Category: Inventions

Oddly futuristic for the mid-1930s, the apparatus in this photo looks like a cross between a giant flower and a dish antenna, strapped to a soldier’s body and tested at close range. One view shows a man braced under a circular frame of dark, segmented “petals,” suggesting a collapsible reflector or shield designed to be…

A striped two-piece and a confident pose turn an ordinary showroom corner into a small spectacle of modern convenience. Beside her stands a tall “Bikini Automat,” its glass-fronted compartments stacked with neatly packaged swimwear, as if beach season could be purchased as casually as a snack. The surrounding displays and machine-lined backdrop hint at a…

A woman stands at a streamlined vending machine labeled “ICE COLD WHISKY,” cup in hand, as if ordering a soft drink rather than a spirit. The front panel reads “FULL MEASURE,” with options like water and soda noted above, and the whole setup feels designed to make alcohol purchasing quick, tidy, and almost anonymous. Even…

Mounted right on the shopfront wall, the tall cabinet labeled “Feinkost” turns the sidewalk into a self-serve counter, its stacked little windows hinting at neatly portioned delicacies waiting behind glass. A passerby pauses with a net shopping bag and a small boxed item in hand, studying the rows of compartments and the simple knobs and…

Ambition practically hums off the page in this numbered proposal, “Design No. 1,” one of the many competitive schemes floated for a would‑be Great Tower for London around 1890. The drawing rises in a confident taper, part latticework spire and part monumental civic building, suggesting a structure meant not only to be tall but to…

“DESIGN No. 17.” sits above a slender, tapering tower rendered with the crisp restraint of an engineering plate, its surface wrapped in a tight spiral of horizontal bands that suggest a bold, modern silhouette. The sheet reads like a proposal meant to be judged quickly and fairly: clear central elevation, minimal ornament, and a confident…

Ambition rises straight off the page in this printed competition entry labeled “DESIGN No. 33,” a slender lattice tower that narrows toward a small crown-like platform at the top. The draughtsman’s hand favors crisp symmetry: a strong central shaft, stacked tiers, and a skeletal framework of repeating cross-braces meant to suggest both lightness and strength.…

Page 106 labels it plainly—“DESIGN No. 49.”—yet the drawing aims for anything but ordinary. A slender iron lattice tower rises from a broad, arched base, narrowing as it climbs toward a capped lookout and a small flag at the summit. The engraving style and careful symmetry evoke the late-Victorian fascination with engineering elegance, when a…

Perched on a sparse catalogue page marked “DESIGN No. 65.”, this slender proposal for a “Great Tower for London” stacks tier upon tier like a mechanical wedding cake, each platform ringed with projecting arms and topped by a spiky crown. The draughtsman’s hand favors symmetry and vertical drama, giving the structure a telescoping rhythm—narrow shaft,…

Ironwork and ambition fill the frame: a compact steam locomotive model with large exposed gears, spoked wheels, and a stout boiler body that hints at the leap from stationary power to motion on rails. The mechanical linkages and drive system are left proudly visible, inviting the eye to follow how force is transferred from cylinder…