Hey there! I’m Mike from Mental Floss on YouTube. Today, we’re diving into some fascinating inventions that didn’t quite make it. Let’s start with a flying car from the 1970s. Inventors Henry Smolinski and Hal Blake tried to turn a Ford Pinto into a flying car. It could soar up to 12,000 feet and reach speeds of 130 miles per hour! Unfortunately, the car’s right wing had issues, leading to a tragic accident that claimed the inventors’ lives. This is just one of the many inventions that didn’t succeed, either practically or commercially.
In 1979, Mattel released the Intellivision game console to compete with the popular Atari 2600. Although it was a decent console and even made it to number 14 on IGN’s list of greatest game consoles, it wasn’t a commercial success. Mattel lost a whopping $394 million within four years, nearly going bankrupt.
Ever had your hard-boiled egg roll away at breakfast? The egg cuber was designed to solve that problem by squashing eggs into cubes. While it sounds fun, it didn’t become a kitchen staple.
In the 1950s and 60s, the U.S. Army explored the Bell Rocket Belt, a rocket pack that let a person leap short distances. Even President John F. Kennedy saw a demonstration! However, it only allowed 21 seconds of flight, which wasn’t enough to keep the Army interested.
Also from the 1950s, the flying saucer camera was developed for the U.S. Air Force. It took two pictures at once, one normal and one that separated light into colors, to help spot flying saucers. It sounds cool, but it didn’t catch on.
Thomas Edison invented an electric pen that created stencils for copying documents. It had some initial success but couldn’t compete with the typewriter. Interestingly, its design was later used for another less efficient invention.
In 1948, Joe Gilpin invented a motorized surfboard that could go seven miles per hour. Despite being steerable, it didn’t gain popularity.
Franz Reichelt created a wearable parachute in the early 1900s. It worked sometimes on test dummies, but not always. Reichelt tested it himself from the Eiffel Tower in 1912, but sadly, the jump was fatal.
Flying tanks were almost a reality, with attempts by the U.S., Soviet Union, Japan, and the UK. However, they were too heavy, and the tow planes overheated, making them impractical.
In 2000, the CueCat was a barcode scanner shaped like a cat. It could scan barcodes from magazines or products to take you to a URL. However, it quickly became obsolete.
In 1930s London, you could buy a mesh baby cage to hang outside your apartment window, supposedly for fresh air. It sounds strange now, but it was a thing back then!
The 1940s Glamour Bonnet covered your head with a see-through part for your eyes, claiming to improve skin complexion. The 1970s Shower Hood in Germany let you shower without wetting your hair or makeup, but people eventually realized they liked washing their hair too.
In the mid-1990s, Thirsty Dog and Thirsty Cat offered flavored water for pets, with beef and fish flavors. Surprisingly, it didn’t become a hit.
In 1964, Klaus Scholes invented a phone-answering robot. It picked up the phone but didn’t actually answer, making it more of a phone-touching robot.
In the 1960s, rush hour reading glasses were invented for reading on crowded subways. They allowed you to read a newspaper held over your head with glasses at right angles. Sounds handy, right?
The Vespa 150 TAP was a military Vespa with a rifle for the French army in the 1950s. However, you couldn’t shoot from it because there was no aiming device.
Nintendo’s 1995 Virtual Boy was a portable 3D console that required you to cram your face into it to play. It caused eye strain and was discontinued within a year.
In the 1930s, there was a cigarette umbrella to keep your cigarette dry in the rain. It didn’t become a must-have item.
The monowheel, invented in the 1800s, was a wheel you sat in, moved by other wheels inside. A motorized version in the 1930s could go 93 miles per hour, but people preferred bicycles.
Thanks for joining me on this journey through failed inventions! If you enjoyed this, check out more on YouTube at PBS Idea Channel or listen to my podcast, Reasonably Sound. And remember, don’t forget to be awesome!
