20 Strange Inventions From History People Once Thought Were Actually Necessary

When Gary Dahl first put a rock in a cardboard box with air holes, the people of ’75 lost their collective minds. 

He invented a pet even the dumbest kid couldn’t kill, and his bank account was rewarded handsomely. Yet, years later, we look back and wonder: what were buyers of the pet rock thinking?

And while today we might raise our iPhones high and praise the tech gods, so many inventions go the way of the Pet Rock. Just look at these strange historical inventions of the early 1900s to get an idea of how many inventions went from superstar to laughing stock.

1. Bed Piano: Today, when you’re sick in bed, you might pull out a laptop and blow through a few seasons of a TV show on Netflix; in 1935, you pulled out your bed piano and knocked out a few afternoon symphonies.

2. Television Glasses: Hugo Gernsback, the man known today as “The Father of Science Fiction,” dared to dream of strapping a television set to his face in 1963 — so he made it happen (and later inspired future 3D glasses, too).

3. Man from Mars Radio Hat: Speaking of entertainment on your head, in 1949, Victor T. Hoeflinch created this hat, which allowed wearers to listen to the radio on the go, so long as they didn’t mind wearing a hat that wasn’t exactly a fashion statement.

4. Dimple Maker: In the ’30s, a smile was nothing without a set of dimples to go with it. But the dimple-less were not the hopeless: the Dimple Maker could force dimples onto their smiles by digging into their cheekbones. It did not work well.

5. The First PET Scan Device: As if going in for a PET scan wasn’t scary enough, the first machine capable of performing one was this wire-wrapped monstrosity, developed at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in Long Island, New York.

6. Portable Sauna: Back in 1962, a Finnish inventor realized that being unable to step into a sauna wherever he went was comparable to actual torture. So he created the portable sauna so he could live every moment in hot, steamy bliss.

7. Sunscreen Vending Machine: Tennis courts, swimming pools, and beaches of the 1940s offered this vending machine, which dispensed little globs of sunscreen right into your hands. Honestly, weird as this was, it could come in handy today!

8. Cone Mask: The inventor of these masks wanted to protect the wearers’ faces from things like hail and rain. Somehow, getting pelted with rain was a big enough problem that he couldn’t just, you know, tilt his head down like three inches

9. Pedal Skates: In 1913, Charles A. Nordling understood people look for any excuse possible not to walk, so he created the pedal skates. A bit cumbersome, yeah, but unlike many other items on this list, they nobly served their purpose for a while.

Online Bike Museum

10. Cigarette Pack Holder: Because smoking one cigarette at a time was totally inefficient (and totally lame by 1950’s standards), this 1955 invention allowed smokers to stop dreaming about chain smoking an entire pack and start doing it.

11. All-Terrain Car: Invented in 1936, this English automobile ascended and descended slopes as steep as 65 degrees. With, what, 12 tires, it must have cost an absolute fortune to manufacture. Speaking of all-terrain…

12. Cyclomer: With six flotation devices, the cyclomer — also called “The Amphibious Bike — was designed to function on land and in water. In practice, it was clunky on dry land, borderline deadly in the water, and no one liked it much.

13. Goofybike: So the cyclomer didn’t catch on, but that wasn’t the end of all bike-alteration efforts. The Goofybike — seen in Chicago, 1939 — sat four people, one of which worked a sewing machine that kept the bike’s weight evenly distributed.

14. Pedestrian Shield: To reduce fatalities, inventors drummed up a shield reminiscent of a train’s cowcatcher to slap on the front of automobiles. It doesn’t look like a much better alternative to the front of a car.

15. Fax Newspaper: Imagine just wanting to catch up on your daily news and waiting (and waiting) for the darn newspaper fax to show up! Cool, but a paperboy standing on the corner was probably more efficient. 

16. Shower Hood: Marketed as a way to keep your makeup intact, the shower hood prevented water from hitting your hair or face, which kind of defeated the major purpose of taking a shower altogether.

17. The Baby Dangler: Today, naming your device “The Baby Dangler” would make your peers mock you at best and land you in prison at worst; but back in the day, it was the perfect name for a device that strung up a baby between mom and dad.

18. A Radio-Controlled Lawn Mower: The lawn’s not going to mow itself, so why not invent a small mower operated with a remote control? Developed in the 1950s — and later celebrated by British royalty — the device survived time and still exists!

19. Ice Mask: There were plenty of reasons to drink in the 1940s, and inventors knew it. That’s why one developed the ice mask, which advertisers touted as a cure for the morning hangover.

