Weird Inventions That Changed Humanity

Imagine you're hooking up with different partners; you grow fond of some more than others, but generally, you're having a good time. That is until your lovers start to fall ill and die. For some reason, this disease doesn't affect you; it just kills off your sexual partners. Today, it's easy for us to think it's probably a sexually transmitted disease. But before our modern understanding of sexual health, or science in general, your theories of what's killing your lovers might take on wild shapes and forms.

In 3000 BCE, King Mos, the ruler of Nosis, and his mistress had this very problem. It was believed that the king had snakes and scorpions in his semen, and that's what was killing his mistresses. He wanted to prevent his wife Pacifi from meeting the same fate, and so a goat bladder was introduced to protect them both during intercourse. According to the limited historical resources at the time, it worked; Pacifi lived, and the invention of the condom was born—at least our first known record of it.

The condom might seem common today, but it truly changed humanity. It's been critical in preventing the spread of diseases and unwanted pregnancies. Although it's largely made of latex rubber now, we should never forget its strange origin: goat bladder.

These are just some weird inventions that changed humanity. Cheese was likely invented by numerous early civilizations. There's evidence that suggests cheese making could be over 8,000 years old, with the discovery of ancient pottery believed to be cheese strainers. That's older than the oldest known books! Leading theory suggests that cheese was likely produced from storing milk in the dried stomachs of calves or lambs. The renin from the stomach lining would have separated the curds from the whey. After someone was brave enough to try the new substance, cheese was born.

Cheese stored and traveled much easier than milk. It's also a source of protein and calcium, improving the health of ancient societies. A lot of foods can be classified as weird inventions because how did they know what a particular ingredient would taste like and how it would mix with other ingredients to make a dish?

For the poor in Naples, Italy, in the 16th century, ingredients like Galet flatbread and a variety of toppings made cheap street food that was easy to access and, as a result, widely popular. That food is what we know today as pizza. In the 1700s, tomatoes and tomato seeds were sent to Italy by America. This is when the modern incarnation of pizza took off. By the late 1800s, pizza was an established recipe, with what is now known as pizza margarita being served to royalty. It went from rags to riches and ultimately became a food for everyone. Today, it's both a cheap meal or a higher-end experience, served fresh from a wood oven.

In 1853, a surly but gifted chef at the Moon Lake Lodge resort served his standard French-fried potato recipe to a fussy customer. They complained that the potatoes were too thick and soft. Filled with spite, Chef George Crumb sliced the potatoes as thinly as they could and fried them until they were brown. The customer loved this new style of potatoes, and other patrons began requesting the crisps. He called them Saratoga chips, and they were sold in grocery stores.

Decades later, we often encourage people not to act out of spite, but sometimes this attitude can change the world for the better—or at least give us French fries!

Trying to find a morphine alternative to cure headaches and general pain, a pharmacist named John Pemberton discovered something that pairs perfectly with fries. Using cocoa leaves, cola nuts, and the accidental addition of soda water, he invented what we all know as Coca-Cola. Now, coca leaves do contain traces of cocaine, in case you were wondering where that rumor came from.

In the 15th century, an Ethiopian goat herder observed that his goats would stay up all night after eating the berries from a specific tree. The goats were far too energetic to fall asleep. The story goes that the goat herder, Cidi, reported his findings to a local monastery, where they made a drink with the berries. After consuming the drink, the Abbot found it easy to stay alert during the long hours of evening prayer. The berries were eventually cultivated in the Arabian peninsula, where they would reach the rest of the world under the name coffee.

This hot beverage has influenced the world tremendously. How many discoveries, inventions, and research projects wouldn't exist if coffee wasn't there to keep us awake and alert? Speaking of coffee, about 10 years ago, two financial writers made a friendly bet on which would be a better one-year investment: coffee or gold. At the end of the year, a coffee-based ETF returned over twice as much as a gold one.

Well, this doesn't mean you could just hold some coffee beans and make a fortune. The story teaches us the financial value of real goods and real assets whose value is more closely tied to factors like their inherent usefulness, not public speculation. This makes them less likely to fluctuate in value like stocks or bonds. This correlation has turned the world's most prestigious collectibles, like fine art, into powerful diversification assets. So useful that new UBS research revealed millionaire and billionaire collectors are allocating between 30% to 50% of their portfolios to fine art, to protect their fortunes from potential recessions.

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Over a thousand years ago, a plague consumed the lives of many villagers in an area of land that is now Germany. The symptoms occurring before death were gruesome, with accounts of reported limbs falling off and victims twisting and contorting from the pain. We now call this condition ergotism, and it comes from consuming infected rye grains. Obviously, it's something you wouldn't wish upon anyone, but in small controlled doses, the fungus found in tainted rye could be used to stimulate the respiratory and circulatory systems.

