.png)
.webp)
From baby cages and yodel meters to spaghetti aids and exploding rocket bikes, the history of human invention is filled with curious, quirky, and sometimes downright bizarre creations that aimed to solve everyday problems or push the boundaries of what was possible.
Often with questionable success.
The baby cage, a wire mesh cage attached to the outside of apartment windows to provide babies with fresh air, was invented by Emma Read, who submitted a patent application for the "portable baby cage" in 1922.
The usage of baby cages gained popularity in London during the 1930s but declined by the mid-1900s, possibly due to safety concerns and the rise of urban automobile traffic.
The yodel machine, also known as the "yodel meter," was invented by Swiss engineer and yodeling enthusiast Hans W. Müller in the 1950s to measure the pitch, volume, and duration of yodeling performances.
The device uses sensors and algorithms to analyze sound waves, providing detailed assessments that can help yodelers improve their technique and serving as a tool in competitions, festivals, and educational settings to evaluate and teach yodeling.
Russell E. Oakes invented the Spaghetti Aid in the 1950s, a tool designed to simplify eating spaghetti by using a lever to spin the fork and wind the spaghetti strands around the metal, though its effectiveness in making spaghetti consumption easier is questionable.
Charles Steinlauf invented the "Family Bicycle," also known as the "Steinlauf Bicycle," in 1939, which featured multiple seats and attachments, including a sewing machine, to allow entire families to ride together.
However, the impractical and potentially dangerous design made it difficult to operate and never achieved widespread success.
James Alexander Williams of Texas patented a gun-powered mousetrap in 1882, which used a pistol or revolver triggered by a treadle to kill burrowing animals.
In preparation for the Tokyo Marathon, Japanese juice company Kagome developed a wearable robot in 2015 called Tomatan that feeds the wearer tomatoes while running, as a promotional stunt to highlight the fatigue-fighting nutrients in tomatoes.
However, the device prioritized visual design over practicality, requiring a mechanic to run alongside the user with tools.
The dog-restraining device, a mechanical extendable arm designed to restrain dogs, was invented in the 1940s, despite the fact that Mary Delaney had already patented the more practical idea of a dog leash in 1908, rendering this cumbersome invention largely unnecessary.
The draisine, invented in 1817 by German inventor Karl Drais, was a two-wheeled wooden vehicle propelled by walking swiftly while straddling it, serving as the forerunner to the modern bicycle.
Drais used it to inspect the Grand Duke of Baden's forest, and by 1818, the draisine craze had spread to the United States, popularized by Charles Wilson Peale who displayed one in his Philadelphia museum, leading to rentals and riding rinks in Eastern cities.
However, the high cost and lack of practicality limited its appeal by 1820, remaining a novelty until the addition of pedals in the late 1800s transformed it into a more sustainable form of transportation.
The Cat-Mew machine, a Japanese 1963 invention powered by a 2-watt motor, was designed to scare away rodents by emitting an automated "mew" sound and flashing cat eyes, despite the existence of more practical solutions like mouse traps, possibly out of misplaced sympathy for the pests or as a quirky novelty item that could find a home in modern, hipster-style establishments.
The Pet Rock, a collectible toy consisting of a rock packaged in a custom cardboard box with a humorous instruction manual, was invented in 1975 by advertising executive Gary Dahl.
Although the fad only lasted about six months, Dahl sold over one million Pet Rocks for $4 each, becoming a millionaire.
German engineer Richter Raketenrad invented the exploding rocket bike in 1931, which featured 12 rockets mounted to the back wheel, allowing it to reach speeds of 90 kph before it exploded and threw him off, resulting in minor injuries and the likely abandonment of the project.
The waterbed, a mattress filled with water, was invented by Charlie Hall, a design student at San Francisco State University, who presented it as his master's thesis in 1968.
Although the waterbed reached its peak popularity in the 1980s, with more than one out of five mattresses purchased in the U.S. being waterbeds in 1987, their market share has since declined dramatically.
The Lavery Electric Automatic Phrenometer, a large, imposing device developed in 1907, claimed to measure brain activity but actually only studied the shape of one's head, as demonstrated by the unenthusiastic woman standing on a box with a nightmarish hairdryer-like apparatus lowered onto her skull.
The amphibious cycle, a human-powered vehicle capable of operation on both land and water, was first patented as the "Cyclo Amphibious" by E.O. Moraga in 1971, using a tricycle frame with three floaters for buoyancy and paddle wheel-like powered wheels for propulsion.
Russell E. Oakes invented the "Doughnut Dunker" in 1955, an anti-drip doughnut stick designed to prevent messy fingers while eating doughnuts.
The E-meter, an electronic device used by the Church of Scientology, was invented by Volney Mathison in the early 1950s and first used by L. Ron Hubbard in Dianetics and Scientology in 1951.
Hubbard then developed his own transistorized version in the 1960s, patented as the Hubbard Electropsychometer, which has undergone several redesigns and new patents in the following decades and remains a central tool in Scientology auditing practices to this day.
Hugo Gernsback invented "The Isolator", a helmet designed to reduce distractions and improve concentration, which was first introduced in 1925 in the American Physical Society magazine.
Despite Gernsback's belief in its potential as a "great investment", only eleven helmets were produced before the invention disappeared by 1926.
The cigarette umbrella, a quirky invention from the 1930s designed to keep a lit cigarette dry while smoking outdoors, consisted of a small umbrella attached to a cigarette holder and was reportedly inspired by a British clown, being patented in 1931.
Despite its novelty, the cigarette umbrella was largely seen as an impractical and gimmicky gadget that failed to gain widespread popularity, quickly fading into obscurity.
In 2007, Mick Madden, a 52-year-old metal worker from Huddersfield, England, invented a "goldfish walker" to take his pet goldfish, Malcolm and Ethel, out for walks so they could see more of the world beyond their bowl.
Madden built the device because he felt his goldfish looked bored going in circles in their bowl, and he claimed they loved the new invention that allowed them to explore outside their confined aquarium.
In 1957, remote-controlled robotic arms, originally used in a nuclear research facility, were demonstrated to be precise and safe enough to shave a man's face.
.webp)
