History is difficult to predict. Will the fruit of a scientific labor prove to be a revolutionary innovation in its field, or will it sink into obscurity? Inventors, scientists and engineers strive to meet public demand for newer, faster and more efficient technologies. In the process, their work may yield unexpected results that can change the world.

Accidental Discoveries
One of today's most widely used adhesives was the product of an unrelated series of experiments. During World War II, Dr. Harry Coover was hired by the U.S. military to develop plastic gun-sights using a resin compound known as cyanoacrylate. The chemical proved too sticky and the gun-sight idea was soon scrapped. Years later, while developing heat-resistant jet canopies, Coover discovered that cyanoacrylate could be made to bond with virtually any substance and had great potential as a glue. He filed a patent (plug-in download may be required) for the material in 1956, and sold it under the trade names "Superglue" and "Krazy Glue."

In 1943, another unexpected event led to the creation of the ever-popular Slinky line of toys. Richard James, a naval engineer, was attempting to develop a device for monitoring a ship's horsepower at sea, when he saw a torsion spring fall off his desk and continue to coil along the floor. James researched the best steel gauge and coil type to use, and began marketing his invention as a toy. Today, nearly 300 million of them have been sold worldwide, and the Slinky is the Official State Toy of Pennsylvania.

Serendipity also played a part in the invention of the microwave oven. In 1945, Percy Spencer, an engineer at Raytheon, noticed that a candy bar in his pocket melted as he stood in front of a magnetron radar device. He next experimented with a bowl of popcorn and an egg, discovering that microwaves could heat food at a tremendously quick rate. Spencer soon filed a patent and founded a microwave company whose first oven measured six feet tall and weighed over 700 pounds. Though initial reactions to the new machine were ambivalent, the microwave (in smaller form) has since become ubiquitous in American households.

Unexpected Patents
Not every invention is designed with public demand — or even utility — in mind. Some devices are created simply as a pet project or an attempt to tap into a non-existent market.

For example, the Smoker's Hat (#4858627) is an unusual air filtration unit. It is a large device that contains cigarette smoke by enclosing the smoker's head in a miniature chamber. A built-in ventilation and exhaust system filters, purifies and de-ionizes the air before releasing it back into the atmosphere. According to the patent, the spread of smoking bans has created a need for an apparatus that will "put the smoker and the non-smoker on equal footing," apparently by locking the smoker's head in a whirring box.

Sealing things up appears to be a popular pursuit among fringe inventors, as evidenced by the Banana Protective Device (#6612440). This padded, banana-shaped container serves as a sort of fruit-lover's suitcase, allowing bananas to be stored and transported with minimal damage. A sequence of hinges and latches seals the device to "keep a banana fresh, appealing, and appetizing," according to the inventor's proposal. No mention is made of the banana's preexisting cover, which is presumably patented by nature.

Targeting a different demographic, the Self Flushing Urinal with Integrated Gaming and Reward System (#6385796) provides an odd combination of services. This automated bathroom accessory uses a microprocessor array, sensor, display interface and vending unit to provide the one thing missing from restroom relief: gambling. Its stated purpose is to "provide amusement and also to provide income from obligatory restroom requirements." After inserting a fee, the user has to "hit" a specified target within the urinal. Upon success, a drop-down LCD screen issues sounds and lights, while the vending mechanism dispenses a prize.

Inventors Destroyed By Their Inventions
Whether viewed as cautionary tales, hubris or commitment to a scientific cause, examples of inventors killed by their own inventions provide insight on the creative process.

Carl Scheele (1742-1786) is credited with discovering a vast number of simple substances, including oxygen (which he called "fire air"), chlorine and hydrogen sulfide. He began working as a pharmacist and parleyed his skills into a successful career in experimental chemistry. Scheele was the first to isolate and identify a number of different compounds, such as glycerol and tartaric acid. Unfortunately, he also tended to work in poorly ventilated spaces and conducted taste-tests on many of his chemicals. The combination of inhaled and digested toxins is believed to have killed him at age 43.

Another victim of self-experimentation, Alexander Bogdanov (1873-1928) was a Russian scientist, writer and revolutionary. His primary training was in medicine, and he founded the first experimental clinic for hematology and blood transfusion. In 1928, after conducting a series of reciprocal blood transfusion tests on himself, Bogdanov injected a batch of diseased blood and subsequently died.

The story of Louis Slotin (1910-1946) is perhaps most cautionary of all. Slotin was a Canadian physicist involved in nuclear research and experimentation for the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico. While training his replacement, Slotin accidentally brought together two halves of a beryllium-coated sphere, causing the plutonium bomb he was working on to emit a deadly radiation flash. His exposure to a critical amount of neutron and gamma radiation caused his death in a hospital room nine days later. This tragic accident resulted in an overhaul of nuclear safety regulations, eliminating the practice of unprotected material handling of radioactive substances.

Resources

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

Inventor of the Week
MIT.edu, September 2004

Slinky History
Poof-Slinky.com

Who Invented Microwaves?
by J. Carlton Gallawa
Gallawa.com

Carl Wilhelm Scheele
Mattson.Creighton.edu, September 2001

Alexander Bogdanov
by Valerian V. Popkov
ISFP.co.uk

Manhattan Project Heritage Association Foundation
MPHPA.com