Some were initially successful, but then their adverse effects were discovered and they fell into disrepute and oblivion. Others were clearly flawed from the start, and some even caused the death of their inventors.
Throughout history, some inventions promised to revolutionize the world , but ended up forgotten due to their unfeasibility, dangers or simple bad luck . From Edison’s Kinetophone to the Concorde, passing through the tragic thalidomide experiment, we review ten creations that , although innovative, failed to consolidate .
1. Kinetophone
Thomas Alva Edison, 1895
The “Wizard of Menlo Park” –as Edison was nicknamed , after the place in New Jersey where he established his wonder factory–, creator or perfecter of essential inventions such as the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph (the first music player in history) or the kinetoscope (the first film projector), registered 1,093 patents, some more successful than others.
The kinetophone is one of the latter. It was a device, created jointly with W.K. Dickson, which attempted to combine the phonograph and the kinetoscope ; that is, to invent sound cinema three decades in advance . For personal use, it was uncomfortable and cumbersome , so it was soon abandoned in favor of the Lumière brothers ‘ cinematograph .
2. Zeppelin
Ferdinand von Zeppelin, 1900
Although there is some historical controversy over whether the motor-powered dirigible hot air balloon could actually have been designed by the Colombian consul in Hamburg, Carlos Albán, and given out of friendship to the German nobleman, inventor and businessman Von Zeppelin (1838-1917), it was he who patented it, industrialized it –Zeppelin Airship Company– and “baptized” it .
The first zeppelin , a model of the later ones – 128 metres long, with rudders at the bow and stern, and two Daimler internal combustion engines – was ready on 2 July 1900 and carried five people . Its success, passenger volume and luxurious features continued to grow until the famous accident of the Hindenburg airship – used by the Nazis as a symbol of greatness – in 1937 (35 dead), turned the zeppelin into an outdated relic .
3. Wardenclyffe Tower
Nikola Tesla, 1901
It was one of the most ambitious projects of one of the most pioneering inventors of all time, the Croatian developer, physicist and prescient Tesla (1856-1943). Also known as the Tesla Tower , it was a gigantic – for its time: 30 metres high – antenna for wireless telecommunications across the Atlantic , installed in Shoreham, Long Island (USA), on land owned by the banker James S. Warden (hence its name).
Although Tesla managed to get it running successfully, the excess power caused it to catch fire twice and the project was abandoned . It was destroyed in World War I.
4. Raincoat-parachute
Franz Reichelt, 1912
In the case of Franz Reichelt (1879-1912), a Franco-Austrian tailor turned aeronautical inventor, the phrase “sacrifice himself for the benefit of science” is as fitting as the saying “shoemaker, stick to your last.” Living in Paris and an admirer of Leonardo da Vinci’s flying machines , he wanted to create his own: a waterproof suit that turned into a parachute when jumping from a considerable height , thus allowing – or so he believed – a smooth descent and a safe landing.
Incomprehensibly (or not so much: it was the era of fascination with everything new), he obtained permission from the Parisian police to test his invention on the Eiffel Tower . First he threw a dummy, which crashed to the ground, but that did not stop him and he threw himself (below, moments before), with the same result .
5. Tsar Tank
Nikolai Lebedenko, 1914-1915
Also known as the Netopyr (Bat in Russian) or the Lebedenko Tank, this extravagant armoured vehicle was actually developed by four engineers: along with its namesake, Nikolai Zhukovsky, Boris Stechkin and Aleksandr Mikulin. It was commissioned by the last Romanov, Nicholas II , to be used in the newly started world war as a differential and supposedly ultra-powerful weapon, but only the first was true: it was unlike anything else, without a doubt.
Instead of tracks, it had a tricycle design for moving around , with two gigantic front wheels almost 9 metres in diameter and a smaller rear wheel. The tank quickly proved unworkable and useless (it got stuck in every ditch) and was scrapped in 1923.
6. Jetpack
Alexander Fyodorovich Andreyev, 1919
This invention, which we have seen in countless science fiction films and series (pictured, in a James Bond film ) and video games and which the Anglo-Saxons call a jetpack , became a reality and began to be marketed in 2016. But the first prototype is due, once again, to a Russian – specifically, to the Soviet engineer and inventor Andreyev – and was developed and patented almost a century earlier .
However, technical and financial difficulties meant that it was never manufactured industrially . The Nazis did succeed a little later, during the Second World War : the Wehrmacht used flying backpacks called Himmelstürmer , with limited range , to fly over minefields.
7. Aerocar
Valerian Abakovski, 1920
Another failure with a tragic ending for the inventor, in this case a very young (25 years old) Red Army driver and talented automobile designer of Latvian origin. Abakovski originally conceived the Aerocar or Aeromotocar , an experimental high-speed railcar equipped with an aircraft engine driving a propeller, for the urgent trips of Soviet officials.
The device itself proved to be effective: it reached speeds of 140 km/h . However, on one of the test trips , on 24 July 1921, while returning to Moscow from the coal mines of Tula (165 km south of the capital), the Aerocar derailed. Six of the 22 passengers died, including Abakovski .
8. DDT
Paul Hermann Müller, 1939
In this case – as with the Zeppelin, Thalidomide and the Concorde – we should speak of the success of a failure, or the failure of a success . Because dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) , the main organochlorine compound of classic insecticides, colourless and almost insoluble in water, was long considered a great invention. Its discoverer, the Swiss chemist Müller , won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1948.
DDT proved to be a highly effective insecticide against malaria, yellow fever, typhus and many other infections caused by insect vectors. However, after indiscriminate and very popular use for three decades, in 1969 its catastrophic ecological effects , its accumulation in food chains and the risk it posed for food contamination were confirmed, so it was finally banned in 1972.
9. Thalidomide
Grünenthal GmbH, 1957
The drug of that name, developed by a German pharmaceutical company, was marketed as a sedative and anti-nausea drug for the first three months of pregnancy , and immediately became one of the biggest sellers of the early 1960s.
It was thought to have almost no side effects and, in addition, in the event of accidental mass ingestion, it was not fatal. But it soon became clear that it had a terrible consequence: thalidomide caused thousands of birth defects in babies, causing them to develop phocomelia (absence or excessive shortening of the limbs). It was completely withdrawn from the market between 1962 and 1963 .
10. Concorde plane
BAC & Aerospace, 1969
It was one of the icons of the 1970s and 1980s and seemed to be here to stay: the elegant supersonic aircraft for regular passenger flights was like something out of science fiction come to life.
This marvel of aeronautical engineering, the joint work of British and French manufacturers (hence the name “Concorde”), could reach its destination in half the time of a conventional aircraft thanks to its supersonic speed – capable of breaking the sound barrier – and, despite the high price of tickets, was initially a huge commercial success (20 aircraft were built). But the planes began to fail , demand plummeted and an accident in 2000 was the final straw . It stopped flying in 2003.
Read also: Only 110 units of the Alpine A110 R Ultime
