1. Dmitry Mendeleev, periodic table
Dmitry Mendeleev wanted to somehow organize 65 known elements. He knew that there must be a certain pattern, somehow connected with atomic weight. But the table could not be created.
Later Mendeleev said: “In a dream I saw a table where all the elements were in their places. When I woke up, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper."
This is how the periodic table was created. The location he saw in his dream was so accurate that it even revealed that the atomic weight of some elements was incorrectly measured.
They were arranged in a table according to their atomic weight, which was not yet known at the time.
2. Niels Bohr, model of the atom
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"Niels Bohr said that he understood the model of the atom thanks to a dream in which he sat on the Sun, and all the planets revolve around on thin strings," - stated in a report by Edwin Portocarrer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
3. Elias Howe, sewing machine
Elias Howe is often referred to as the inventor of the sewing machine, although he actually improved upon a pre-existing prototype and received the first American patent for the invention of the lockstitch sewing machine. This was an important milestone in the creation of modern sewing machines. Before he had an important dream, he puzzled over where to place the eye of the needle.
His dream is recorded in the book "History and Genealogy of the Bemis Family".
“He was almost impoverished until he discovered where to place the eye of a needle in a sewing machine. Initially, he wanted to make a sewing needle similar to a regular one, with an eyelet at the top. It did not occur to him that in order for the sewing machine to work, it must be placed at the tip. Perhaps he would never have succeeded in his invention if not for a dream in which he was building a sewing machine for a king in a strange land.
As in real life, he had a problem with the eye of the needle. The king gave him 24 hours to complete the typewriter. Otherwise, the king will execute him. Howe worked and worked, but nothing came of it, and he gave up. He was to be taken to execution.
He noticed that the warriors were carrying spears with sharpened ends. Suddenly he found a solution to the problem. He begged for some more time and woke up. It was 4 in the morning.
He jumped out of bed, ran to the workshop, and by 9 o'clock in the morning the needle with an eyelet at the point was made. After that, further work went easily."
4. Albert Einstein, the speed of light
“Einstein said that his entire career was a continuous reflection on the dream he had as a teenager,” - said John W. Price in an interview with John Linhard, professor of mechanical engineering and history at the University of Houston.
“He dreamed that he was sledding down a steep snowy hill. In his dream, he was driving at a speed close to the speed of light, all the colors began to merge into one. Much of his career was inspired by this dream, he wondered what happens at the speed of light.
5. Friedrich August Kekule, the molecular structure of benzene
Friedrich August Kekule developed the structural theory in chemistry (the bond of atoms in a molecule), which played a large role in the development of organic chemistry. In this he was helped by a dream he had while dozing on the bus, described in the work "Intuition, Accidental Discoveries in Science" by Royston M. Roberts.
“I was returning on the last bus, which, as usual, was driving along the empty streets … I dozed off and atoms appeared before my eyes. These little particles were in motion all the time. But I noticed that often two small atoms were paired; a large atom combined with two small ones; three or even four small atoms joined the big one, continuing to dance in circles.
I saw how large atoms formed a chain and attached small ones, but only at the end of the chain. I was awakened by the shout of the conductor: "Clapham Street." I spent the next night sketching, inspired by my dream.