Strange Historical Inventions People Once Thought Were A Bright Idea
When Gary Dahl first tried to seel a rock in a cardboard box with air holes, the people of 1975 lost their collective minds. He had invented a pet even the dumbest kid couldn't kill, and it made him a millionaire. Yet years later, we look back and wonder: what were buyers of the Pet Rock thinking? While today we might raise our iPhones high and praise the tech gods, so many inventions go the way of the Pet Rock. Just look at these strange historical inventions to get an idea of how many creations went from bright idea to laughing stock.
Bed Piano
Today when you're sick in bed, you might pull out a laptop and blow through a few seasons of a TV show on Netflix; in 1935 you pulled out your bed piano and knocked out a few afternoon symphonies.
Though this image seems to come from the Netherlands, it's believed the bed piano originated in Great Britain. We guess this curious invention gave people who were bed-ridden the chance to keep their piano skills sharp, but it looks totally wild through today’s lens.
Man-from-Mars Radio Hat
Nowadays, our smartphones can give us access to an unfathomable amount of audio content as we’re walking around with our earphones in. But back in the day, it wasn’t so simple. The Man-from-Mars Radio Hat, though, was an attempt by Victor T. Hoeflinch to give people of the late ’40s and early ’50s the chance to listen to the radio as they wandered around.
The name “Man from Mars” was definitely accurate, as the product made the wearer look like a retro astronaut. Production on the hat slowed in the early ’50s, probably because the average person just didn't want to wear an entire radio on their head. We get that.
Dimple Maker
No, this is not a medieval torture device! As it happens, in the ’30s, a smile meant absolutely nothing without a set of dimples to go with it. But the dimple-less were not without hope: the Dimple Maker could force dimples onto their smiles by digging into their cheekbones!
Suffice it to say, Mrs. E. Isabella Gilbert of New York’s painful-looking brainchild did not work well. Despite a vintage article for the gizmo claiming, “When worn over the cheeks, two knobs soon make a fine set of dimples,” wearers rarely saw any change at all.
Portable Sauna
Back in 1962, a Finnish inventor realized that being unable to step into a sauna wherever he went was comparable to actual torture. Undeterred from his steam-filled ambitions, he created the portable sauna. That way, just about anyone could live every moment in hot, steamy bliss.
The device was once included in Time magazine's list of dumb inventions, but it seems this sauna-adoring Finn was way ahead of his time. A quick search on the internet shows that, even now, anyone can pick up a portable sauna for their home.