A RECIPE FOR AN INVENTION

For example, before brothers Orvill and Wilbur Wright made their first motor airplane flight in 1903, Leonardo da Vinci had drawn the project of flying machines, Veranzio had designed a parachute in the XII century and brothers Montgolfier had flown a balloon for the first time.
Some of the inventions are a kind of “side effect” of another research. While Alexander Fleming was working on the pathogenic bacteria, he discovered penicillin. One day, Fleming didn’t clean the laboratory before going on a weekend. When he came back, he noticed mould in the lab containers in which he cultivated bacteria. What is more, this mould killed the bacteria, which led Fleming to extract the first antibiotic - penicillin.
Spencer Silver was working on a super strong glue. Instead, he created a glue that barely kept together two pieces of paper. This product seemed useless until his friend Arthur Fry found an application for it. Arthur was singing in the church choir and was frustrated because the pieces of paper he used to mark pages in his hymnbook always fell out. He reminded himself of Spencer’s glue, which turned out to be a perfect solution for keeping the bookmarks. That’s how the famous Post It Note began its career.
There are many factors that can became an inspiration of an invention. Even as a child somebody can make a discovery, which would bring him a fortune. As a boy, Frank Epperson left out on a cold night a drink with a stirring stick inside. By the next morning, the drink had frozen to the stick. Thanks to Epperson we can now eat ice creams on a stick.

Karolina Pluta

Konsultacja jezykowa: Ryszard Piękoś
 
Słownik/Dictionary:
Recipe – przepis
Post It Note – karteczka samoprzylepna
Motor – tu: silnik
Side effect – efekt uboczny
Pathogenic – chorobotwórczy
Mould – pleśń
Stick – patyk

fot. Archiwum KnC