A lot of inventions have a ton of backstories. Some of them, really incredible and not the kind of stuff you'd expect. Here are some of the most famous inventions and some of their interesting backstories. Check it out below:

1.

John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins- Worcestershire Sauce
They wanted to make a tangy Indian sauce, but they accidentally made a strong, gross mixture. They tried it again years later, and found that the sauce had matured into the deliciousness we know today.

2.

Noah and Joesph McVicker- Play-Doh
They originally tried to invent wallpaper cleaner, but discovered the tough clay they made was more interesting.

3.

Ermal Fraze- Pull-top can
Frazer went to a picnic one summer and forgot his tool, so he had to use a car bumper to open his beverage, inspiring him to make the pull-top.

4.

Charles Gaines- Paintball
Gaines read “The Most Dangerous Game,” about a big-game hunter who is kidnapped and stalked by a fellow hunter. He was inspired by it and made the concept of a real-life 'hunting' experience.

5.

Patsy Sherman- Scotchgard
Sherman was trying to create a new type of rubber when she realized it wouldn't wash off and repelled liquid.

6.

Spencer Silver and Art Fry- Post-It Notes
Silver was experimenting with strong adhesives, but he ended up doing the opposite instead. It was shelved by his company for years until Fry realized he could use it to stick markers in his hymn book.

7.

Percy Spencer- Microwave Oven
Spencer noticed a chocolate bar in his pocket had started to melt after experimenting with radio waves. Curious, he placed popcorn kernels in front of the source, and the microwave oven was born.

8.

Frank Epperson- Popsicles
As a kid he left a drink outside with a stirring stick in the glass and it had frozen solid. He patented the invention as an adult.

9.

Constantin Fahlberg- Saccharin
The food scientist forgot to wash his hands before eating one night and found his meal had tasted sweet and realized that he had spilled something on his hands in the lab. He went to test everything he had worked with that day to find the source.

10.

Reyn Guyer- Twister
Guyer was working on a promotional display for a Polish company, when he suddenly envisioned a board game, but with people as pieces.

11.

Simon Campbell and David Roberts-Viagra
Campbell and Roberts administered a new drug to patients in a trial, looking to treat high blood pressure and heart disease. Instead, it was so effective in producing a side effect - erections.

12.

Horace Wells- Anesthesia
A friend of Wells took too much of it at a laughing-gas stage show and gashed his leg but when he hadn’t realized he’d hurt himself, Wells, a dentist, used the gas as an early form of anesthesia.

13.

Elias Howe- Sewing machine
Howe had a nightmare involving being repeatedly stabbed and noticed the spears in the dream had holes in the top. Thus the sewing machine was born.

14.

Joseph Friedman- Bendy straws
Friedman took his daughter out for a milkshake and she was struggling to reach the top of the straw,and he used a screw and a piece of floss to make it more flexible.

15.

Thomas Sullivan- Tea bags
He began packaging his tea products in small silk bags. When his customers tried to submerge them in water, it inspired him to make the bags.

16.

Richard James- Slinky
James was working on developing a spring when he knocked some of the samples over. As he watched some of them “walk” across the floor, he got a flash of inspiration. Thus the Slinky was born.

17.

George de Mestral- Velcro
de Mestral was on a hunting trip in Switzerland when he noticed cockleburs attaching themselves to his dog’s fur. He took them home, and looked at them under a microscope and immitated their structure.

18.

Arnold Fornachou and Ernest Hamwi- Ice cream cone
It was allegedly invented at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair when Ice cream salesman Fornachou ran out of paper dishes, so his neighboring vendor Hamwi gave him some zalabia pastries as an edible replacement.

19.

Harry Brearley- Stainless steel
Brearly made a ton of steel prototypes to make a replacement for guns. Months after he started, he noticed one of his many test models hadn’t rusted. He had created an alloy with incredible potential and began selling it.

20.

Lonnie Johnson- Super Soaker
Johnson worked as an aerospace engineer and was testing out a prototype cooling device in his bathroom when it shot out a powerful stream of water. He created a water pistol for his daughter, who loved it.