20. Wooden Bathing Suits: These barrel-like suits were invented in 1929 and, allegedly, acted like flotation devices for swimming (wood floats, after all). But they must have been restrictive!

Sky raining millions of spiders in Australia

Forget cats and dogs—it was raining spiders recently in southern Australia, according to local news reports.

Millions of spiders dropped from the sky in the Southern Tablelands region (map), blanketing the countryside with their webs. "They fly through the sky and then we see these falls of spiderwebs that look almost as if it's snowing," local resident Keith Basterfield told the Goulburn Post.  

Though many news reports have called them babies, the spiders are actually just "very, very small" adults called sheet-web weavers or money spiders, according to Robb Bennett, a research associate in entomology at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria.

It's unclear what spurs these spiders take to the skies in what are called mass ballooning events, Bennett notes.

But once they do, millions crawl to the highest points of their habitat—say a fence pole, or a tall plant—and send out silk strands that allow them to be lifted on air currents.  

Researchers told The Sydney Morning Herald that the area may be seeing a mass migration of baby spiders. Spiders,

especially young ones, often release a stream of silk as they jump, and they can be taken with the breeze and carried away. 

Mass migration can result in a large amount of what’s called gossamer or “Angel Hair,” which is the silk produced by spiders.

The astonishing spectacle usually occurs in May or August in Australia, when sunshine follows rainfall. It is rare because it requires an unusual weather pattern for this time of year, which is when spiders are hatching.

The spiderlings are light enough to float on threads, sometimes for hundreds of kilometres at up to 20,000 feet, according to Keith. They have even been spotted by aircraft.

Their long-distance travel enables them to migrate to new areas, partly for instinctual reasons and partly for food, with an increase of mosquitoes in rural areas at these times of year.

Once they land, the spiders disappear into the ground and the threads, made of protein, disintegrate until there is no evidence that anything has happened.

“Millions use this method to migrate,” said Keith. “But there are only a couple of species in Australia so it’s fairly rare to see.”

Any temperate part of Australia and other countries can experience the bizarre sight. Videos from 2013 show the flying spiders descending on Brazil and Texas, while in Denmark, researchers analysed the protein that makes up the webs to find out more.

“I’ve done historical research going back to as early as 1914 in South Australia,” said Keith. “There were about 20 falls in that time. I’m encouraging people to make videos and take photos as this is of interest to entomologists and scientists.”

"Ballooning is a not-uncommon behavior of many spiders. They climb some high area and stick their butts up in the air and release silk. Then they just take off," Vetter told Live Science. "This is going on all around us all the time. We just don't notice it."

The reason people don't usually notice this ingenious spider behavior is that it's not common for millions of spiders to do this at the same time, and then land in the same place, said Todd Blackledge, a biology professor at the University of Akron in Ohio.

How to Enter the USA Green Card Lottery

The Diversity Visa Program, or “Green Card Lottery,” is an annual lottery run by the U.S.

Department of State to allow about 50,000 people a chance to get a permanent resident visa to the USA. The visas provided under this program are reserved for natives of countries that have a traditionally low rate of immigration to the U.S.

The application period for each year’s lottery is only about one month long, and there is very little opportunity to correct mistakes made when submitting documents – in fact, you can be disqualified for not filing the forms correctly.^[1] Therefore, it is very important to fill out your forms correctly and quickly. Here is how to apply for the Green Card Lottery.

Part1

Determine Eligibility

1. 
   

   
   1
   Consider if you want temporary or permanent admission into the United States.The Green Card Lottery is only for people who want to become permanent residents of the U.S. If you only want to stay in the U.S. temporarily – for example, for a vacation, to visit relatives, or for business -- the Green Card Lottery isn’t for you. Instead, you may need a temporary visa for nonimmigrant stay^[2] or, if you are from an eligible country, you may qualify for the visa waiver program^[3]. Citizens of Canada and Bermuda, subject to certain restrictions, don’t need a visa for a temporary visit the U.S.^[4]
2. 
   

   
   2
   Consider whether you qualify for another form of immigrant visa. If you have a sponsor, such as a family member or employer, or you are eligible for a Special Immigrant Visa, there may be other visa options available to you that aren’t subject to a random drawing. Information about these options are available from the State Department website, https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas.html. However, you can apply for the lottery even if you are registered for an immigrant visa in another category, as long as you meet the lottery’s eligibility requirements. Therefore, even if you do qualify for another type of visa, you may want to also apply for the lottery.
3. 
   

