The unexpected great inventions of mankind (chemistry) are as follows:
1. Teflon: the mysteriously disappearing gas non-stick pan
In 1938, When Roy Planck, a chemist working at DuPont, was developing a new type of refrigerant, he stuffed some gas tanks filled with tetrafluoroethylene gas in dry ice to prevent them from exploding when heated. But when Plunkett later wanted to use the gas, he found that the gas in the gas tank had mysteriously disappeared. Out of curiosity, Plunkett used a saw to cut open the gas tank and found that some small white waxy flakes fell out of the tank.
After research, this new substance is a strange lubricant with a very high melting point. It is not afraid of heat, water, or acid. The non-stick material "Teflon" was accidentally born. . Teflon was first used to make military equipment. It was not until 1954 that Colette, the wife of French engineer Gregoire, had a whim and thought of the non-stick material "Teflon" that her husband used to coat fishing lines to prevent knots. If it could be applied to a frying pan, it would be great.
After listening to his wife’s suggestion, her husband Gregoire immediately started thinking and worked out a way to combine “Teflon” and aluminum, forgetting sleep and food, to create the world’s first “non-stick pan” Thus came into being.
2. Super glue: "Failed invention" also has great uses
During World War II, Dr. Harry Coover, a chemist at the Eastman Kodak Laboratory in the United States, led a scientific The team tried to concoct a transparent plastic to make sights for military aircraft guns, but the experiment failed. The stuff they concocted was too sticky, and it would stick to whatever it touched, making it impossible to achieve their original experimental purpose.
Dr. Coover considers the invention to be a painful failure, as if we accidentally stuck super glue on several of our fingers. Dr. Coover This glue was quickly forgotten. In fact, what Dr. Coover invented was an adhesive called "cyanoacrylate."
It was not until six years later, when he was responsible for a new design of an aircraft canopy, that he thought of cyanoacrylate adhesive, an "old friend" that he initially thought was useless. Coover discovered , a substance that is incredibly sticky without the need for heating, he and lab researchers tested the glue's performance on different objects and found that it was a super glue that was maddeningly sticky.
3. Rubber tires: an invention caused by "clumsiness"
If it hadn't been for an American man named Charles Goodyear who clumsily spilled some lead next to a stove in 1844. , sulfur and rubber mixture, the rubber-soled shoes we wear today, the rubber tires used in cars may not exist. At that time, Goodyear had been studying the properties of rubber. At that time, rubber could not be made into various durable items in life. Goodyear hoped to find a way to make rubber both heat-resistant and cold-resistant, and would not easily break down. deformed and can be used to make a variety of durable daily necessities.
However, Goodyear never found a suitable method until one day in 1844, when he accidentally spilled some mixture of lead, sulfur and rubber onto a stove. The finished product” finally made Goodyear’s dream a reality. When the automobile age came, two brothers from Ohio, USA, decided to name the automobile tire company they founded after Goodyear, and the world-famous Goodyear tires were born.
4. Synthetic dyes: unexpected gains from the manufacture of quinine
In 1856, in the laboratory of Dean Hoffman, the famous organic chemist of the Royal College of Chemistry, an 18-year-old graduate student William Parkin was working on synthesizing cinchona (quinine), a specific anti-malarial drug. At that time, this drug had to be extracted from the bark of a cinchona tree where the Indians in South America lived. Prices in Europe are very expensive. When he put the raw materials for making quinine into the reaction pot, a pitch-like black residue appeared in the flask. William Parkin knew that this time he had failed again!
When cleaning the flask, thinking that it was organic matter, William Parkin added alcohol. Suddenly his eyes lit up and he found that the black matter was dissolved by the alcohol into a beautiful and eye-catching purple! He immediately realized that this unexpected phenomenon would lead to an important invention.
Considering that people's clothes at that time were dyed with natural plant dyes that were difficult to preserve and had poor color fastness, William Parkin tried to use this purple substance to dye cloth. Unfortunately, his experiment was not successful. The dyed cotton cloth It almost fell off after washing with water!
He was not discouraged, and experimented with wool and silk. He found that this substance, which could not be dyed on cotton, could be dyed on silk and wool very easily, and was more durable than various plants at that time. The colors of the dyes are bright and will not fade even when washed in soapy water. This is the world's first synthetic chemical dye, aniline violet.
Although William Parkin did not create quinine, he obtained an invention patent for the synthesis of aniline violet. In 1857, William Parkin established the world's first synthetic dye factory to produce aniline violet in Harrow, and became a millionaire in the world.
5. Litmus reagent: Thoughts caused by the discolored violets
One morning in the 17th century, the British chemist Boyle came to the laboratory, and it happened that a gardener gave him A basket of very beautiful violets was delivered, and he took a bunch out of the basket and brought it into the laboratory and placed it on the table. In the laboratory, they poured the large bottles filled with hydrochloric acid into small reagent bottles. The poured light yellow liquid emitted white smoke and overflowed from the bottle mouth along the bottle body, spreading to all directions on the table. Violets smoked slightly in the acid mist.
