he left the cigarette at work, that it may have been contaminated with a chemical compound, and that when he put it in his mouth, he tasted sweet. Whichever option is good, it doesn’t seem to work with many Security measures. But, at least in this case, this carelessness was for the best. Many inventions also came this way.

Steps to get to the microwave

The microwave oven went through several stages before becoming the invention we know today. it all started in 1945when an engineer named Percy Spencer I worked with a new vacuum tube. That is, an electronic component that changes electrical signals by moving electrons into empty space at very low pressure. There are several types and the one he used was magneton, which is responsible for converting this electrical energy into electromagnetic energy.

While working with it, Spencer noticed that as she got closer to the magnetron, the peanut candy bar she carried in her pocket melted completely. He thought that this could somehow warm up the food, so he did some experiments with eggs and popcorn, which cooked right away. This is how the invention of the microwave was born, although it was originally 340 kg and almost 2 meters tall, which was also very expensive, so was not a big success. Modifications have been made over time to reduce production costs and make it smaller, so it has become a valuable appliance in all kitchens.

Pasteur and live vaccines

Sam Moghadam (Unsplash)

In the 19th century, Louis Pasteur made great discoveries in the field microbiology. This allowed him to better understand infectious diseases, both human and animal, so he was hired to investigate the origin of various epidemics.

And I specifically studied fowl cholera who was sweeping French farms when he came across a big find mere coincidence. The procedure for studying the bacterium that causes cholera was to infect several chickens with it and, once they died, dissect them and see how it affected their bodies.

But he was not responsible for handling the chickens, but his assistant. He once asked the man to take care of the infection before he went on vacation, but for some reason the man forgot. He went on vacation and did not infect chickens.

On his return, Pasteur, who had also been away for several days, told him that everything was in order. He might as well have taken the culture, infected the chickens, and followed the normal procedure. But this could not be, because the animals got sick slightly. Faced with this situation, Pasteur realized that those bacterial cultures they would have weakened after such a long time without the necessary supply of nutrients and oxygen. So he prepared a new culture to infect those same chickens. I hoped that everything would be as usual; but, to his surprise, this time the hens did not get sick. Not even a little bit. They have been vaccinated. Thus, Pasteur found that microbes could be attenuated to make vaccines that primed the immune system to fight the microorganism without causing severe symptoms. I discovered weakened vaccines.

Pancreas and diabetes: not an invention, but a great discovery

In 1889 the doctors Oscar Minkowski and Joseph von Mehring they had some disagreement about the role of the pancreas in digestion. Mehring was of the opinion that a number of enzymes produced in this organ are necessary for the breakdown of fatty acids in the intestine, but Minkowski disagreed.

His way of testing this was to remove the dog’s pancreas and see how it affected their digestion. But what they saw was something else. And the fact is that just like diabetics, the dog began to urinate much more than usual. In addition, they are said to have also observed flies approaching dog urine like honey.

Surprised, they analyzed the urine and saw that it contained several very high glucose. They unintentionally gave the animal diabetes. His discovery remained here, but it laid the foundation for the discovery of an important role insulinwhich today has significantly improved the quality of life of diabetics.