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.