Etowah Benedictus was a French chemist inventor painter composer bookbinder textile designer and all-round clever clogs one day in 1903 he was pursuing one of his many projects when a momentous accident happened instead of having the glass swept away than continuing what he was doing Benedictus is inquiring mind spotted that something unexpected had happened and on closer inquiry he realized the flask had previously contained cellulose nitrate liquid plastic sometime later immersed and more of his many activities while keeping up with current affairs he still hadn't forgotten about his accident with the glass when he saw in
the newspaper just how dangerous glass could be our multi-talented here and worked through the night to see if he could perfect a glass that wouldn't break and he came up with the idea of a sandwich a plastic sandwich putting together two layers of glass with a thin film of plastic in between creating the world's first shatterproof windscreen and all because of an accident little bit of scientific thinking saving thousands of lives across the world every day get more from the Open University check out the links on screen now
