Abstract
IT is not derogatory of a discoverer to say that his discovery arose from an accident ; for the power to use accidents, events the occurrence of which was not intended, is the mark of one form of scientific genius. Probably all experimenters are presented with about the same number of accidents which, if they had had the wit, would have led them to important discoveries ; but most of us fail to appreciate their significance until the discovery has been made by somebody else ; we may then fail to remember them or forget them to save our self-respect. I know that I had at least three such accidents that would certainly have led Röntgen to discoveries, if not as important as X-rays, at least of considerable technical and scientific interest. Two of them I missed entirely, and the third I used very imperfectly.
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CAMPBELL, N. Discoveries by Accident. Nature 151, 25 (1943). https://doi.org/10.1038/151025b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/151025b0
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