Engineering

Stories filed under Engineering in the Weird Science History archive — 32 stories from the strange edge of science.

• The Twelve Leeches That Were Supposed to Ring a Bell When a Storm Was Coming
• The Wallpaper That Failed and Became Bubble Wrap
• The Windows That Took the Blame for a Plane Crash They Didn't Cause
• The Strange History of the Ballpoint Pen
• The Thirty Men Who Ran Back and Forth Across a Warship to See If It Would Tip Over
• The Time Oregon Blew Up a Whale With Half a Ton of Dynamite
• The Nuclear Landmine Britain Planned to Keep Warm With Live Chickens
• The Rocket-Powered Wheel That Chased Britain's Admirals Into Barbed Wire
• The Mechanical Duck That Fooled Paris With Fake Poop
• The Melted Candy Bar That Invented the Microwave
• The Movie Star Who Patented a Secret Weapon the Navy Rejected
• The Flying Saucer the Air Force Built That Maxed Out at 35 MPH
• The Frozen Chicken Cannon That Supposedly Wrecked a British Train
• The Grocer Who Hired Fake Shoppers to Push His Invention Around the Store
• The Rocket Scientist Whose Leaky Fridge Idea Became the Super Soaker
• The Kingfisher That Redesigned the Bullet Train
• The Day a 25-Foot Wave of Molasses Flooded a Boston Neighborhood
• The Drilling Rig That Pulled the Plug on a Lake — and Then Got Sucked Down the Drain
• The Burrs Stuck to a Dog That Became Velcro
• The Canned Food That Arrived 48 Years Before the Can Opener
• 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 Aircraft Carrier Britain Tried to Build Out of Ice
• The Airplane That Carried a Nuclear Reactor
• The Bomb Full of Sleeping Bats That Burned Down Its Own Air Base
• The Bomb Three Pigeons Were Trained to Steer
• The 3,000 Letters the Post Office Fired at Florida Inside a Cruise Missile
• 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
• From the Everlasting Staircase to the Home Gym: A Short History of the Treadmill
• 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

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