‘What’s an invention that turned out to be perfect for a completely different use?’ – 22 items with applications that would definitely have surprised their inventors
12.
‘Probably the most widely known (or not) is cyanacrolate – ‘super glue’. Originally for puncture wounds on battlefields.’
–ARobertNotABob
13.
‘Cardboard boxes. Good for shipping and storage, and providing beds for cats.’
–mhoulden
14.
‘Play-Doh started out as wallpaper cleaner but is obviously and excellent toy/crafting thingy for kids.’
–Mobile_Turnover6773
15.
‘Pipe cleaners – still being used for kids crafts years after all the grandads stopped smoking pipes.’
–Soukchai2012
16.
‘Kleenex were designed for cleaning glasses lenses. They’re not particularly good at that, but are now considered indispensable for other hygiene purposes.’
–Loose_Acanthaceae201
17.
‘Cotton buds. You’re not supposed to put them in your ears, but everyone does.’
–PuzzledFishOfTheSea
18.
‘Duck tape tapes all kinds of things, not just ducks.’
–Jeremiahjohnsonville
19.
‘Stainless steel was invented because they were looking for an alloy for military purposes (I think they were looking to make a stronger and lighter steel).
However, once this was over, years later, all their samples were tossed onto a scrap heap. Someone noticed something glinting amid all the rust and upon fishing it out, realised they had an alloy that was more resistant to tarnishing.’
–ByEthanFox
20.
‘The first commercial artificial dye, mauve, was invented when a teenage student tried to use chemicals to clean some crap out of a glass flask after a failed experiment (intended to make quinine to treat malaria), and it turned everything purple.’
–SixCardRoulette
21.
‘The pressure washer. It was the middle of Prohibition. A heating engineer was building a portable whiskey still for a local moonshiner. He noticed the still’s high pressure steam was shifting the grease on his workshop floor, and quickly started a steam cleaner business instead.’
–randomnine
22.
‘Turns out that if you took a small, circular cake pan and turned it upside down, it’s good to throw around on the beach.’
–ReverendLoki