Tuesday 29 January 2013

27 Of History's Strangest Inventions

image credit: Nationaal Archief

'If at first an idea is not absurd,' Albert Einstein famously said, 'then there is no hope for it.' Sometimes, however, absurd is just absurd - yet, even so, it's a fascinating slice of history's collective direction of curiosity and experimental innovation.

After those vintage versions of modern social media and yesteryear's visions for the future of technology, here come some of history's most weird and wonderful inventions, from wooden swimwear to spectacles for reading in bed, captured in archival public domain images by the Netherland's National Archive.

1 comment(s):

Anonymous said...

The "Booted rubber boat" became a commercial success as "belly boat"...

The "revolver camera" is now available in different embodiments and also as telescopic sight camera...

The "Folding bridge for emergencies" has been implemented as "Armoured vehicle-launched bridge"

Introduced in 2012 the Volvo V40 included the first pedestrian airbag: the grand grand child of the "Car with shovel for pedestrians"


The picture of the "Wooden bathing suits" includes a vertetra of a whale... a rahter rare piece of stranded goods these days....

All in all not so strange...

B.