Five accidental inventions that we couldn't live without

When we think of great inventions we assume it takes years of trial and error, hours of experimentations, tweaks and retests. And for the most part we would be right. After all it took Thomas Edison over 10,000 attempts to finally nail the light bulb.

Some inventions however come about by more fortuitous means…

Post it notes

Spencer Silver may sound like the name of a 1950’s Hollywood star rather than the man behind a mundane of office invention.

Silver was an engineer with 3M Laboratories who were trying to make an adhesive stronger than those already available on the market.

The adhesive Silver came up with did the opposite and was actually weaker than any of its market competitors. So weak in fact that it could be stuck to objects and peeled off without leaving a single mark behind.

The glue was consigned to the bin of invention history until a friend of Silver’s used the adhesive to mark a page on his church hymn book, and this proved to be the Eureka moment.

By spreading the adhesive on scraps of paper you now had the perfect product for living notes on objects which when removed wouldn’t leave some much as a blemish behind. Now there’s divine intervention.

Crisps

We in Ireland love our crisps. So much so that we even have

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a theme park dedicated to the nation’s favourite snack.

Probably not something one New York chef would ever have envisioned back in 1853, when a revenge plot beautifully backfired for George Crum.

Crum (that’s his real name by the way), accidentally invented "potato chips" when a customer repeatedly sent his french fried potatoes back to the kitchen because they were too soggy.

Frustrated, Crum decided to teach the customer a lesson by slicing a potato extra thin, frying the life out of them, and dousing them in salt.

To his astonishment, however, Mr Moany loved the salt ridden potatoes and thus potato "chips" were born.

A few alterations later, and potato chips quickly became the house specialty, changing the history of snacking forever. The genius who invented the Tayto sandwich however, remains unknown.

Silly Putty

It may well be called Silly Putty in the States, but us reared in the 90’s will know it as mala or marla (don’t mention the war).

Yes that soft mushy stuff which has provided hours of endless fun for many’s a child has its origins in something far less childlike - World War II.

As Japan expanded into countries which exported vast amounts of rubber, the essential substance became increasingly more difficult to source and so the US army was on the lookout for an alternative material for use in everything from tanks to soldier’s boots.

While adding chemicals to silicone in an attempt to come up with a replacement, Scottish scientist James Wright, discovered that it made a type of gooey mess which was only good for moulding into shapes to pass the time, not much use in the theatre of war but surely kids would get a kick out of it.

Toy Store owner Ruth Fallgatter thought the same when she came across it in 1949 and began selling the product as Silly Putty.

One of the few positive things to come out of World War II, Silly Putty eventually became one of the most have toys of its generation

The Slinky

It’s hard to explain to anyone under the age of 12 that a spring going down a stairs was once one of the most sought after toys in the country.

As any child of the 90’s will tell you having a slinky was once considered coolness personified (It was a simpler time back then.)

When trying to create a spring to help stabilise ships, naval engineer Richard James noticed that when a prototype fell from a shelf it continued to move unaided.

James was quick to realise that this ability to travel by itself may not work well on a ship but had potential as a toy. Turns out he was right.

It was his wife Betty who gave the magic spring the name Slinky and it was an immediate success selling over 400 in the first 90 minutes of going on sale.

Now that would put a spring in your step!

Tea bags

Whether you’re Team Lyons or Team Barry’s, one thing we all can agree on is that the humble cup of tea is the solution to all of life’s problems.

anyone else carry tea bags in their pockets in case of emergancies ??????

— jas (@SpaldingJasmine) January 24, 2016

What you may not be aware of though, is that the first tea bags date back to 1904, and we have Thomas Sullivan, a New York tea merchant to thank for no longer needing to check our teeth for shnakey tea leaves.

Sullivan shipped loose samples of his products to customers worldwide. The samples were originally packed in cans until one day, he realised it would be less expensive to send the tea in small, hand-sewn silk bags.

The orders soon began pouring in, not for his tea, but for his tea bags, as the small bags were found to make brewing easier.

FFS I drink a lot of tea...always having to go through the panics of no teabags... pic.twitter.com/FGttGv26GN

— ((( RYAN WILTSHIяE ))) (@Dolfe_Steele) January 23, 2016

Modern tea bags are usually made of heat-sealed paper fibre invented by William Hermanson, which has put dozens out of a job but reduced the cost of tea bags globally. So much so that it was revealed last year that the Irish drink the second most tea per head in the world!

Now go on, stick the kettle on, I’m parched.

Brian & Lorraine present The Breakfast BLT on Tipp FM