The Web site of Life magazine has a wonderful collection of 30 dumb inventions. Some of them probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but today they just boggle the mind! Here's a small selection from their article:
Hubbard Electrometer, 1968.
American science fiction writer and founder of the Church of Scientology L. Ron Hubbard uses his Hubbard Electrometer to determine whether tomatoes experience pain, 1968. His work led him to the conclusion that tomatoes "scream when sliced."
Illuminated Tires, 1961.
A woman adjusts her stocking by the light of the Goodyear's illuminated tires. The tire is made from a single piece of synthetic rubber and is brightly lit by bulbs mounted inside the wheel rim.
Rainy Day Cigarette Holder, 1954.
President of Zeus Corp., Robert L. Stern, smoking a cigarette from his self-designed rainy day cigarette holder.
Venetian Blind Sunglasses, 1950.
It was a bad idea then, it's a bad idea now. Sorry, Kanye.
There's much more at the link. Highly recommended and very entertaining reading.
Peter
7 comments:
Some of those aren't so dumb, just poorly executed.
But Peter--L. Ron goes from sadotomato testing to...what? E-METER! Never let a lousy invention stop you from finding a market.
Antibubba
Hubbard made a lot of money from an ohm meter. He even founded a religion based in part on one.
Stranger
Hubbard is beneath contempt - a deliberate con-man, the founder of a schlock quasi-"religion" that infects society to today and was nothing but a huge con, a scheme to make Hubbard rich and worshipped, and a third-rate pulp-fiction scribbler.
He and his "religion" bulls**t both deserve only to be ignored.
Anonymous sounds like the late John W. Campbell, who knew Hubbard; the late Isaac Asimov, ditto: and both Fletcher Pratt and Sprague DeCamp, who are probably the only writers in history whose lead character was hijacked and "killed" by much less talented competitor. Which caused more than a little disgust in the early 1950's.
Me? I know ohmmeters and third rate writing. I don't like Hubbard either.
I don't know. It seems a lot of those "dumb" inventions are still around today in different forms and selling quite well. This is a very poorly done article.
I have to wonder if the people who listed the Mini-TV on this list have portable DVD players or an iPod with video.
IMO, some of these inventions are not dumb at all.
MechAg94
The display goggles are a well-implemented, effective technology now.
I could bag on the author for a few others in there, but one is enough I think to make the point that their choices were short-sighted.
Jim
Post a Comment