I'm looking for some inventions over the last 100 years (1895-1995) that aren't essential for life today, but that everyone knows about. For example: The Clapper (Clap on, Clap Off Lights).

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

How silly do you want to get?

If you want deep-end silliness, you could go for pet rocks, chia pets and mood rings.

Slightly less silly are frisbees, Slinkies, Rubiks cubes, and hula hoops.

Joy,
Lynn

All of the above are great! Thanks for the ideas, Lynn. Keep them coming.

Since I was basically in the "under 10" crowd during the early 90s, I couldn't tell you what kind of crazy inventions there were. I did, however, google and found this *AMAZING* product called the Flowbee.

Video

Deeley boppers! Did you guys have those? Or were they a uniquely UK bit of weirdness from my childhood?

LabRat (who can't believe people wandered the streets wearing those things....)

Good one, LabRat.

Yep. We have them, too, although about the only time I see them trotted out these days is around Halloween.

Joy,
Lynn

We still have deely boppers around Victoria Day and other "firecracker" celebrations like Canada Day. Ones that light up.

These surpass all of the deely boppers I've ever seen!

Superman Deely Boppers

Ankle warmers come to mind. Inversion boots (though they did make an appearance in Back to the Future II), topsy turvy tomato planters, togomatchi? electronic pets. Most things from Ronco (fill your own squeeze tubes, pocket fisherman, Popeet collapsible containers). Most anti-snoring devices. Anti-balding products up to and including Minoxidil. I'm sure there are a multitude of medical fad products out there from the 1930's through the 1950's as well.

Thanks, Shallowford, and all the DeelyBopper fans. These are great! Keep them coming.

Viagra? No, I think that was later.
Comics?

Um... Well, okay, that fits my criteria... but not exactly what I had in mind. For some reason, I can't imagine Clark using this. Although for conversation or another character... when did that come available? Hmmm... <<quick Wikipedia search>> nope, sorry, 1998... too late. My story is 1993. Thanks for the suggestion.

An aside, Wikipedia notes that a 2007 study found: Wouldn't that be funny, if it had originally been marketed to the business community to help with jet-lag.

If you want something that isn't at all funny and in fact was quite dangerous, use the fluoroscope. For a time in the 1930's to 1950's, it was found in all kinds of places, like drugstores and shoe stores (to show you what your foot really looked like crammed into that shoe), doctors' offices, vets' offices, anywhere it might give the business a boost. It only disappeared when doctors discovered how much radiation it put out and how dangerous it really was when used improperly.

Here is a shoe-fitting fluoroscope and its history. Interestingly, the machine was in use in Canada and the UK until about 1970, whereas it disappeared from the US by 1960 due to legislation.

The technology is still used today, albeit in a much safer way with far less radiation exposure to both the operators and the users.

I just looked up Labbie's reference to "deely boppers" and found a picture of a cat with one on the back of its shoulders. I wonder how many band-aids it took to close the wounds from that setup?

Interesting invention, Terry, but not exactly well-known in 1993 USA. Too bad about the radiation though, I could use the advice about shoes.

Beepers?

I agree, beepers are a little out of date in 2012. According to Clark though, they're a great way to track down your missing partner buried in cement or out on a date with a psychopathic Irishman; therefore, I'm guessing in 1993-1995 Metropolis some would say Beepers are an "essential" invention.

I'm thinking like "electric toothbrush", "Chia-pet", the "George Forman grill" (whoa, infomerical flashback :rolleyes: ) type of stuff. Stuff everyone "knows" about, but they don't need to live their lives. Hint: Stuff that might not be found in other dimensions or stuff with wacky names that might be called something else. Things we take for granted.

Ah, gotcha. Didn't realize they still had to be *current* items.

Um... <racks brain, comes up at a loss>

It doesn't have to be "current" current. "Macramé" would work, even though it hasn't been "current" since 1977, but everyone who knows anything about the 70s (which L&C should) knows about it. But it wasn't essential... although, in my house - when I was growing up - it sure felt like it. Ugh.

Cordless landline phones?

8-track stereo
Betamax tape
5.25" floppy disks
12" laser discs - the big (but expensive) thing in video then, but due to be replaced by DVD a few years later.

leg warmers

The Edsel and other iconic "doomed to fail" cars

Alternatives to the standard sort of photocopying such as ink and spirit duplicating machines, chemical copying processes, thermal paper (as used in older fax machines), etc.

Dot matrix printers
Electric typewriters - doomed once word processors really took off.

CB radio (yes, I know it's still around, but a lot of people abandoned it when cell phones came in)

Lava lamps

Great list, Marcus! Thank you.

Ooooh - tippex and carbon paper! The twin banes of my life back then. Boy, did I jump for joy when WPs arrived!

LabRat

Etch-A-Sketch
Lite Brite
Easy Bake Oven
Mr. Potato Head
Lode Runner
Atari
Game Boy
Nintendo

(Sorry, I was still a kid in the 80's & early 90's!)

TVs and monitors with tubes rather than LCDs.

Vacuum tubes (e.g. radio "valves") generally - though the first are very late 19th century.

And of course phones with dials rather than buttons.

Mechanical adding machines.

Mechanical watches.

Good ones, Marcus.
Tie-die T-shirts
the bikini
and following that, the bikini wax (close your eyes,gents)
beat up vans painted with flowers
crash pads
communes (large groups living together)
following that: "don't drink the cool-aide"
TV Shows: "I Dream of Jeannie", "Bewitched" "Bob Hope Specials" "I Love Lucy"
widespread birth of surfing on longboards
two-piece bathing suits
thongs (both the shoe kinds and the bikini bottoms type)
Guess it's late. You see where my mind is.
Another one - a telephone affixed to the wall, you crank it and ask for "central"
Actual telephone operators (speaking people) who take your call at a business like a bank
Secretaries who type and take dictation
Mimeograph paper for teachers to hand out lessons(aka the blue death)
penny loafers
saddle shoes
skirts on girls and women
actual dresses on women
Drumroll "The Pill"
The only face book was if you stood next to a person and spoke to them.
All for now.
r/
Artemis

And of course phones with dials rather than buttons.

Direct dial telephone. I still remember trying to call my grandparents. You dialed the local operator who put you through to the long distance operator, who put you through to the international operator, who took the number that you were trying to call. Everyone hung up and 6-8 hours later when the operator made the connection, she called you back and you actually got to talk!

Going for the why-did-they-invent-this-in-the-first-place? vote, the odd button-dial phone. Not a rotary dial, not a touchtone--a phone with the buttons in a circle.

http://www.wholesaleelectronicschea...style-pattern-push-button-3310-2311.html

Oooh. I love that phone! So, cool!