Sometimes everyday items have extraordinary origins. Take Silly Putty: What became one of the most popular toys of all time started in a mislabeled bottle of what scientists thought was boron nitride, at a GE research lab in New Haven, Connecticut. The year was 1943, World War II was raging, and U.S. industry was at the height of a massive mobilization to support the military. This R&D effort led to new technologies ranging from primitive computers that controlled guns on B-29 bombers to new marine engines and turbines to, completely by accident, Silly Putty.

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General Electric