Historidex / Strange inventions

Strange Old Inventions: Machines That Almost Caught On

Machines and ideas that almost caught on, and a few that did, shown in the photos made when they were new.

50 strange old inventions stories

• The Oldest Surviving Piano 1720, Florence, Italy

  Bartolomeo Cristofori built this piano in Florence in 1720, and it is the oldest one that survives. It has 54 keys, against 88 on a modern piano. Its soundboard is a replacement, fitted during a 1938 restoration.

• The railcar that balanced on one rail 1909, England

  This 22-tonne railcar stayed upright on a single rail with spinning gyroscopes. Louis Brennan showed it at the 1910 Japan-British Exhibition in London, where it carried dozens of visitors at a time, Winston Churchill among them. No investor stepped in to build more.

• Manhattan's Automobile Parade 1899, Manhattan, New York

  The Library of Congress says this film shows the first annual automobile parade, held by the Automobile Club of America on November 4, 1899. At least ten makes and models roll past, including electric and steam machines.

• The Great Wave's Imported Blue about 1831, Edo period Japan

  The Great Wave's blues mix Prussian blue, a pigment Japan imported from Holland, with traditional indigo. Prussian blue became plentiful in Japan around 1830, and this print's publisher advertised the new color in January 1831.

• The Man Who Swallowed the Camera 1901, Hove, England

  A man irritated by a photographer walks up to the lens, opens his mouth wide and swallows the camera and its operator. James Williamson made this British trick film in 1901. It is among the earliest films to make the camera part of the action.

• The Barrel That Tipped Coal Cars 1897, Cleveland, Ohio

  At the Erie Railroad's coal docks in Cleveland, a barrel shaped dumper big enough to hold a whole freight car rolled sideways to empty it. Edison's crew filmed the machine in 1897 as one of the novel views along the Erie line.

• Wuppertal's hanging railway 1901 to 1913, Wuppertal, Germany

  Wuppertal, Germany, built a railway that hangs from steel frames, about 12 meters above the Wupper river. Kaiser Wilhelm II rode it on October 24, 1900, and the first section opened on March 1, 1901. This view shows a stretch where it runs above a street.

• The Glass Armonica Franklin Invented 18th century, Probably Germany

  Benjamin Franklin invented the glass armonica in 1761 and had each of its glass bowls color-coded by note. This example at the Met is 18th century and possibly German, not one of Franklin's own.

• The Capitol's underground monorail 1916, Washington, D.C., USA

  The Senate's underground railway opened March 7, 1909, with battery-powered Studebaker cars. In 1912 a monorail car with a wicker coach replaced them, carrying riders between the Capitol and the Senate office building. This photo dates from 1916.

• A Man Inflates His Own Head 1901 or 1902, France

  Georges Méliès plays a chemist who sets a copy of his own head on a table and swells it with a bellows until it is gigantic. He made the effect by moving himself toward a fixed camera, and he plays both the chemist and the head.

• A prince's own astrolabe 1291, Yemen

  A Yemeni prince named Umar made this brass astrolabe in 1291, a few years before he became sultan. He wrote a treatise on building astrolabes, and a signed copy in Cairo describes this very instrument. He ruled only briefly, from 1295 to 1296.

• News by telephone in Budapest 1901, Budapest, Hungary

  In 1901 a stentor in Budapest read the day's news aloud to 6,200 subscribers, who listened through earphones at home. Telefon Hírmondó had started on February 15, 1893, and sent news, concerts and opera over its own telephone wires.

• One Man Plays a Whole Band 1900, France

  Georges Méliès fills a row of chairs with copies of himself and plays and conducts a whole band. He filmed each copy separately on the same strip of film, rewinding it and masking the other chairs each time. The film dates from 1900.

• London's mail tube under the streets 1863, Euston, London

  London's Pneumatic Despatch began carrying mail by air pressure on February 20, 1863, between Euston station and a post office on Eversholt Street. A capsule could carry up to 35 bags of mail in about a minute. The company went into liquidation in 1875.

• The iron lung that flew 1953, Randolph Air Force Base, Texas

  In 1952 the Air Force School of Aviation Medicine in Texas designed a portable iron lung that could ride in an airplane. It went from drawing board to working unit in three weeks and ran off the aircraft's power or a 24-volt battery. This photo was released in January 1953.

• Mail delivered by cruise missile 1959, Mayport, Florida, USA

  On June 8, 1959, the submarine USS Barbero fired a Regulus cruise missile carrying about 3,000 letters instead of a warhead. It landed at Mayport, Florida, roughly 22 minutes later. The Postmaster General called the flight historic.

• The cannons were just logs 1862, Centreville, Virginia

  Confederate troops mounted logs like these, called Quaker guns, in their winter earthworks at Centreville, Virginia, so the works looked better armed from a distance. After the Confederates pulled out in March 1862, George Barnard and James Gibson photographed the fort.

