Trivia: Accidental inventions...

TODAY'S MYSTERY QUOTE

QUOTE: "Trust your hunches. They're usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level." HINT: (1927-), American psychologist, television personality and advice columnist, publishing a daily syndicated newspaper column since 1960.

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RANDOM TIDBITS

Viagra: This drug was accidentally created when Pfizer chemists were developing a pill to treat cardiovascular ailments. However, when it was tried out on test subjects, something came up (literally). The pill, later named Viagra and approved by the FDA in 1998, proved a bust in terms of treating heart disease, but its unexpected side effect opened the doors for a brand-new industry.

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Corn Flakes: In 1894, while employed by the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg tried to find a way to provide a palatable and inexpensive meal to feed his charges. When he accidentally left some boiled wheat unattended, it went stale. He tried to save it by rolling it into dough, but discovered that it tore into pieces and refused to hold a shape. So he and his brother decided to toast the flakes...and the rest is history.

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Microwave oven: When a Raytheon engineer was experimenting with a device called a magnetron back in 1945, he noticed the candy bar in his pocket starting to melt. This gave him the inspiration to create the microwave oven, and the first version was released in 1947. However, at over five feet tall and costing roughly $5,000, it didn't really take off. In 1967, Amana, a Raytheon division, began selling sub-$500 versions intended for at-home kitchen use.

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Artificial sweeteners: In 1879, a chemist by the name of Constantin Fahlberg was working with coal tar, and apparently went home for dinner without washing his hands first. While chowing down on his dinner, he noticed that everything he ate had a distinctly sweet taste. Connecting the dots, he realized his hand residue was the source.

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Play-Doh: This kid-friendly concoction was orginially meant to be a cleaning substance for wallpaper. Created in 1956 (and patented in 1965) by Noah McVicker and Joseph McVicker, the invention was initially cast aside until a teacher mentioned dissatisfaction with the hard, tough-to-shape clay her students used. The McVicker brothers offered to supply schools in the Cincinnati area with their pliable stuff, and it was such a success that soon it was available in department stores everywhere.

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Phosphorus: The chemical was first isolated by a would-be alchemist who thought he could chemically extract gold from urine, and instead wound up with a glow-in-the-dark white powder. The versatile chemical (now yielded from far less nasty sources) is used today in toothpaste, shampoo, pesticides and fertilizer.

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QUOTE: "Trust your hunches. They're usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level."

ANSWER: Joyce Brothers.

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