The first commercial use for ePTFE (expanded polytetraflouroethylene AKA expanded Teflon AKA Gore-Tex) was not fabric for clothing. Gore did not receive its first commercial order for Gore-Tex fabric until 1976. Years prior to that, ePTFE was used by Gore to create vascular grafts (blood conduits) for arterial bypass procedures.
Sometimes I get the feeling that a new substance can’t be successful unless its creators can tell that it was the result of a mistake. I have heard the “mistake” story about so many products that I have lost count.
@Allan Olesen said:
Sometimes I get the feeling that a new substance can’t be successful unless its creators can tell that it was the result of a mistake. I have heard the “mistake” story about so many products that I have lost count.
Even Portland Cement was an accident. Look how far that got us.
WD 40…wasn’t a mistake. It just took a lot of tries. However it’s intended use was only a fraction of it’s original purpose.
3rd child. I thought she was a mistake. More like an ambush.
I used to work for Raychem (which no longer exists after being bought by Amp and then Tyco and the parts sold all over the place). Raychem first product back in the late 50s was heat shrink tubing, which was a mistake (they were trying to make lighter wires and cable for the military).
early goretex used to get “contaminated” meaning if you got any dirt on your paddling jacket it didn’t work- ll bean gave us free replacements when the better stuff came out
@Allan Olesen said:
Sometimes I get the feeling that a new substance can’t be successful unless its creators can tell that it was the result of a mistake. I have heard the “mistake” story about so many products that I have lost count.
And over every creeping thing
that creepeth upon the earth,
an in-own-image domineering resultant
(the creator could have used an image consultant)
created a seventh day of restless worth.
(“And it was good,” is stated with wry mirth.)
A classic example is Post-It notes. The original intent was to create a permanent adhesive, but that experiment failed and the rest is history.
Preparation H comes to mind, too. I feel for the people who tested Preparation A through G. 
(this is not an original thought, but I can’t recall which comedian came up with it)
From the person that first licked the toad,
and created a mental lava-lamp,
to the consternated wonderer who chewed willow bark,
thus releasing there head from a clamp,
pharmaceutical madness often swallowed someone’s pride
before one and all just asked their doctor,
and some Preparation H extended its reducing reach,
rising up to face those worried lines that mocked her.
What do you suppose ever convinced the first human that ever ate a raw oyster?
Hunger and probably observing other animals eating them.
Have seen some pretty good sized middens on beaches in British Columbia and Chile, must have been some easy pickings to leave such sizable piles of shells, generations after the last occupants.
Beer must have been a very pleasant surprise discovery.
@Overstreet said:
What do you suppose ever convinced the first human that ever ate a raw oyster?
Instinct.
@PaddleDog52 said:
@Overstreet said:
What do you suppose ever convinced the first human that ever ate a raw oyster?
Instinct.
and some, extinct
https://patch.com/louisiana/across-la/flesh-eating-bacteria-kills-texas-woman-who-ate-raw-oysters
I may just eat fried oysters from now on.