The Accidental Inventions That We’re All Grateful For

Petroleum jelly, which you may know better by the brand name Vaseline, has gained quite a reputation among some people as a miracle substance that cures all manner of ills. Does it actually do all the things people think it does? Probably not. And when you hear where it comes from, you might be pretty shocked.

While some versions of it may have been used by the Native Americans for hundreds of years, it was first refined and sold commercially when a chemist in the 1950s heard about “rod wax,” which forms on oil rigs and drills. He took some back to his laboratory, refined it, then sold it as the petroleum jelly that mothers around the world claim is a cure-all.