inventions

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Time is Money

(This post was originally published on September 20th, 2011. I had no idea what kind of response I'd get from the _floss community since it was sort of off-brand, but this comment from loripop not only made my 2011, it made my entire 6-year, 2000+ posts flossing career: "This is one of the most beautiful things I've ever read on the internet." Loripop, whoever and wherever you are, thank you, thank you, thank you. And thanks to all the other wonderful commenters over the years on this post and so many... READ ON

Big Question

Who Was Murphy and Why Is There a Bed Named After Him?

Image credit: Valet Custom Cabinets & ClosetsThe Murphy Bed, also known as a wall bed, fold down bed or pull down bed, is a bed that’s hinged at one end so it can be folded up and stored vertically against a wall or in a closet. It’s useful in situations where floor space is at a premium, like studio apartments, dorm rooms, mobile homes and cruise ship cabins.The bed is named, no surprise, after a guy named Murphy—William L.... READ ON

Article

FoundIt!

Ending my SXSW coverage this week with a little write up of a _flossy product called FoundIt! I think the name pretty much gives it away (yep, a tech-based lost-and-found service that connects finders with members), but what you might not get from the name is how its, er, founder, an economics professor, came up with the idea. One day, his daughter left her photography portfolio in the back of a cab. Her entire creative work life, vanished without a trace. This inspired the germ of the idea, which... READ ON

Article

The Dynasphere: Vehicle of Yesterday's Tomorrow

In 1932, Dr. J. A. Purves invented the Dynasphere, a ten-foot, thousand-pound wheel of steel that didn't exactly revolutionize personal motoring. The original 2.5 horsepower gas motor could achieve a top speed of about 25 miles per hour, with the driver sitting in the middle, tipping the thing left or right to steer...and clenching his teeth, hoping nothing was in the way. You may ask: why does the name reference a sphere, when this thing looks like a wheel or a hoop? Well, the outer body of the... READ ON

Article

Your Daily Mind-Blow: The Lumarca

In this short documentary by Jason Scott, we see a beautiful work of sculpture/installation art made by Matt Parker, Albert Hwang and Elliot Woods. I won't spoil how it's done -- stick around through at least 1:50 for "the second blowing of [your] mind" when it's explained how exactly this is put together. If you're in New York, you can experience the Lumarca for yourself at Eyebeam -- for two more days, anyway! You can also learn more and even build your own. Pro tip: try fullscreen mode, and watch... READ ON

Article

The Extraordinary Catalog of Peculiar Inventions

Julia Suits has assembled a book filled with ads for real prank machines used in fraternal lodges in the early part of the 20th century, complete with an introduction by David Copperfield. This volume is extremely appropriate for readers of mental_floss, as it's full of trivia on weird inventions, the history of pranks, and a very special form of Americana. The book is bizarre and hilariously perverse, packed with clippings from catalogs sent to the high muckety-mucks at the Modern Woodmen of America,... READ ON

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The Human Centipede, Circa 1928

Update: the full review is now posted. Enjoy! On Monday I'll post my full review of The Extraordinary Catalog of Peculiar Inventions: The Curious World of the Demoulin Brothers and Their Fraternal Lodge Prank Machines (including my interview with its author, scholar-of-the-weird Julia Suits). But to whet your appetite for that review, and freak you out just a bit before Halloween, I bring you this clip illustrating one of the inventions featured in the Extraordinary Catalog: The Human Centipede.... READ ON

Big Question

Why Are the Letters in ABC Order?

The alphabet, as best as historians can tell, got its start in ancient Egypt sometime in the Middle Bronze Age, but not with the Egyptians. They were, at the time, writing with a set of hieroglyphs that were used both as representations of the consonants of their language and as logographs (a logograph or logogram is a letter, symbol, or sign used to represent an entire word). While the glyphs were sort of alphabetic in nature, they were used more for their logographic component than as “letters.”... READ ON

Article

8 Amazing Automatons & the Minds Behind Them

Since the Greeks first told the myth of Pygmalion, who wished the statue he loved would come to life, it seems man has been trying to build a perfect replica of himself. Some would say we're getting closer to that possibility as computer technologies evolve and the first attempts at artificial intelligence are developed. However, the same thing was said centuries ago when clockmakers—using little more than gears, springs, cams, and levers—built complex machines, known as automatons, that could mimic... READ ON

Article

Steven Johnson on Where Good Ideas Come From (Hint: Coffee!)

"The English coffee house was crucial to the development and spread of ... The Englightenment, ... in part because of what people were drinking there." So begins author Steven Johnson's excellent TED Talk about ideas, and in part about how the rise of coffee changed the world. Another quote: "The water wasn't safe to drink. Effectively, until the rise of the coffee house, you had a population that was drunk all day." This is backed up by the real story of Johnny Appleseed, who was bringing a... READ ON