HISTORY76 - Ten More Accidental Inventions that are Common Household Items

Introduction

In my last blog on June 5, 2013, I wrote about “Ten Accidental Inventions that are Household Items.”  I sort of promised that I would revisit this topic with additional inventions that I didn’t cover last time.  So, this blog will cover “Ten More Accidental Inventions that are Common Household Items.”  The include:  matches, the artificial sweetener Saccharin, chocolate chip cookies, potato chips, ice cream cones, popsicles, chewing gum, silly putty, play-doh, and the Slinky.

 

For each of these ten inventions, I will summarize the invention’s history and relate my (and/or Pat’s) personal experiences with the invention.

My principal sources include “30 Life-Changing Inventions That Were Totally Accidental,” bestlifeonline.com; “7 Momentous Inventions Discovered by Accident,” history.com; “The Best Accidental Inventions,” inventionland.com; “9 Successful Inventions Made by Accident,” concordia.edu/blog; “15 Of the Coolest Accidental Inventions,” science.howstuffworks.com; “10 Accidental Discoveries That Changed the World,” rd.com; plus, numerous other online sources.

So here are my selected additional ten accidental inventions that we use every day in our homes, in no particular order.

Matches

Prior to the invention of the matches, fires were commonly made with a flint and steel or a fire drill, both of which could be laborious.

In 1826, British chemist and pharmacist John Walker was experimenting with chemicals when he accidentally scraped a coated stick across his hearth, and the stick immediately burst into flame.  The original "Friction Lights," as he called them, were cardboard sticks coated with a mixture of potassium chlorate and antimony sulfide.  Walker soon switched to using wooden splint matches and a sandpaper striking surface.

In 1827, he began selling “Friction Lights” at his pharmacy.  Though Walker’s invention was instantly popular, he chose not to patent it.  As a result, others copied his design and began selling their own versions, obscuring his role as inventor.  It wasn’t until long after his death in 1859 that he was acknowledged as the creator of the first friction match.

Today, matches have evolved to improved friction matches, or strike anywhere matches, that will light from friction against any rough, dry striking surface; and safety matches, that will only ignite when struck against a specially prepared striking surface, like those found on the sides of matchbooks and matchboxes.

Friction matches are still widely used today around the world for such uses as camping, outdoor activities, emergency/survival situations, and stocking homemade survival kits. 

Safety matches are the most common type of match available today. They are most often found in home kitchens.

Matches are still a reliable way to light a cigarette, pipe, and cigar; or light a fire or candle.

Wooden matches are packaged in matchboxes, and paper matches are partially cut into rows and stapled into matchbooks. The coated end of a match, known as the match "head", consists of a bead of active ingredients and binder, often colored for easier inspection. 

Both strike-anywhere and safety matches are classified as "dangerous goods" for airplanes.  Strike anywhere matches are banned on all airlines. Safety matches are not universally forbidden on aircraft; however, they must be declared as dangerous goods, and individual airlines or countries may impose tighter restrictions.

 

Vintage match book collection.

Decades ago, Pat and I used book matches sometimes to light cigarettes.  Later, we use long wooden stick matches to light a fireplace fire, the grill, or candles.  I collected matchbooks (with matches) from restaurants and hotels for 50 years – kept them in a giant glass bowl, before recently disposing of them as a potential home fire hazard.  We have no matches in the house today.  We use a hand-held gas lighter to light fires, grills, and candles.

Saccharin

Saccharin (aka saccharine) was the first artificial sweetener.  Saccharin was discovered in 1879, by Russian chemist Constantin Fahlberg, working on coal tar derivatives in Ira Remsen's laboratory at Johns Hopkins University.  Fahlberg accidentally noticed a sweet taste from a workday spill on his hand during dinner one evening, and connected this with the compound benzoic sulfimide on which he had been working that day.  Fahlberg and Remsen published articles on benzoic sulfimide in 1879 and 1880.

In 1884, then working on his own in New York City, Fahlberg applied for patents in several countries, describing methods of producing this substance that he named saccharin.  (Saccharin derives its name from the word "saccharine", meaning "sugary.”)  Two years later, he began production of the substance in a factory in a suburb of Magdeburg in Germany.  Fahlberg would soon grow wealthy, while Remsen merely grew irritated, believing he deserved credit for substances produced in his laboratory. 

