Perhaps the most notorious example of how inventions were kept out of action is the General Motors EV1, which was featured in the documentary Who Killed the Electric Car?
The EV1 was the world's first mass-produced electric vehicle, 800 models of which were leased to GM in the late nineties. The company scrapped the EV1 line in 1999, citing consumers' satisfaction with the limited range of the car's battery, making it unprofitable to continue production.
Many skeptics, however, believed that GM buried the EV1 under pressure from oil companies, which should have suffered the most if high-performance cars had taken over the market. GM hunted down and destroyed every last EV1, making sure the technology dies and doesn't come back to life.
Death of the American tram
The net profit of the thriving tramway in 1921 was $ 1 billion, which for General Motors was equivalent to the loss of hard-earned $ 65 million. In retaliation, GM bought and closed hundreds of independent tramway companies, helping to grow the market for its gas-guzzling buses and cars. Although there has been a growing movement to rescue public transport in cities lately, we are unlikely to see a return to their former glory of trams.
Modest "Teen Wolf"
Promotional video:
A car traveling 99 miles per gallon of fuel consumed (equivalent to 2.4 liters per 100 km;) is the holy grail of the automotive industry. Although this technology has been available for several years, automakers deliberately keep it away from the American market. In 2000, The New York Times reported a little-known fact, at least to most, that the diesel-powered Volkswagen Lupo's mad stool traveled around the world with an average fuel consumption of more than 99 miles / gallon. The wolf cub was sold in Europe in 1998-2005, but even here the automakers did not let it enter the market; Americans, they argued, have little interest in small, fuel efficient cars.
Free energy
Nikola Tesla was not only a source of inspiration for the bands of the bushy metalheads of the eighties, but also a genius from God. In 1899, he found a way to do without fossil-fired power plants and power lines, proving that by using ionization in the upper atmosphere to create electrical oscillations, "free energy" could be used. J. P. Morgan, who funded Tesla's research, somewhat regretted the "purchase" he made when he realized that free energy for everyone would not bring the same benefit as, say, billing people for every watt they consumed. Then Morgan drove another nail into the coffin of free energy, scattering the rest of the investors so that Tesla's dream would certainly die.
Miracle cure for cancer
In 2001, Canadian Rick Simpson discovered that a cancerous spot on his skin had disappeared within a few days of using hemp essential oil. Since then, Simpson and others have healed thousands of cancer patients with incredible success. Researchers in Spain have confirmed that the active ingredient in cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol, kills tumor cells in the brains of human subjects and is also promising for breast, pancreas and liver tumors. However, the FDA classifies marijuana as a # 1 drug, which means there is no medical practice, unlike # 2 drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine, which, in this respect, might be helpful. What a bliss!
Vehicles on the water
As ridiculous as it sounds, water-powered cars exist. The most famous of these is the Stan Meyer sand buggy, which reached 100 miles per gallon and could have become more common if Meyer had not fallen victim to a suspicious brain aneurysm at 57. Knowledgeable people have made loud statements that Meyer was poisoned after he refused to sell his patents or stop research. Fearing a conspiracy, his partners almost went underground (or is it more correct to say - under the water?) And took with them his famous sand buggy on the water. We can only hope that in the end someone will return with an amphibious vehicle.
Chronovisor
What if you had a device that could look into the future and return to the past? And what if you didn't need the help of Christopher Lloyd for that (the actor who played the doctor from the Back to the Future trilogy; approx.)? The Italian priest, Father Pellegrino Maria Ernetti, in the sixties claimed to have invented what he called the Chronovisor, something that allowed him to witness the crucifixion of Christ.
The device allegedly made it possible for viewers to observe any event in the history of mankind by tuning to residual vibrations that persist as a result of any action. (His group of researchers and designers included Enrico Fermi, who also worked on the first atomic bomb project.) On his deathbed, Fermi admitted that he had invented pictures of ancient Greece and the death of Christ, but insisted that the Chronovisor, which had already disappeared by that time, was still working. Unsurprisingly, conspiracy theorists point to the Vatican as the likely owner of the original Chronovisor at this time.
