Chance and close observation are sometimes the catalyst to the wonderful inventions we find all around us. Gizmodo recently listed the Top 10 Greatest (accidental) Inventions of All Time. Yes, of course they are, comically, not the greatest of all time, but they certainly include great stories of inventors discovering that what they stumbled upon was more successful than what they had intended on creating.
I know that sushi is a traditional Japanese food, but look what a German design firm has done to bring the process of making sushi into the 21st century. This is a great new application to an established mechanism used to roll tobacco, but it is still clever.
Now anyone can roll sushi, or anything for that matter. I’d love to try to roll a few desserts, or make lasagna rolls, with this!
This ingenious hot tub is getting some attention because it is off the grid, mobile, lightweight and well, just awesome. Firewood is placed within the coil of pipes and set aflame. When the water heats, it creates a circulation of hot water. Made of poly-fiber and stainless steel, this portable hot tub is shown on a canoe, tied to the roof of the car and in remote places where you normally can’t find a hot tub – until now.
This tire design has LED bulbs infused to work at any speed, serving as daylight running lights or night lights for post sunset rides. Fog, rain, dusk and dawn beware; these lights are great for any condition.
This unique device is used to simulate the flickering flash and glow of an HD television. Set it on a timer when you leave, and deter potential thieves who may otherwise enter your home. I actually think this is a great idea, especially since it swells and fades like a real TV, but uses 50 times less power to operate.
Kitchen appliances never cease to impress me, especially when you see one of these gems every once in a while. To me, this is like a 3D waffle cone, maybe for a dessert, or for breakfast on-the-go. Perhaps you can batter dip it and fry it for fair food with a fruit dip. This is a great waffle iron design!
I thought this Wheel of Nutrition Plate is pretty funny. So, then I looked to see if ensuring the proper portion size was a big enough problem that someone would need to use an illustrated, color-coded surface to lay out their food. I guess some people do.
There are few means by which people have found to tell time. Then there are the many ways that people have created to display time. This Aspiral Clock is a very unique approach to showing the time of day, and dizzying at that. As time marches forward, this spiral clock slowly turns, appearing to advance a rolling ball until it reaches the 12 o’clock hour and begins all over again. Clever.
I was amazed to see this early invention of the GPS (1932). It used a rolling key map to gauge where you were as you drove. Not so much global positioning, but it was a clever way to track your location around the neighborhood.
As for newspapers, reading in real time hasn’t always been as easy as picking up an iPad. Check out these kids in 1938 reading the children’s page of a Missouri newspaper as it is fed out of an early fax machine.
Even life vests have evolved into a state-of-the-art device, as compared to bicycle inner tubes wrapped around the upper bodies of these young Germans in 1925.
No matter what the controversy may be, you can not deny that the production process for the new Jabulani soccer ball for the 2010 World Cup is incredible.
I had seen a DIY soccer ball online a little back and couldn’t help but think that it really doesn’t matter what you play the game of soccer with, it just matters that you play!
