Getting rich and famous on what someone else threw away.

[M6NEN 2]

Many moons ago, a man wanted to make a high energy drink *like you have Red Bull and Irn Bru and others nowadays), although, given the time it happened in, I don't know whether it was medicinal or commercial. (I suspect it will have been the first one).

 

One of the ingredients was obviously caffeine, which you still find in energy drinks and even pills that are supposed to perk you up nowadays.

Another one was, believe it or not,  cocaine.

In those days, addictions and dealing and drug wars and illegal drug sales were as much as unheard of, so that was not so much a problem.

A further explanation about the cocaine: although cocaine is a narcotic, when administered in small doses, it becomes a stimulant. (Paradoxal as it may be, btu, don't take my word for it if you don't want to, ask any pharmacist or doctor).

 

Anyway, things just did not work out the man had wanted, so, after a time of frustration he walked away and left his formula on the workbench and left it for what it was worth.

 

Then, a man with chemical knowledge and business sense saw the formula, picked it up and started making some liquid from it which he sold as a drink.

 

That liquid made him billions and made his company known all over the world, and going by one ingredient it contained, that company and drink were called Coca Cola.

Obviously, the cocaine will be gone from it nowadays, the caffeine is still there, after all I am talking abou the year 1886 (going by what is on there cans).

However, whatever they replaced the cocaine with, it must have been something legal and less harmful than the regular stuff, but i still have the impression that Coke has a sort of medicine taste to it.

(Not much of a Coke drinker myself, although it does seem to get better when you add some Bacardi to it ?).

 

No matter what, it just goes to show how someone can get filthy rich and world famous on someone else's misfortune.

 

[OpaQue 15]

Same was with the discovery of the mouse. It was Xerox company who had invented the mouse and threw it in junk which the apple and microsoft used for GUI :-)

[M6NEN 2]

That is a new one for me too.

The first I ever heard about this.

[yordan 10]

I remember when I tried with the pedal-mouse (keep your hands on the keyboard while moving the mouse with your foot and click where you need). Our patent expert couldn't stop laughing and we forgot about that. And now, this device is used in a lot of supermarkets, somebody else created it (sigh)!