THE MICROWAVE OVEN was invented by accident in 1945 by Percy Spencer, the lead on a radar project for Raytheon. The story goes that while testing a new vacuum tube, he noticed that a chocolate bar in his pocket had begun to melt. He decided to put some popcorn kernels near the tube—and marveled as they popped.
The list of accidental inventions goes on: Bubble Wrap, Post-it Notes, Viagra,
