Play-Doh started life as a wallpaper cleaner
When homes stopped burning coal, a Cincinnati company needed a new use for its soot remover.
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Oddly Enough
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Play-Doh started life as a wallpaper cleaner
When homes stopped burning coal, a Cincinnati company needed a new use for its soot remover.
Gmail launched on April Fools' Day and people assumed a prank
A free gigabyte sounded too good to be true. Invitations later sold for $250 on eBay.
Velcro was copied from the burrs stuck to a dog
Most people would pick the burrs off. George de Mestral reached for a microscope.
The Slinky began as a spring that fell off a desk
It walked down a stack of books. Two years later, 400 sold in 90 minutes.
Teflon was found in a gas cylinder that seemed empty
The cylinder weighed exactly the same as before. So the chemists opened it.
Shoppers refused the first shopping trolleys, so the inventor hired fakes
Nobody would push Sylvan Goldman's new cart in 1937. His fix involved actors.
Monopoly was invented to show why monopolies are bad
A stenographer patented it in 1904. Someone else sold it to Parker Brothers in 1935.
Fortune cookies were being baked in Japan by 1878
A Japanese researcher traced them to a temple in Kyoto, decades before they reached California.
Bubble Wrap was supposed to go on your walls
In 1957 two inventors ran a plastic shower curtain through a heat sealer, hoping to decorate the Beat generation.
One of these five will come up at dinner.
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