Category:
Inventions
Inventions
DURR!
DURR is a watch that shivers, every five minutes. That's all it does. No hands to tell the time. It just shivers at set, five-minute intervals.
Its makers describe it as a kind of experiment to investigate how we perceive the passage of time: "We made Durr to explore how we perceive 5 minutes in different situations. By markedly shivering every 5 minutes, it creates a haptic rythm to make us notice the changing tempo of time."
They're currently sold out. So you'll have to wait to get yours.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 14, 2014 -
Comments (7)
Category: Inventions
Hands-Free Umbrella
A 1953 invention:
And its descendant in 2005:
Posted By: Alex - Sat Jan 04, 2014 -
Comments (5)
Category: Inventions, 1950s
The SkiBee
Invented by Detroit resident Donald Steeg, circa 1970. The SkiBee had an eight-horsepower engine with a 24-inch propellor that served as a propulsion unit for motorized skiing. Anyone who was willing to wear this thing on their back, could enjoy skiing without having to find a slope to go down. During the summer, it could also be used as an outboard motor on a boat.
[Hutchinson News - Feb 6, 1970]
Posted By: Alex - Thu Dec 26, 2013 -
Comments (7)
Category: Inventions, Motor Vehicles, Sports, 1970s
Yoga Patent
A company called YogaGlo recently received a patent for the concept of an "image capturing device" placed in "a studio having a front area and a rear area" and containing an instructor and a "plurality of students." Which is to say, they've patented the idea of filming a yoga class.The Washington Post credits the reward of this patent to the "culture of the patent office," which views "more patenting as a good thing" and doesn't like to reject patents lest examiners get "bogged down in never-ending arguments with applicants."
Posted By: Alex - Sat Dec 14, 2013 -
Comments (4)
Category: Inventions, Patents
The Odon Device
Jorge Odon was an Argentinian car mechanic who, one day, watched a video on YouTube that showed a trick for removing a cork that's stuck inside a wine bottle. Even though he had no medical training at all, the video inspired him to create a device to help deliver babies who are stuck inside the birth canal. And apparently the device (he's called it the Odon Device) actually works — enough so that an American medical technology firm has agreed to manufacture it. [Yahoo!]I can't seem to remember the last brilliant idea I had while watching YouTube videos.
Posted By: Alex - Wed Nov 27, 2013 -
Comments (9)
Category: Inventions, Medicine
Global Warming Solved
Nike recently filed a patent application for "a golf ball that includes carbon dioxide absorbents in order that the golf ball may reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide levels to aid in alleviating global warming."So if we all just play more golf, that global warming thing should be reversed in no time! [via Mother Jones]
Posted By: Alex - Sat Nov 09, 2013 -
Comments (7)
Category: Inventions, Patents, Sports
The Mamoris Chair
It's an emergency helmet that doubles as a chair's backrest, during times of non-emergency. An odd but clever idea, if it saves lives. [mamoris.me]
Posted By: Alex - Sun Nov 03, 2013 -
Comments (4)
Category: Furniture, Inventions, Headgear
The Real Geo
(Flickr source.)
A reader known as "Pat@[email protected]" recently wrote in with some good info on an old WU topic:
" I have been a fan of Buckminster Fuller's writings for many years and just recently found out that he actually didn't invent the geodesic dome. It was invented by Walther Bauersfeld, a German engineer, some 30 years earlier for use as the first projection planetarium. Fuller did, however, apply for and was granted the U.S. patents. He took it's design and construction further and is credited with popularizing it. We have one in Fairbanks built in 1966 at a site originally called "Alaskaland" which was built to commemorate the centenial of the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. It's called the Gold Dome and now houses an aviation museum. Also, there were many "golf balls" in the state during the Cold War which were used for radar."
Posted By: Paul - Tue Oct 29, 2013 -
Comments (5)
Category: Architecture, Inventions, 1920s
Propellor Car
[Click to enlarge]
Imagine the streets of a city filled with these lethal machines!
Original story here.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 27, 2013 -
Comments (4)
Category: Death, Inventions, Motor Vehicles, 1920s
Windup Razors
Once upon a time, in a simpler age when electricity was expensive or balky, windup razors were popular in Europe and Russia.
In the Space Age, you could even buy the NASA-approved version!
But except for vintage models (a mere $100.00), purely mechanical razors seem to have vanished from the marketplace. Although in this era of environmentalism, it seems they should fulfill a certain demand.
The closest such product I can find cheats by using electricity--though it is hand-cranked!
Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 09, 2013 -
Comments (10)
Category: Inventions, Technology, Environmentalism and Ecology, Facial Hair
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |