40 Incredible Inventions That Were Born Out of Chance

To those of us who have grown up with computers, there are many things and small struggles we don’t understand. For instance, we are so accustomed to being able to hit control-Z when we’re typing that we may not realize what a pain it is when we make a mistake on a typewriter or when writing by hand.

But it used to be a significant problem that might require you to throw the whole sheet out. So, in the early 1900s, Secretary Bette Smith had a brilliant idea: she mixed up paint in the same color as her paper that she could use to cover up her mistakes and then write over the top of them. She eventually began to sell her invention, which became known as Wite-Out.