Awesome Inventions

We’ve had at least one can of WD-40 in our house for as long as we can remember. This spray-on lubricant has gotten us out of numerous jams over the years, from stuck screws to squeaky door hinges. But where did this miracle substance get its start? Layers delves into the history and original purpose of this incredibly useful invention.

Inspired by footage of a futuristic garbage can from 2017, Blytical became obsessed with replicating its design. What makes his can special is its proximity sensor which triggers a mechanical iris just in time for tossed trash to land in its receptacle. Someone needs to put this idea into production.

Most of the things that Matty from Unnecessary Inventions creates live up to the channel’s name. But once in a while, he comes up with something that could actually improve lives. Case in point – this wearable vacuum that sucks up Cheesy Poofs and other snack foods so you can eat them without getting your hands dirty.

Maker and almost Mythbuster Allen Pan created a tongue-in-cheek invention for people who struggle with chopsticks. Instead of giving in and using a fork, whip out Allen’s American Chopsticks, and you’ll be picking up your Panda Express orange chicken like a pro. Purchase the STL file from Allen’s Real Busted Merch site for three bucks.

Like many of you, we’re guilty of falling asleep with a phone in our hand while scrolling through random videos and memes. But if you doze off with the phone in front of your face, you might get bonked on the nose. This hilariously unnecessary invention from Kazuya Shibata ensures your face is protected in the event you drop your phone while in bed.

Long before seatbelts, airbags, and anti-lock brakes, there were plenty of well-intentioned but ill-conceived automotive safety devices. With big trucks and SUVs causing greater concerns about pedestrian safety, I Did a Thing dusted off one such invention – the Pedestrian Catcher – and tested it to see how effective it could be.

Artificial intelligence has become a major subject of today’s technology conversations. In 1983, one company marketed an early smart home product designed to control home appliances via voice control like Siri or Alexa. Kevin from Popular Science got his hands on the costly Butler in a Box to explain how it worked without Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or the Internet.

Research Fellow and Imagineer Lanny Smoot is only the second Disney cast member to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. The first was Walt Disney. In this video, Lanny shows off a few of his incredible creations, including an amazing interactive “Holotile” floor that moves beneath your feet.

Because umbrellas do their job pretty well, there hasn’t been much need for innovation in their design. I Build Stuff came up with a modern spin on the old umbrella by making one that flies and hovers above his head. The umbrella drone has lots of drawbacks like it doesn’t fold and has a built-in time limit, but it’s still a fun build.

Colin Furze has created all kinds of inventions over the years, from useful to useless. This one falls into the latter bucket, though it could be used to get your campfire going. Because nobody was asking for it, Colin created a flamethrower that mounts inside of his pants and shoots fire from his butt. It’s powered by an aerosol can and an electric igniter.

Simone Giertz used to make stupid robots, but she’s moving up in the world. Her latest invention is wildly practical. While looking for a solution for hanging clothes in shallow spaces, she came up with Coat Hingers – folding metal hangers that hold clothes in half the space. The design looks simple, but it took massive amounts of prototyping to get it right.

Zip ties, aka cable ties, are great at bundling cables and attaching items. The only thing we don’t like is having to find scissors or shears to cut off the excess. Zip-Tite tie wraps solve this problem by indenting the edges of each tie so you can break them off at any length without tools or sharp edges. Plus, they retain the tensile strength of regular zip ties.

To follow up on his bicycle that runs on diagonally-mounted tracks instead of wheels, The Q is showing off another unusual bike design. This one rolls along the ground on tracks that lie flat on the surface. It looks more stable than the first design – but there’s more rolling resistance, so it needed a huge center gear to provide enough torque to move it.

Handling pesticides can be quite dangerous. To help protect himself, inventor Handy Geng decided to fabricate a mech suit he can wear while spraying for insects. The winged metal armor has built-in spray tips and keeps overspray off his skin, while a mask in the helmet filters out chemical vapors. (Turn captions on.)

Pizza restaurants strive to deliver your pizza while it’s hot, but that’s not always possible. Colin Furze came up with an overengineered solution to the problem. Rather than insulating already-cooked pizzas, his Suzuki pizza delivery motorcycle has a built-in oven to cook pizzas while in transit. He built the oven from scratch using sheet metal and hydroforming.

With his backyard teeming with mosquitoes, Allen Pan found inspiration in a TED Talk by Nathan Myhrvold for a machine that zapped mosquitoes out of the air with lasers. While that never came to fruition, Pan and laser expert StyroPyro came up with something simpler – a sort of fly swatter that uses a pair of powerful laser beams instead of a mesh screen.