Although saccharin was commercialized not long after its discovery, until sugar shortages during World War I, its use had not become widespread.  Its popularity further increased during the 1960s and 1970s among dieters, since saccharin is a calorie-free sweetener.

Saccharin is used to sweeten products such as drinks, candies, cookies, and as a substitute for sugar in food recipes.  This is crucial for diabetics.

Today, in the United States, saccharin is often found in restaurants in pink packets of "Sweet'N Low.”

Sweet’N Low being added to a cup of coffee.

 

Other artificial sweeteners developed since the diet soda boom of the 1950s, and still used today, include aspartame (NutraSweet), and sucralose (Splenda), which has replaced NutraSweet as the most widely consumed sugar substitute on the market.

Again, decades ago, Pat and I may have kept artificial sweetener packets around for guests to add to drinks instead of sugar.  Today, artificial sweeteners are commonly present in many drinks and food items - literally impossible to escape.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

A popular story relates how chocolate chip cookies were invented by accident:

In 1930, Kenneth and Ruth Graves Wakefield owned and operated the Toll House Inn, a tourist lodge located between Plymouth and Boston, Massachusetts, where Ruth prepared all of the food for the Inn’s guests.  She had developed quite a reputation for her cooking, but in 1930, while preparing a batch of Chocolate Butter Drop Do cookies, Ruth realized she was out of baker’s chocolate.  Assessing what substitute ingredients she had on-hand, she chopped up a bar of Nestle’s semi-sweet chocolate and tossed the pieces in with the mixture.  Expecting the chips would melt into the dough as they cooked, like baker’s chocolate would, she was surprised to find that they had instead retained their shape, but were soft and gooey.  Although it wasn't what she was planning, Ruth served the cookies, and they quickly became a hit. 

Wakefield’s recipe for “Chocolate Crunch Cookies” was featured in several newspapers and on a Betty Crocker radio program.  Her cookbook, Toll House Tried and True Recipes, was first published in 1936 by M. Barrows & Company, New York.  The 1938 edition of the cookbook was the first to include the recipe for her "Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie," which rapidly became a favorite cookie in American homes.

Chocolate chip cookies are a favorite cookie today.

 

Ruth Graves reached an agreement with Nestle, whose semi-sweet chocolate bar sales were growing rapidly.  The company was allowed to print the "Toll House Cookie" recipe on their chocolate bar labels, in exchange for Ruth receiving a lifetime supply of semi-sweet chocolate.  After trying to make the bars easier to cut, Nestle transformed the product by making bags of semi-sweet chocolate morsels (chocolate chips) in 1939.

During World War II, soldiers from Massachusetts who were stationed overseas shared the cookies they received in care packages from home with soldiers from other parts of the United States. Hundreds of soldiers wrote home asking their families to send them Toll House cookies, and Wakefield received letters from around the world requesting her recipe, helping spread their popularity beyond the east coast.

In 2022, CBS News reported survey results showing that 35% of people say the classic chocolate chip cookie is their favorite cookie.  Moreover, 82% say they enjoy baking their own cookies.

Chocolate chip cookies are a favorite in the Ring-Wood home.  We no longer bake them ourselves, having discovered a variety of delicious store and bakery selections.

Potato Chips

The earliest known recipe for something similar to today's potato chips is in William Kitchiner's book The Cook's Oracle published in 1817, which was a bestseller in the United Kingdom and the United States.  The 1822 edition's recipe for "Potatoes fried in Slices or Shavings" reads "peel large potatoes... cut them in shavings round and round, as you would peel a lemon; dry them well in a clean cloth, and fry them in lard or dripping.” 

But the more popular and lasting story is that potato chips were invented by accident in 1853 by George Crum, a chef at the Moon Lake Lodge Resort in Saratoga Lake, New York.  As the story goes, Crum served French fries to a customer, who initially complained they were too thick.  Crum then made a second batch, which was thinner, but still did not appease the customer.  So, for the third batch, in an attempt to further irritate the diner, Crum made fries that were so thin they couldn’t be eaten with a fork, and over salted them for good measure.  Surprisingly, the customer loved them, and potato chips were invented!

