Back in the 1940s, during World War II, scientists at Dow Corning and General Electric were working on a replacement for rubber. The Japanese controlled much of the rubber producing countries... and thus, controlled much of the rubber production.
Separate teams of scientists developed a material that they thought interesting... but it was an utter failure. It was cool... but didn't hold its shape. It had a high melting temperature... which was good, and was elastic... which was good. It wouldn't even get moldy. But because it wouldn't hold a shape, it was a failure.
The team that is generally credited with the invention sent samples to scientists all over the world... nobody could find a use for this cool new material. How could you have a bigger failure than a material that nobody can find a use for?
Several years later, a sample found its way into the hands of a toy store owner in New Haven, CT. She put it in her catalog and it outsold every other product... except Crayola Crayons.
Just a few years later, during the Korean War, one of the ingredients was in short supply... and the small company that was selling it almost went out of business... Another failure.
Ten years later, this useless material was being sold around the world... even in the Soviet Union. Astronauts were using it in 1968... on the moon.
My son got a small plastic egg for Halloween. He bounced the inorganic polymer around the kitchen for a few minutes before getting bored with it... He handed it to me and the first thing I did was find a newsprint magazine... When I flattened the material out and pressed it onto the newsprint, he was curious...
As he asked what I was doing, I just played coy...
For the next hour, and for several hours today, Garrett discovered the joys of Silly Putty, a failed accidental invention from WWII. He made prints from the magazine. He bounced it. He shaped it. He stretched it. He rolled it.
Yep, Silly Putty is a study in abject failure. They didn't mean to make it. They didn't know what to do with it once they made it. They originally marketed it to the wrong group... It was marketed to adults, even though the sales were primarily to kids from 6-12. Another war almost ended it.
Failure...
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