# Experiments that failed in the late 60s **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 5, 2005, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiments-that-failed-in-the-late-60s/302511 "2005-05-05T09:42:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiments-that-failed-in-the-late-60s/302511/61 "2012-05-01T16:41:29Z")
zombie or no naked Twister tournaments didn’t catch on big. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiments-that-failed-in-the-late-60s/302511/62 "2012-05-01T17:22:26Z")
1. Apple Corps. 2. that stupid hands up/elbows down “revolutionary drug brothers” handshake. 3. “rat own, rat own, rat own” (say it fast) Gratuitous nitpick: the Twist was early 60’s. . ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiments-that-failed-in-the-late-60s/302511/63 "2012-05-01T17:26:45Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > In his book **The Existential Pleasures of Engineering** , samuel C. Floram mentions … **Corfam** , among others. Good old corfam. Baldwin used it in some of their vertical pianos for a while. Big mistake. After a few years the instruments sounded and felt like typewriters. . ---
**Author:** ![florez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9e5f3/32.png) [@florez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/florez)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiments-that-failed-in-the-late-60s/302511/64 "2012-05-01T17:48:59Z")
Drive in movie theaters, with playgrounds in front of the screen. Places to eat in your car, from a tray by your window, and waitress on skates. go go boots. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiments-that-failed-in-the-late-60s/302511/65 "2012-05-01T17:56:51Z")
My uncle’s house (ca. 1963) had a kind of primitive communications system. There was a wall console in the kitchen, with an intercom to all of the bedrooms. You could also play a radio (included in the console) in the bedrooms. I never saw this system since-as my aunt recalls it was rarely used. I think it was made by a company called “Electrohome”-quite appropriate. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiments-that-failed-in-the-late-60s/302511/66 "2012-05-01T18:06:12Z")
> [@florez](#): > > Places to eat in your car, from a tray by your window, and waitress on skates. No [Sonic](http://www.sonicdrivein.com/sonic101/index.jsp) where you are? They don’t leave the tray, but at least some locations still deliver on skates. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiments-that-failed-in-the-late-60s/302511/67 "2012-05-01T18:22:27Z")
[Operation Plowshare](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Plowshare) spanned a bit more than the late 60s, but I’d certainly call it a failed experiment. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiments-that-failed-in-the-late-60s/302511/68 "2012-05-01T20:14:13Z")
> [@kidchameleon](#): > > Apparently they didn’t stop experimenting on Zombies in the 60s. Maybe they should have tried interferon? ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiments-that-failed-in-the-late-60s/302511/69 "2012-05-01T21:26:48Z")
Are push-button shifters really that far removed from today’s paddle shifters? The former is certainly before my time but the idea of a switch at your fingertips to click up/down through gears is still in use. One of my favorite mad-scientist experimental projects from the 1960s which never really went anywhere is Project Pluto, the nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed, robotic cruise missile: > **[Project Pluto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pluto)** > > Project Pluto was a United States government program to develop nuclear-powered ramjet engines for use in cruise missiles. Two experimental engines were tested at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) in 1961 and 1964 respectively. > On 1 January 1957, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission selected the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory to study the feasibility of applying heat from a nuclear reactor to power a ramjet engine for a Supersonic Low Altitude Missile. This would have many advant... ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiments-that-failed-in-the-late-60s/302511/70 "2012-05-01T21:51:44Z")
By the late 60’s, people began to realize that Star Trek was a better series than Lost in Space, but by then, the damage had already been done. ---
**Author:** ![Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiments-that-failed-in-the-late-60s/302511/71 "2012-05-01T23:36:31Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Guys with long hair and full beards. > > Folk music. > > Ayn Rand fan clubs on college campuses. > > Girls with long, straight hair (even if they had to iron it). > > Pea coats and long, thick scarves. All of these things were pretty alive and well when I was in college about ten years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiments-that-failed-in-the-late-60s/302511/72 "2012-05-01T23:54:12Z")
I didn’t know you went to college in the 60s! 10 years ago? Nah, they’re still hip as of my college years which ended a year ago. Also, I own a pea coat and a long, thick scarf. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiments-that-failed-in-the-late-60s/302511/73 "2012-05-02T05:24:28Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > …Etiquette lessons – all those “dance lessons” our parents made us take were really designed to teach adolescents how to behave in polite society, not to teach us how to do the fox trot…Children’s clothes that were simply a smaller version of adult clothes… Etiquette lessons still exist, especially among the more well-to-do in the South. Also I went to a public middle school where we had actual dance lessons as an occasional gym activity. As for children’s clothes that are a smaller verson of adult clothes; those may have gone out of fashion by the '60s, but they weren’t an experiment. They were the norm for centuries. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiments-that-failed-in-the-late-60s/302511/74 "2012-05-02T05:38:36Z")
Hope for a better future. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiments-that-failed-in-the-late-60s/302511/75 "2012-05-02T05:51:10Z")
Predictions by some academics that the increase in the earth’s population would lead to worldwide starvation and the collapse of civilization. See [The Population Bomb](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Population_Bomb) ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2012, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiments-that-failed-in-the-late-60s/302511/76 "2012-05-02T06:07:24Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > By the late 60’s, people began to realize that Star Trek was a better series than Lost in Space, but by then, the damage had already been done. Oh, I don’t know. Let’s check the scorecard: Lost In Space: 3 seasons. 83 episodes. 1 movie. Star Trek: 6 series totaling 30 seasons, with some of the series running concurrently. 725 total episodes. 11 movies plus one now in production. I’d call Star Trek the clear winner. And now, ironically, Star Trek is owned by CBS, the network that had initially turned it down in favor of Lost In Space. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/experiments-that-failed-in-the-late-60s/302511.md?page=3)