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Failed Inventions Museum Opens In Austria (VIDEO)

HuffPost Weird News   First Posted: 01/17/12 02:19 PM ET Updated: 01/18/12 11:30 AM ET

Necessity is the mother of invention, but is a museum dedicated to inventions that didn't work a necessary invention?

Fritz Gall thinks so.

A failed inventor himself, Gall decided to create a museum in his home town of Herrnbaumgarten, Austria, dedicated to the inventions that, unlike the personal computer, lightbulb or even wheel, have no chance of changing history -- or anything.

The inventions on display at the Museum of Nonsense are much more mundane, according to The Nation. They're bizarre.

For instance, let's say your at a public event and you don't want to be recognized on camera. One inventor dreamed up the "portable anonymizer" -- a stick with a black bar that you'd hold in front of your eyes -- to obscure yourself from the public's prying eyes.

Other inventions that nobody will ever use include a portable hole straight out of a "Roadrunner" cartoon, a fully transportable hat stand, a bristleless toothbrush for people with no teeth, and a fits-anyone jumper with sleeves in various lengths.

None of these inventions were successful, but, apparently, the musuem is.

“We held our first fair for rubbish inventions and thought we’d get 20 or 30 visitors but more than 5,000 came and so we knew we were obviously onto something,” Gall explained to Orange.co.uk.

However, Patrick Jones of Buzz60.com doesn't quite understand all the fuss.

"If you want to get your fill of bad ideas, you can go to Austria, or you can just turn on late night TV," he said.

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Necessity is the mother of invention, but is a museum dedicated to inventions that didn't work a necessary invention? Fritz Gall thinks so. A failed inventor himself, Gall decided to create a m...
Necessity is the mother of invention, but is a museum dedicated to inventions that didn't work a necessary invention? Fritz Gall thinks so. A failed inventor himself, Gall decided to create a m...
 
 
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BrettG88
Um... It's exactly what it looks like...
09:54 PM on 01/18/2012
Surely the Museum wont fail... RIGHT?!
04:01 PM on 01/18/2012
News flash - after a dismal opening the museum will be closing next week.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
SoulOfDespair
12:24 PM on 01/18/2012
The twirling fork isn't that bad of an idea! It would be fun to play with lmao... but that twirliing ice cream was disturbing to watch... especially that dripping drool that was bout to drop from the tip of his tongue... ew
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acarioti
Al Carioti is a Real Estate Broker in Orlando, Flo
10:41 AM on 01/18/2012
The "portable anonymizer" is just ahead of it's time!
09:52 AM on 01/18/2012
Didn't this museum actually open like three decades ago?
Al Schrader
Some overnight ideas take decades
06:28 PM on 01/17/2012
Sounds interesting. Knowing what doesn't work is just as valuable as knowing what does.
I've sketched-out things on paper I was sure were perfect, and it didn't work. Other times I build it for one purpose that failed, but found something else incredible instead that I wasn't even looking for.
Then there are those first timers... the ones that make your eyes water up when you know you are the first person in history to see it work...like when I started-up the first electric piston engine ever made (1984). Or the first piece of graviton matrix ever made (May 2011)....Alfred-
bonelessfluff
A mind is a terrible thing to eat
05:06 PM on 01/17/2012
That's a museum I would definately go to.
04:18 PM on 01/17/2012
Tooth brush without bristle was weird indeed!
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03:20 PM on 01/17/2012
Just put an Apple logo on them and they will fly off the shelves.