1 00:00:04,440 --> 00:00:12,319 Speaker 1: Welcome to Tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 2 00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:15,920 Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host Jonathan Strickland. 3 00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:19,200 Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 4 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:23,360 Speaker 1: tech are you? You know, it isn't hard to be 5 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:28,920 Speaker 1: reductive when we talk about genius inventors. You might imagine 6 00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:33,720 Speaker 1: the iconic Eureka moment now perhaps done when our inventor 7 00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:36,880 Speaker 1: is sitting in a quiet study and they're mulling over 8 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:40,600 Speaker 1: a particularly difficult problem and then the proverbial light bulb 9 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:43,880 Speaker 1: goes off. But in truth, innovation often follows in the 10 00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:48,600 Speaker 1: footsteps of other discoveries, right because our subject typically stands 11 00:00:48,680 --> 00:00:51,839 Speaker 1: upon the shoulders of giants, and they in turn stand 12 00:00:51,880 --> 00:00:55,319 Speaker 1: on other giant shoulders and so on all the way 13 00:00:55,360 --> 00:00:57,880 Speaker 1: back into history. It's very rare that we come across 14 00:00:57,920 --> 00:01:02,880 Speaker 1: an invention that truly comes out of an However, sometimes 15 00:01:03,480 --> 00:01:07,120 Speaker 1: innovation comes to us by way of a whipsie. That's 16 00:01:07,120 --> 00:01:10,440 Speaker 1: why this episode's all about accidental inventions. You know, maybe 17 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:13,520 Speaker 1: the inventor was trying to do something else, but due 18 00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:17,560 Speaker 1: to a misunderstanding or a mistake or an oversight, they 19 00:01:17,680 --> 00:01:21,480 Speaker 1: created something else. That's kind of how our first story unfolds. 20 00:01:21,680 --> 00:01:25,560 Speaker 1: So doctor William great Batch was an engineer. He was 21 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:29,360 Speaker 1: born in nineteen nineteen, and, like many young boys back 22 00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:32,160 Speaker 1: in the nineteen twenties and thirties, he became fascinated with 23 00:01:32,319 --> 00:01:37,320 Speaker 1: radio technology. During World War Two, he joined the Navy. Afterward, 24 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:41,160 Speaker 1: he attended Cornell University. He received a Bachelor of Science 25 00:01:41,200 --> 00:01:45,240 Speaker 1: degree and then pursued postgraduate studies at the University of Buffalo, 26 00:01:45,400 --> 00:01:49,640 Speaker 1: focusing on electrical engineering. Now, while studying at Buffalo, he 27 00:01:49,800 --> 00:01:53,440 Speaker 1: also served as an assistant professor, and it was at 28 00:01:53,440 --> 00:01:56,880 Speaker 1: the University of Buffalo in nineteen fifty six when doctor 29 00:01:56,920 --> 00:02:00,360 Speaker 1: great Batch had his whipsie. He was attempting to build 30 00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:04,320 Speaker 1: a device that would monitor a person's heartbeat. They would 31 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:07,680 Speaker 1: just listen for your heartbeat and keep track of how 32 00:02:08,160 --> 00:02:10,800 Speaker 1: fast or slow it was going. But doctor gray Batch 33 00:02:10,840 --> 00:02:14,440 Speaker 1: had chosen the wrong kind of resistor to go into 34 00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:20,320 Speaker 1: his device. So, a resistor is a component within electrical circuits, 35 00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:23,600 Speaker 1: and its purpose is to regulate the flow of electrical current. 