Hey! Life magazine did something actually funny and interesting. They put together a collection of photos of the most useless inventions of the first half of the 20th century. Behold: A horrifying “dog retainer” and L. Ron Hubbard trying to hear a tomato scream.

HT to Right Brain Resource.

Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.

9 replies on “Uh… Baby Cage?”

  1. …but the curved machine gun barrell wasn’t a stupid invention. Germans used them well in WWII, and I’ve seen new high-tech versions on that dumb Discovery channel show. Didn’t Angelina use one in “Wanted?”

  2. The sideways firing gun was developed by the Germans in WWII as a way of protecting tanks from dudes running up real close and dropping bombs down the tailpipe and whatnot. Apparently it worked well enough in that regard.

    There were waaaay crazier inventions going on at the time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb , for instance.

  3. there were a number of great inventions & ideas in there; Life is just trying, as too many do, to be uber-hip (lookit me! i’m cynical & ironic)(uh, no & no).

    the larynx phone has been available for years, although modern tech works with vibrations from any part of the head. the 2-person baby holder morphed into the Johnny-Jump-up, a great invention (my kids loved it, and i would love a 200-ft adult version). the cigarette inventions were bad ideas, but the point of many inventions is to take an idea an run. many inventions fail, but we learn from our mistakes more than our successes.

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