• The bishop who replaced an elephant 1150 to 1200, Trondheim, Norway

  In 12th-century Europe the chess bishop replaced the elephant piece of Islamic chess. This one was carved from walrus ivory, probably in Trondheim, Norway, between 1150 and 1200. Beside him are a reader holding his book and, the Met suggests, the choir leader.

• Old Brass Brains, the tide computer 1910, Washington, D.C., USA

  This 2,500-pound machine of gears, pulleys and chains predicted tides for the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey from 1910 to 1965. It tracked 37 factors tied to the Earth, moon and sun, and in wartime was locked away. NOAA still keeps it working in Silver Spring, Maryland, where this was taken in 2016.

• Hugo Gernsback's Isolator helmet 1925, United States

  Hugo Gernsback's magazine Science and Invention printed this photo in July 1925, captioned as the author at work in his Isolator. The first version of the helmet was wood lined with cork and covered in felt, built to shut out noise. An oxygen tank kept the wearer from getting drowsy.

• An ape man drawn from one tooth 1922, London, England

  In 1922 a single fossil tooth from Nebraska was named Hesperopithecus, and the Illustrated London News printed this imagined pair of ape-men. The scientist who named it called the drawing unscientific. Digs in 1925 and 1926 showed the tooth came from an extinct peccary, a pig-like animal, and the claim was retracted in 1927.

• Print the blind could hear 1922, Location not recorded

  This 1922 magazine photo shows a blind reader using an optophone, which turned printed letters into tones. Edmund Fournier d'Albe of Birmingham University invented it in 1913. Early readers managed about one word a minute, and later models reached up to 60 for some users.

• Echo balloon inside a blimp hangar 1959, Weeksville, North Carolina, USA

  A balloon 100 feet across sits fully inflated inside a Navy blimp hangar at Weeksville, North Carolina. Filling it on the ground took about 40,000 pounds of air, while in orbit a few pounds of gas was enough. Echo 1 reached orbit in August 1960.

• A Bronze Bell with Two Notes about 800 to 700 BCE, Meixian, China

  Strike this bronze bell in different places and it sounds two different tones. A lens shaped cross section makes that possible. Cleveland dates it to about 800 to 700 BCE, in China's Western Zhou period.

• A Camera on a Train Roof 1898, France

  In 1898 Georges Méliès fixed a camera to the roof of a moving train car and filmed the town and rail yards sliding by. The Star Film catalogue lists it as number 151, with bridges along the way.

• Paris's moving sidewalk 1900, Paris, France

  The 1900 Paris world's fair had a moving sidewalk with a still platform beside two moving ones. Visitors stepped from the still platform onto a slow one, then onto a faster one.

• A Skeleton That Falls Apart 1897 or 1898, France

  A string puppet skeleton dances until it collapses into a heap of bones, which start to put themselves back together. It is number 831 in the Lumière catalogue.

• New York's pneumatic subway 1870, New York City, USA

  Alfred Ely Beach opened a one-block demonstration subway under Broadway on February 26, 1870. A giant fan pushed a single car through the 300-foot tunnel. Rides cost 25 cents, and the line sold over 400,000 of them in its first year.

• The Flying Bedstead 1965, Edwards, California

  NASA's Lunar Landing Research Vehicle was nicknamed the Flying Bedstead. A jet engine pointed straight down canceled five sixths of its weight, so pilots could practice landing under Moon gravity. Joe Walker made its first flight on October 30, 1964, at Edwards Air Force Base.

• A seal in two writing systems about 1780 BCE, Egypt

  This blue lapis lazuli cylinder seal, broken at the top, names the Egyptian king Sehetepibre in hieroglyphs. The other side gives, in cuneiform, the name Yakin-ilum, a figure known from the city of Byblos. It dates to about 1780 BCE, and seals like it were rolled over wet clay as a signature.

• Sewing a sunshade for Skylab 1973, Houston, Texas

  Skylab lost its micrometeoroid shield, which also shaded it from the Sun, at launch on May 14, 1973. In Houston, teams rushed to build a replacement. Here a GE seamstress sews one candidate, a sail of aluminized Mylar and nylon, though the crew launched on May 25 with a folding parasol.

• A Hand Ax from Thebes 400,000 to 240,000 BC, Thebes, Upper Egypt

  This flint hand ax from Thebes weighs 356.5 grams. The Met dates it to about 400,000 to 240,000 BC. People in Africa, Europe and Asia kept making hand axes for over a million years, which makes them one of the longest used tools in human history.

• Aiming a gun by turning the ship 1891, United States

  USS Vesuvius had three fixed 15-inch guns in her bow that fired explosive shells with compressed air instead of gunpowder, so the ship itself had to be turned to aim them. In June 1898 she used them against Spanish shore batteries at Santiago, Cuba.

• Inca records made of knots about 1400 to 1532, Peru

  The Inca kept records in knotted cords called khipu, and this cotton and wool one dates to about 1400 to 1532. Most khipu studied so far record numbers in base 10, and whether any held stories is disputed. In 1583 church officials in Lima ordered some burned.

