How products are created?

Our everyday products we are accustomed to have interesting origin. It could be results of combination of factors like a mistake, an accident, a sheer hard work or a chance. Here is how they come in to being.

1.

Corn Flakes

In the late 1800s, entrepreneur Will Keith Kellogg teamed up with his brother John, an MD and nutrition expert, research healthy diets for patients. While making bread one day, Will accidentally let the dough stand too long. As a result, the dough produced flakes when he rolled it for baking.

Feeling experimental, Will baked the flakes, creating a crunchy cereal that patients loved. Will refined the recipe with corn. He co-founded a cereal mail order company with Jon, then started the Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flakes Company, the first “ready-to-eat cereal” operation in the world. Kellogg’s followed, and corn flakes remain a classic.

2.

Bubble Gum

In 1928, accountant Walter Diemer worked at a rubber company, but experimented with gum recipes on the side. One of his ingredient combinations was less sticky and stretchier than other gums. He discovered that it he could blow bubbles with it.

Excited by the new gum’s potential, Diemer brought two kilograms of it to a grocery store. It sold out in one afternoon. It didn’t take long for bubble gum to catch on with kids; years later, in 1951, the Topps Company added a stick of it to their baseball card packages, replacing the old gift of a cigarette. It became an instant tradition.

3.

Potato Chips

In 1853, George Crum served as the head chef of New York’s Moon Lake Lodge, famous for its French fries. When a customer sent back a plate of fries, complaining of their thick cut, Crum retaliated. He cut the potatoes as thin as he could, fried them in grease until they were crunchy, and sent them back.

Surprisingly, the guest was delighted. So many other guests requested the thin-fried potatoes that Crum named them “Saratoga Chips.” The chips became so popular that other people started imitating the recipe and trying to sell them as a snack food. By the early 1920s, grocers began selling them. In 1926, Laura Scudder put potato chips into bags; six years later, Herman Lay turned his Lay’s potato chips into the first national brand. Today, bagged potato chips are one of the country’s favorite snack foods.

4.

Gatorade

In the early 1960s, University of Florida Gators football coach Ray Graves grew tired of watching his players grow tired in the tropical summer heat. When he asked his team doctor for help, the doctor inspired a research team to create a hydrating mixture of water, salt, sugar, lemon juice, potassium, and phosphate. Dubbed “Gatorade,” the drink supported the team during their first Orange Bowl win. Soon afterwards, researchers partnered with foodmaker Stokely-Van Camp to distribute the drink. Quaker later took over, helping the drink become an international sensation. The University of Florida, meanwhile, still receives royalties for Gatorade on an annual basis.

5.

X-Rays

Renowned German scientist Wilhelm Röntgen was experimenting with cathode rays in 1895 when he discovered the x-ray. Röntgen had covered his cathode tube with thick black paper. When he ran an electric current through the tube, a nearby fluorescent screen started glowing. The screen, coated in barium platinocyanide, stopped glowing when Röntgen turned off the current. He realized that a mysterious kind of ray must be making the screen glow. He codenamed the ray an X-ray, and proceeded to write books on it. His discovery earned him the first-ever Nobel Prize in physics.

6.           

Post-Its

After experimenting with adhesives, 3M scientist Dr. Spencer Silver found himself with reusable, mildly sticky glue in 1968. Though he hadn’t intended to create this specific substance, he tried promoting it within the company, as a spray or glue for temporary bulletin board notices. His efforts did not gain traction until fellow employee Art Fry attended one of Silver’s presentations. Fry, frustrated that his bible hymnal bookmarks constantly fell out during church choir practice, realized that Silver’s glue was the perfect bookmarking solution. Fry proposed the bookmark idea to management. Within five years, 3M introduced Post-it Notes. They have been indispensable to the modern office ever since.

