Worst Inventions: Know These Ultimate Useless Products Of Mankind
- Technology New Innovation & Researches
Sophia Silva- 0
- 10 minutes read
What do DDT, spam emails, and a Twinkle Tush share in common? They all are the worst inventions of all time. But the list does not stop here. There are many more inventions that are pointless. In this article, we will see the 10 worst inventions that are of no use to mankind.
Top 10 Worst Inventions Of All Time
Not all inventions or discoveries can benefit mankind. Some in fact can be harmful to the progress of human beings while others will just leave you scratching your hair. There are many such inventions that are baseless. Among the top 20 worst inventions, we will see some of them in this article.
DDT
DDT or Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane was first created in 1874 by Othmar Zeidler who was an Austrian chemist and later synthesized into an insecticide by Paul Hermann Müller who was a Swiss chemist in 1939, who even received a Nobel Prize for its invention. It was thought as a miracle result to just about any pest and was broadly used across the 1940s and 50s in the United States in the Agricultural and Pest Control industries. This tops the list among the worst inventions of mankind.
When evidence developed that DDT may be the reason for cancer, it was prohibited in the United States for agricultural utilization in 1976. It has had a global ban since 2004 but is still used in some third-world countries to struggle against Malaria and other diseases that are mosquito borne. So its invention was purposeless.
Spray On Hair
We are not talking about the kinds of bald spot removers, spray-on, that cover up little spots. In the early 1990s, men actually considered they could reverse balding by spraying this product on “hair.” For 39.99, you could receive a one-month supply of this stuff back then. However, the craze didn’t last long. It turns out that the fake spray on the hair looked worse than just remaining bald.
Leaded Gasoline
Leaded gasoline was prepared by Thomas Midgley, Jr., who was an American chemist, who added the tetraethyl lead (TEL) additive to gasoline. Midgley added the TEL to the gasoline for overcoming engine knock while trialing internal combustion engines at Stanford in 1921. Standard Oil which is now Exxon instantly formed an entity to mass-produce the new oil.
Though the impacts of lead poisoning were well understood in the early 20th century, leaded gasoline was not staged out in the US until 1984. This invention was officially banned by the WHO in 2004. Still, it is predicted that 7 million tons of lead were discharged into the atmosphere from that gasoline in the US alone. This is among the worst inventions that changed the world.
Crinoline
Crinoline was a type of under structure that was worn by the 18th and 19th century women to puff up or push out their skirts. It is often termed as a hoop skirt. These structures were at times designed out of steel, making walking with putting them on, an extremely taxing prospect. The crinoline was considered as a walking prison for women. But let us be honest. Women who lived in the Victorian era had to face a lot of fashion pains.
Nintendo Virtual Boy
The Nintendo Virtual Boy is a basic portable 3D gaming device. It was used as “stereoscopic” 3D graphics that were rendered mostly red, for basic games experience like golf and tennis. Players looked and wore through a head-mount and availed the controller to play the games.
In 1995, Nintendo basically gave up on producing the device and pushed it onto the market to begin working on the N64. It was pretty much an instant failure and became among the worst-selling consoles in gaming history.
Ab belts
Among our list of top 10 dumbest inventions here we have Ab belts. Have you aimed to have a six-pack without ever requiring to do any kind of actual ab workout? But we are sorry to break the bad news to you, but you will have to keep dreaming, as of now. Ab belts became famous in the 90s and stayed marketed even in the present day, even while research portrays that wearing an ab belt has no real muscular benefit. In fact, the FTC had filed lawsuits against entities that were making false assertions about the ab belts.
Agent Orange
Agent Orange is a defoliant and herbicide chemical that was created by the U.S Army in the 1940s. The concept was that the agent could be sprayed on trees and bushes to ruin the cover that the rebels could use in heavily laminated areas.
This idea became infamous, however, when they were used by the US in Vietnam in the 1960s. Agent Orange was later revealed to have adverse health impacts, not only for the Vietnamese rebels but also for the soldiers who used it, as well. It caused deformities, birth defects, and other serious health issues.
Microsoft Bob
Microsoft Bob was released in March 1995, and it was a program that was intended to be a more user-friendly interface for operating the operating systems of Microsoft, Windows 3.1X, and Windows 95. Fundamentally it turned a desktop background of the user into a room of the house, with books and objects that were clickable and that corresponded to functions. There was also Rover, a cartoon dog who offered directions through speech bubbles.
It is among Microsoft’s biggest failures. Melinda Gates, who helped the project, acknowledged that the program actually needed more operating power than could presently be achieved by computers operating Windows 95. So that implied that Bob was primarily useless. It was interrupted before the release of Windows 95, even through Rover the dog emerged again from time to time.
Hydrogenated oils
You may be aware of hydrogenated oils as saturated fats or trans fats, which research in the early 2000s concluded to be extremely hard for the human body to completely digest and is a cause for some cancers. Hydrogenated oils adopted the form of famous vegetable oils and butter substitutes that contained less fat and calories compared to the traditional oil. It should be noted that trans fats are mainly partially hydrogenated oils and have been prohibited by the FDA. This is considered as one of the worst inventions for the environment.
Parachute jacket
This is among those inventions that became finally tragic for the inventor. Frantz Reichelt spent his whole life giving on a jacket that could be worn by aviators and that could turn into a parachute, that should the aviator require to eject. He tested the early versions on dummies and was fortunate. Sadly, those versions were not possible to wear.
In 1912, he licensed the Paris government to test his new design by jumping from the Eiffel Tower, and they finally gave permission for it—thinking he was testing a dummy. But he soon announced that he would test the jacket himself by jumping. Though they tried to prevent him, he jumped anyway unfortunately to his death.
The Bottom Line
From the above examples, it was quite evident that there have been many worst inventions in this world that ultimately did no good to mankind. Apart from the examples that have been stated above, there are many other such names that are not possible to mention. Among the list of 50 worst inventions, we have tried to mention the top most famous and hilarious examples.