• An Early Commercial Banjo From Baltimore about 1845, United States

  William Boucher Jr., a Baltimore drum maker, was one of the first to make and sell banjos as a business, starting in the 1840s. This one dates to about 1845. The banjo grew out of West African gourd lutes, and enslaved Africans played it in the American South.

• The Apollo 13 mailbox 1970, Apollo 13 lunar module

  Apollo 13's lunar module carried carbon dioxide canisters for two men, not three, and the command module's spares were the wrong shape. Ground engineers designed an adapter from manual covers, duct tape and other items on board, and Houston read the steps to the crew. This is the finished mailbox in the cabin.

• The Turret of USS Monitor 1862, James River, Virginia

  USS Monitor was nicknamed the cheesebox on a raft, and its two guns sat in a turret that rotated to aim them. On March 9, 1862, it fought CSS Virginia to a standstill. This photo was taken on the James River later that year.

• The Antarctic Snow Cruiser 1940, Little America, Antarctica

  The Antarctic Snow Cruiser was 55 feet long and weighed 75,000 pounds loaded. In January 1940 its smooth tires spun and sank up to three feet into the snow. It was left behind in 1941, and its location is now unknown.

• The Opel RAK 2 Rocket Car 1928, Berlin, Germany

  Fritz von Opel drove this car on Berlin's Avus track on May 23, 1928. Twenty-four solid-fuel rockets pushed the Opel RAK 2 to 238 km/h.

• A coin that held its weight about 545 to 565, Constantinople

  Constantine made the solidus Rome's standard gold coin in the early 300s, at about 4.5 grams, and it kept nearly the same weight and purity for centuries. This one was struck under Justinian I, roughly 545 to 565, and is 2 cm wide. Its front shows him in a crown, holding an orb.

• Brass Weights for Measuring Gold 18th to 19th century, Akan peoples, Ghana

  Akan goldsmiths cast millions of small brass weights to measure gold dust in trade, with estimates running from three to four million. Figurative weights like this bird appear from about 1600. The Met calls it a Sankofa bird, an Akan symbol meaning go back and get it.

• A volunteer rides Stapp's sled 1956, Cleveland, Ohio

  In April 1956, a volunteer sat on a scaled-down copy of John Stapp's rocket sled at NACA's Lewis lab in Ohio. Stapp made 29 sled runs from 1947 to 1954. On the last, in New Mexico, he reached 632 miles per hour and took at least 46 g.

• The Lady Who Vanished 1896, France

  Georges Méliès pulls a shawl off his assistant, and she is gone. He waves his arms and a skeleton appears in her chair. In 1896 he faked the stage illusion by stopping the camera and swapping the scene, so no trapdoor was needed.

• Roman glass for a copper coin 1 to 100 CE, Roman Empire

  This 6.5 cm bowl was shaped by laying a hot, ribbed glass disk over a mold. Museums disagree on whether bowls like it were luxury tableware or the first glass most Romans could afford. The Greek geographer Strabo wrote that at Rome a glass cup could be bought for a copper coin.

• A Clockwork Chariot for the China Trade 1766, London, England

  London goldsmith James Cox made jeweled clockwork for buyers in India and China. This gold chariot clock, pushed by a Chinese attendant, dates to 1766. The Qianlong Emperor owned a chariot automaton by Cox.

• The zip gun for America's first spacewalk 1965, Houston, Texas

  NASA's Hand-Held Self-Maneuvering Unit, nicknamed the zip gun, pushed Ed White with jets of pressurized oxygen on the first American spacewalk, June 3, 1965. Its gas ran out sooner than planned, and White then moved by pulling on his tether. A camera was mounted on top.

• Uncle Josh and the Oncoming Train 1902, Edison studio, New York, USA

  In this 1902 Edison comedy, a farmer watches films in a theater and bolts when a train rushes at the screen. Edwin S. Porter remade a British film from 1901, Robert Paul's The Countryman and the Cinematograph.

• A wheeled horse from ancient Cyprus 6th century BCE, Cyprus

  This clay horse from Cyprus has wheels and carries two storage jars on its back. It is 22.6 cm tall and the Met dates it, with a question mark, to the 6th century BCE. Based on Greek examples, scholars have suggested such wheeled horses were toys and the jars held water.

• Painted From Inside the Bottle Qing dynasty, China

  Painters decorated bottles like this from the inside, roughening the inner surface so the paint would hold and working through the narrow neck with a bent pen. The earliest dated examples are from about 1815. This crystal bottle with a rider came to the Met in 1921.

• A Hatchet You Could Smoke 1840 to 1860, North America

  A pipe tomahawk had a pipe bowl on one side and an axe blade on the other, a symbol of peace and war. European and American artisans made them for trade and diplomatic gifts. The Met dates this one to 1840 to 1860 and attributes it, with a question mark, to the Ojibwa.

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