DID YOU KNOW…
The Accidental Beat: How a Wrong Resistor Invented the Pacemaker
The first practical implantable cardiac pacemaker was accidentally invented by an electrical engineer who grabbed the wrong resistor from his workbench.
In 1956, Wilson Greatbatch, an electrical engineer, was attempting to build a circuit to record heart sounds for animal research. While assembling the device, he mistakenly pulled a 1-ohm resistor from a box instead of the intended 10,000-ohm resistor. When he connected the incorrect component, the circuit began to pulse at precisely the rate of a human heart. Recognizing the immense potential of this 'mistake,' Greatbatch spent years refining his design, leading to the first successful human implant in 1960 and ultimately saving millions of lives.
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