Introduction One day in 1849 Walter Hunt began tinkering with a piece of wire Hunt was trying to invent an improved type of rifle for the army One of the things he needed for his rifle was a small wire clasp that could be opened and closed many times without breaking He also wanted it to have a spring so that it would open easily After three hours of twisting and bending the wire Hunt created something he didn’t expect Instead of a clasp to be attached to a rifle he invented what turned out to be one of the world’s greatest little gadgets the safety pin We all know what a safety pin looks like Very few of us however think of such a common everyday item as having been invented let alone wonder who invented it Look around the room you’re in and you’ll discover hundreds of things that did not exist before someone like Walter Hunt created them In fact just about everything you see or use has been invented cars faucets nails many types of flowers and plants refrigerators televisions stereos pens hamburgers and the catsup that goes on top Since its founding in 1790 the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued over 4 million patents for inventions of every con ceivable kind Our history books tell us about the most famous inventors people like Benjamin Franklin Eli Whitney Cyrus McCormick Charles Goodyear Alexander Graham Bell George East man and Thomas Edison to name just a few Yet a surprising number of JIM MURPHY 5
inventions were created by people who did not spend their working day in laboratories fiddling with metal wood and chemicals Many of America’s inventors were carpenters and mechanics shopkeepers artists teachers factory and office workers ordinary people who simply had an idea they thought would be of some benefit to the general populace After these people had thought out their concept as much as they could and maybe even made a working model of it they applied to the Patent and Trademark Office for a patent The general procedure for getting a patent is described at the back of this book part of the procedure is to supply a drawing of the invention What follows is a good-natured quiz involving the patent drawings of some of the lesser-known inventors Each of the drawings has a clue that hints sometimes directly sometimes indirectly at what the inventions were supposed to do A number of possible answers accompany the drawing and help you in your guessing As you turn the pages you’ll be surprised to discover the many kinds of things that were thought up over the years Some of them were truly ahead of their time interesting concepts but too complicated or not efficient enough to operate or manufacture A few were useful in their time but seem very old-fashioned or quaint to us today And just about all of them are now considered rather odd or silly or as the title says weird and wacky But we shouldn’t judge these inventions too harshly After all the things we consider modern now will begin to look strange as new things are invented to replace or improve on them What is more each one of the inventions you will see no matter how outlandish represents an individual’s attempt to come to grips with duplicate and in some cases overcome the forces of nature Each is a step sometimes a very tiny step toward making things a little better or faster or more long-lasting Above all they are a tribute to the creative spirit that will work long into the night overcome financial and educational obstacles and endure ridicule in order to turn a dream into a reality 6 WEIRD WACKY INVENTIONS
chapter one From the Neck Up Each morning we go through a ritual of studying our own sleepy faces in the mirror brushing our teeth and combing our hair Some people will shave others will put on makeup Before we go out we give ourselves a final check to be sure the part of us that sits on our shoulders looks as good as it can Inventors have given a lot of thought to the area from our neck up See if you can figure out what they had in mind when they invented the following things JIM MURPHY 7