36 00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:28,240 Speaker 1: So it's a limiter. It resists the flow of current. Now, 37 00:02:28,280 --> 00:02:32,040 Speaker 1: the resistor will allow some current to go through as 38 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:35,120 Speaker 1: long as it's greater than what it can resist. So 39 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:37,960 Speaker 1: the amount depends upon the resistor itself, and there are 40 00:02:38,040 --> 00:02:41,560 Speaker 1: lots of different kinds of resistors for different levels of 41 00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:45,240 Speaker 1: electrical current, and doctor great Batch accidentally used a resistor 42 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:49,799 Speaker 1: that allowed more current to go through than he had intended. Now, 43 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:53,040 Speaker 1: because of this, the device he created didn't just record 44 00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:57,200 Speaker 1: heart beats. It would generate electric pulses. Because doctor great 45 00:02:57,240 --> 00:03:01,280 Speaker 1: Batch considered his goof he realized something. These pulses were 46 00:03:01,320 --> 00:03:04,560 Speaker 1: similar to the rhythm of a healthy heart. So perhaps 47 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:08,800 Speaker 1: his device could actually deliver electric pulses on purpose and 48 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:12,000 Speaker 1: give mild shocks to a heart that would cause it 49 00:03:12,120 --> 00:03:15,920 Speaker 1: to contract. He could create a device that would assist 50 00:03:16,240 --> 00:03:19,400 Speaker 1: a heart to beat at a healthy rhythm, and thus 51 00:03:19,680 --> 00:03:24,040 Speaker 1: doctor great Batch invented the pacemaker. Now, clearly it took 52 00:03:24,040 --> 00:03:27,120 Speaker 1: a little while to go from an accidental discovery to 53 00:03:27,480 --> 00:03:30,840 Speaker 1: creating a true medical device that doctors could implant in 54 00:03:30,919 --> 00:03:34,480 Speaker 1: a patient, but by nineteen sixty great Batch's invention was 55 00:03:34,520 --> 00:03:38,640 Speaker 1: helping a patient's heart beat properly. Now, I'm sure someone 56 00:03:38,680 --> 00:03:40,680 Speaker 1: at some point would have figured out a similar means 57 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:44,120 Speaker 1: to help regulate heartbeats using an electronic device, but we 58 00:03:44,240 --> 00:03:47,760 Speaker 1: got the invention early, all because of a little mistake. 59 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:50,800 Speaker 1: Here's another example of an inventor who was working to 60 00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:54,840 Speaker 1: solve one problem only to accidentally solve a problem that 61 00:03:54,880 --> 00:03:57,920 Speaker 1: he wasn't even thinking about. Back in the nineteen thirties, 62 00:03:58,320 --> 00:04:02,800 Speaker 1: a Swiss engineer named Walter Jaeger wanted to create a 63 00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:07,760 Speaker 1: gadget that could detect poisonous gases like carbon monoxide, for example, 64 00:04:08,120 --> 00:04:10,360 Speaker 1: and he had personal reasons for doing this. One of 65 00:04:10,360 --> 00:04:13,520 Speaker 1: his closest friends had died in a poison gas accident 66 00:04:13,560 --> 00:04:17,599 Speaker 1: inside a laboratory. Now, obviously being able to alert people 67 00:04:17,600 --> 00:04:20,080 Speaker 1: to the presence of a dangerous gas that they otherwise 68 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:22,800 Speaker 1: might not be able to detect, like carbon monoxide has 69 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:26,040 Speaker 1: no odor, right, so you can't really detect it on 70 00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:28,400 Speaker 1: your own. Well, obviously this would have a huge benefit 71 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:30,360 Speaker 1: if you could have a detector that could pick up 72 00:04:30,360 --> 00:04:32,840 Speaker 1: on the presence of such a gas. But Jaeger was 73 00:04:32,920 --> 00:04:35,159 Speaker 1: running into a bit of a problem. You see. His 74 00:04:35,240 --> 00:04:40,000 Speaker 1: approach was to create an ionization detector. So ionization is 75 00:04:40,040 --> 00:04:44,040 Speaker 1: when an atom either loses or gains an electron, and 