Inventions
The Fire Escape Parachute
Patented by Benjamin Oppenheimer in 1879. I wonder if he ever tried testing it.
The accompanying drawing represents a side view of a person with my improved fire escape or safety device, by which a person may safely jump out of the window of a burning building from any height; and land, without injury and without the least damage, on the ground; and it consists of a parachute attached, in suitable manner, to the upper part of the body, in combination with overshoes having elastic bottom pads of suitable thickness to take up the concussion with the ground.
Posted By: Alex - Sun Sep 22, 2013 -
Comments (7)
Category: Inventions, Patents, Nineteenth Century
Trick Rostrum
From Popular Science - Oct 1954. Most conferences would be livened up by this gadget. Would be useful at the Oscars as well.
Scientists rigged up this remote-controlled rostrum to gag long-winded speakers. If a speaker talks too long, a puff of smoke blows up in his face and laugh-provoking cartoons appear on a screen behind him. The electronic gadgets at the chairman's elbow also speed up the clock when a talker gets behind schedule and warn him two minutes before he is due for "the works." Standard Oil scientists say the system has cut down wordage at meetings.
Posted By: Alex - Sat Sep 21, 2013 -
Comments (6)
Category: Inventions
The Turkobath
Add this to the 'inventions that flopped' folder. Susan Flynn, 20, gets ready to enjoy the "Turkobath" (i.e. a portable Turkish bath). This 1956 invention consisted of "a slotted plastic sheet with rubber suction cups that turn an ordinary home bathtub into a steam cabinet."I can imagine that as the bath water cooled, you were left with a cold piece of plastic wrapped around you.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Sep 10, 2013 -
Comments (6)
Category: Inventions, Baths, Showers and Other Cleansing Methods, 1950s
Urine-Powered Mobile Phone Charger
Urine-powered batteries have been around a long time, but have been lacking in practical applications. But now researchers at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory have souped one up enough to get it to charge a mobile phone. Looks a bit big, but if they could shrink it down enough to fit in a briefcase, you'd never run out of juice.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jul 18, 2013 -
Comments (11)
Category: Inventions, Body Fluids
The Mirror Tanner
Invented in 1965 by William Wilson of Wyandotte, Michigan who claimed that his mirrors filtered out "sunburn radiation" leaving only "tanning radiation" and therefore gave a "blisterless, heatless, burnless, lotionless suntan." He's keeping a close eye here on the subject of one of his tanning experiments.
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jul 15, 2013 -
Comments (5)
Category: Inventions, 1960s
How to streamline your RV
A gas-saving concept from 1979:
Posted By: Alex - Mon Jul 08, 2013 -
Comments (4)
Category: Inventions, 1970s
Stop! Have you washed your hands?
Andrew Thomson is hoping to raise £25,000 to bring his "STOP 'h' AND WASH" invention to market, but so far he's only got £79.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jul 04, 2013 -
Comments (1)
Category: Inventions
Flying Bike
More info here.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Jun 14, 2013 -
Comments (5)
Category: Bicycles and Other Human-powered Vehicles, Flight, Inventions, Europe
Self-Lighting, Dimmable Candle
Candles go high tech!Switch Candle from Zelf Koelman on Vimeo.
Posted By: Alex - Fri May 17, 2013 -
Comments (11)
Category: Inventions
Universal Translator Already Here
It doesn't have Klingon yet, but this demonstration shows the technology exists to make your own Universal Translator, ala Star Trek.I barely understand all the pieces used in the assembly, much less how it is done.
A version for all of us could be just around the corner.
What language would you want translated?
Posted By: gdanea - Wed Apr 24, 2013 -
Comments (9)
Category: Inventions
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |