LUCKY INVENTIONS.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 781, 3 November 1922, Page 6

LUCKY INVENTIONS.

ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERIES. “I wonder,” said the kindly friend, “why you have r.ever tried to invent anything!” . Weil, very few successful inven- , lions have resulted from “trying to w invent.' The “best sellers,” other than complicated machinery, which is generally developed rather than 1 intended, have, as a rule, been dis- ? covered by chance. I An idea strikes a man, he setes ; something in it, patents it, and finds v si manufacturer willing to produce, on terms. ■ Sometimes the man gets rich, some- I times the manufacturer. It all de- M pendis on the lawyers who draw up I the agreement. ■ Blotting paper is an instance of a lu.eky invention. In a “making” of f ordinary white paper a careless ■ workman forgot the size. The ed sheets stood stacked, waiting to be destroyed. A gust of wind bleijK 4 a newly-written letter on to the r stack, and a discovery worth hundreds of thousands of pound's wai made, Waterproof cloth is another . instance. Material dyed a wrong colon,r was washed with alum in a vain endeavour to rectify the error. After it was dry someone else tried with plain water, but couid not even wet the cloth ! A servant girl fell asleep while watching a pot of boiling brine At that time no one knew how to glaze pottery. W hen she awoke she found the pot was glazed where the brine had run down the side. She told her master, and he grew rich.' Theie is a story that Edison discovered that a magnet would separ_ ate iron filings from a brass refuse Ihe story is untrue ; a Nottingham brass-founder in a 'small way of *bu'«|fcr ) ness found! it out and told all his friends. He lemained in a small way of business. The soft glue used for inking printers rollers was discovered by accident, as also was lithography, and, in all probability, the addition of bread to sausages. • A P*' ni - ers wife found that oily ink would float on water* and so discoyered marbling. ,Hei* husband cnided her severely for wasting the It was . someone else who thought of difTpmg paper in it The man who invented the electric arc lamp worked ail his life at it and cueu in the garret Ericscn worked for years on the screw propeller -VlcLormick spent years on working out details of his famous reaper, and earnec, his living meanwhile by working in a mill. „ ‘hump’ >n the hairpin was a flash of inspiration worth thousands of. pounds, so also was the pointing of the ordinary woodscrew. may have taken years to think o- cupping- anilme dye in water and selling it as violet ink, but it is a* lairiy safe guess that the man who mst thought of .rubber heels did not have to think long. >