Accidents/Mistakes that Became Game Changing Innovations
From Grass to Grace Ideas
Several
times, making mistakes lead to great ideas, even in our day-to-day activities. I
design and sew clothes at my leisure; I developed an interest in my mum’s
sewing activities, and later went for an apprenticeship to learn how to sew
formally. My mum always says that a fashion designer’s mistake is just another pattern.
I later appreciated her thought when I saw many mistakes which I have trashed that
people are wearing as the style-in-vogue. This means that other designers
turned what would have been their negativity into positivity, and people
embraced it. Then, I realized I had been wasting my potential. Another scenario
happened; as an African lady, part of our gorgeous dressing is a head tie, I was
trying to mimic a popular head-tie style but ended up with something that was
not quite right. However, I realized that it looked great on me, and I took a
photograph with it, posted it on social media, and forgot about it. Later, I
saw that people started wrapping their head-tie in that way, and it made me
wonder if I could have made money if I had decided to go public with my
accidental invention. There are several errors or accidents like those:
matches, tea bags, ice cream cones, Vaseline, Pap smear, Coca-Cola, and so on (Greenwald,
2018). Tidd and Bessant (2020) list accident-unexpected and surprising things as
one of the sources of innovations. For this assignment I will discuss two
prominent errors that are now game-changing ideas: Penicillin and the Chainsaw.
Penicillin
Penicillin,
one of the world’s best antibiotics, was first discovered in 1928 by Dr. Alexander
Fleming. Fleming was out on holiday for weeks and when he got back, he
discovered that his petri-dish that contained cultures of Staphylococcus bacteria
was moldy. However, an amazing part of this is that the mold was preventing the
growth of the bacteria. His further research showed that the mold contains a self-defense
chemical that is strong enough to kill bacteria, and he named the mold
Penicillin notatum (Greenwald, 2018; ScienceMuseum, 2021).
Dr.
Fleming was happy at his discovery, because at that time, bacteria infections
had claimed a lot of lives, and he saw this as a breakthrough. He documented
his finding, published it, and presented it to the Medical Research Club
(ScienceMuseum, 2021). The unfortunate part of this story is that his
colleagues did not have much interest in this discovery, and all his efforts to
make the discovery work were futile. This attitude towards innovation cost
Penicillin almost 20 years to become useful to society (ScienceMuseum, (2021).
The
forces here could be political, financial, and/or philosophical. The
philosophical belief is that molds are dangerous, so his peers might have been thinking
about the disadvantages of this discovery and allowed those to overshadow the
proposed advantages. The political force in this situation could be that
Fleming’s peers were thinking of whether the innovation will meet the
governmental requirements and if the stress would be worth it. In addition, economically,
it might have looked like a project that would require much money and quality
time to be successful.
Figure 1
Science Museum. (2021). [Glass ampoule of penicillin powder]. How was penicillin developed? https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/how-was-penicillin-developed
Despite
all odds, Fleming refused to give up on his discovery and invited some chemists
to help with the purification of Penicillin (ScienceMuseum, 2021). Again, the
attempt failed, and Penicillin was labeled a laboratory curiosity, to the
extent that Professor Harold Raistrick, an expert in fungal substances,
declared Penicillin an almost impossible cure for bacterial infection. This is
a technical force that debarred the success of the Penicillin innovation.
However, the technical and technological forces later supported this innovation
when, after several years, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, revisited the
Penicillin research during their “Microorganisms and the substances they
produced” project. With so much effort thereafter, Penicillin saw the light of
day in 1946 when it got governmental, legal, and social support (ScienceMuseum,
2021).
Chainsaw
Several
years ago, when opioid medications for labor pain relief were not in
circulation, mothers went through a lot of difficulties during childbirth. In
the 1500s, a professional cow castrator in Switzerland did the first cesarian
section on his wife (Hippensteele, 2021). In 1830, another cesarian section was
conducted by Dr. John L. Richmond with a crooked pair of scissors and his
fingers. Later, expectant mothers who could not bear the labor pain or were on
the verge of death were operated on, although as a last resort. Cesarian
sections caused many deaths to the babies, the mothers, or both (Hippensteele,
2021).
Historically,
a symphysiotomy surgical procedure was common, but it was risky due to its
speed and accuracy. This gave birth to the chainsaw, invented in the 18th
century by Drs. John Aitken and James Jeffray. This was to make symphysiotomy
better and to remove ailing bones. Later, the organization of obstetricians and
gynecologists accepted the chainsaw as equipment for a less risky symphysiotomy
surgical procedure. Down the years, the Gigli twisted wire saw; an instrument
for cutting bone, came as milder on expectant mothers than the chainsaw. In
1905, chainsaw was seen to be of great and better use in cutting trees rather
than cutting humans (Hippensteele, 2021). The forces that supported this are
the technical, technological, and organizational forces. The innovation of less
harsh instruments on humans led to using chainsaws in the timber industry. The
organization accepted this in 1905 as being better used for timber cutting than
on expectant mothers.
Figure 2
Tractor Supply. (2023). [Chainsaw].
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/catalog/chainsaws
Lesson Learnt
During
the cause of research on this subject matter, I learned that innovators do not
give up on their innovations, regardless of how impossible they might look. I
also learned that it is a good practice to document your discovery, despite how
senseless people might perceive doing so to be. This is evident in Dr. Fleming’s
action; had it been that he did not document his discovery; his name would not
have been associated with Penicillin Innovation.
References
Greenwald,
M. (2018). 30 Life-changing inventions that were totally accidental.
https://bestlifeonline.com/accidental-inventions/
Hippensteele,
A. (2021). Fun fact: Unfortunately, Chainsaws were invented for childbirth. https://www.pharmacytimes.com/view/fun-fact-unfortunately-chainsaws-were-invented-for-childbirth
Tidd,
J., & Bessant, J. R. (2020). Managing innovation: Integrating
technological, market and organizational change, enhanced edition (7th ed.). Wiley
Global Education US. https://coloradotech.vitalsource.com/books/9781119713197
Tractor
Supply. (2023). Chainsaws. https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/catalog/chainsaws
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