Accidents in everyday life are things you want to avoid - car crashes, BBQs gone wrong,
that second date.
But sometimes accidents can bring good things - it turns out that black pepper on vanilla
ice cream IS AWESOME.
Chemistry too has benefited a lot from accidental discoveries as a fast track to applications
that make life better and more discovery possible.
In 1856, the 18 year old English chemist William Perkin tried to make malaria medicine from
coal tar but accidentally discovered the first synthetic dye, mauve.
Seeing Perkin a young millionaire, chemists all over chased two different goals: searching
for new colors and finding more coal.
Perkin’s mauve was an aniline dye.
So other chemists started playing around with stuff with similar shapes.
In 1863, German chemist Joseph Wilbrand found a very yellow dye called trinitrotoluene.
As a dye it was just OKish it wasn’t very stable and soon other better yellows came
along.
So trinitrotoluene sat on chemistry’s most cluttered shelf: stuff we found while playing
around.
When it came to finding more coal, it had been known for a while that mixing carbon
stuff with nitrogen stuff held promise.
Around 1846, the bravely reckless Swiss-German chemist Christian Schonbein was messing around
in his kitchen with nitric and sulphuric acids, because why limit yourself to just one nasty
acid?
Schonbein spilled his experiment all over the counter.
He grabbed a nearby apron and mopped up the acid brew then hung the apron to dry.
Which it did, being next to a hot stove and all, then the apron quickly whooshed up into
a bright smokeless flame.
Turned out cotton plus nitric acid and heat meant Schonbein had accidentally discovered
nitrocellulose.
He also proved why kitchen chemistry is best left to molecular gastronomists.
Known as “gun cotton” this smokeless firestarter was great to get a larger explosion going
- like a blasting cap used in a gun.
But it had to be dry to work well, and when it was dry, gun cotton went quickly.
So the search continued for better explosives suited for mining coal.
In 1847 or 1846, Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero found fuming nitric acid - why not?- turned
sticky glycerine into something truly explosive - nitroglycerin.
This stuff was a great explosive, far more powerful than guncotton, so the mining industry
and military seized on it as an alternative to gunpowder.
However nitroglycerin didn’t behave nicely when trying to detonate it so many brave chemists
and engineers gave their lives trying to improve it.
A Swedish guy we’ll call Alfred , was deeply touched by tragic chemistry accidents.
Alfred’s dad made bombs for the Russian navy, so explosives had become the family
business.
In 1864, Alfred’s younger brother Emil was among five killed in a nitroglycerin explosion
at one of their factories.
Alfred was more determined than ever to make explosives safer.
A story goes that one day Alfred dropped a vial of liquidy nitroglycerin, which would
normally result in a shattering explosion.
Fortunately, the vial fell on sawdust that soaked up the deadly liquid before it could
explode.
Alfred found that the sawdust included clayey dirt from around the factory called diatomaceous
earth, which bound the nitroglycerin and protected it from shock until it was set off by a charge.
Alfred patented this dirt-nitroglycerin mix in 1867, which made handy sticks of explosives
so you could package nitroglycerin for easy carry (and storage).
He called it dynamite.
Alfred’s personal fortune, well, exploded.
To make sure his wealth was used for good causes instead of leaving a destructive legacy,
Alfred created awards in his will to honor the findings of science, medicine, literature,
and peace.
You’ve heard of these medals named after him - the Nobel Prizes.
Like dyes before, the money-making success of dynamite had chemists looking for other
possibilities.
Another German chemist, Carl Haeussermann found in 1891 he could just go back to that
cluttered shelf - bright yellow trinitrotoluene turned out to be rather explosive.
It could even be poured in a liquid state into shells, making it easier to handle than
dynamite sticks.
So chalk up yet another explosive accidental discovery with TNT.
All this research into nitro-explosives led to refinement of super-blowy-uppy azides.
These rocket fuel compounds pack so much bang for their buck, they can inflate cars’ air
bags lightning fast so your head hits the bag before the dashboard in a collision.
Ironic then, that what started as a series of explosive accidental discoveries led to
better safety in the face of explosive accidents.