Invention Fails from Baby Cages to Flying Cars
- CAN Girl
- 16 hours ago
- 3 min read
Not all inventions stand the test of time so let's have some fun looking back on a few crazy innovations of the past and learn about what did and didn't work.
It's important for us to remember that no "win" comes without a trail of failures left in its wake. Fail fast, fail often.
Wait...did you say Baby Cages?
Even today we encourage everyone to get outside for some 'fresh air'. Well, back in the early 20th century, it was no different. Plagued with widespread tuberculosis, one of the prescribed treatments was fresh air. However, in crowded metropolitan cities, like New York and London, they only had one option ... suspend their children from a wire cage outside their apartment window.
At first, the baby cage caught on and the first U.S. patent was granted in 1922. Members of the Chelsea Baby Club in London as well as Eleanor Roosevelt herself, used this new invention. However, the sight of an infant suspended several stories above the street created quite the hysteria and even resulted in the authorities being called on mothers for child endangerment. Needless to say the cages were quickly removed.
While the intentions were genuine, the execution was, to put it gently, a gap in risk assessment.
A flying car!? ... Dr. Brown would be impressed
For my fellow Back to the Future fans, I found this invention extremely intriguing. While the DeLorean was really more about time travel, it did fly, so to find out that in 1949 there was a real flying car, blew me away!
Moulton Taylor, a former naval commander, had a dream to create the first flying car. Backed by 49 investors at $50K, the Aerocar was born. Priced at ~$12K you could own a fully functional flying car, that was road legal and FAA certified for flight. The Aerocar had a cruising speed of 100+mph at 300mile distance and a road speed 50-60mgh.
While other flying cars had made a debut ahead of the Aerocar, this was the first car that enabled transition from plane to car in less than 5 minutes. Moulton designed the wings so they could be rotated 90 degrees and essentially towed behind the car, ingenious!
So it drove like a car, flew like a plane, and theoretically should have changed transportation forever, what happened?
The problem wasn't the invention it was the infrastructure. Just imagine every person pulling out of their driveway into the sky, a logistical nightmare. Every pilot needed a license. Every flight needed a runway. Every landing required somewhere to land.
Unfortunately, only six models were built. None entered mass production. I guess we'll just have to wait a little longer...
Failures ... or Lessons
Despite the fact that these inventions, and many others, ultimately didn't survive there is a unique lesson to be learned.
Inventions come from trying to genuinely solve problems, push boundaries, and imagine a better future. Without that optimism and visionary mindset, where would we be today? There are countless failed inventions that resulted in many of the most well known products that we use today.
Every successful invention standing in your kitchen, your pocket, or your garage exists because someone before it tried something that didn't work, and someone after them learned from it.
The true question is, what's coming next...
Fun Facts
Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents over his lifetime, but also famously said he had not failed, he had simply found 10,000 ways that didn't work
The Post-it Note was invented accidentally when a 3M researcher trying to create a super-strong adhesive made a very weak one instead
Cornflakes were also an accidental invention: left-out wheat dough that John Harvey Kellogg decided to bake anyway
Over 3.6 million patent applications are submitted annually (~300K are accepted), with the number consistently rising, driven largely by high filing volumes in China, the U.S., and South Korea
The Printing Press, by Johannes Gutenberg, is considered the most famous invention. Followed by Electricity (Thomas Edison), Automobile (Karl Benz), and Telephone (Alexander Graham Bell)
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