The Most Successful Inventions That We Use Every Day

Inventions are often the results of curious individuals who brainstorm about ideas, concepts, and processes that are put together and engineered to create products that can help to enhance life or bring about revolutionary change. However, sometimes the invention is not feasible and doesn't make sense or work well. Some inventions have brought great improvement and growth to our society but others have failed miserably. One of the most successful inventions was the Morse Code created by Samuel Morse and Anthony Vail in the 1830's.

Morse and Vail used assigned letters in the alphabet and numbers which were a set of dots and dashes based on the frequency of use to transmit telegraph messages (History.com). Creativity and innovations are the fabric of any successful society. Many people come up with accidental inventions that are brilliant and others come up with notions and ideas that are not conventional. Needless to say, it takes both passion, imagination, and tenacity to be innovative.

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One such particular conventional idea was tested in 1929 when someone thought it would be practical to make women's bathing suits out of wood. Generally, the idea was based on the theory that women were not as strong in the water swimming as their male counterparts (How Bizarre 2). As a result, a bendable wood called spruce was used to make these bathing suits but they didn't catch on. Consequently, the bathing suits were not marketed to the general population (How Bizarre 2). Another peculiar invention was the snowstorm mask. Although, there is not much information on the inventor, photographs of this item from the year 1939 are available.

According to the article How Bizarre, a clothing store in Montreal, Canada sold plastic cones that were large and people starting wearing them on their heads with the mask covering their entire faces. For one thing, they appeared as if they were wearing gigantic clear bird beaks over their faces. The idea to protect the face from harsh weather conditions such as cold and wet snow was a good idea but the invention was considered to be weird and not plausible (3). There was even another idiosyncratic invention designed by Ted Spence in the 1950's named the Hairline Brush that was suppose fit the circumference of a bald man's head and brush his sideburns while massaging his scalp. However, this odd gadget didn't take off as the inventor hoped (How Bizarre. 4). Although, there were inventors who created strange products, many developers made items that added great value to our society even if it was accidental.

Even the 'sticky note' was constructed accidently. Sticky notes are often used by teachers and students to write down information on them. Spencer Silver was the inventor who created the 'sticky note' while trying to design an adhesive that was tough as nails to build planes. He ended up with an adhesive that was weak and could be applied to objects and removed without them being damaged. Although he tried to persuade people that his invention was useful, people deemed it as a failure. Eventually, one of Spencer's co-workers used the adhesive to post small bits of paper in his choir book to mark his place, 'Suddenly, the sticky note' was born' (Accidental Genius 2). Another accidental invention was created when a customer was not satisfied with how his potatoes were being fried (Accidental Genius 3). Chef George Crum tried to please the customer to no avail because he complained that the potatoes were not thin enough. Chef Crum constantly took the plate back before eventually slicing some potatoes really thin and frying them longer being sarcastic, but the customer loved them. As a result, the famous snack, potato chips enjoyed by people all over the world were created (Accidental Genius 3).

Another revolutionary creation that is used all over the world, namely the microwave, was created by Perry Spencer. Coincidentally, Spencer was doing some research on how to devise better radar equipment for the United States during World War II. During the research and testing, Spencer had a candy bar in his pocket, and it melted while he was standing close to one of the radar sets. Pondering, Spencer noticed the heat coming from the radar and eventually found out that he could cook food with this new concept and idea. According to the article Accidental Genius, 'The convenient cookers are in essentially every kitchen at home and in restaurants.' Hence, Spencer was the first to microwave popcorn and other treats with this his invention (Accidental Genius, 4).

Inventions are often made by people who are looking to create products that cause change and progression. According to the article How Bizarre, 'These are strange inventions that did not become as popular as their creators had once hope.' In other words, many products are often designed on purpose by people who thought that they were really onto something great but ended up with a failure on their hand after exhaustive measures. Nevertheless, there are creative geniuses who accidentally compose and design items that are very useful and life altering. 'For everyone who has made a mistake, these accidental inventions should be a positive example of what can come from errors,' revealed the article Accidental Genius. For instance, inventors can be successful even if things don't go as planned by reviewing their ideas and methods to see if they can come up with other uses for their products. Ultimately, some inventors may have to tweak or even redo their products to find a useful purpose for their invention.