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Yesterday's Failed Ideas Are Today's Great Inventions

A look back at when today's technologies were way ahead of their time

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28 Jul 2010

Photos: Left, Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Right, Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images

Pedal-powered stilts were a whim back in 1930; today, mechanical legs from the Japanese company Cyberdyne help disabled or elderly people walk.
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Photos: Left, Topical Press Agency/Getty Images; Right, Honda

The “Phrenometer” brain-wave detector dates to 1907. Now Japanese companies are developing less immobilizing versions to provide alternative controls for video games.
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Photos: Left, Harry Todd/Fox Photos/Getty Images; Right, Okan Metin/iStockphoto

Wintertime tanning under UV light was tried in the 1940s but remained very rare for many years after that. Now tanning is a huge commercial business, with tens of thousands of often-compulsive customers.
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Photos: Left, Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Right, Last Shot Photos

In 1961, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. lit up tires with rear-mounted incandescent bulbs, which was rather impractical. Now we have tiny, long-lasting LEDs, and lights are appearing throughout today’s cars, both inside and out.
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Photos: Left, Central Press/Getty Images; Right, U.S. Air Force

This 1954 vertical-takeoff craft, dubbed the Flying Bedstead, is a forerunner of the U.S. Marine Corps Osprey, here seen in an Air Force modification. The aircraft lifts off like a helicopter, then flies like a plane.
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Photos: Left, Reg Speller/Getty Images; Right, Char-Broil

Infrared light was used to cook a turkey at a 1966 U.S. exhibition in London; now it’s in a product from Char-Broil, which claims to provide a deep-fried taste without adding a drop of oil.
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Photos: Left, Franco Sestili/BIPs/Getty Images; Right, Daimler

The Urbania—a seat-rotating Italian automotive novelty—was the smallest functioning car in 1964. Its soul lives on in the Smart car.
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Photos: Left, Ron Case/Keystone/Getty Images; Right, Intuitive Surgical

A pair of remote-controlled robotic hands, used for handling dangerous substances, was also sensitive enough to shave a man back in 1959. Now the concept has been applied to surgery in the da Vinci Surgical System.
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Photos: Left, Keystone/Getty Images; Right, Chrysler

Sony’s original car TV debuted in 1963; now a potpourri of channels on satellite TV can mesmerize nearly any kid, saving parents a lot of trouble.
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Photos: Left, Al Barry/Three Lions/Getty Images; Right, William R. Minten/iStockphoto

A wired hands-free phone headset in 1950 still kept you tethered to the wall, but today we’re all wireless and hands-free.
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Photos: Left, Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Right, imagetwo/iStockphoto

In 1928, a woman dried her hair with a big, intimidating contraption; now she can use a handheld device.
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When a new idea comes along, people often don’t know what to make of it. That's why so many inventions begin as light diversions and reach the development stage only much later, when applications finally suggest themselves. In this view, though necessity is still the mother of invention, whimsy is just as assuredly its father.

bionics leds smart cars medical robotics bci type:slideshow vtol osprey bbq tools and toys

Philip E. Ross is a senior editor at IEEE Spectrum. His interests include transportation, energy storage, AI, and the economic aspects of technology. He has a master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University and another, in journalism, from the University of Michigan.

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Randi Klett is the photo director at IEEE Spectrum where she oversees all photography selection and shoot production across the print magazine and web properties for Spectrum and The Institute. She’s the cofounder of the IEEE Robots Guide, an award-winning interactive site about robotics. She has a BFA in photographic and imaging arts from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

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