Researchers attempted to develop a synthetic version using the common shared nucleus of active compounds in ergot. Scientist Albert Hofmann was involved in the experiment, and out of curiosity, he started combining this synthetic compound with other organic compounds. His compound, LSD-25, didn't seem to work as intended but had a notable effect on the test animals. They became excited in strange ways that intrigued Albert. He returned to synthesizing LSD-25 years later, inspired by his memories of the animals’ behavior during the tests.

Working at the lab, he accidentally exposed himself to the compound and had to leave work early, experiencing dizziness and an excited imagination. LSD-25 had put him in a dreamlike state filled with incredible images and colors. When he repeated his intake of LSD-25 in a more controlled form, he had a similar reaction, but also some nightmarish experiences. Hofmann continued using the substance at home with friends but found the experience to be inconsistent. He had trips filled with ecstatic love for all things, but also deep depression. LSD has been used illicitly ever since, inspiring the likes of Steve Jobs, Paul McCartney, and George Carlin in their endeavors.

The inventor of the slinky had no intentions of making a toy for kids. Richard James was a mechanical engineer trying to use coiled wires to secure equipment on ships at sea. He accidentally dropped his coil wires, and they tumbled end over end on the floor. It struck him that this coil might make for a good toy, and it definitely did! Most of us have had several in our lifetime and are filled with fond memories of making them walk downstairs.

Plastics are being used to such an extent throughout the world that we may well ask what was used before its discovery. The first synthetic plastic was initially created as a substitute for ivory. John Wesley Hyatt treated cellulose from cotton fiber with camphor to create a plastic that could mold to different shapes. His substance worked as a replacement for ivory and many other natural materials. His invention initially had a big environmental benefit, saving elephants and turtles from being killed for their tusks and shells. Plastic also made more items more affordable, changing the lives of those who couldn't afford items made with natural materials.

How plastics are made has changed a lot since then, and so has their impact on the environment. Plastic is everywhere, causing tremendous harm to wildlife and humans. There's strong evidence that plastic leaches out into our food, water, and bodies every day. We're only just beginning to understand all the harm that causes.

War is unfortunately a time of great technological innovation. After the Second World War, many of the wartime innovations transitioned neatly into home appliances. After experimenting with radar in 1945, Percy Spencer noticed that magnetrons were emitting heat, generating microwaves. He made a large prototype of the microwave that quickly became small enough to fit in kitchens around the world. Decades later, many grocery store food items would be created with the intention of being heated in the microwave.

In 1895, a professor of physics named William Röntgen made a discovery that revolutionized healthcare across the globe. He was experimenting to see if cathode rays could pass through glass. He covered his cathode tube in black paper, but an incandescent green light escaped and projected onto a fluorescent screen nearby. The unknown ray would pass through most things but leave shadows of more solid objects. The light could even pass through human tissue, making bones visible. Within a year of the discovery, doctors in Europe and the United States used these x-rays to look at broken bones and find foreign objects in the human body.

It took several decades to discover the harmful effects of x-ray radiation, leading to strict protocols for exposing patients to it. Returning from a holiday, Dr. Alexander Fleming came home to find mold growing. Although this sounds like an experience we've all had, the difference is that this batch of mold would save the lives of millions. The mold was growing in a Petri dish of Staphylococcus bacteria. It appeared to be preventing the bacteria around it from growing. The mold was producing a self-defense chemical that could kill bacteria.

Purifying this chemical proved difficult for the doctor and further research teams. When scientists did finally purify the chemical, the yield was much too small. Eventually, research assistant Mary Hunt found a rotting cantaloupe with mold that produced six times the amount of chemicals as their previous efforts. This led to penicillin becoming available for public use for the first time. Bacteria have evolved to become resistant to penicillin and other antibiotics, but the discovery has definitely saved lives on a massive scale. Hopefully, we continue to find new antibiotics to heal bacterial infections.

Working on an experimental paste for guns, pharmacist John Walker accidentally created one of the world's easiest ways of producing fire. John used a wooden instrument to mix his paste, and when he accidentally scraped it, the wood caught fire. The pharmacist sold his matchsticks, or friction lights as he called them, but never bothered to patent his invention out of concern that the paste dripped easily on floors and shirts. Many copied his invention, and eventually, matchsticks were made with white phosphorus. This led to horrendous working conditions for the women and children workers in match factories. Many developed debilitating conditions that horribly disfigured them and made them unemployable.

In 1910, white phosphorus was banned from the production of matches. Winter can be long and punishing for many, and it can be especially hard on those trying to take care of some restless kids. This is what inspired the invention of one of North America's most popular sports. In the summer of 1981, a blizzard took over Springfield, Massachusetts, forcing students indoors at the local college. The physical instructor, James Naismith, struggled to keep his students entertained. He grabbed an old soccer ball and hung up a couple of beach baskets on either end of the gymnasium. The goal of the game was to get the soccer ball into the basket.

The students loved the game, and after numerous rule adjustments, it became the sport we know today as basketball. Many of the things we see today we take for granted because of how common they've become. But when we trace their origins, we can see that the odds of most things happening in our world are slim to non-existent. Watch this video next to find out just how tiny those odds are for many things in life.