Rife devices
In 1934, the American inventor Royal Rife cured 14 terminal cancer patients and hundreds of animal cancers by using his "beam of rays" to target what he called the "cancer virus." So why isn't the Rife beam in use today? The 1986 book by Barry Lines and John Crane, Cancer Treatment That Worked: Fifty Years of Silence, brought the Rife case back from oblivion. Written in a typically conspiracy style, the book lists names, dates, places, and events, giving the semblance of authenticity to a mixture of historical documents and speculation, selectively woven into a web that is too difficult to verify unless it is conducted by an army of investigators with unlimited resources.
The authors state that Rife successfully demonstrated the healing power of his device in 1934, but "all reports describing the method in mainstream medical journals were censored by the head of the AMA (American Medical Association; note)." In 1953, a special investigation by the US Senate concluded that Fishbein (head of the AMA; note) and the AMA had conspired with the Food and Drug Administration to cover up various alternative cancer treatments that contradict the AMA's predetermined point of view., according to which "radium therapy, X-ray therapy and surgery are the only recognized methods of cancer treatment."
Milking machine for clouds
In 1953, a blueberry crop in Maine was threatened with drought, and several farmers promised to pay Reich (Wilhelm Reich, an Austrian and American psychologist, put forward the unacceptable idea of the universal life energy - orgone; approx.) If he can make it rain. When Reich began his experiment at 10 a.m. on July 6, 1953, it was reported that no precipitation was expected over the next few days as predicted by the weather bureau. On July 24, the Bangor Daily News wrote the following:
Dr. Reich and three of his assistants installed a "rain-making" device on the shores of the Great Lake. The device, which is a set of hollow tubes suspended over a small cylinder attached to them by a cable, performed the "evocation" operation for about an hour and ten minutes. According to a credible source from Ellsworth, on the evening of July 6 and early in the morning of July 7, the city experienced the following climatic changes: “On Monday, after 10 pm, it began to rain briefly, at first light, then calm and even by midnight. It continued to rain throughout the night, and the following morning 0.24 inches of rain was recorded at Ellsworth."
A perplexed eyewitness to the rain-making process said, “After they started, clouds began to form. They looked the strangest cloud ever seen. And later, the same eyewitness said that by manipulating the device, scientists could change the direction of the wind.
The blueberry harvest was saved, the farmers declared their satisfaction, and Reich received his due reward.
Perpetual motion machine
The past century has been marked by the birth of a number of perpetual motion machines, producing more energy than was required for their operation. Ironically, they created more problems than they cost themselves. In almost all cases, the supposedly working prototype was unable to make it to the production stage for sale due to opposition from various corporate or government forces to the technology. The Lutec 1000 has been making steady progress towards the final commercial version lately. Will consumers be able to buy it in the near future, or will it also be cut off from oxygen?
Cold fusion
Billions of dollars have been spent on research into the production of energy through controlled hot fusion, which is a series of risky and unpredictable experiments. Meanwhile, garage scientists and a marginal group of university researchers are getting closer to harnessing the energy of cold fusion, which is much more sustainable and manageable, but enjoys much less support from government and foundation money.
In 1989, Martin Fleischman and Stanley Pons announced that they had made the discovery and observed cold fusion in a glass vessel on their laboratory bench. That the reaction they got was cool is putting it mildly. CBS's 60 Minutes talked about how the ensuing retaliation from well-funded hot fusion circles sent researchers to the scientific underground and abroad, where over the years their funding sources dried up, forcing them to abandon their pursuits of clean energy.
Hot nuclear fusion
Cold fusion is not the only technology for being hunted down by the hot-tempered scientific community. When two physicists working on a ten-year project of hot fusion in a tokamak at the Los Alamos Laboratory accidentally stumbled upon a cheaper and safer method of generating energy from the collision of atoms, they are said to have been forced to renounce their their own discoveries under the threat of dismissal - the laboratory was afraid to lose the flow of state money that went to the tokamak. In response, leading researchers created the Focal Synthesis Society, which raises private money to fund their own research outside the sphere of government intervention.
