Superglue was discovered by accident and promptly rejected.
In 1942 Harry Coover's team, looking for clear plastic for gun sights, made a substance that stuck to everything. Only in 1951 did Coover rediscover it as an adhesive.
More amazing facts
- 1941 Velcro was invented after a walk with a dog. In 1941 Swiss engineer George de Mestral came back from a hunt in the Alps covered in burrs and saw hundreds of tiny hooks under the microscope.
- 1942 Casablanca was not filmed in Casablanca.
- 1942 · 1944 A brown bear served in the Polish army in World War II. Wojtek was enlisted as a private so he could board a ship in Egypt, and his company’s badge became a bear carrying an artillery shell.
- 1943 · 1945 The Slinky was invented when a spring fell off a shelf.
- 1943 During World War II the Oscars were made of plaster.
- 1943 In World War II the American psychologist B. F. Skinner trained pigeons to guide bombs.