9 of most interesting failed inventions from the past

What was the last thing you did for play or fun?

Fun is Reading and I read this!

Invention has always been there within man and if we do not fail we will never know the loopholes or the disadvantages of the made product. It is said great scientists of all times like – Sir Edison have failed more than hundred times before he could actually reach his goal after he failed and failed and failed. Failure teaches man to win over something he wants to win for a pretty long time and definitely we learn a lot in the process. But there are lot of inventions which had different outcomes which are different and dire Now let us recap the past a bit and understand the different inventions of human life and kind and what it has led to.

Let us discuss all of them with details.

• The robotic speed reader –This instrument was an interesting instrument which was made with the purpose to fulfill the reader’s goal of high speed reading and learning. The main targeted audiences were the children and old people who don’t have the habit of reading much. For children they are just starting to read just starting to understand things so reading faster is never possible for them and same for old people since they do not have the habit of reading with such speed any longer. The device was activated and made to use since 1966 and it is a red colour box with an iron rod like scale and it provides pace and understanding from where to read where or which part. The reason for failure of this instrument was less demand as people had different ways of reading and reading is something people love to do by themselves. No one learns to read if someone else does it for us. This was the reason for failure of such an instrument.

• Intellivision– Intellivision was an instrument primarily targeting video game players. It was a device with two boards connected by a telephone cord. This had to connect with the main device which is the computer and play video games. This is also known as the Video game console. It was released by Mattel Electronics in 1979. This instrument was so famous in it’s time but later on lost its popularity and glamour over the time because in the field of video games and such there is always the scope of technological advancement and development.

• Bonnet hair dryers– This is a very interesting machine where bonnets were used in order to dry hair. A plastic balloon like structure is tied with all around the hair and then it would have been reached till a blower like of something which is used for drying hair.

The machine has lost its popularity over the time and has regarded as a failure since it is time consuming. Attaching it and then using it needs lots of time and it is not at all possible for in the modern days to give so much time in drying or blowing our hair. 

• The Dymaxion House– This is another typical example for inventions to be a failure. This house is a concept by the architect and inventor Buckminster Fuller in the mid twentieth century that is in 1930. The main agenda was to make a house a structure easily and fast. The creation or the method of creation should be faster. This house was a very innovative concept where the house could be constructed within a few days and then packed, delivered and sent to your location. Here a structure is designed which is dome shaped giving full strength and support to the house. Here the shape remains the same but one can design and decorate according to one’s own choice. Another thing is this house can be shipped to your location via single truck only. It reduces the space and allows everyone gets enough space for staying. But it could not take the hike because it couldn’t be customised according to one’s own choices. Another thing is it had only two rooms and one tiny small bathroom and so it was not something where we can stay comfortably and if number of members are higher than it is very difficult to accommodate in that house. 

• Portable record players– We humans love to listen to music and music loves to be with us and keeping in mind this amazing quote back then the great and grand music companies tried making portable record players as the name suggests it means one can carry it off to wherever one goes. The concept was super amazing but problem has occurred when the sound qualities spoke volume of the record players. So to play these record players and make sure these plays properly you have to select a place based on the highest and most beautiful network service and be alert and sure that nothing came across or dashed against the portable record players. If anything dashed over the record players then the real original sound will lapse and be vanished making it useless. So, this instrument was a failure to the general public. 

• Cinerama movies – We know about movies and we also know that movies are human creation and so movies or cinemas will also involve technological advancements slowly over the time. Cinerama is a hard and complicated subject to deal with. Cinerama was a concept which is modern day IMAX screens. We know that IMAX screens require only a projector to work all fine but the catch here is Cinerama requires three projectors giving a cinema hall effect. The projectors should be aligned such that it is synchronised and balanced to the large extent.

•  A Car boat — The car boats or boat cars initially or technically known as amphicars. The cars were built in such a way that the portion below was identical to a boat or ship and the part above was identical to a car exact same. It was very very interesting but back then people thought that it is a car which has futuristic machinery and with the help of those one can drive the car on the road as well as take those cars into the water bodies to dive into. This futuristic idea was a huge concept and to make it productive high technological advancements were required which was not all possible back then. Many people have bought these car boats as keeping in their collection.

• The flying tanks— The flying tanks were another example of human inventions to be a failure. At least some. Initially these tanks were made for the purpose of attaching these behind the aircrafts so that in the long perilous duty hours during the hard times of war the army can be benefitted. The initial plan was to attach these tanks with the aircrafts and throw it within the troops of armies. But later on this remained a failure since the aircraft’s speed and the tanks weight of carrying did not match at all and so both reached at different timings and in different places. So, this remained as another failure. 

• Radioactive health products— Initially it was said that the radioactive rays were important for our skin to glow from outside that is externally and it was said according to doctors that radium can make our skin glow amazingly and beautifully. With this idea in mind the doctor started to mix radium in everything in liquids, in pastes and in creams everywhere. Little did people knew then about its scary bad effects. The first noted bad or rather scary effect was when the lower jaw of Eben Byers fell off after consuming 1400 bottles of radium. After this people discontinued using radium.

These are the various failed inventions of the human being. Some are really scary and others are risky but this helped to learn a lot in the process. 

Hi so are the things which inventors thought to be interesting but sadly they didn’t work out.

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Written by Sayoni Mahapatra Chatterji

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