In the 20^th century, potato chips spread beyond chef-cooked restaurant fare and began to be mass-produced for home consumption.  The Dayton, Ohio-based Mikesell's Potato Chip Company, founded in 1910, is the oldest potato chip company in the United States. 

Chips sold in markets were usually sold in tins or scooped out of storefront glass bins and delivered by horse and wagon.  At first, potato chips were packaged in barrels or tins, which left chips at the bottom stale and crumbled.

In the 1920s, Laura Scudder, an entrepreneur in Monterey Park, California, started having her workers take home sheets of wax paper to iron into the form of bags, which were filled with chips at her factory the next day.  This pioneering method reduced crumbling and kept the chips fresh and crisp longer.  This innovation, along with the invention of cellophane, allowed potato chips to become a mass-market product.  Today, chips are packaged in plastic bags, with nitrogen gas blown in prior to sealing, to lengthen shelf life, and provide protection against crushing.

Potato chips today are a multi-billion-dollar business.

 

Today, potato chips are commonly served as a snack, side dish, or appetizer.  The basic chips are cooked and salted; additional varieties are manufactured using various flavorings and ingredients including herbs, spices, cheeses, other natural flavors, artificial flavors, and additives.  Variations of potato chip types include kettle-cooked chips and “stackable” Pringles.

The global potato chip market reached a value of $31.2 billion in 2020.

Pat and I love potato chips; they are one of our go-to sides when having sandwiches.

Ice Cream Cones

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, ice cream became an increasingly popular treat.  The plentiful number of street vendors made competition fierce, and the defining difference between each came down to more than just flavors; it was all about what the ice cream was served in.  Common materials included paper, glass, and metal. 

According to the prevailing story, it was at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis that the ice cream cone was accidentally created.  Arnold Fornachou, an ice cream vendor, had trouble keeping up with the hot day’s demands and ran out of paper cups to serve it in.  A nearby Syrian vendor named Ernest Hamwi was having the opposite problem.  His waffle-like pastry called “zalabia” wasn’t selling, so he gave some to Fornachou who shaped the waffles into cones to hold ice cream. 

In 1910, Hamwi founded the Missouri Cone Company, later known as the Western Cone Company.

As the modern ice cream cone developed, two distinct types of cones emerged. The rolled cone was a waffle, baked in a round shape and rolled (first by hand, later mechanically) as soon as it came off the griddle.  In a few seconds, it hardened in the form of a crisp cone.  The second type of cone was molded either by pouring batter into a shell, inserting a core on which the cone was baked, and then removing the core; or pouring the batter into a mold, baking It, and then splitting the mold so the cone could be removed with little difficulty.

Ice cream cones are still hugely popular.

 

In the 1920s, the cone business expanded. Cone production in 1924 reached a record 245 million.  Slight changes in automatic machinery have led to the ice cream cone we know today.  Now, millions of rolled cones are turned out on machines that are capable of producing about 150,000 cones every 24 hours.

According to the International Dairy Foods Association, the global ice cream industry will reach nearly $98 billion by 2027.

Pat and I love ice cream; it’s one of our favorite desserts.  We typically keep two flavors in the freezer at all times.  We don’t use ice cream cones at home, but sometimes get them as a treat when traveling or doing errands in town.

Popsicles

In 1905, eleven-year-old Frank Epperson wanted to try some soda pop, the latest beverage craze.  Instead of spending his money, though, he experimented and made his own at home, mixing soda powder and water in a cup, stirred with a stick.  He accidentally left the mixture on the back porch overnight, with the stirring stick still in it. That night, the temperature dropped below freezing, and the next morning, Epperson discovered the drink had frozen to the stick, inspiring the idea of a fruit-flavored "popsicle.”

Years later, in 1922, he introduced the creation at a fireman's ball, where according to reports it was "a sensation.”  In 1923, Epperson began selling the frozen pops to the public at Neptune Beach, an amusement park in Alameda, California. 

