20 Inventions Used in Ways Their Creators Never Intended
A Quartz article examines 20 inventions that were utilized in ways their inventors did not foresee. The rapid-fire gun created by Richard Gatling in 1862 was meant to diminish armies but ultimately resulted in the development of automatic weapons. Alfred Nobel’s dynamite, introduced in 1867 for mining purposes, was later repurposed for artillery, leading to his 1888 obituary labeling him a "merchant of death." Asa Candler transformed John Pemberton's 1886 Coca-Cola, originally a medicinal tonic, into a soft drink. In the 1890s, John Harvey Kellogg's corn flakes were designed to curb cravings, yet his brother established the Kellogg Company. Other notable inventions include Marconi's radio, Edison's phonograph, and Spencer's microwave. Tim Berners-Lee's web, created in 1989 for physicists, and Hedy Lamarr's frequency hopping technology, which evolved into Wi-Fi, are also highlighted.
Key facts
- Richard Gatling patented his rapid-fire gun in 1862 hoping to reduce army sizes and disease deaths.
- Alfred Nobel patented dynamite in 1867; a French newspaper mistakenly ran his obituary in 1888 calling him a merchant of death.
- John Pemberton created Coca-Cola in 1886 as a patent medicine; Asa Candler repositioned it as a soft drink.
- John Harvey Kellogg developed corn flakes in the 1890s to suppress sexual urges; his brother Will Keith founded the Kellogg Company in 1906.
- Wilhelm Röntgen discovered X-rays in 1895; shoe-fitting fluoroscopes were banned starting in the mid-1950s.
- Fritz Haber's ammonia synthesis process supported roughly half of the world's food production but also supplied German explosives in World War I.
- Stephanie Kwolek discovered the polymer behind Kevlar in 1965 while seeking a lightweight tire fiber; it became bulletproof vests.
- Hedy Lamarr co-invented frequency-hopping radio in 1942 for torpedo guidance; it became foundational to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Entities
Artists
- Richard Gatling
- Alfred Nobel
- Emil Nobel
- Ludvig Nobel
- Bertha von Suttner
- John Pemberton
- Asa Candler
- John Harvey Kellogg
- Will Keith Kellogg
- Wilhelm Röntgen
- Guglielmo Marconi
- Joseph Goebbels
- Thomas Edison
- Fritz Haber
- Carl Bosch
- Rudolf Diesel
- Willis Carrier
- Wallace Carothers
- Stephanie Kwolek
- Garrett Morgan
- Percy Spencer
- Arthur Galston
- Alexander Fleming
- Howard Florey
- Ernst Chain
- Igor Sikorsky
- Tim Berners-Lee
- Hedy Lamarr
- George Antheil
- Chester Carlson
- Daniel Ellsberg
- Anthony Russo
- Benjamin Butler
- Richard Nixon
Institutions
- DuPont
- Raytheon
- Coca-Cola
- Kellogg Company
- Xerox
- Haloid Company
- General Electric
- CERN
- BBC
- Nazi Germany's Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda
- U.S. Army
- Union Army
- Electronic Frontier Foundation
- National Inventors Hall of Fame
- New York Times
- Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company
- Carrier Corporation
- Edison Records
- Fort Detrick
- University of Illinois
- Quartz
Locations
- Indianapolis
- United States
- Würzburg
- Germany
- Atlanta
- Battle Creek Sanitarium
- Michigan
- North Atlantic
- Europe
- Belgium
- England
- Brooklyn
- New York
- Florida
- Texas
- Arizona
- Vietnam
- Malayan Emergency
- Maryland
- Illinois
- Queens
- Los Angeles
- CERN
- Switzerland
- Lake Erie
Sources
- Quartz —