The Accidental Beat: How a Wrong Resistor Invented the Pacemaker

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.