Accidental Discoveries: From Laughing Gas to Dynamite. Rev. ed.

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

What could anyone make from glue that won’t stick? What do folding
chairs have to do with grocery shopping? What happened when a harried
laundry owner couldn’t find a piece of paper to write down a laundry
list and so used a crayon and piece of polished limestone? As absurd as
they sound, the answers to these three questions are, respectively,
Post-it Notes, the shopping cart, and lithography.

If necessity is the mother of invention, pure chance is often the proud
poppa of some of humanity’s most useful brainchildren. In this book,
Verstraete, a schoolteacher and writer, has gathered together more than
three dozen intriguing stories about major discoveries that were made by
accident. The discoveries range from the commonplace (corn flakes, soda
pop, bathroom soap) to the monumental (radium, electricity, Neanderthal
man). Whatever the subject, the prose is never boring. Verstraete is a
born writer with a great talent for spinning a few historical facts into
a first-rate story. His book, which is well designed and full of amusing
illustrations, is as enjoyable as it is informative. Highly recommended.