76 00:04:44,040 --> 00:04:47,880 Speaker 1: that means your atom becomes a charged particle. So typically 77 00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:50,359 Speaker 1: when we talk about atoms, we're talking about particles that 78 00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:54,360 Speaker 1: have an equal number of negatively charged electrons and positively 79 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:57,920 Speaker 1: charged protons, so on the whole, the atom has a 80 00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:02,360 Speaker 1: neutral charge because these posite charges cancel each other out. However, 81 00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:06,320 Speaker 1: if the atom were to shed an electron, then it 82 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:09,240 Speaker 1: would have fewer electrons than protons and it would have 83 00:05:09,279 --> 00:05:12,920 Speaker 1: a net positive charge. If it were to gain an electron, well, 84 00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:17,080 Speaker 1: then it has a net negative charge. And these are ions. Now, 85 00:05:17,120 --> 00:05:20,560 Speaker 1: a flow of ions can carry an electric charge. You 86 00:05:20,800 --> 00:05:24,120 Speaker 1: likely have heard about plasma, which is an ionized gas. 87 00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:26,760 Speaker 1: Sometimes we talk about that as like the fourth state 88 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:30,960 Speaker 1: of matter. Well, the ionization detector the Jaeger was working 89 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:34,839 Speaker 1: on had two charged plates inside of it. Then these 90 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:38,880 Speaker 1: charge plates would attract ions. And because we know opposites attract, 91 00:05:39,160 --> 00:05:43,800 Speaker 1: a negatively charged plate attracts the positively charged ions toward it. 92 00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:48,400 Speaker 1: The positively charged plate will attract negatively charged ions toward it. 93 00:05:48,680 --> 00:05:52,480 Speaker 1: And Jaeger's hypothesis was that this poison gas would interact 94 00:05:52,520 --> 00:05:56,000 Speaker 1: with those ions and bind with them and thus impede 95 00:05:56,200 --> 00:05:59,880 Speaker 1: their flow, which would alter their electric current running through 96 00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:04,440 Speaker 1: the device. And this change in electric current would then 97 00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:07,839 Speaker 1: activate an alarm and cause a light to light up. 98 00:06:08,040 --> 00:06:10,719 Speaker 1: So if something were to interfere with that electric current, 99 00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:16,159 Speaker 1: the detector would go off. So the problem was Jeger 100 00:06:16,279 --> 00:06:19,400 Speaker 1: wasn't seeing any results. He had been testing and testing, 101 00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:22,120 Speaker 1: and it just wasn't working. The amount of gas that 102 00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:25,040 Speaker 1: would actually make it into the detector didn't seem to 103 00:06:25,080 --> 00:06:27,599 Speaker 1: be sufficient enough to make an appreciable change in the 104 00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:31,719 Speaker 1: ionic flow, so nothing was happening. So he got discouraged 105 00:06:32,080 --> 00:06:34,880 Speaker 1: and he decided he was gonna light up a cigarette 106 00:06:35,279 --> 00:06:39,360 Speaker 1: and smoke away in frustration. And to his surprise, shortly 107 00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:43,200 Speaker 1: after he started puffing away, the alarm went off. Yeger 108 00:06:43,240 --> 00:06:46,360 Speaker 1: discovered that while the poison gas wasn't setting off his alarm, 109 00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:49,840 Speaker 1: the smoke from his cigarette could do it. So Jaeger 110 00:06:50,080 --> 00:06:54,560 Speaker 1: accidentally invented the world's first smoke detector. Now, other engineers 111 00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:58,520 Speaker 1: would improve upon