Magnetofunk and Himmelkompass
Nazi scientists spent most of World War II buried in a military base somewhere in the Arctic, creating Magnetofunk (a radio magnet; approx.). This reportedly existing invention was designed to deflect the compass arrows of Allied aircraft that might be looking for Point 103, the base's name. Airplane pilots would think they were flying in a straight line, but little by little they would have skirted Paragraph 103 in an arc without ever suspecting they were deceived.
The Himmelkompass (celestial compass; approx.) Allowed German navigators to navigate by the position of the sun, rather than the magnetic field lines, so that they could find Point 103 despite the action of Magnetofunk. According to former SS officer Wilhelm Langig, these two devices were highly guarded secrets of Hitlerite Germany, although the real tragedy is that no one ever thought of calling their band Magnetofunk.
A reduced hazard cigarette?
In the 1960s. the tobacco company Liggett & Myers created a product called XA, from which most of the carcinogenic substances were removed from the cigarette. According to the San Francisco City and County lawsuit filed against Phillip Morris, Inc., Liggett & Myers Director of Science, Dr. James Mold, said Phillip Morris threatened to "roll out" L&M if it did not adhere to the industry's no-go agreement disclosing information on the harmful effects of smoking.
By advertising for a “safer” alternative, she would acknowledge the harm of tobacco use. The claim was dismissed on formal grounds, and Phillip Morris never addressed the subject of the charges. Contrary to published research by its own scientists showing a reduction in cancer in mice exposed to XA smoke, Liggett & Myers released an official statement rejecting evidence of tobacco-related cancer in humans, and XA never saw the light of day.
TENS
The device for transcutaneous (transcutaneous) electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) was created to soften pain impulses of the body without the use of drugs. In 1974, Johnson & Johnson bought out StimTech, one of the first companies to sell the car, and put the TENS division in dire straits by giving it a monetary famine. StimTech went to court, accusing Johnson & Johnson of deliberately strangling TENS technology to secure the sale of its flagship drug, Tylenol. Johnson & Johnson argued that the device never proved to be on the line, and that it was unprofitable. The founders of StimTech were awarded $ 170 million, although this decision was appealed and overturned on formal grounds. Moreover, the fact established by the court thatthat the corporation was fixing obstacles for the TENS apparatus was never refuted.
Phoebus Cartel
In 1924-1939. Phillips, General Electric, and Osram, according to an article published six years later in Time magazine, colluded to take control of the then fledgling electric lamp industry. The alleged cartel set prices and squeezed competing technologies that could produce lamps that were more economical and more durable. By the time the collusion ended, incandescent light bulbs had become the industry standard as the predominant artificial light source throughout Europe and North America. Compact fluorescent lamps began to squeeze into the global lighting market not earlier than in the late nineties.
Coral castle
How did Ed Leedskalnin manage to build the massive Coral Castle in Homestead, Florida, from giant coral boulders weighing over 30 tons each without any heavy machinery or outside help? There are many theories on this subject, including the use of anti-gravity devices, magnetic resonance and alien technology, but the answer may forever remain unknown. Leedskalnin died in 1951, leaving behind no written plans or clues about his methods of work.
The centerpiece of the castle, now a museum open to the public, is the 9-ton entrance gate, which was once slid with the touch of a finger. After the gate bearings worn out in the 1980s, it took a group of five more than a week to fix them, although they never managed to get them to work as effortlessly as Lidskalnin's original masterpiece. …
Hemp biofuels
US founder George Washington, to whom word of mouth is credited with "I can't lie," was an ardent supporter of the hemp seed. Yes, the only thing that is more oppressed in this country than an honest politician is cannabis, which is inappropriately identified with marijuana, and therefore has become a victim of unfair slander.
Meanwhile, state-run barriers keep hemp from becoming the leading crop in ethanol production, allowing environmentally harmful fuel sources like corn to take over the industry. Despite the fact that hemp requires fewer chemicals, less water, and is less expensive to process, it has never been widely adopted. Experts also pin the blame on (who else?) Presidential candidates chasing votes trying to please Iowa corn growers.