Realizing the commercial potential of the product, Epperson applied for a “frozen confectionary” patent in 1924 under the name “Epsicle Ice Pop.”  Epsicle combined the word icicle with his name, but he later amended the name to popsicle, as his children would refer to the ice pops as "Pop's 'Sicle."

Popsicles, made by Epperson’s Popsicles Corporation, were originally sold in fruity flavors and marketed as a "frozen drink on a stick.’

In 1925, after running into money troubles, Epperson sold his rights to the Popsicle to the Joe Lowe Company of New York.

Popsicles come in a variety of shapes and flavors today.

 

The Popsicle brand began expanding from its original flavors after being purchased by Good Humor-Breyers in 1989.  Under the Popsicle brand, Good Humor-Breyers holds the trademark for both Creamsicle and Fudgsicle.  Creamsicle's center is vanilla ice cream, covered by a layer of flavored ice.  Fudgsicle, is a flat, frozen dessert that comes on a stick and is chocolate-flavored with a texture somewhat similar to ice cream.

Yosicles are a brand of Popsicle that contain yogurt.  Revello Bars are chocolate covered ice cream on a stick.  Fruit Twisters are a brand of Popsicle that have fruit juice, milk and cane sugar.

Today, two billion Popsicles are sold annually.

I certainly have had my share of popsicles over the years, but from middle-age on, popsicles have been a very rare treat.  These days, Pat and I do enjoy chocolate-covered ice cream on stick.

Chewing Gum

The first evidence of chewing gum was found in 5000-year-old human settlements in Finland.  In those distant times, many old cultures (Aztecs, Ancient Greeks, and Egyptians) used several types of chewing gum (usually obtained from the sap of trees) as a mouth freshener and medicinal accessory.

Modern civilization's first widespread use of chewing gum occurred in the early 1800s when English settlements in America picked up the chewing practice from Native Americans who chewed a resin made from the sap of spruce trees. Several inventors started selling tree-sap-derivative and paraffin wax chewing gums between 1840 and 1870, most notably John B. Curtis in 1848, regarded as the beginning of commercial chewing gum use, and William Semple, who filed the first patent on chewing gum in late 1869.

Modern chewing gum was first developed by accident in the 1860s with American inventor Thomas Adams Sr., who was a secretary to the Mexican president Antonio López de Santa.  The Mexican president brought chicle, a natural gum collected from several species of Mesoamerican trees, to New York, where he gave it to Adams for use as a rubber substitute.

Adams started experiments in the hope of creating a commercially viable product; his first goal was to develop a cheap alternative to costly rubber tires.  After a year of unsuccessful trials, he gave up on the idea of chicle-based rubber.  Then he remembered that Santa Ana and the indigenous population of Mexico had enjoyed chewing chicle gum for the past few thousand years.

The first batch of Adam’s chewing gum was vastly superior to the popular paraffin wax gum sold in American pharmacies during that time.  With his eldest son Tom Jr., Adams produced the first batch of modern chewing gum named Adams New York No.1.  He molded individual pieces into small gumballs wrapped in different colored tissue papers.  Adams New York No. 1 became the first mass-produced chewing gum in the world.

After initial success, Thomas Adams decided to expand his business.  He established a small manufacturing workplace, employing 40 women, and patented machines to manufacture gum.  His business grew, and soon he hit several prominent landmarks:  In 1871, Adams made the first flavored gum in the world called Black Jack, which had the taste of licorice.  In 1888, his gum company installed the first vending machine (located in a New York subway station), which sold his flavored chewing gums Black Jack and Tutti-Frutti.   The next year, Adams formed a new company called the American Chicle Company, which merged the then six largest American chewing gum manufacturers. Adams remained a member of its board of directors until 1905 when he died.  Thomas Adams will forever be remembered as the father of the modern-day chewing gum industry.

Chewing gum gained worldwide popularity through American GIs in WWII, who were supplied chewing gum as a ration and traded it with locals.  

Modern chewing gum is composed of gum base, sweeteners, softeners/plasticizers, flavors, colors, and, typically, a hard or powdered coating.  Its texture is reminiscent of rubber because of the physical-chemical properties of its polymer, plasticizer, and resin components, which contribute to its elastic-plastic, sticky, chewy characteristics.