Yeager's initial design to make it more effective, 112 00:06:58,839 --> 00:07:02,799 Speaker 1: and many modern SPA detectors work by using radioactive material 113 00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:05,799 Speaker 1: inside them. But don't worry, it's a very small amount 114 00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:09,800 Speaker 1: of radioactive material. It's also very well shielded. But it's 115 00:07:09,840 --> 00:07:13,840 Speaker 1: this that generates the ions in the first place. Anyway, Boom, 116 00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:17,560 Speaker 1: we get smoke detectors because a Swiss physicist had to 117 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:21,160 Speaker 1: have a cigarette when his invention wasn't working properly. Speaking 118 00:07:21,240 --> 00:07:24,440 Speaker 1: of booms, let's talk dynamite. Now. I think I might 119 00:07:24,480 --> 00:07:27,520 Speaker 1: be stretching the word technology a little bit here, But 120 00:07:27,600 --> 00:07:30,120 Speaker 1: then considering that the guy who invented dynamite would go 121 00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:33,480 Speaker 1: on to fund to prestigious award that recognizes achievements and 122 00:07:33,520 --> 00:07:37,800 Speaker 1: fields that include technology, I think it's forgivable. So this 123 00:07:37,880 --> 00:07:41,120 Speaker 1: is the story of Alfred Nobel, a Swiss engineer who 124 00:07:41,160 --> 00:07:42,840 Speaker 1: is trying to figure out if there might be a 125 00:07:42,880 --> 00:07:47,880 Speaker 1: safe way to leverage the rather spectacularly explosive power of 126 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:51,800 Speaker 1: nitroglycerin for useful purposes such as, you know, mining and 127 00:07:51,880 --> 00:07:56,080 Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. The problem was that nitroglycerin is 128 00:07:56,360 --> 00:08:01,000 Speaker 1: awfully unstable. It's an oily liquid, it's doless. You wouldn't 129 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:03,840 Speaker 1: think it could cause an explosion, but you'd be dead 130 00:08:03,880 --> 00:08:07,480 Speaker 1: wrong there, perhaps literally now. No Bell had worked in 131 00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:14,200 Speaker 1: the lab that actually discovered nitroglycerin, and his compatriot who 132 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:17,480 Speaker 1: was responsible for that discovery, was skeptical that it could 133 00:08:17,480 --> 00:08:20,360 Speaker 1: ever do anything useful, but no Bell had higher hopes. 134 00:08:21,240 --> 00:08:26,480 Speaker 1: But here's how nitroglycerin works. It contains carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, 135 00:08:26,520 --> 00:08:29,520 Speaker 1: and nitrogen, and these are bound together in molecules. But 136 00:08:29,560 --> 00:08:33,240 Speaker 1: if those molecular bonds should break, then the molecules will 137 00:08:33,280 --> 00:08:36,160 Speaker 1: shift to form new molecules and they'll create stuff like 138 00:08:36,200 --> 00:08:39,560 Speaker 1: carbon monoxide and other types of gases. Now, these gases 139 00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:42,600 Speaker 1: will bubble and start breaking other molecular bonds, so it 140 00:08:42,640 --> 00:08:44,960 Speaker 1: speeds up this molecular change at a rate that's so 141 00:08:45,160 --> 00:08:49,000 Speaker 1: fast you get a massive release of energy all at 142 00:08:49,040 --> 00:08:52,080 Speaker 1: the same time. Essentially you get an explosion. And the 143 00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:54,720 Speaker 1: really bad news is that just knocking into the stuff 144 00:08:54,800 --> 00:08:57,440 Speaker 1: could be enough to trigger the reaction. It might not, 145 00:08:58,080 --> 00:09:02,360 Speaker 1: but it could. No Bell was attempting to make nitroglycerin 146 00:09:02,400 --> 00:09:05,520 Speaker 1: a useful tool for industry again, particularly in stuff like 147 00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:08,880 Speaker 1: mining or maybe clearing land for things like building tunnels, 148 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:12,120 Speaker 1: but the unstable nature of the chemical remained a huge concern, 