Incredible Discoveries That Came From Catastrophic Mistakes and Made Billions Of Dollars

Fifteen things sitting in your house right now exist because somebody made a mistake. A burned experiment, a dropped flask, a chemist who forgot to wash his hands before dinner. None of these people were trying to invent what they ended up inventing, and most of them almost threw it in the trash. Every story here was researched from historical records, patent archives and museum sources before scripting. Where the popular version of a story is a myth, we say so on camera instead of repeating it. SOURCES: Bubble Wrap — Smithsonian Magazine, "The Accidental Invention of Bubble Wrap" Cotton Candy — Britannica, "How Was Cotton Candy Invented" Friction Matches — Tees Valley Museums, "John Walker and the friction match" Mauveine — Science History Institute, "William Henry Perkin" Stainless Steel — Sheffield City Archives, stainless steel research guide Saccharin — Science History Institute, "The Pursuit of Sweet" Nitrous Oxide — Connecticut History, "Horace Wells Discovers Pain-free Dentistry" Bari 1943 — Smithsonian Magazine and HistoryNet, "Mustard Gas Medical Myth" Sucralose — Wikipedia and LexOrbis, sugar substitute patents Play-Doh — Smithsonian Magazine and The Strong National Museum of Play Tea Bags — 99% Invisible and TIME, "A Brief History of the Tea Bag" Chewing Gum — Wikipedia, American Chicle Company Pyroceram — Chemical and Engineering News, "Donald Stookey" The Mackintosh — Britannica, "Charles Macintosh" Laminated Glass — McGill Office for Science and Society, "What is Safety Glass"