From the theory of relativity, coordinate geometry to the microwave oven or sticky notes… each carries an intriguing story about the “discovery” journey of scientists.
Fascinating Stories Behind World-Changing Inventions
Sticky Notes
Inventor Spencer Silver aimed to create a strong adhesive but only managed to produce a weak glue, leading him to feel useless. However, his colleague at 3M, Arthur Fry, proved otherwise by using that glue to attach small pieces of paper as bookmarks. During a church visit, Fry’s method caught the attention of many, and thus, sticky notes became popular.
Velcro
One fine day, inventor George de Mestral took a walk with his dog in a forest near his home. Upon returning, he found his clothes covered in burrs. Curious about why they clung so tightly, he examined a burr under a microscope and discovered tiny hook-like fibers that allowed them to latch onto fabric. This led to the idea of Velcro, which is now widely used in fashion.
Microwave Oven
The microwave oven was invented accidentally when inventor Spenser noticed that a candy bar melted while he was standing near a radar. With his technical expertise, he realized that the electromagnetic waves from the machine had melted the candy. This sparked the idea of a machine that heats food using electromagnetic waves, leading to the official invention of the microwave oven in 1947.
Coordinate Geometry
“I think, therefore I am,” a famous quote by Descartes, is often remembered more than his invention of coordinate geometry. However, Descartes’ geometric concepts are widely used today. As a sickly child often confined to bed, Descartes observed a fly buzzing above him and accurately described its flight coordinates by focusing on its path from the wall to the ceiling. This marked the birth of coordinate geometry, which is now an essential subject in most educational curricula worldwide and forms the foundation for many scientific disciplines.
Television
Philo Farnsworth conceived the idea for television while working in an apple field. The plowed rows reminded him of a machine that could record images and transmit electronic signals to scan visuals. In 1927, he developed the first electronic television.
Archimedes and the Golden Crown
Perhaps Archimedes was not the first to be thrilled by an invention, but history records him as the first to shout “Eureka!” The story began when King Hiero II of Greece suspected that his crown was not made of pure gold. Archimedes was tasked with verifying this without damaging the crown.
One day, while taking a bath, he realized he could test the crown’s weight by measuring the water displacement. If the crown was made of a different material, it would displace less water than if it were entirely gold. Overjoyed with his discovery, he ran to inform the king, completely unclothed.
Chemical Transmission of Nerve Impulses
In 1900, scientists first proposed the idea of chemical transmission of nerve impulses, though it remained theoretical. By 1920, just before Easter, scientist Otto Loewi dreamt of a method to experimentally demonstrate this chemical transmission.
Excited, he jumped up and scribbled down some notes before going back to sleep. However, when he awoke the next morning, he could not comprehend what he had written. That evening, the same dream recurred, and this time he carefully documented his findings. This discovery earned Loewi the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1936.
The Theory of Relativity
One day, while stopped at a traffic light near the Bern Clock Tower, scientist Einstein found answers to long-held questions about the theory of relativity. The relationship between a car, a traffic light, and the clock tower exemplified the relativity and absoluteness of time. From this, he concluded that time is not constant; it depends on the speed at which you are moving.
Inventions from Rusty Iron
During World War I, British scientist Brearley was tasked with researching improvements to weapons, particularly addressing the rapid wear of gun barrels. Brearley sought to create a corrosion-resistant alloy for gun manufacturing. In 1913, he experimented with adding chromium to steel but was dissatisfied with the results and discarded the sample into a pile of rusty iron outside the lab.
Much later, Brearley noticed that the discarded sample remained shiny while the surrounding rusty steel had corroded. He examined this chromium steel closely and found it resistant to environmental factors, weather, and even acids and bases!
In 1913, Brearley received a patent for his invention in the UK. He began large-scale production of stainless steel and became known as the “father of stainless steel.”
This story poses a thought-provoking idea: when encountering strange occurrences, one should not overlook them but rather ask “why” to uncover their origins.
Countless inventions in the world have been formed this way!
Inventions Born from Oversleeping
One night, Carothers, an American chemist, after many days of intense work, dozed off for a few minutes. However, he ended up sleeping through the night. When he woke up, he panicked about all the effort he had put into his experiments: had it all gone to waste? To his surprise, as he lifted a glass rod from the reaction vessel, he found it soft and yielding, accompanied by a beautiful shimmering thin filament. This was the world’s first synthetic polyamide fiber – the nylon we know today.
