Accidental Inventors - Legend Left to Chance Quiz

Answer: super glue

Dr. Harry Coover of Eastman-Kodak Laboratories thought his creation of cyanoacrylate signaled failure and only created a sticky mess. Years later he still had that sticky mess while working on a new design for airplane canopies. More tinkering, Coover and his team stumbled upon an amazing adhesive. Kodak sold the cyanoacrylate product as Super Glue. Coover later patented cyanoacrylate as a tissue adhesive for injured Vietnam War soldiers awaiting surgery.

Answer: implantable pacemaker

Instead of the 10,000-ohm resistor he wanted to use to record heart beats, Wilson Greatbatch grabbed a 1-megaohm one. The latter was the key to replicating and regulating heart rhythm, which lead Greatbatch to develop the first implantable pacemaker. With more than 300 patents, Greatbatch won the Lemelson-MIT Prize and was inducted into the National Inventors' Hall of Fame.

Answer: chocolate bar

The microwave rays from the magnetron had melted the chocolate bar in Perry Spencer's pocket. From this, Spencer was the first to investigate and realize the culinary benefits for microwave rays. Raytheon paid Spencer its then-standard $2.00 for employee inventions and filed a patent for a microwave cooking oven in 1945.

Answer: can of nitroglycerin broke and leaked

Alfred Nobel was shipping nitroglycerin in cans that were packed in kieselguhr, a sedimentary rock mixture. When one of the cans accidentally broke and leaked, Nobel realized that the kieselguhr perfectly absorbed nitroglycerin. This accident led Nobel to explore kieselguhr as a stabilizer for explosives, which ultimately leading to his dynamite invention.

Answer: forgetting to wash his hands

Constantin Fahlberg discovered the sweet taste of what would become Saccharin after, forgetting to wash up before heading home, he tasted the sweet substance on his hands while eating dinner rolls. Although Fahlberg made his discovery while working under the laboratory of Ira Remsen, and the two published their finding together in 1880, Fahlberg put only his name on his patent. Bitter at Fahlberg's betrayal and ultimate financial success, Remsen said: "Fahlberg is a scoundrel.

It nauseates me to hear my name mentioned in the same breath with him."

Answer: fluorescent cardboard

German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen realized that the radiated cardboard on the other side of the screen from the cathode emitter proved that light was passing through solid objects. His later investigation showed that X-rays would penetrate human flesh but not bone or lead. Being able to see inside the human body without surgery became a vital advancement in diagnostic medicine.

Answer: velcro

George de Mestral analyzed the burrs microscopically to discover the hooks that stuck burrs to fur and fabrics. Years of experimentation led to his discovery of a hook-and-loop fastener using nylon and polyester, which he branded as Velcro from the French words for velvet (velours) and hook (crochet). De Mestral patented Velcro in 1955.

Answer: left his soda with stirring stick outside overnight

Thank goodness for Frank it was a cold night, because the soda froze around the stick and created a icy treat. In 1923, Frank Epperson patented his "frozen ice on a stick." Epperson later sold the invention and the Popsicle brand to the Joe Lowe Company in New York City.

Answer: hypertension and angina

Pfizer realized that UK-92480 (sildenafil) was not the miracle they had hoped for heart problems. The discovery of the drug's unintended side effect led Pfizer to investigate its use for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. Pfizer Inc. patented sildenafil 1996. On March 27, 1998, U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of sildenafil for erectile dysfunction. Pfizer has marketed the drug as Viagra to great success - almost $2 billion in annual sales.

Answer: he went on vacation

Sir Alexander Fleming did not come upon his penicillin discovery until he took a break. Fleming added staphylococci cultures to petri dishes, stacked them in a corner, and left for vacation. Upon his return, instead of the bacteria growing, Fleming was surprised to find a mold growing in the dishes instead.

His further inspection showed that the mold had created a byproduct stopping the staph growth and thereby giving Fleming credit for the world's first antibiotic. People the world over are thankful Fleming took a well-deserved break from his work to go on vacation.