Today, chewing gum can come in a variety of flavors, sizes, shapes, and types, including bubble gum, sugarless medicated, nicotine, and dental hygiene gum.  The most popular flavors are mint, spearmint, peppermint, wintergreen, cinnamon, licorice, sour apple, cherry, grape, orange, watermelon, strawberry, lemon, and blueberry.

 

The familiar stick of chewing gum.

The global chewing gum market size reached $26.8 billion in 2022. 

Years ago, I used and enjoyed chewing gum fairly regularly; probably stopped when I quit smoking.  Also, in the past, Pat and I have used chewing very occasionally to manage ear pressure when traveling on airplanes.  Today, we use an occasional breath mint to offset lingering tastes from eating food.

Silly Putty

Silly Putty was created accidentally during World War II.  In 1943, James Wright, a General Electric engineer was attempting to make a cheap alternative for synthetic rubber for tank treads, boots, etc., when he added boric acid to silicone oil, producing a gooey material with several unique properties. The putty would bounce when dropped, could stretch farther than regular rubber, would not go moldy, was a fairly good adhesive, and had a very high melting temperature.  However, the substance did not have all the properties needed to replace rubber.

In 1949, toy store owner Ruth Fallgatter came across the putty.  She contacted marketing consultant and businessman Peter C. L. Hodgson, and the two decided to market the bouncing putty to adults and sold it in a clear case.  Although it sold well, Fallgatter did not pursue it further. 

However, Hodgson saw its true potential.  Besides its bouncy and stretchability properties, the non-toxic putty could be used to transfer newspaper images to other surfaces, providing amusement by distorting the transferred image afterwards.  Hodgson noticed how entertaining it was at a party, which prompted him to rename the substance “Silly Putty” and market it as a children’s toy.

By 1955, the majority of its customers were aged six to twelve.  In 1957, Hodgson produced the first televised commercial for Silly Putty, which aired during the Howdy Doody Show.

In addition to its success as a toy, the putty could remove substances such as dirt, lint, pet hair, or ink from various surfaces.  The material's unique properties have found niche use in medical and scientific applications.  Occupational therapists use it for rehabilitative therapy of hand injuries. 

Because of its adhesive characteristics, Silly Putty was used by Apollo astronauts to secure their tools in zero gravity.  Scale model building hobbyists use the putty as a masking medium when spray-painting model assemblies.  

Peter Hodgson died in 1976.  A year later, Binney & Smith, the makers of Crayola products, acquired the rights to Silly Putty.

Silly Putty was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame on May 28, 2001.

Today, Silly Putty is sold as a 0.46 oz. piece of clay inside an egg-shaped plastic container.  It is available in various colors, including glow-in-the-dark and metallic.

Silly Putty is sold today in plastic eggs.

 

The product is as popular today as it was some 70 years ago.  In fact, it is a top-selling toy with more than 300 million eggs sold. 

To the best of our recollections, neither Pat nor I, or our children, ever used Silly Putty. Clay and Play-Doh are another matter (see below).

Play-Doh

In the 1930s, a pliable, putty-like substance was concocted by Noah McVicker of Cincinnati-based soap manufacturer Kutol Products.  It was devised at the request of Kroger Grocery, which wanted a product that could clean coal residue from wallpaper.  (Before World War II, most homes were heated using coal, which left layers of soot deposits throughout the house, including wallpaper.)  Using water, salt, and flour, the company developed a malleable compound to clean wallpaper.

Following World War II, with the transition from coal-based home heating to natural gas, and the resulting decrease in internal soot, plus the introduction of washable vinyl-based wallpaper, the market for wallpaper cleaning putty decreased substantially.  Noah McVicker's nephew, Joe McVicker, was the brother-in-law of nursery school teacher Kay Zufall, who had seen a newspaper article about making art projects with the wallpaper cleaning putty.  Her students enjoyed it, and she persuaded Noah McVicker and Joe McVicker to manufacture it as a child’s toy - a non-toxic, non-staining, reusable modeling compound for young children to make arts and crafts projects.  Zufall and her husband came up with the name Play-Doh.

Impressive Play-Doh display at my local Target store.