149 00:09:12,200 --> 00:09:15,760 Speaker 1: and tragically, there were accidents that led to fatalities, including 150 00:09:15,800 --> 00:09:19,120 Speaker 1: Nobel's own brother back in Stockholm in a lab. So 151 00:09:19,240 --> 00:09:22,160 Speaker 1: no Bell needed a solution not just to save his 152 00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:25,839 Speaker 1: own reputation, but to prevent future catastrophes, and he hoped 153 00:09:25,840 --> 00:09:29,720 Speaker 1: that by mixing nitroglycerin with the dust of otherwise solid 154 00:09:29,760 --> 00:09:33,440 Speaker 1: material like wood or brick, could decrease its volatility, so 155 00:09:33,440 --> 00:09:37,199 Speaker 1: he tried lots of different stuff, but diatomaceous earth turned 156 00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:39,240 Speaker 1: out to do the trick. And while I can't say 157 00:09:39,240 --> 00:09:42,840 Speaker 1: for certain that this discovery was completely incidental or accidental, 158 00:09:42,880 --> 00:09:45,199 Speaker 1: it shows up in a lot of articles as an 159 00:09:45,240 --> 00:09:48,480 Speaker 1: accidental invention. I'm not so sure about that, but I'm 160 00:09:48,480 --> 00:09:52,280 Speaker 1: including it here anyway. Anyway, dinamacious earth is made up 161 00:09:52,320 --> 00:09:57,079 Speaker 1: of skeletons, not human skeletons, but diatom skeletons. So diatoms 162 00:09:57,120 --> 00:10:02,000 Speaker 1: are these single celled algae, and their skeletons are cellular 163 00:10:02,040 --> 00:10:05,320 Speaker 1: walls composed of silica. So really it's kind of like 164 00:10:05,720 --> 00:10:08,760 Speaker 1: silica powder. No Bell had no reason to believe that 165 00:10:08,800 --> 00:10:11,719 Speaker 1: silica powder would be a great match for nitroglycerin, but 166 00:10:11,760 --> 00:10:14,120 Speaker 1: he was desperate to find something, so maybe this is 167 00:10:14,160 --> 00:10:17,120 Speaker 1: the by chance that we're looking for. Anyway, he discovered 168 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:20,120 Speaker 1: that mixing nitroglycerin with silica created a kind of putty 169 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:23,160 Speaker 1: or paste, and you could shape the stuff into rods, 170 00:10:23,400 --> 00:10:26,360 Speaker 1: and using a blasting cap that no Bell also had invented, 171 00:10:26,720 --> 00:10:30,760 Speaker 1: you could create dynamite. The playto like texture meant that 172 00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:34,440 Speaker 1: nitroglycerin couldn't form bubbles when it got bumped into so 173 00:10:34,920 --> 00:10:38,080 Speaker 1: it could no longer initiate that runaway chain reaction that 174 00:10:38,120 --> 00:10:42,160 Speaker 1: would make you know, explosions happen with the liquid nitroglycerin 175 00:10:42,280 --> 00:10:44,520 Speaker 1: stuff and the rod shape mean that you could do 176 00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:46,960 Speaker 1: things like drill a hole in a rock face and 177 00:10:47,040 --> 00:10:49,320 Speaker 1: sort of stick a dynamite into the hole, light the 178 00:10:49,360 --> 00:10:51,120 Speaker 1: fuse and get the heck out of dodge, and boom, 179 00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:54,000 Speaker 1: you remove a whole lot of rock. No Bell had 180 00:10:54,080 --> 00:10:57,640 Speaker 1: high hopes that his invention would create an enormous benefit 181 00:10:57,679 --> 00:11:00,160 Speaker 1: for humans, but as he neared the end of his day, 182 00:11:00,280 --> 00:11:03,800 Speaker 1: he worried about his legacy, partly because a French newspaper 183 00:11:03,800 --> 00:11:07,640 Speaker 1: published his obituary a little bit prematurely. Turned out, Nobel's 184 00:11:07,640 --> 00:11:10,640 Speaker 1: brother Ludwig had passed away, and the reporter assumed it 185 00:11:10,679 --> 00:11:13,760 Speaker 1: was Alfred Nobel who had shuffled off the mortal coil. 186 00:11:14,160 --> 00:11:16,880 Speaker 1: And this is when Nobel decided to dedicate a large 187 00:11:16,920 --> 00:11:20,080 Speaker 1: amount of his enormous fortune toward establishing a trust that 188 00:11:20,120 --> 00:11:23,600 Speaker 1: would reward those who made significant contributions to humanity. And 189 00:11:23,720 --> 00:11:27,240 Speaker 1: that's how we got the Nobel Prizes. What a blast. 