I was wondering the SDopers have any favorite crazy inventions? Or, maybe the SDopers had to guess what some old invention was used for? All ideas welcome…
Here are a few to get you started. I like the Butter Stick.
Gasoline powered pogo stick.
The SLAM - sort of like a cruise missile powered by a nuclear ramjet, with a range of four times the Earth’s circumference. Mad Science at its finest.
The Orion Drive; a ship powered by nuclear explosions.
Warships made from ice and sawdust.
The idea ( originally coming from Tesla I believe ) of using radio waves to “push” the ionosphere upwards, creating a low pressure zone and storms below. A favorite among conspiracy theorists ( and for all I know the military actually tried it; they tried burning photos to destroy Soviet missiles after all ).
The “cat flap” anti-nuclear attack satellite; patented by a guy who built a photoelectrically controlled cat flap to keep a white cat in and a black one out ( or the other way around ). He extended the principle to the idea of a satellite network that would automatically bomb any country that produced the flare of a rocket engine; aka a nuclear missile being launched. Would make launching the Space Shuttle a little awkward, I’d think…
The ronco egg cuber. I have one. It allows you to make square boiled eggs. It works and square boiled eggs actually do have some advantages of oblong ones. The real problem is it takes 10 to 15 minutes per egg. I need a couple dozen of em so I can do it assembly line style.
A friend has this and it is AWESOME for cookouts.
My two favorite rocket proposals have already been mentioned: Project Pluto (SLAM) which is insanely dangerous and Project Orion which is just insanely huge. Both powered by nuclear fission (the “safe” one is powered by detonating actual nuclear bombs outside the craft).
I’m also fond of some of the electronic instruments Raymond Scott designed (in the 50s!), and the Electronium was an amazing idea.
Some of his weird commercial stuff
The fun thing about Project Pluto, if memory serves, is that it was meant to orbit over the target after exhausting its supply of nuclear bombs, raining radioactive fallout over the area. For weeks, or even months. Then it would crash - acting as a dirty bomb on top of the whole nuclear holocaust thing.
For that matter, it was meant to fly at supersonic speeds very close to treetop level - there was a chance that the sonic boom alone would have killed people.
This was basically the thermonuclear equivalent of sticking a knife in your enemy’s stomach - and twisting.
The SlapChop! Make sure to check out the video on the homepage.
“You’re going to love my nuts”
Could the Pocket Fisherman be called crazy?
This (Google it) is a really nifty machine. It will work even if unplugged from the power source. It will also work if the vacuum tubes in it are burned out (I don’t know if a transitor version was ever made).
What does it do? It detects “eloptic” radiation.
Don’t ask me what that is!
Oooh, I just remembered the nicely fraudulent Mechanical Turk (the 18th century one, not that thing by amazon).
Orbo.
DIY Margarita Machine using an igloo cooler, a garbage disposal and some pvc piping with an on/off valve.
The 1920’s-style “Death Ray”.
I have a lot of respect fo Boilerplate.
It’s a pity he disappeared.
Let’s just mention everything by Tesla 
How about one of these? Great ideas are timeless!
I’ve always thought it a shame the Revolutionary War submarine Turtle didn’t have a more distinguished career: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_(submarine)