The truth about Teflon and Velcro
Having shot my mouth off, I went and checked.
Teflon discovered 1938
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blteflon.htm?once=true&;
Velcro developed between 1948 and 1955
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa091297.htm?once=true&;
It's on the Internet, so it must be true!
So the attribution of both of these developments to the space industry is, indeed, an Urban Myth.
I wonder what else is?
Or indeed, what might have been discovered in other fields if all the brains of the 50's and 60's had not been sucked into rocket science. Economics has a term called "opportunity cost" where you assess what you lost out on because you did some other thing...