190 00:11:27,440 --> 00:11:28,920 Speaker 1: All right, We're going to take a quick break. When 191 00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:41,800 Speaker 1: we come back, We've got some more accidental inventions. We're back. 192 00:11:42,440 --> 00:11:44,360 Speaker 1: So this next one I'm sure I've talked about before, 193 00:11:44,400 --> 00:11:47,840 Speaker 1: but it's a fun one. The story follows Richard T. James, 194 00:11:47,880 --> 00:11:50,240 Speaker 1: and he was enlisted in the Navy and served as 195 00:11:50,240 --> 00:11:54,440 Speaker 1: an engineer working in shipyards in Philadelphia during World War Two. 196 00:11:54,840 --> 00:11:57,400 Speaker 1: And James was trying to solve a tricky problem. See, 197 00:11:57,400 --> 00:12:00,480 Speaker 1: warships create a lot of vibration. They have these powerful 198 00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:03,080 Speaker 1: engines that are on the ocean, which has lots of 199 00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:06,319 Speaker 1: you know, waves. Obviously, also they tend to have these 200 00:12:06,360 --> 00:12:09,600 Speaker 1: really big guns that occasionally fire great big shells that 201 00:12:09,679 --> 00:12:12,920 Speaker 1: cause vibrations. But they also have lots of sensitive instruments 202 00:12:12,920 --> 00:12:16,800 Speaker 1: on board, and sensitive instruments don't mix really well with 203 00:12:16,920 --> 00:12:19,559 Speaker 1: violent vibrations. And so mister James was trying to figure 204 00:12:19,559 --> 00:12:22,720 Speaker 1: out a way to stabilize these instruments and kind of 205 00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:26,320 Speaker 1: isolate them from all the vibrations. His solution was to 206 00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:29,520 Speaker 1: create a tension spring, but he needed to find just 207 00:12:29,640 --> 00:12:32,800 Speaker 1: the right amount of tension. If it was too stiff, 208 00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:35,319 Speaker 1: then it would almost be like there was no stabilization 209 00:12:35,400 --> 00:12:37,880 Speaker 1: at all. And if it wasn't stiff enough, the darn 210 00:12:37,920 --> 00:12:40,480 Speaker 1: instruments would be flopping around all over the place. So 211 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:42,760 Speaker 1: the story goes, he was working at his desk and 212 00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:45,520 Speaker 1: he had all these different kinds of springs stacked all 213 00:12:45,559 --> 00:12:48,040 Speaker 1: over the desk. When one of them, which had just 214 00:12:48,160 --> 00:12:51,400 Speaker 1: the right amount of tension, tipped over. Now, instead of 215 00:12:51,440 --> 00:12:54,840 Speaker 1: just bouncing all over the place or whatever, it walked, 216 00:12:55,360 --> 00:12:57,520 Speaker 1: the top end of the spring moved in an arc, 217 00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:00,720 Speaker 1: and gravity would pull that top down as well as 218 00:13:00,720 --> 00:13:03,080 Speaker 1: the rest of the spring along. And as the bottom 219 00:13:03,120 --> 00:13:05,120 Speaker 1: of the spring got pulled up, it became the new 220 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:07,920 Speaker 1: top and likewise would move in an arc, and the 221 00:13:07,960 --> 00:13:10,520 Speaker 1: process would continue for as long as the spring could 222 00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:13,640 Speaker 1: stroll downward until it hit the floor, and then just 223 00:13:13,760 --> 00:13:16,960 Speaker 1: would end up writing itself and stopping. And James, in 224 00:13:17,040 --> 00:13:21,880 Speaker 1: his effort to stabilize naval instruments, had accidentally invented the slinky. 