Imagine you are an inventor in the 21st century. Think about a problem you face in your daily life and design an invention to solve it. Draw a sketch of your invention and write a short paragraph explaining how it works and why it would be successful. Share your invention with the class and discuss its potential impact.
Choose one of the failed inventions mentioned in the article and research more about it. Create a presentation that includes the invention’s purpose, why it failed, and any interesting facts you discover. Present your findings to the class, and discuss what could have been done differently to make the invention successful.
Create a timeline that includes the inventions mentioned in the article. For each invention, include the year it was created, a brief description, and why it failed. Use images or drawings to make your timeline visually appealing. Display your timeline in the classroom for everyone to see.
Participate in a class debate about whether the inventors of these failed inventions were successful or not. One side will argue that the inventors were successful because they tried something new and learned from their failures. The other side will argue that they were not successful because their inventions did not achieve their intended purpose. Prepare your arguments and present them to the class.
Pair up with a classmate and choose one of the inventors from the article. One of you will play the role of the inventor, and the other will be a journalist. Prepare a set of interview questions and answers about the invention, its challenges, and what the inventor learned from the experience. Perform your interview for the class.
Here’s a sanitized version of the provided YouTube transcript:
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Hey, I’m Mike, and this is Mental Floss on YouTube! Did you know that in the 1970s, Henry Smolinski and Hal Blake invented a flying car based on the Ford Pinto? If you’re going to choose a car to make fly, why not the Pinto? It could fly up to 12,000 feet and reach 130 miles an hour. However, there was a significant issue with the car’s right wing, which failed during a trial run in 1973. Tragically, it failed again later that year in a crash that resulted in the deaths of both inventors. This is just one of many failed inventions, either practically or commercially, that I’ll be discussing today.
Something tells me that an episode about failed inventions might not be the most uplifting one, but let’s get started!
Mattel’s game console, Intellivision, was released in 1979 to compete with the Atari 2600. The invention itself wasn’t bad; it has since been named number 14 on IGN’s list of greatest game consoles of all time. However, it wasn’t successful, and within four years of its release, Mattel lost $394 million and was on the brink of bankruptcy.
You know what really grinds my gears? When you’re eating your hard-boiled egg at breakfast, and you go for a slice, and it just rolls away! The egg cuber was exactly what it sounds like: you put an egg into a little plastic contraption and squash it until it’s a cube.
Next, the Bell Rocket Belt was a promising invention for the U.S. Army in the 1950s and 60s. It was a rocket pack that helped a person leap for a short distance. President John F. Kennedy was even given a personal demonstration. However, the belt only allowed a person to be in the air for 21 seconds at a time, reaching a mere 120 meters, which led to a loss of interest from the Army.
Another futuristic-sounding invention from the 1950s was the flying saucer camera. It took two pictures at once: one regular picture and one that separated light into colors, allowing for clearer visibility of where flying saucers might be coming from. Believe it or not, it was developed for the U.S. Air Force.
Thomas Edison invented an electric pen that made copies of documents by creating stencils as people wrote. It had some initial success but couldn’t compete with inventions like the typewriter. The basic design was later reused for another invention, a much less efficient way of creating documents.
In 1948, a man named Joe Gilpin invented a motorized surfboard, which he sold for $345. It could go seven miles an hour and was steerable, but it didn’t really catch on.
Franz Reichelt created a wearable parachute in the early 1900s. The suit was supposed to turn into a parachute during a fall. While it worked sometimes on test dummies, it didn’t always succeed. Reichelt had faith in his invention and got permission to test it from the Eiffel Tower in 1912. Unfortunately, he died during the jump.
Flying tanks were almost a reality, invented by the U.S., Soviet Union, Japan, and the UK. However, they didn’t make much sense, as they were very heavy and their tow planes tended to overheat.
You may remember the 2000 invention CueCat, a barcode scanner shaped like a cat. You could scan barcodes from magazines or products that would take you to a URL, but it quickly became obsolete.
