Top 12 Most Terrible Inventions In The World’s History

You are currently reading this on one of the many incredible products that have made our life easier. Just take a look around your house.

Not every invention, though, is well-planned and beneficial. While some are as useful as a woolen submarine, others are unfit for their intended use. While some are made to fill a void in the hopes of making a little money, others are born with noble intentions.

Most Terrible Inventions In The World

Top 12 Most Terrible Inventions In The World’s History

1. Hair-Growing-Sprays

Hair growth sprays, which you may see on TV in late-night infomercials pressuring you to purchase one, cover over partial baldness by misting a powder-like substance that would only appear marginally better if you had sprayed regular color.

2. Phone Finger

Really? Indeed, cellphones are a magnet for fingerprints, but who wants these tacky finger covers made of latex to shield their screens while looking terrible? Given that capacitive touch displays rely on the real contact of human fingers, we wonder if they would even function with them.

3. The parachute coat

Franz Reichelt seen here sporting the parachute suit he created. A man dressed in a huge parachute garment. Ullstein's photo Image courtesy of Getty Images

Although Franz Reichelt was a tailor by trade, he was motivated to create a suit that pilots might use as a parachute during the early stages of powered human flight. He was so confident that his device would work after doing preliminary testing on dummies that he chose to test it by leaping from the bottom of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France, in 1912.

Franz tragically lost his life in a matter of seconds after his idea failed. But because of brave individuals like these, we now have ejector seats for pilots, parachutes, and wing suits for base jumping.

4. Coffee Pods

One of those innovations that must have looked like a great idea when it was first conceived, but in reality is horribly wasteful: coffee pods. Even John Sylvan, who created them while employed by Keurig Green Mountain, the company that makes coffee, regrets doing so.

Research indicates that coffee pods generate well over half a million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually on a global scale. You cannot recycle the capsules and pods at home, but certain specialized companies will do it for you. Additionally, it will take 500 years for them to decay in a landfill.

5. Hydrogen Blimps

Helium is typically used in blimps, or floating airships; however, when the Hindenburg airship (renowned for its accident) was created in 1931, its designers chose to utilize hydrogen instead of helium to make it float. But because hydrogen is more flammable, during the flight, it tragically caught fire, sending the Hindenburg hurtling out of control and killing 35 of the 97 persons on board.

6. Anti-Eating Mask

For those with extremely low willpower and strict diets, this mask prevents you from eating and covers your mouth. It is worn with strips that cross your head from the front to the back, giving you the appearance of Bane from The Dark Knight Rises (who appears to be following a strict diet as well).

7. Pop-up ads

Pop-up advertisements are often associated with unsatisfactory online browsing. On the other hand, their original purpose was to support rather than impede internet users. Pop-up boxes were created by Ethan Zuckerman to allow for the placement of advertisements on websites without overtly implying a connection between the content of the page and the advertisement.

Since then, Zuckerman has issued a voluminous apology, stating that his "intentions were good" for this extremely unpleasant innovation.

READ MORE: Top 10 Weirdest and Craziest Inventions of All Time

8. Chewing gum

While chewing gum has been around for thousands of years, the contemporary kind has only been available since the first chewing gum was sold commercially in 1848. Although flavors were soon added in the 1860s to increase its popularity, the 20th century saw the true growth. It was everywhere, from the backs of classroom tables to many a football manager's mouth.

Polyvinyl acetate, a type of plastic that becomes stuck to surfaces like shoes and pavement, is one of the primary constituents in contemporary gum. Additionally, this makes removal incredibly costly and time-consuming.

Fortunately, a fresh batch of chewing gum without plastic has begun to surface, so you don't have to feel bad about indulging in a nice chew.

9. Plastic carrier bags

The plastic bag was thought to be a reusable item when it was created in 1965 by Swedish engineer Sten Gustaf Thulin. But with millions of single-use plastic bags still in use, it would take a lot of work to ignore the fact that plastic pollution is a major issue facing the globe today.

By weight, some estimates estimate that by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. In addition to killing marine life, single-use plastic bags take millennia to biodegrade when buried in landfills.

10. Agent Orange

Agent Orange is the most absurd invention ever. The American military used a mixture of herbicides known as Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. It had high concentrations of dioxin, a dangerous chemical contaminant. After the 1970s, Agent Orange was no longer produced. Dioxin pollution, however, continues to have harmful impacts today. As many American Vietnam War veterans know, dioxin is a particularly dangerous and persistent organic contaminant linked to birth defects, diabetes, cancer, and other disorders.

The most deadly chemical pollutant is the one that causes Parkinson's disease, peripheral neuropathy, porphyria cutanea tarda, prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, soft tissue sarcomas, multiple myeloma, chronic B-cell leukemia, chloracne, diabetes type 2, Hodgkin's disease, hormone disruption, and ischemic heart disease. Given that all of these illnesses are fatal, Agent Orange ranks among the most foolish innovations of the twenty-first century.

READ MORE: Top 10 The Youngest Inventors in The World

11. Ford Pinto

From 1971 to 1980, the Ford Motor Company manufactured and distributed the Ford Pinto, a subcompact car, in North America. Production of the Pinto lasted from 1971 to 1980. The Ford Pinto was the brand-new endeavor for the firm to produce a subcompact vehicle for the US market.

One of Ford Motor Company's most famous subcompact cars from the 1970s was the Pinto, which was infamous for igniting in the event that an accident damaged the gas tank. It was revealed that the company rushed the Pinto through production and onto the market in response to lawsuits filed by victims' survivors and individuals who had been hurt.

12. Leaded gasoline

Today we read on petrol pumps “ Premium Unleaded” that actually means that there is no lead content in the gasoline we fill in our cars, but, there was a time when lead was mixed in gasoline so that the octane number could be increased and was used as knock inhibitor in gasoline engines. Lead had negative effects on atmosphere and human beings; particularly it caused Neurotoxicity in human beings. It also damaged the catalytic converters in cars, yet the fact remain that it was used for six decades, before being discontinued.

In summary

While the majority of the aforementioned technologies were created in the 20th century, they made use of antiquated techniques. These inventions were not part of the process of user discovery and iterative growth that has led to the success of firms like Tinder, Uber, and Dropbox. Instead, they were produced covertly and sold as disruptors of the industry.

If you have ever discovered the stupidest invention that we may have overlooked, please let us know in the comments.

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