225 00:13:22,320 --> 00:13:24,760 Speaker 1: His wife Betty came up with the name. She was 226 00:13:25,080 --> 00:13:28,240 Speaker 1: responsible for a lot of very smart business decisions, and 227 00:13:28,320 --> 00:13:30,320 Speaker 1: James would work to find just the right type of 228 00:13:30,320 --> 00:13:33,520 Speaker 1: wire intention to replicate his happy accident, and he settled 229 00:13:33,520 --> 00:13:36,600 Speaker 1: on eighty feet of wire that was coiled into almost 230 00:13:36,679 --> 00:13:39,720 Speaker 1: one hundred loops. In nineteen forty five, he began to 231 00:13:39,760 --> 00:13:42,199 Speaker 1: sell the slinky through a new company that he had founded, 232 00:13:42,400 --> 00:13:45,400 Speaker 1: and they sold like hotcakes. All it took was a 233 00:13:45,440 --> 00:13:48,400 Speaker 1: simple demonstration and they would fly, or at the very 234 00:13:48,480 --> 00:13:52,360 Speaker 1: least walk off the shelves. The invention story gets pretty 235 00:13:52,400 --> 00:13:56,440 Speaker 1: weird after that. James would later become involved in a 236 00:13:56,480 --> 00:13:59,480 Speaker 1: religious group as the popularity of the slinky was starting 237 00:13:59,520 --> 00:14:02,480 Speaker 1: to fly lag, and he would leave his family behind 238 00:14:02,520 --> 00:14:05,600 Speaker 1: to go off to Bolivia and spent most of his 239 00:14:05,679 --> 00:14:09,840 Speaker 1: money with this religious group. His wife, Betty, actually rescued 240 00:14:09,880 --> 00:14:14,200 Speaker 1: the slinky business and actually successfully brought slinky back to popularity. 241 00:14:14,440 --> 00:14:16,760 Speaker 1: So it's good to see that with the wise leadership 242 00:14:16,760 --> 00:14:21,000 Speaker 1: of Betty, the toy could you know spring back? Now? Finally, 243 00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:24,240 Speaker 1: I would like to talk about chocolate bars, not the 244 00:14:24,240 --> 00:14:26,960 Speaker 1: invention of chocolate bars. It's just that chocolate bars play 245 00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:29,600 Speaker 1: an important part in this story, all right. So again, 246 00:14:29,680 --> 00:14:33,320 Speaker 1: the year is nineteen forty five, big year for accidental inventions, 247 00:14:33,680 --> 00:14:36,040 Speaker 1: and a feller by the name of Percy Spencer was 248 00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:39,520 Speaker 1: working with radar systems. Now. One of the components that 249 00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:43,240 Speaker 1: Spencer worked around was a magnetron, which I know sounds 250 00:14:43,320 --> 00:14:46,280 Speaker 1: kind of like a transformer, but while there is more 251 00:14:46,360 --> 00:14:49,720 Speaker 1: than meets the eye, it's actually a device that emits 252 00:14:49,880 --> 00:14:54,600 Speaker 1: short electromagnetic waves, specifically in the microwave range. So in 253 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:58,160 Speaker 1: many ways it's similar to a cathode ray tube, which 254 00:14:58,200 --> 00:15:02,440 Speaker 1: is the light bulb like device that's inside old television sets. 255 00:15:02,720 --> 00:15:05,720 Speaker 1: So cathode ray tubes generate a stream of electrons which 256 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:08,520 Speaker 1: then collide with phosphor on the backside of a TV 257 00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:12,320 Speaker 1: screen and cause that phosphor to illuminate. But a magnetron 258 00:15:12,440 --> 00:15:16,840 Speaker 1: generates something else again, it generates microwaves. And Spencer was 259 00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:21,400 Speaker 1: working near magnetrons and noticed something his pocket had become sticky. 260 00:15:21,880 --> 00:15:24,200 Speaker 1: That's because he had a chocolate bar in his pocket 261 00:15:24,480 --> 00:15:26,720 Speaker 1: and he was meaning to snack on it later, but 262 00:15:26,840 --> 00:15:29,680 Speaker 1: something had caused the chocolate to melt. Now, the lab's 263 00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:33,520 Speaker 1: temperature wasn't really warm enough to do that, so Spencer 264 00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:37,120 Speaker 1: theorized that the microwaves generated by magnetrons had heated up 265 00:15:37,160 --> 00:15:41,080 Speaker 1: the chocolate bar someway that got the wheels turning. So 266 00:15:41,160 --> 00:15:45,840 Speaker 1: Spencer's accidental discovery would lead to the invention of microwave ovens. 267 00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:50,480 Speaker 1: The microwaves emitted by the magnetron will bounce around inside ovens. 