In 1930s London, you could buy a mesh baby cage to suspend your child outside your apartment window, supposedly for their health to get fresh air. The Glamour Bonnet was a helmet from the 1940s that covered your whole head with a see-through part for your eyes, designed to improve skin complexion by simulating low atmospheric pressure.
Similarly, the Shower Hood from the 1970s in Germany covered a person’s whole head so they could shower while keeping their makeup and hair intact. Eventually, people realized that they liked to wash their hair too!
In the mid-1990s, Thirsty Dog and Thirsty Cat were released—flavored water for pets, with beef and fish flavors. Speaking of unusual flavors, Hon Agar was a food created in 1959 by Dr. DeForest C. Jarvis, a combination of honey and apple cider vinegar, which surprisingly didn’t gain popularity.
A phone-answering robot invented in 1964 by Klaus Scholes was a bust because it didn’t really answer the phone; it just picked it up and remained silent, making it more of a phone-touching robot.
In the 1960s, a solution for reading on a crowded subway was invented: rush hour reading glasses that allowed you to read a newspaper held over your head thanks to glasses with right angles. I must admit, I sort of want one of these for reading my phone on the subway!
The Vespa 150 TAP, a military Vespa complete with a rifle, was designed for the French army in the 1950s. However, you couldn’t shoot the rifle from the scooter because there was no aiming device.
Nintendo’s 1995 Virtual Boy lost the company quite a bit of money and was discontinued within a year. It was a portable 3D console that required you to cram your face into it to play. Major problems included eye strain and the fact that most Nintendo developers were focused on the N64 at the time.
Back in the 30s, there was a need for a cigarette umbrella, a device that you could stick your cigarette into, allowing you to smoke while keeping it dry from the rain.
Finally, I want to mention that the monowheel is still around, but when it was invented in the 1800s, it was intended to be a useful mode of transportation. Essentially, it’s a wheel that you sit in, moved forward by other wheels inside of it. In the 1930s, a motorized monowheel was built that could go 93 miles an hour, but it turns out people just prefer bicycles.
Thanks for watching Mental Floss on YouTube, made with the help of these very nice people. My name is Mike Rugnetta. If you liked my face, you can find more of it on YouTube at PBS Idea Channel, and if you like my voice, you can find it on my podcast, Reasonably Sound. Links to both of those things are in the description. And hey, don’t forget to be awesome!
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This version removes any potentially sensitive or inappropriate content while maintaining the essence of the original transcript.
Inventions – New devices or processes created to solve problems or improve existing solutions. – The telephone is one of the most significant inventions in history, revolutionizing communication.
Flying – The act of moving through the air using wings or other means. – The Wright brothers are famous for their successful experiments in flying, leading to the development of modern airplanes.
Car – A road vehicle, typically with four wheels, powered by an internal combustion engine or electric motor. – The invention of the car transformed transportation, making it faster and more accessible for people to travel long distances.
Egg – A biological structure containing the embryo of an animal, often used as a food source. – Scientists study the egg of a chicken to understand the development process of embryos.
Rocket – A vehicle designed to propel itself by ejecting exhaust gas from one end, used for space exploration. – The launch of the Apollo 11 rocket was a historic event that led to the first human landing on the moon.
Camera – A device used to capture images or videos, either digitally or on film. – The invention of the digital camera has greatly impacted how scientists document and share their research findings.
Parachute – A device used to slow the descent of a person or object through the air. – Parachutes are crucial for safely landing astronauts returning from space missions.
Tanks – Armored fighting vehicles designed for front-line combat, equipped with heavy firepower. – Tanks played a significant role in warfare during the 20th century, changing military strategies and outcomes.
Robot – A machine capable of carrying out complex tasks automatically, often programmable by a computer. – Robots are increasingly used in manufacturing to perform repetitive tasks with precision and efficiency.
Virtual – Existing in essence or effect, though not in actual fact or form, often used in digital environments. – Virtual reality technology allows scientists to simulate and study environments that are difficult to access in real life.
