Название: White Elephant Technology: 50 Crazy Inventions That Should Never Have Been Built, And What We Can Learn From Them
Автор: John J. Geoghegan
Издательство: The History Press
Год: 2023
Страниц: 208
Язык: английский
Формат: epub (true)
Размер: 28.8 MB

What exactly is White Elephant Technology?

White Elephant Technology (or WETech for short) is any unusual invention past or present that fails in the marketplace despite its innovative nature. From jeeps that fly to tanks that shouldn’t; from a wave-powered boat that took over three months to reach its destination to a jet-powered train that shook itself apart, White Elephant Technology showcases each inventor’s talent for creating something nobody asked for. Importantly, none of these inventions are speculative. Each one was built, field tested and worked more or less as planned (except when it killed its creator).

Although success is highly prized, failure has a lot to teach us, especially when you realise it’s the rule and not the exception. Still, no one has undertaken a survey of failed inventions despite history being littered with them … until now. White Elephant Technology corrects this oversight in an entertaining, respectful and occasionally humorous manner, proving that failure is not only as fascinating as success but is also the purest expression of the human condition.

Some WETech inventions take a mode of transportation and make it do something for which it was never intended. Boats by themselves do a great job of floating while planes comfortably navigate the sky. But combine the two and you compromise their original function, making the boat less seaworthy and the plane more likely to crash. These hybrid combos prove more isn’t necessarily better and it’s often less. Take, for example, the swimming tank.

Tanks were known for two things during the Second World War: their mobile fire power and heavy armour, which shielded them against attack. What they weren’t known for was swimming. But the Allies needed to get tanks ashore during D-Day to support the invasion. The goal, then, was to create an amphibious tank that could swim to the beachhead by itself rather than be carried by specialised landing craft. Given the M4A1 Sherman tank weighed 33 tons with armour 3in thick, you’d think making one float was a bad idea. However, such considerations have never stopped a WETech inventor.

Nicholas Straussler, a Hungarian engineer working for the British, was charged with finding the solution. Straussler was a specialist in designing amphibious, off-road vehicles for the military. Still, he faced a considerable problem – overcoming a tank’s weight and lack of buoyancy. His answer was to develop a waterproof flotation device – a canvas skirt surrounding the outside of the tank that displaced enough water to enable it to float. The collapsible skirt, which left the tank’s top and bottom open to the elements, was raised using compressed air. Once inflated, metal scaffolding was snapped into place to provide the skirt with additional support.

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