268 00:15:50,520 --> 00:15:55,680 Speaker 1: Because these ovens are coated with metal, they reflect the microwaves, 269 00:15:55,800 --> 00:15:59,680 Speaker 1: and so eventually the microwaves will hit the food inside 270 00:15:59,680 --> 00:16:03,400 Speaker 1: the microwave, and at that point the microwaves will get 271 00:16:03,400 --> 00:16:07,200 Speaker 1: absorbed by water molecules in the food, and those water 272 00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:10,520 Speaker 1: molecules will begin to vibrate from absorbing this energy. That 273 00:16:10,640 --> 00:16:15,640 Speaker 1: vibration causes friction, and friction, as we all know, creates heat. 274 00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:20,120 Speaker 1: And so by vibrating these water molecules inside food and 275 00:16:20,120 --> 00:16:23,640 Speaker 1: making them vibrate super fast and create a lot of friction, 276 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:27,480 Speaker 1: you reheat the food or heat up the food, and 277 00:16:27,640 --> 00:16:30,600 Speaker 1: it does it very quickly. And this is all because 278 00:16:30,720 --> 00:16:35,320 Speaker 1: of a melted chocolate bar in a radar laboratory. Now, 279 00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:39,200 Speaker 1: it's possible that every single one of the inventions I've 280 00:16:39,200 --> 00:16:42,200 Speaker 1: mentioned today would have come about on their own time 281 00:16:42,440 --> 00:16:45,600 Speaker 1: through some other means, that someone would have discovered it 282 00:16:46,160 --> 00:16:49,240 Speaker 1: at some point. But I think the lesson that we 283 00:16:49,280 --> 00:16:51,640 Speaker 1: should take from this is that the next time you 284 00:16:51,680 --> 00:16:54,480 Speaker 1: have a goofam up, you should really pay attention, because 285 00:16:54,520 --> 00:16:58,640 Speaker 1: you might just be on to something anyway. I always 286 00:16:58,680 --> 00:17:02,240 Speaker 1: think that it's fascinating to learn about inventions. As I said, 287 00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:05,240 Speaker 1: a lot of inventions, as you read about them, you realize, oh, 288 00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:10,240 Speaker 1: this is an iteration a refinement of a previous invention, 289 00:17:10,440 --> 00:17:12,240 Speaker 1: and you have to go back a bit. And then 290 00:17:12,240 --> 00:17:13,800 Speaker 1: when you go back a bit, you realize, oh, well, 291 00:17:13,840 --> 00:17:16,720 Speaker 1: this in turn was built on top of some other principles, 292 00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:19,240 Speaker 1: so you got to go back further. So whenever you 293 00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:22,399 Speaker 1: talk about the history of any invention, you are running 294 00:17:22,400 --> 00:17:26,520 Speaker 1: the risk of actually diving super deep into history until 295 00:17:26,560 --> 00:17:29,400 Speaker 1: you just have to make an executive decision of where 296 00:17:29,400 --> 00:17:32,280 Speaker 1: you cut it off. So I hope you enjoyed this 297 00:17:32,440 --> 00:17:36,159 Speaker 1: short episode about some of the accidental inventions that we 298 00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:39,720 Speaker 1: have been lucky enough to experience over the years. I'm 299 00:17:39,720 --> 00:17:42,280 Speaker 1: sure I'll do more episodes along these lines in the future. 300 00:17:42,480 --> 00:17:44,480 Speaker 1: There are things I didn't cover. I didn't cover things 301 00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:49,119 Speaker 1: like velcrow or silly putty, which is another famous accidental invention, 302 00:17:49,359 --> 00:17:51,760 Speaker 1: so maybe we'll chat about those in a future case. 303 00:17:51,800 --> 00:17:54,080 Speaker 1: I maybe we'll talk about some purposeful ones in the 304 00:17:54,119 --> 00:17:56,639 Speaker 1: future as well. In the meantime, I hope you are 305 00:17:56,680 --> 00:17:59,959 Speaker 1: all well and I'll talk to you again. Really, So, 306 00:18:00,080 --> 00:18:09,840 Speaker 1: app Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For more podcasts 307 00:18:09,840 --> 00:18:14,320 Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 308 00:18:14,400 --> 00:18:15,959 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.