Boyle was worried that the flowers would be corroded by acid, so he quickly dipped the violets into a beaker filled with water. After a while, something magical happened, and the color of the violets turned red. This phenomenon aroused Boyle's great interest. He was both novel and excited, and he was sensitively aware that there might be a component in violets that would turn red when exposed to hydrochloric acid. After verification, he concluded that not only hydrochloric acid, but also various other acids could turn violets red.
He thought that this discovery was so important. In the future, he could judge whether the solution was acidic by putting violet petals into the solution and seeing if it turned red. The accidental discovery inspired Boyle's desire to explore. He then collected various plants and flowers for experiments, but what is interesting is that the purple infusion he extracted from litmus moss, acid can turn it red, and lye can turn it blue. This is The earliest litmus test was called an indicator by Boyle.
Later, litmus test paper, an acid-base test paper commonly used in experiments, was made. This kind of test paper is still a commonly used test paper when people do chemical experiments hundreds of years later.
6. Plasticine: detergent became a favorite toy
During World War II, the U.S. government needed rubber to produce aircraft tires, soldiers' boots, and various war supplies. . GE's Wright wanted to invent a rubber substitute out of silicon. In a 1943 experiment with silicone oil, Wright added boric acid to it. The result of this unintentional move was a composite that was soft, elastic, highly malleable, and highly viscous. However, it was no substitute for rubber.
Although it cannot be made into tires, military boots and other items, this synthetic product is sticky and is good for cleaning. In order to avoid bankruptcy, General Motors subsequently modified the failed products of the experiment to clean them. Enter the market as an agent - used to clean dirty wallpaper. In the end, the detergent lived up to expectations and saved General Motors, not because of its good cleaning effect, but because it was highly sought after by primary school students as a decoration.
It turns out that the excellent plasticity of the detergent made primary school students put it down and used it to make Christmas decorations, causing the sales of detergents to soar. General Motors tasted the sweetness and quickly transformed the detergent into colorful and flavored plasticine, which became one of the most popular toys in the world.
7. Safety glass: unbreakable glass flask
Benedicus is a famous French chemist. An accidental opportunity triggered his inspiration and led him to study Made into "safety glass". In 1907, French chemist Benedicus was arranging instruments in the laboratory and accidentally knocked a glass bottle to the ground. However, surprisingly, the bottle did not break into pieces, but only had some cracks. Why is this happening? Although Benedicus realized something, he was very busy at the time and could not find the answer for a while, so he put it aside without bothering to explore.
One day, Benedicus picked up a local newspaper next to him while he was resting, and accidentally saw a piece of news: a car had an accident, and the broken glass from the window scratched the driver and passengers. .
After reading this news, Benedik immediately thought of the unbroken glass flask that had been dropped in the laboratory a few days ago.
He thought that if such unbreakable glass was installed on the windows of cars, wouldn’t it reduce casualties after car accidents? Benedicus immediately rushed to the laboratory and found the bottle. After careful consideration, he finally figured out the secret of why the bottle did not break when dropped: It turned out that the flask was once filled with nitric acid cellulose solution. After evaporation, a tough and transparent film was left on the wall of the bottle, which adhered firmly to the ground. on the bottle. It seems that it is this film that protects the bottle.
This discovery suddenly opened up Benedik's thinking. He prepared reagents overnight and sandwiched a layer of transparent nitrocellulose between the two layers of glass to firmly bond them together. After repeated trials, a shock-proof safety glass that will not crack is finally available.
8. Picric acid: a sudden change, from dyes to explosives
In 1771, British P. Wolfe synthesized picric acid. Since 1849, picric acid has been used as a yellow dye for dyeing silk. It was the first artificial dye to be used. It was used safely in dyehouses for more than thirty years. One day in 1871, a new worker in a French dye workshop couldn't open the barrel of picric acid, so he found a hammer and hit the iron barrel hard. Suddenly, a violent explosion occurred, and the fire caused by the explosion burned down the entire store. and nearby neighborhoods, many people were killed on the spot. This is a tragedy, but it also provides an inspiration to the workshop owners. After repeated trials, starting from France, picric acid began to be widely used in the manufacture of yellow explosives in the military.
9. Bordeaux liquid: inspiration from the grape vines
Bordeaux, France is a good place rich in grapes. However, in 1878, a grape disease caused by mold appeared in the vineyards, which was called "botryomycosis". After being infected with the disease, the healthy grapevines will gradually fail and wither. However, the Frenchman Millard discovered that many grapevines near the city of Bordeaux were attacked by pathogens. Only one vineyard on both sides of the road was still full of fruit and was not damaged.
He felt strange, so he went to ask the owner of the vines for advice. It turns out that this plantation is located on the edge of a traffic thoroughfare, and there are many pedestrians coming and going. Every year during the grape ripening season, some people take advantage of the sheep and steal grapes to satisfy their greedy appetite when the owner is away. The owner of the garden sprinkled white limewater and blue copper sulfate on the grapevines on both sides of the road, leaving white and blue traces on the grape leaves. Passers-by thought they had sprayed poison, thus Give up the idea of ??stealing grapes.
Millard got inspiration from it. After repeated experiments and research, he finally invented the fungicide-Bordeaux mixture that is effective against almost all plant pathogens. In order to commemorate the plantation in Bordeaux and thank it for its inspiration, Millard named the medicine "Bordeaux mixture" after the city.