Weenesday August 1.

1990 ~ North Shore News - 37

It seemed like a good idea at the time...

MUSEUM EXHIBIT SHOWS
THE HUMOROUS SIDE
OF FAILED INVENTIONS

A VACUUM cleaner that spews more dust than it collects,
a cast iron bicycle that weighs over 70 pounds, a hand-held
lamp that fails to produce any visible light but gives its
owner an electric shock every time it’s turned on.

Never seen these gadgets on the
home shopping channel? That's
because these bona fide inven-
tions, as you can imagine, never
caught the public’s fancy.

These gizmos and many more
are currently on display at the
North Shore Museum and Ar-
chives at Presentation House for

46 Among the most
notable mis-inventions
in the exhibition are an
electric marshmallow
toaster and an electric
Aair-waving machine
which electrocuted
many of its owners. $F

the rest of the summer. And it's
probably the most exposure these
4oomed ideas will ever receive.

According to the curator of It
Seemed Like a Good Idea at the
Time: Gadgets and Mis-inven-
tions, the wonderful creations
faiied in the marketplace for a
variety of reasons.

‘During the turn of the cen-
tury,’’ explains Terry Lewis,
“labor-saving devices were like
gold. The irony is, most of them
(the exhibit's inventions) were
labor-intensive.”’

By Evelyn Jacob
News Reporter
were other

would-be
into ac-

there
these
take

Of course
details that
Edisons failed to
count.

For instance, the Amficar, a
German-designed automobile
meant to operate on both land
and sea, seemed, in 1964, like a
good idea.

But Lewis points
drawbacks.

“They sank. They leaked quite
badly. They were made from
metal and rusted on the way home
after each dip in salt water. [t
wasn't very good 45 a boat or a
car, and it) was horrendously
noisy.”

But for all the technical failures
inherent in the exhibit, it speaks
of an earlier spirit of invention
and imagination.

With the discovery of electricity
at the turn of the contury, thou-
sands of North Americans
enamored with its magic and the
promise of becoming the next
Alexander Graham Bell, had light
bulbs going off in theirs heads and
cash registers ringing in their cars.

Among the most notable mis-
inventions in the onibit > ©
elearic marshmalik. wre!
electric hair-wavi a:
which electrocuted inusy oF

out a few

ee

dies Rit a Sil

NEWS photo Cindy Goodman

NORTH SHORE Museum and Archives curator Terry Lewis is seen in the doomed Amficar, one of
the many ‘‘mis-inventions’’ currently on display at the Museum's summer show, /f Seeri‘ed Like a

Good Idea at the Time: Gadgets and Misinventions.

owners, and a hand-held ultravio-
let lamp designed to cure tooth-
aches and sinuses through electric
shock.
“Inventors tried to apply elec-
tricity to everything,” says Lewis.
Today we are Ieft with these

unworkable failures, but we can't
merely dismiss them as inventions
of an earlier, more naive, time.
How many of us have thrown
away money on_ useless items
advertised as miracies? Electric
belts designed to ‘‘shake off’

unwanted pounds, ‘'permanent”’
hair removal devices, tapes that
subliminally make us thinner or
richer or more desirable to the
opposite sex, electric
toothbrushes, power-driven  win-
dows....

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