One was designed to clean wallpaper. Another was meant to be wallpaper. By pure accident, these spectacular failures became global household staples.
In the 1930s, homes heated by coal fires constantly accumulated layers of dark soot on their interior walls. A soap company called Kutol invented a pliable, non-toxic dough specifically designed to rub off this grime without damaging the wallpaper beneath. For years, it was a household staple. But as gas and electric heating replaced coal after World War II, the demand for wallpaper cleaner vanished. Facing bankruptcy, Kutol executive Joe McVicker learned that his sister-in-law, a nursery school teacher, was letting her students use the non-toxic cleaner to make Christmas ornaments because standard modeling clay was too hard for them to manipulate. The company removed the cleaning chemicals, added color and an almond scent, and rebranded the failing product as Play-Doh.
A few years later, in 1957, engineers Marc Chavannes and Al Fielding tried to create a new interior design trend: textured, three-dimensional wallpaper. They ran two plastic shower curtains through a heat-sealing machine, trapping air bubbles between them. The resulting sheet was visually interesting but functionally useless as decor. They then tried marketing it as greenhouse insulation, which also failed. It was not until 1959, when IBM needed a way to safely ship their delicate new 1401 computer, that Chavannes and Fielding pitched their bubbly plastic as a protective packaging material. The pitch worked, and Bubble Wrap found its permanent place in shipping logistics.
The Slinky took a similar detour, though its origins were military rather than domestic. In 1943, mechanical engineer Richard James was tasked with developing a system of springs to stabilize sensitive shipboard instruments against the rocking of the ocean. While experimenting with different gauges of tension springs, he accidentally knocked one off a shelf. Instead of tumbling to the floor, the coiled wire stepped down a stack of books, onto the table, and righted itself on the deck. James recognized its potential as a novelty, spent the next two years perfecting the steel composition to achieve the ideal tension for "walking," and launched it as a toy.