7.            Velcro

After a 1941 hunting trip, Swiss engineer George de Mestral and his dog were both covered in burdock burrs. De Mestral examined some of the burrs under a microscope. He found that their hook-shaped spikes would latch onto loops in fur, hair, or clothing, making them incredibly sticky. He realized that materials could be bound together in the same way, if the hooks and loops were constructed properly.

After years of experimentation, de Mestral found a way to make hooks and loops from nylon, then mechanize the process of weaving the hooks. Ten years after making his discovery, he submitted his hook/loop combo for a Swiss patent, which was granted in 1955. Worldwide patents and manufacturing plants followed, although it took more than a decade for Velcro to gain widespread acceptance.

8.

Teflon

In 1938, chemist Roy Plunkett was researching refrigerants when perfluorethylene, one of his ingredients, polymerized inside a pressurized, iron-lined container. The iron had catalyzed the reaction, helping create an inert, low-friction seal. Plunkett’s company, Kinetic Chemicals (a DuPont-General Motors joint venture) patented the polymer in 1941. Four years later, it registered the Teflon trademark. The chemical continues to coat pans around the world.

9.

Silly Putty

During World War II, the United States experienced a severe rubber shortage. As a result, the government funded scientists’ efforts to find a cheap rubber replacement. One such scientist, General Electric’s James Wright, was working on a synthetic rubber substitute when he dropped boric acid into silicone oil. The stretchy, bouncy mass now known as Silly Putty resulted.

Wright’s “nutty putty” made the scientific rounds, but nobody could find a use for it. Finally, in 1949, businessman Peter Hodgson ran across the stuff at a party. After buying production rights from GE, he dubbed the substance Silly Putty and repackaged it. A worldwide sensation ensued.

10.

WD-40

In 1953, three rocket scientists at San Diego’s Rocket Chemical Company tried to develop a substance that would prevent corrosion in rockets by displacing water. They finally succeeded on their 40th try, naming the substance “Water Displacer—40th Attempt.” More than 15 years later, Rocket company executive John S. Barry made the product a household name. Today, WD-40 resides is the lube of choice in as many as 80% of American households.

11.          Saccharin

Johns Hopkins scientist Constantin Fahlberg discovered saccharin while experimenting on toluene derivatives, normally found in coal tar. When Fahlberg found that a residue from his experiments tasted sweet, he devoted more time to researching it. He later patented the substance and named it saccharin.

Saccharin was introduced as a food additive in the US in 1900. It gained more traction as a sugar substitute during WWI, when sugar was rationed. Now, it is most popularly known as Sweet N’ Low.   

12.

Scotch Guard

Scientist Patsy Sherman was working on inventing jet fuel line rubber for 3M in the early 1950s. One of her latex emulsions fell onto the flood, splashing a lab assistant’s shoes. Sherman and her team couldn’t wash it off—instead, water and solvents would bead on the surface of the latex, then run off. Sherman started researching the latex as a fabric protectant. In 1955, Scotchguard, which protected fabrics from liquids, was released to the market.

13.          Kotex

During World War I, paper manufacturer Kimberly Clark sold the Army an ultra-absorbent bandage called Cellucotton. Military nurses also started using the absorbent bandage material as sanitary napkins. When the war ended, Kimberly Clark decided to market Cellucotton for precisely that purpose. Dubbed “Kotex”—cotton + textile—the new product became the precursor of the modern maxi pad. Today, Kotex is one of Kimberly Clark’s best-known brands.

14.

Shopping cart

In the late 1930s, Oklahoma City grocery store owner Sylvan Goldman and an employee came up with a new way for shoppers to move larger amounts of groceries. At the time, customers lugged their goods in baskets, making for a heavy and difficult shopping experience. They patented the “Folding Basket Carriage for Self-Service Stores” in 1940.

To advertise the new invention, the store discouraged customers from carrying baskets. At first, people avoided them. However, after Goldman marketed them through demos and models, they caught on like wildfire. Today’s shopping carts are a larger version of Goldman’s invention.

Source: Businesspundit