Giving wackiness its due [Back Story]
IEEE Spectrum · 2015
During the 20th century were born some miraculous technologies: heterodyne radio, the laser, the transistor, the integrated circuit. And there were also quite a few more that were...well, not so miraculous and stillborn. A giant robot designed to service atomic bomber aircraft that were never built. Hugo Gernsback's "TV Glasses." A portable sauna bath.