 

After testing the product in nurseries and schools, in 1956, the McVickers established Rainbow Crafts as the company under which the product would be sold.  Joe McVicker took Play-Doh to an educational convention for manufacturers of school supplies, and Woodward & Lothrop, a department store in Washington, DC began selling the compound.  Also in 1956, after in-store demonstrations, Macy’s of New York and Marshall Field's of Chicago opened retail accounts.  In 1957, Play-Doh ads were telecast on Captain Kangaroo, Ding Dong School, and Romper Room. 

Originally off-white in color, when Pay-Doh hit stores as a toy in the 1950s, red, blue, and yellow were added. 

In 1965, General Mills bought Rainbow Crafts for $3 million.  In 1971, Rainbow Crafts and Kenner Products merged, and, in 1987, the Tonka Corporation bought the two.  In 1991, Hasbro became the owner of Play-Doh, and continues to manufacture the product today. 

In 1996, gold and silver were added to Play-Doh's palette to celebrate its 40th anniversary.

Play-Doh was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong in Rochester, New York, in 1998.

These days, Play-Doh comes in nearly every color of the rainbow - more than 50 in total.

Since 1956, more than 3 billion cans of Play-Doh have been sold.

I remember that my children played with Play-Doh.

Slinky

In 1943, during World War II, naval mechanical engineer, Richard James, stationed at the William Cramp & Sons shipyards in Philadelphia, was developing springs that could support and stabilize sensitive instruments aboard ships in rough seas.  James accidentally knocked one of the springs from a shelf, and watched as the spring stepped in a series of arcs to a stack of books, to a tabletop, and to the floor, where it re-coiled itself and stood upright. 

Thinking he might have accidentally invented a future toy, James experimented with different types of steel wire over the next year, and finally found a helical spring that would walk down a flight of stairs, end-over-end as it stretched and re-formed itself with the aid of gravity and its own momentum.  After the device was fine-tuned and neighborhood children expressed an excited interest in it, James’ wife Betty dubbed the it Slinky (meaning "sleek and graceful"), after finding the word in a dictionary.  James and his wife decided to try to market the device as a toy.

With a $500 loan, the couple formed James Industries, had 400 Slinky units made by a local machine shop, hand-wrapped each in yellow paper, and priced them at $1 apiece.  The Jameses had difficulty selling Slinky to toy stores but, in November 1945, they were granted permission to set up an inclined plane in the toy section of Gimbels department store in Philadelphia to demonstrate the toy.  Slinky was a hit, and the first 400 units were sold within 90 minutes.  In 1946, Slinky was introduced to the entire country at the American Toy Fair.

Richard James then developed a machine that could produce a Slinky within seconds. The toy was packaged in a black-lettered box, and advertising saturated America.  James often appeared on television shows to promote Slinky. 

In 1960, Betty James became president of James Industries, and the company and its product line expanded under her leadership. 

The popular helical spring Slinky toy.

 

In addition to its use as a toy, Slinky has been used as a classroom teaching tool; as a portable and extendable radio antenna in wartime (particularly the Vietnam War); and in NASA physics demonstrations, as when astronaut Margaret Rhea Seddon demonstrated its behavior in zero gravity during a telecast from the Discovery Space Shuttle in 1985.

In 1998 Betty James sold the company to Poof Products, Inc.

In 2000, Slinky was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame at The Strong in Rochester, New York. 

After surviving additional acquisitions, mergers, and economic difficulties, Slinky today is manufactured and sold by the Just Play Corporation.

The original Slinky is still a bestseller.  By 2015, an estimated 350 million Slinkys had been sold worldwide. 

Again, I remember that my children played with Slinkys when they were very young.

Conclusion

This concludes my discussion of ten more accidental inventions that became household items - that we use (or did use, or could have used) every day.  After researching these inventions, I’ll have to admit that some of them (e.g., chocolate chip cookies, potato chips, and ice cream cones) have rather weak credentials as accidental inventions, or have weak documentation that the particular invention was the first.  Sometimes, a good story (legend) has persisted over facts.

There is one more category of inventions in which there are additional inventions that I haven’t yet blogged about: accidental inventions that changed the world.  Stay tuned.