Crazy Inventions That Actually Existed

Throughout time, there have been many inventions that have shaped and changed everyday life as we know it, forever: The automobile. The Microwave. The smartphone. It's hard, almost unfathomable to imagine life and society without these. 

And then we've had the not so good inventions. The one's in which we might think, "What were they thinking?" 

Here are a few inventions that were just a total flop: 

Google Glass

Some inventions that didn't work out, sounded good in theory at first and Google Glass was one such invention. 

Google Glass was essentially a pair of glasses with a tiny computer monitor embedded into them.  

I remember when it first came out and the initial popularity around it. The concept and design did look futuristic and even caught my interest looking like something straight out of a science fiction or spy movie. 

However, there were privacy concerns and the glasses were just distracting for those both wearing and seeing them.

Google Glass is a great example that sometimes, how we expect a concept to be doesn't turn out quite as what we've imagined. 

Spray-on Hair

Those who were balding had a few options: embrace it (bald is beautiful, right?) wear a wig or toupee, or buy some spray-on hair.

Yes, as ridiculous as it sounds, this was actually real.

Spray-on hair was just as it sounds: "Hair" that you sprayed on to cover your bald spots. In other words, it was spray paint for your head and was supposed to be a better alternative to the toupee.

Quite humorously, I can only imagine that the sprayed on hair didn't look as good as one thought it would look!

Hmm, think I'd rather wear a wig. 

The Cigarette Umbrella

Imagine going out for a smoke break only to realize it's raining. You could always wait for the rain to end, grab an umbrella, or you could grab one just for your cigarette. 

Invented in the 1930's, the cigarette umbrella was designed specifically to keep water off the cigarette to prevent it from getting soggy, cause who wants to smoke a soggy cigarette?

 As you can imagine, because of its ridiculous design and concept, the cigarette umbrella didn't quite catch on. 

Urban Window Baby Cage

Getting fresh air is essential for anyone's health and wellbeing. Especially babies. This was the over all concept of the urban window baby cage. It was basically a basket with a blanket inside a wired cage that attached to the outside of a window. A baby would be placed in the baby cage so that they could get some fresh air. 

Invented in the 1920's, the concept for the urban window baby cage was a way for your baby to get some fresh air in the city. 

When they were first released to the public, urban window baby cages were especially popular for those that lived in the city. 

By the 1940's, the idea of urban window baby cages became less popular and appealing. This is most likely due to the safety concerns. Looking at pictures of babies in these urban window baby cages does make me nervous! 

Smell O Vision

Here is another invention that sounded really cool in theory at the time. 

This was one of the more popular inventions that ended up not doing so good. You might have heard of it. 

Smell O Vision. 

Watch a movie and experience a range of different scents that correlate to a specific scene your watching. 

The concept of Smell O Vision was to make the movie as realistic as possible in a fun and engaging way for the audience.

For instance, when a scene of a person making breakfast appears, you might get a scent of bacon or maybe coffee. A scene of a garden will have you smelling roses or maybe lilacs. 

Wouldn't it be amazing to be able to smell the scents of the different scenes of a movie? That's what people initially thought about the concept of smell meets theater. 

However, there were more than a few downsides. One notable downside was that a scent didn't clear soon enough before a new scent came in. This meant smelling strange and very unappealing scent combinations.

I'm sure many left the theater early. 

Another down side was that the back row audience experienced the scents last so by the time they smelled flowers, the scene of the garden was long over. 

Turns out smelling along to a movie wasn't as appealing as it sounded.

Some of these inventions might have sounded like a good idea at first while some were probably a bad idea right from the start. Either way, these crazy inventions have made our lives just a little more interesting!

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