Hobbies And Interests
The Codd's Bottle
Some inventions that might seem strange today actually achieved popularity in the 1880s. One was the Codd's Bottle, invented by Hiram Codd to help keep carbonated beverages fizzy. The Codd's Bottle was a regular glass bottle with a marble and a metal washer. When filled with sparking soda water, the rising gas pushed the marble into the washer at the top of the bottle, keeping the carbonation from escaping.
An Offbeat Edison Invention
In addition to inventing the light bulb, Edison patented and marketed hundreds of other inventions, including the Edison Phonograph Doll. Billed in 1889 as the world's first talking doll, it had a lovely bisque head joined to a metal torso, which hid an inner mechanism that played wax cylinder recordings. When activated, the doll would "recite" nursery rhymes. Today, the gray, sheet metal torso seems robotic-looking and incongruous with the doll's beautiful bisque head, but in the 1880s the doll was hailed as a triumph of technology.
The Vulture-propelled Balloon
Many items patented in the 1880s never reached the market. Among these was the vulture- or eagle-propelled balloon. The idea was simple: tie a large bird, such as an eagle or a vulture, to the gondola of a hot air balloon, and point the bird's beak in the desired direction. No one knows whether anyone actually attempted to put this idea into practice, but the vulture-propelled balloon received a U.S. patent number in 1887.
Weird and Wonderful Inventions
In 2008, the British Library opened an exhibit called Weird and Wonderful Inventions, which displayed some of the strangest inventions marketed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Some of the 1880s inventions on exhibit included a self-pouring teapot, which was equipped with a pump action; a skirt lifter, consisting of a pair of tongs that enabled women to lift their long skirts without bending; and a brandy bottle lock, designed to prevent the servants of the household from stealing brandy.