   
   3
   Determine whether you are from an eligible country. Each year the State Department determines which countries are eligible based on which countries have had low immigration rates to the U.S. for the previous five years. People who cannot claim to be from an eligible country cannot participate in the lottery. The lottery instructions provide a complete list of eligible and ineligible countries by region. ^[5] There are three ways to claim that you are from an eligible country:
   

   • If you were born in an eligible country
   • If your spouse was born in an eligible country, as long as both of you are named on the selected entry, are issued diversity visas, and enter the United States at the same time
   • If at least one of your parents was born in an eligible country, as long as neither of your parents were born in your country and neither of your parents were legal residents of that country at the time of your birth (for example, they were there temporarily there on vacation, business, to study, etc.).
4. 
   

   
   4
   Determine whether you meet the education/work experience requirement. To be eligible to apply for the lottery, you must meet one of two education/work requirements.^[6] You must either:
   

   • Have a high school education or its equivalent. This means that you must have successfully completed a 12-year course of elementary and secondary education or

   
   

   • Have worked for two years within the past five years in an occupation that requires at least two years of training or experience to perform. This is determined through O*Net, a database found on the U.S. Department of Labor website, http://www.onetonline.org.
5. 
   

   
   5
   Determine if any factors make you inadmissible. The lottery is not a way of getting around the general admissibility requirements for permanent residency. If your application is selected during the lottery, factors that would bar your admission to the U.S., such as criminal activity, will still apply.^[7]

Part2

Assemble and Submit the Documentation

1. 
   

   
   1
   Beware of scams. Be careful not to fall prey to scams involving the application process.
   

   • Some applicants have received emails or letters requesting money in connection with the application.^[8] The Department of State does not give information to applicants via e-mail or regular mail, and there is no application fee for the lottery.
   • The Department recommends that applicants not use a consultant or agent to help them file their application. If an applicant does have someone else prepare and submit the application, the applicant should be present for the preparation and submission and retain the confirmation notice with the unique confirmation number.^[9]
2. 
   

   
   2
   Don't be confused by the dates. The years referred to for the lottery can be confusing, so take a few minutes to understand what they mean. For example, the 2013 application period was from October 1, 2013 through November 2, 2013. The 2013 application period marked the beginning of what is referred to as the 2015 Diversity Immigration Visa Program (DV-2015). It is called the 2015 program because successful applicants will receive their visas during the 2015 fiscal year, which runs from October 1, 2014 – September 30, 2015.
3. 
   

   
   3
   Gather everything you need. Make sure you gather all the information you will need to fill out the application, and a digital photo for each person who will be included in your application (yourself, spouse, children), before you begin filling out the application. Once you open the application form, you will only have 60 minutes to complete and submit it. You cannot save or download the form for later submission. If you don’t complete the form in 60 minutes, you will have to start over. You will need to know the following information^[10]:
   

   • Your name, exactly as on your passport
   • Your birth date
   • Your gender
   • The city where you were born
   • The country where you were born (as the country where your birth city is located is called today)
   • The country you can claim for eligibility for the program
   • Your mailing address
   • The country where you live today
   • Your phone number (optional)
   • Your e-mail address – make sure this is an e-mail address you have direct access to

• The highest level of education you have achieved, as of the day you are filling out the application
• Your current marital status -- provide the name, date of birth, gender, city/town of birth, and country of birth of your spouse. Visa applications based on a same-sex marriage are now treated the same way as opposite-gender spouses, if the marriage took place in a jurisdiction where such marriages are legal.
• Information regarding your children – name, date of birth, gender, city/town of birth, and country of birth for all living unmarried children under 21 years old, regardless of whether they are living with you or intend to accompany or follow to join you should you immigrate to the United States. Your children include all living natural children, children legally adopted by you, and step-children who are unmarried and under the age of 21 on the date of your electronic entry, even if you are no longer legally married to the child’s parent, and even if the child does not currently reside with you and/or will not immigrate with you.

4

Collect photos. You must provide a recent photograph of yourself, your spouse, and all children listed on your entry. You do not need to include a photograph for a spouse or child who is already a U.S. citizen or a Lawful Permanent Resident, but you will not be penalized if you do. You must submit a photograph for each individual – group photos are not permitted. If the photos were not taken with a digital camera, you can scan the non-digital photos into your computer or have someone else scan them and email the image to you.

5

Validate photos. Go to the lottery website, https://www.dvlottery.state.gov, and click on the “Photo Validator” link to make sure the photos you are submitting meet the program’s requirements.