Reginald Gibson and Eric Fawcett worked at Imperial Chemical Industries’ research laboratory at Winnington, Chesire. Their equipment was faulty when they attempted to react ethylene and benzaldehyde under high pressure. They produced a waxy lump of what the British call polythene.
Unbeknownst to the researchers, oxygen had leaked into their apparatus and catalyzed the reaction. Using better equipment two years later, ICI scientists M.W. Perrin and J.C. Swallow detected a leak. It took several months before they figured out that it was trace oxygen in their ethylene that played the key role.
American chemist Carl Marvel actually made polyethylene by a different method before the ICI team, in the early 1930s. He just ignored it, because “nobody thought polyethylene was good for anything.”"
via This Day In Tech | Wired.com / more
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