Archive Gallery: PopSci's Most Impractical Inventions

there's a restaurant in Japan similar to this. it's called the sushi-go-round (i have no idea what it's called in english) but you got sushi off of a conveyor belt that wen by all the tables, and when you payed, the waitress counted the plates (color coded to mach prices) and you payed the appropriate amount of money.
fyi, go there earlier in the morning, because they don't change out the sushi too often.

the rest of this stuff? early photoshop. (you can tell, because it's actually drawn.)

in the slew of getting the groceries done faster, would an in store gps help find the products we need in the fastest way possibele?

the idea: a screen mounted on the handlebars of a grocery cart has a search box in it. type in the stuff you need and it directs you to the aisle its on and even the location on the shelf.

the downside: store managers have to stock shelves according to a set code that matches the gps. and may have to reprogram if they decide to change the store around.

another possible downside, it may quicken electronic store robberies if this instore gps is used for other stores besides safeway etc....

Hospital airship. sounds cool for like hard to reach places like the mountains, airship slowly flying around anywere send out a helicopter to pick a patient and send them up to the hospital.

Certainly there needs to be an entire category for the lighter than air transportation that PopSci reports to be on the threshold of returning every year or so.

While some of these inventions seem a little offbeat, the writer of the article is judging them by today's standards. Remember - especially for the transportation category - that these dates are near the end of the great depression and the midwest dustbowl drought. A farmer may not have been able to afford gasoline, or a family a car at all.

I'd much rather see an article on the same items where someone took some time to find out why they were invented and explain the situation these folks were in at the time. The words of the author remind me of a 12 year old's perspective, saying "why didn't they just buy X or buy a car, or do it by hand?". Ever churn butter by hand? It's exhausting work, especially when combined with all of the other manual labor required to live then. Ever walk 7 miles to town and back with groceries or farm supplies? Ever think that the operative word in "trainer with the "poochmobile" is "trainer"? Ever think that not all breeds would not be suited to the poochmobile, but some would? My Siberian Huskies live to run, and if they can pull something at the same time they like it even better.

Get rid of the smart-aleck comments that reveal your ignorance. Stop sniping at people who are obviously more motivated and creative than you are. Your "creative writing" could be done by most teenagers. If you are a pro, then write like a pro.

I'm not sure where the "radiation exposure" comes from... please explain!!

@finalfontier
Radiation comes from the sun. Our atmosphere absorbs most of it before it reaches us at ground level. If airships cruised at 20k feet and greater like commercial aircraft, this would be a concern. But given most cruise at 10k-15k (the same height as the highest mountains on Earth) I think radiation would not be a problem.

@PopSci
The Google Books frame you've given with your oversized ads on the right makes reading pathetically tedious. Had to zoom in to read, and then I couldn't see the whole page, I had to pan back and forth. It wasn't worth my time and aggravation to read.

And the notice everyone receives about linked URLs by default is stupid. Your software should be able to detect a linked URL and show to only those commenters, not everyone. I'll be less likely to bother with commenting in the future.

extremechiton, the idea of using a GPS- like system to guide the customer to the product they want is overkill. RFID tech could be more easily set up and operated at a much lower cost. Some of the national grocers have experimented with using RFID to make checkout-on-the-fly possible using the RFID-enabled credit/debit card in your wallet.
If the grocer wanted to build a display of a given
product in a remote location far from its normal shelf location, RFID-tagged cans of green beans could update the stores database of their new second location automatically.
The grocers wanted to have LCD screens mounted on the shopping carts could wirelessly interface with a stores secure database as it interfaced with the shopping list you entered on your PDA before you went to the store. The display on the cart could be prompted by the shopper to show the location of any product. It could also highlight the location(s) of items in their weekly ads.

I dont look busy because I did it right the first time

@boucains I have to agree with boucains compared to modern tech this stuff seems like a joke and some of it is I will agree. But like the butter churner by bicycle seems like a good idea thats hard work and with just a couple extra gears you could get a lot of rotations pretty quick. And for the windmill grinder again sounds like a good idea a windmill can develop a lot of power and doesn't get tired like a arm does. As for waiting for the wind to blow that was in Kansas the wind blows there a whole lot I'm from Oklahoma I know. If you looked at the design for a original butter churn today you would probably laugh at it and call it inefficient but it worked and we know a whole lot more today than they did and it seems like stupid stuff gets designed every day.

@ boucains

Lighten up dude! Clearly you seem to be focusing on the old guy with the dog wheel but some of the others? mom sewing while the kids ride around the block to power mom up? Vaccuum operated by a player piano?

I think its meant to be a lighthearted piece of fluff and NOT some kind of evil or snarky backhand to those who lived during more difficult times.

By the look of your pic, you could stand to eat a few less pulled pork sammiches and it should lower that blood pressure and, more importantly, that chip on your shoulder.