More Happy Accidents: Super Glue, Slinky, and Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you enjoyed my earlier post on Unexpected Origins of Everyday Items, I’ve got three more! I love reading stories about people who had an idea and worked hard to bring it to fruition, but sometimes, things don’t work out the way we expect them to. As fascinated as I am by stories of successful endeavors, I’m more entertained by happy accidents like the ones I’m about to share with you today. I’m going to tell you about Super Glue, the Slinky, and Chocolate Chip Cookies, and I hope the last one doesn’t have me running for the snack drawer.
Super Glue
It was 1942, and World War II had embroiled the United States. Dr. Harry Coover was trying to create clear plastic gun sights for the military in his work at Eastman Kodak. His efforts led him to the discovery of cyanoacrylate, which had wonderfully powerful adhesive properties — too powerful to use for his intended purpose.
Nine years later, Coover was working on a different project, this time on heat-resistant polymers for jet canopies. A colleague, Fred Joyner, made the mistake of adhering two glass prisms together with the stuff. It was this incident that helped Coover realize that there might be a market for a product that bonded annoyingly quickly and annoyingly completely.
It took seven more years to bring it to market, and I didn’t realize it was that old! I also didn’t know that medics and surgeons used it during the Vietnam War to seal wounds. I thought it was a fairly new practice in 2004 when the ER doctor applied it to my son’s forehead. I had no idea its unexpected origins were in gunsights.
Slinky
The Slinky also has its unexpected origins in the second World War, at William Cramp & Sons shipyards in Philadelphia. Naval engineer Richard James was working on a device to increase stability for the sensitive shipboard instruments. Gunfire vibration and rolling seas took a toll on them, affecting their accuracy. James was experimenting with a variety of tension springs when one fell off a shelf and started “walking” down a series of steps. He showed the novel motion to his wife, Betty, who suggested the name “Slinky,” from the Swedish word “slinka,” meaning “to glide or move gracefully.”
After patenting the toy, they had 400 units made in 1945 and set up a demonstration at Gimbels department store in Philadelphia. In 90 minutes, selling them at $1 each, they were out of Slinkys. To illustrate how captivating their demonstration was, that $1 in 1945 is about $17.50 today. A year later, over 250,000 units had been sold, and within two years, that number had quadrupled. In 2000, it was introduced into the National Toy Hall of Fame, and the only thing I have left to say is that it took long enough!
Chocolate Chip Cookies
I love me some chocolate chip cookies, and my favorite recipe is that classic Nestle Toll House version. It’s pretty much perfection just as it is, and for that, I have Ruth Graves Wakefield of Whitman, Massachusetts. In 1938, Ruth Wakefield was running the Toll House Inn (you see where this is going, don’t you?). She had planned on making chocolate cookies, and she chopped up a Nestle semi-sweet chocolate bar and added it to her cookie dough. The chocolate was supposed to melt into the dough, but nobody told the chocolate. The chunks held their shape, and the new cookie was hugely popular.
The original name of the cookies was “Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookies,” and the restaurant became well-known for them. Ms. Wakefield published the recipe in her cookbook, and the whole country was making them. Sometime, probably in the early 1940’s, she sold the rights to her recipe to Nestle. Her price was a lifetime supply of chocolate; I hope she made it worth it!
Nestle started printing that recipe on the chocolate packaging, putting the formula in every grocery store across the country. While some other versions of recipes for chocolate chip cookies were around before 1928, and many have emerged since then, the only one I care to consider is the Nestle Toll House blend, and I will stand by my decision till I die – regardless of the unexpected origins.
Your Turn
I’d love to hear a funny Super Glue story, and, by the way, what’s your favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe (if it’s a secret, just tell me where you get them). Don’t try to change my mind, though. The Toll House recipe is a hill I’m willing to die on.
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