Unintended Inventions II
Date: Sunday, 9th August 2015 @ 05:14:07 AM AEST
Topic: Sad Poetry
Contributed By: softerware
The tale below is penned in hopes that you may come to wonder;
How much you value genius; and under rate the blunder!
Now I’m not saying wrong is right; but, were it defended;
Many gifts you now enjoy were wholly unintended!
Goofs have led to glory, so say the truths below;
Invention’s well disguised at times; and here is how we know!
Percy worked at Raytheon;
On vacuum tubes called magnetrons;
One day he stood too near and felt;
The chocolates in his pocket melt!
To cook with sound seemed very strange;
Until he built his “ Radar-range”.
In 1950 Percy gave, to all of us, the microwave!
One of Canon’s engineers was soldering and then;
He accidently set his hot gun on his ball point pen!
When the pen got good and hot;
The ink ejected like a shot!
The principal made him inventor;
Of the worlds first ink-jet printer!
Trying to make synthetic rubber, James spilled silicone;
On a mound of boric acid, which began to foam.
It stuck to dirt and pet hair; it bounced and changed its shape!
(It even kept the tools from floating on Apollo 8!)
We all thought James was nutty, when he sold it as a toy;
He named it Silly Putty, and retired a wealthy boy!
Spencer worked on making glue;
For 3-M, but it wouldn’t do.
It wouldn’t stick, yet his friend took;
scraps home to mark his church choir’s books!
Now Spencer and his friend can gloat—
their non-stick glue made Post-it Notes!
Richard James was working on a spring for use on ships;
To stabilize equipment so it wouldn’t shift or slip.
The spring fell down; walked round and round—
His wife gave it a name;
200 million Slinkys gave Mr. James his fame!
They all needed permission to make mistakes and fall;
If we could live a thousand years, we'll never know it all!
Some who erred too badly and too late to make amends;
Found time would shed a gentler light upon their story’s end.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred changed the world when he invented dynamite!
It’s peacetime use soon went to war; killed thousands overnight.
He held himself responsible for all the young mens graves;
And yet most don't remember the deadly gift he gave.
Instead we know his legacy, bequeathed in his last will:
Promoting peace, the Nobel Prize, reminds us of him still.
This poem is Copyright © softerware
|
|
Important note: ALL POETRY ON THIS SITE IS COPYRIGHT.
If you wish to use any poem
for any purpose, please either EMAIL Mick from
the sites feedback form, or go to the
AUTHOR'S site and EMAIL the author for permission.
If you Email Mick for permission on
any poem that is not his personal works,
he will endeavor to contact the author on your
behalf.
This poem comes from Your Poetry Dot Com
https://www.your-poetry.com/
The URL for this poem is:
https://www.your-poetry.com/route.php?page=poetry/PoemDetail&story_id=181545
|