Engineering

Stories filed under Engineering in the Weird Science History archive — 56 stories from the strange edge of science.

• The $35 Ferret Hired to Clean a Particle Accelerator
• The Box of Light Bulbs the Corn Flakes Doctor Said Cured a King
• The City That Piped the Time Through Its Sewers — Until a Flood Stopped Every Clock at Once
• The Computer Pioneer Who Declared War on London's Organ Grinders
• The Efficiency Expert Who Tried Shaving With Two Razors at Once — and Lost the Time Bandaging His Throat
• The Frustrated Yank That Turned a Snapping Plastic Rod Into Gore-Tex
• The Library Supposedly Sinking Because the Architect Forgot About the Books
• The Man Who Strung Eight Miles of Telegraph Wire Around His Garden — and Was Told It Was 'Wholly Unnecessary'
• The Mechanical Horse That Trotted So You Didn't Have To — and the Doctor Who Invented the Gym Machine
• The Overheated Glass Plate That Bounced Off the Floor — and Became CorningWare
• The Scientists' Joke Club That Tried to Drill a Hole to Earth's Mantle
• The Ship-Sinking Clam That Taught an Engineer How to Dig Under the Thames
• The Hot Soldering Iron That Bumped a Syringe of Ink — and Invented the Inkjet Printer
• The Space Shuttle Boosters Supposedly Sized by the Rear Ends of Two Roman Horses
• The Talking Doll Edison Built With a Phonograph in Its Chest — and Pulled From Stores Within Weeks
• From Plato's Night Clock to Pea Shooters at the Window: A Short History of the Alarm Clock
• The Coffin That Waved a Flag If You Woke Up Buried — and Flunked Its Own Demonstration
• The Wobbly Bridge That Closed Two Days After Opening — Because People Walked on It
• The Concentration Helmet That Needed Its Own Oxygen Tank
• The Skyscraper That Melted a Jaguar — and Fried an Egg on the Pavement
• The Wooden Flying Boat That Flew Once, for 26 Seconds — and Was Kept Ready to Fly for 29 More Years
• The Chemist Who Asked to Be Buried in the Pringles Can He Invented
• The Engineer Who Built a Flip Table to Shake a Gold Coin Out of His Own Windpipe
• The Railway That Ran on Suction — and the Rats Blamed for Eating It
• The Thirty Men Who Ran Back and Forth Across a Warship to See If It Would Tip Over
• From a Cargo of Melting Ice to the Kitchen Fridge: A Short History of Refrigeration
• From Starving Horses to 'Bicycle Face': A Short History of the Bicycle
• The 3,000 Letters the Post Office Fired at Florida Inside a Cruise Missile
• The Drilling Rig That Pulled the Plug on a Lake — and Then Got Sucked Down the Drain
• The Frozen Chicken Cannon That Supposedly Wrecked a British Train
• The Grocer Who Hired Fake Shoppers to Push His Invention Around the Store
• From the Everlasting Staircase to the Home Gym: A Short History of the Treadmill
• The Bomb Full of Sleeping Bats That Burned Down Its Own Air Base
• The Twelve Leeches That Were Supposed to Ring a Bell When a Storm Was Coming
• The Canned Food That Arrived 48 Years Before the Can Opener
• The Nuclear Landmine Britain Planned to Keep Warm With Live Chickens
• The Rocket-Powered Wheel That Chased Britain's Admirals Into Barbed Wire
• The Flying Saucer the Air Force Built That Maxed Out at 35 MPH
• The Mechanical Duck That Fooled Paris With Fake Poop
• The Rocket Scientist Whose Leaky Fridge Idea Became the Super Soaker
• Galloping Gertie: The Bridge That Taught Engineers to Fear the Wind
• Greek Fire: The Byzantine Weapon That Burned on Water — and Whose Recipe Died With the Empire
• The Aircraft Carrier Britain Tried to Build Out of Ice
• The Airplane That Carried a Nuclear Reactor
• The Bomb Three Pigeons Were Trained to Steer
• The Burrs Stuck to a Dog That Became Velcro
• The Self-Taught Carpenter Who Solved the Deadliest Problem in Ocean Navigation
• The Chess-Playing Machine That Beat Napoleon (With a Man Hidden Inside)
• The Day a 25-Foot Wave of Molasses Flooded a Boston Neighborhood
• The Kingfisher That Redesigned the Bullet Train
• The Melted Candy Bar That Invented the Microwave
• The Movie Star Who Patented a Secret Weapon the Navy Rejected
• The Strange History of the Ballpoint Pen
• The Time Oregon Blew Up a Whale With Half a Ton of Dynamite
• The Wallpaper That Failed and Became Bubble Wrap
• The Windows That Took the Blame for a Plane Crash They Didn't Cause

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