For millions of years, life pretty much carried on as usual without any new inventions. Some flints, a few carving tools, and you had the latest technology. Today, it seems there’s a new piece of gadgetry or technology invented every minute. But as this week’s look at odd inventions shows, quantity doesn’t always equal quality.
Sure it has its uses, but if you want to know who to blame the next time You’re caught in voicemail hell, here’s a brief history of the telephone answering machine.
Okay, so rocks aren’t technically an invention, but the idea to sell them as pets is certainly inventive. If you paid $3.95 for one of these back in the 1970s, don’t feel bad?at least it never chewed your favourite shoes.
Now, there’s always the possibility that this is a truly useful product for many, many people. But there’s just something a little odd about wearing something to disguise the smell of . . . well, you’ll see.
The TimesOnline has compiled a top-10 list of the worst inventions of the 19th and 20th centuries. See? Even those wacky Victorians probably would have gone for a Pet Rock.
Apparently, the pesky rules of physics didn’t stop this prolific British inventor from coming up with some truly unique ideas?including placing bombs in Earth’s orbit to prevent possible nuclear attacks.
