Laminated glass

Édouard Bénédictus's dropped beaker, France, 1903 The French chemist knocked a glass beaker to the floor and watched it crack without falling apart. A cellulose nitrate solution had dried inside it into a thin film that held the shards in place. Plenty of people have dropped a dirty beaker; the step that mattered was seeing a use for it, and he patented the first laminated glass in 1909. A sheet of plastic sandwiched between panes is still how car windshields keep from spraying passengers with glass, and the same idea now protects shop fronts, skylights and bulletproof windows.