Things Found By Accident There are quite a few things over time which have been found accidently. Some were treasures, some inventions, and some medicines, to name a few. It seems one never knows what might be found and how it might influence us. One thing which I read the other day made no sense to me, it said scientists were going to study what they don’t know. I thought to myself, how do you do that, then I realized they might be studying something particular about an object they already know, an object which does something they have yet to figure out. This made a lot more sense to me, because you can’t study something you don’t know exists, but you can discover something you didn’t know existed about something you already know about. One never knows what they might find and this was illustrated in the 1980s, when an incredible treasure was found, unlike the treasure of Oak Island which has been looked for, for hundreds of years. A demolition project was taking place. Over three years pieces of the treasure were found and it was fabulous. The treasure is owned by the National Museum in Wroclaw, Poland. Some of the treasure was looted and while much of it was returned, it is believed some is still missing. It is said the treasure which is called the Sroda Treasure, dated back to the 12th century but not all of it. It is believed most of the treasure is from the 14th century. Estimates of the value put it around 120 million dollars. Sometimes something really simple is discovered and yet it can fetch millions of dollars when produced. What could be simpler than a Post-it Note? A researcher at 3M was on a project to develop an extremely strong glue. The idea was it could be useful for the aerospace industry. Sometimes you just have a brain storm when something you are not looking for is discovered and that was what happened in this case. Spencer Silver the researcher didn’t find that strong glue at that time, what he found was a very weak glue, which when used left no residue on what it was attached to. The strange part of all this is the idea for the weak glue’s use took about 6 years to be thought of and Post-it notes was born. What could be more incredible than finding a secret tunnel? The answer is finding one under your house, or in some ancient building. I have already talked in the past about the guy in Turkey who was working in his basement when he discovered a hidden entrance to a tunnel. It was not just an ordinary tunnel, but one which led to an ancient underground city which was so big, it still is yet to be completely explored. What must he have thought? Many underground cities have been found in Turkey and some were big enough to hold over 20,000 people and all their animals, water, food and such. Sometimes you find something which you never wanted to. There was a vacant home in Poughkeepsie, New York, which was being worked on by a contractor. He took down a wall and what he found must have really upset him. There behind the wall was what was left of the body of a missing woman who had disappeared about 28 years before. I am going to go out on a limb here and say this was the kind of thing no one wants to find. Sometimes this happens because no one searches the home to look for a missing person. There was a sheriff’s sale of an abandoned home and when the new owner went down to the basement there was the body of the old lady who had owned it. She must have went to the basement and then died. The worst one I heard about was a woman who died in her apartment and it was never rented. There she was sitting in an old chair from decades before in front of an old small black and white tv. There was no foul play involved. It was almost impossible for me to reconcile this. First of all, she sadly must not have had anyone who cared about her and secondly how could an apartment not be rented for decades? One of the things which was invented by accident was said to be the safety pin. Walter Hunt was credited with the invention in 1849. We know pins were around forever and it is hard to grasp the idea no one ever thought of this invention before this, but that is what they say. One type of find had knocked the art world on its collective ear. They found sometimes, in very rare occasions, a painting can be hiding under another. Researchers were studying a painting by Leonardo DaVinci in 2005, when they made an incredible discovery. It turned out good old Leonardo had painted over another painting. Angels were found painted in the covered painting. An X-Ray of the painting underneath revealed it in all its glory. The Italians have a word for this type of thing and it is pentimento. Other famous artist’s paintings have been found to have other paintings under them. Picasso is one. The Blue Room was painted by him over another painting. Van Gogh did the same thing and a very ancient Roman fresco was discovered to have a painting under it after it had been hanging in the Louvre for some time. There are times when people just happened to look at their pocket change and find something very valuable. A woman in 2014 found a very rare penny in her change. It was a 1969-S Lincoln Cent with a doubled die obverse. At the time it had been graded at AU-55 and worth about $24,000. This is only one example of what a person could be lucky enough to find. The housewife was extremely lucky to find the penny in such good condition. AU-55 means evidence of friction on high points of design. It is a higher grade than just AU-50 uncirculated which is traces of light wear on many of the high points. I have to think when it comes to inventions many of the older ones might have been by mistake and we just don’t know it. Before the wheel turning on an axel, it is said the entire axel with attached wheels would turn. Did someone have a brain storm, or did a wheel loosen up and start turning on an axel? I guess we will never know.
|
