Have you ever been inventing to solve a problem and you realize EUREKA! I have invented to solve ANOTHER problem. That is what happened to the inventors below. They stumbled upon their inventions…….accidentally!

Inventions that ACCIDENTALLY came about when inventing something else!

Art Fry Do you remember Art Fry from School Supply Inventions Month? If you do not Mr. Fry invented, Post it notes. Art Fry was inventing a bookmark for his hymnal for church choir. He wanted something that would not fall out or damage it. He developed the sticky notes we now call Post It Notes! Mr. Fry spent years trying to convince the company who now makes Post It notes 3M to buy the rights. His determination paid off in a big way!

Richard James How did someone come up with the idea of a slinky? In 1943, Richard James was a naval engineer trying to develop a meter designed to monitor horsepower on naval battleships. Richard was working with tension springs when one of the springs fell to the ground. He saw how the spring kept moving after it hit the ground and an idea for a toy was born. Mr. James along with his wife spent two years after that perfecting the slinky toy!

James Wright James Wright, an engineer who worked for General Electric was attempting to create a synthetic rubber. He was unable to create this rubber and put his creation (later to be called silly putty) on the shelf as a failure. This "Nutty Putty" as it was first called, was soft and able to stretch many times its length without tearing. One other unusual quality was that Silly Putty ® could copy the image of any printed material that it was pressed upon. It was sold under the trade name of Silly Putty ®, selling faster than any other toy in history with over $6 million in sales for the year.

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg & William Keith Kellogg Both Kellogg brothers were experimenting with boiled sheets of wheat. When they were unexpectedly called away from their lab, they made a surprising discovery when they returned the next day. The wheat dough when placed between rockers no longer came out in sheets, but broke into small flakes. Four years after the brothers marketed what has become as America’s best known breakfast cereal, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes!