Accidental Discoveries - Penicillin and the Microwave Oven

 

 

A simple Internet search yields dozens of accidental inventions noted as trivia, from plastic to the Slinky. I focus below on two inventions that have legends of accidents but also support scientific research. These are penicillin and the microwave oven.

Penicillin

Scientists have studied antibiotics for over a century, with early work done in antibiosis using soil bacteria circa 1900 (Hutchings et al., 2019). Salvarsan research had already been conducted for nearly 20 years by the time British scientist Alexander Fleming coincidentally discovered penicillin in 1928 (Gaines, 2017; Haider, 2023; Hutchings et al., 2019). Few inventions in history can claim to have had a more significant impact on human life, especially in a positive sense.

The happy accident in the case of penicillin occurred after a vacation. The inventor was a professor and biology researcher at a London university. Having returned from vacation, Fleming noticed that a petri dish had not been cleaned prior to leaving for vacation. On return, the dish was contaminated with mold. However, the researcher noticed an area around the fungus did not grow bacteria. Inspecting the area further, Fleming was able to isolate the mold in the area as a member of the Penicillium class. After extracting and identifying the active compound responsible for blocking bacterial growth, Fleming named it penicillin.

Before modern scientific research, microbes with antibiotic properties were already used for a few millennia (Hutchings et al., 2019). For example, pastes made from moldy bread were used to treat wounds circa 23 A.D. in China, Greece, and Serbia. As far back as circa 1500 B.C., humans used soil and moldy bread to make medicinal papyrus. This history demonstrates that discoveries often need a foundation and sometimes further research. After discovering penicillin, Flemming was not able to purify the substance. It was not until another research team built on Fleming’s earlier work that penicillin was used to treat humans in 1941.

The motivational forces for penicillin were similar to many medical drug therapies. Mortality rates from infection were high. There were also notable deaths that captured attention. First was Calvin Coolidge Jr., son of the President of the United States (Haider, 2023). The young tennis player got a blister during a match in 1924. It became infected, and shortly afterward, the young man died. In another high-profile case, President Franklin’s son died from an infection in 1936 at 22.

In addition to high-profile deaths attributed to infections, the world had exited one world war only to see another on the horizon. The research team, led by Florey, finally purified penicillin and petitioned the United States government to increase production (Gaines, 2017). As the world was plunged into a second war, the United States government took control of all penicillin production in the country. Meanwhile, the British government was taking similar action in the United Kingdom.

Microwave

With a more contentious historical origin, the microwave oven has its own legend. The deeper history is with the magnetron. Research in magnetrons dates back to the 1920s (Osepchuk, 2010). A magnetron is a tube in which electrons are injected under the influence of a magnetic field. The result is the creation of microwaves. The popular story of the microwave oven is that Spencer was researching magnetrons in the 1940s, which were already used in the radar field (Osepchuk, 2009). During that research, Spencer noticed a candy bar in his pocket melting. Spencer later patented the microwave oven, called a Radarange at the time. That ends the short legend of the accidental invention.

During the time, Spencer was managing several people who worked for Raytheon. Later interviews indicate several people had similar “warming” experiences (Osepchuk, 2009). Nevertheless, Spencer is credited with the patent, and Raytheon sold the first unit in 1947 (Tiempo, 2023). In conflicting accounts, Raytheon licensed Tappan (Westinghouse) to produce the first microwave available in the market in 1955 (Osepchuk, 2009). Amana receives credit in literature for marketing a cheaper countertop unit, leading to the proliferation of the microwave oven. By the 1980s, most households in the United States had microwave ovens.

There have been strange claims, counterclaims, and retractions associated with the creation of the first microwave oven. According to IEEE records, one prominent and strange account is that Nazi Germany was using microwave ovens in the 1930s (Osepchuk, 2009). However, IEEE removed the account in 2004. Moreover, one history linked the Wurzburg oven from the 1930s to the microwave, but Osepchuk (2009) refutes that linkage because the Wurzburg oven operates far below microwave frequencies, and Germans during the Nazi era were prohibited from working with frequencies above 1 GHz.

As intimated above, the microwave oven was invented through radar research. During the late 1920s and 1930s, defense research was heavily funded. Like many inventions, national security interests and funding drive much of science research and commercial applications of discoveries. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a modern conduit for such funding, and the Internet is one of the most profound interventions derived from DARPA research and funding provided to various university research teams.

Conclusion

Whether Coca-Cola, potato chips, popsicles, or the microwave and penicillin discoveries discussed above, accidents have led to many inventions. Scientific discoveries typically occur through research based on the efforts of predecessors. The inventors of penicillin and the microwave oven are examples. Had no motivating factors been in place, the impact of these inventions may have been different than the benefits the world enjoys today from the discoveries. Had the potato chip inventor not been frustrated by a complaining customer, to the point that he tried to make a point by slicing potatoes thinly before frying, an entire segment of snacks might not exist. With scientific discoveries, even those made by accident, a desire to explore science has to accompany the external motivating forces. For the microwave oven, scientists pushed the boundaries of radar research and magnetrons. In the case of penicillin, biological research was continuing from a long history of research in Salvarsan and actinomycetes. The adventure of discovery is as powerful a motivation as the external forces that support the research.

References

Gaynes R. (2017). The Discovery of penicillin—new insights after more than 75 years of clinical use. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 23(5), 849–853. https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2305.161556

Haider, R. (2023). Penicillin and the antibiotics revolution global history. Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research, 13(1).

Hutchings, M. I., Truman, A. W., & Wilkinson, B. (2019). Antibiotics: past, present and future. Current Opinion in Microbiology, 51, 72-80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mib.2019.10.008

Osepchuk, J. M. (2009). The history of the microwave oven: A critical review. 2009 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest, (pp. 1397-1400). https://doi.org/10.1109/MWSYM.2009.5165967

Osepchuk, J. M. (2010). The magnetron and the microwave oven: A unique and lasting relationship. 2010 International Conference on the Origins and Evolution of the Cavity Magnetron, (pp. 46-51). https://doi.org/10.1109/CAVMAG.2010.5565567

Tiempo, C. E. (2023, Apr 16). The history of the microwave oven, a must-have appliance in the home. CE Noticias Financieras.