9 Scientific Breakthroughs That Happened Totally by Accident

So many wonderful products came about by accident, but that's not really surprising. Scientists and inventors often come up with a substance as a byproduct, mistake, or flat-out discovery that's not what they were looking for. However, with a little imagination, that unintended stuff might find the perfect use. For example, Robert Chesebrough was looking for oil, but he found Vaseline, which turned out to be quite profitable.

Men working in the fields complained about gunk called rod wax that was clogging up their drilling equipment. The enterprising Chesebrough took the substance back to his lab in New York, isolated it from petroleum, and found it to be very good at healing cuts and scrapes, among other uses. In fact, Chesebrough was such a firm believer in the stuff that he ate a spoonful every day until he died.

Read more about Vaseline and 8 other accidental breakthroughs at Gizmodo. Link -via the Presurfer


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