Hello and welcome to Jana Studio.

Story Norrie's Factual Programme

where I talk to fascinating people about fascinating things.

Now wouldn't it be wonderful if you just stumbled across an idea for a gadget that was so useful that almost everyone started using it, and what's more made you millions and millions of dollars?

For instance, what if you were the person who invented the hair dryer, or milk cartons, or bubble wrap?

All things that we take for granted, but were actually invented by somebody who had a

brilliant idea.

Well, joining me to talk about some of those real-life million-dollar ideas is Jeremy Howell.

Jeremy is a video journalist at the BBC, and he's the producer of a weekly feature for television

and the internet called Million Dollar Ideas.

Hi Jeremy, thank you for joining me.

So just tell me a little bit about your films.

Well, Million Dollar Ideas is about all those gadgets that you have in your home,

which you'll use as part of your daily life.

But they all had to be invented at some point.

And this series looks at how they were discovered, which was often by accident.

For example, the microwave oven, which most of us have in our kitchens, was invented by scientists

who were working on radar in World War II.

And one of the scientists realized, but the waves, coming off the radar equipment,

had melted a chocolate bar in his pocket, which he was saving for lunch.

And he realised that microwaves could heat up food very fast.

And after the war, he devoted his life to working on the world's first microwave oven.

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