Groupon Says
Brunch: A Happy Accident
It's well known that brunch was invented quite accidentally in 1922 when a phalanx of befuddled French scientists agreed to meet for breakfast but were all late due to the extraordinary coincidence of all of them receiving a confidence-transforming first kiss from their respectively mousy lab assistants. What other great inventions were made quite accidentally?
Silly Putty: We all remember the boasts from Silly Putty's classic 1950s commercial jingle: "It bounces and tumbles/in sunlight it crumbles/don't eat it, don't eat it/dear god, don't eat it!" But did you know that Silly Putty was originally made by accident? This sickly pink miracle paste that can copy images when pressed against newspaper comics was originally only supposed to capture the comic-strip character's souls. Good grief!
The Slinky: This tightly coiled pet spring is perhaps best known for its ability to walk down staircases and its ability to become a bafflingly tangled Möbius of garbage. Legend states that the Slinky was patterned after the torsion springs used by aircraft engineers during World War II, but this is just a cover story for their original intended purpose: generating an energy tunnel to send mice through time.
Penicillin: Sir Alexander Fleming's wonder-mold can hardly be called an invention, given that it formed naturally of its own accord, cunningly worked its way into most American immune systems, and is now biding its time until Phase II.
