Genius inventions we no longer use

[Grumpypants78]

Inspired by a chat with a friend after struggling back from the corner shop yet again with the mountains of stuff my family can't survive without. My gran in the 70s used to have a little shopping trolley on wheels she'd take with her. You never see them anymore but what a brilliant idea. They sell them in Amazon, I'm going to buy one and be like my gran only without the curlers and housecoat 🤣
What else do you remember your DPs/DGPs use I can be inspired to invest in?

And LongTimeLurker thank you, so glad to see such useful things still exist. I'd never actually seen one before!

🤣🤣🤣

We had a spinner with a band of roughish stuff round the inside. You put your spuds in, put on the lid and wound it round and round - like a salad spinner - and lo! Spuds peeled (more or less). As small children, we enjoyed doing this and sometimes the spuds ended up as small bullets because we'd just carried on spinning it.... 😂

Pentosan sulphate for osteoarthritis. Extract of the beechwood tree. Highly effective in reducing the symptoms in dogs, works equally well in humans, invented around 50 years ago and no real reason that its not mainstream treatment other than I suppose its not a new drug and theres no money in researching it or supplying it when there are other new potential, mostly untested, new "wonder drugs" or treatments...

That automatic potato peeler sounds brilliant!! I would totally use that.

@Jux bought a similar thing as an accessory for my Kenwood mixer. Left the potatoes in too long and ended up with marbles...

As for the other items, seems we can still get all of them including a waspie, apart from the trebuchet and mangle. What we are distinctly lacking is a hydrogen powered shopping hostess trebuchet with built in mangle.

I was wrong about the mangle, you can get them just a different name www.amazon.co.uk/Northwood-Calliger-Clothes-Patented-Clamping/dp/B01M26UCLW/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=clothes+mangle&qid=1662139022&sr=8-2

I would contest that shopping trolleys aren't seen any more! Not only do I have one,but I see literally dozens of them around when I go to my local high street.

@PunkrockerGirl59 www.hostesstrolley.co.uk/hl6200lb.php

You can buy these for about £7 from home bargains etc.

@HoofWankingSpangleCunt www.robertdyas.co.uk/kitchen-craft-rotary-whisk?cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=17679582202&cq_term=&cq_plac=&cq_net=x&cq_plt=gp&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzuSt9tH2-QIVD-3tCh1qWwD6EAQYCiABEgJ4jfD_BwE

Not going to tag everything mentioned, but its all out there, although I could only find a new galvanised steel washboard, not a glass one. Even found a proper housecoat easily. You just can't Google them on the readily available manual typewriters!

I use my hoover

They use them all the time in Spain. My mother has one that goes up steps it’s brilliant

Did nobody else call a Ewbank a ‘Rudda Duda’? Both me and DH came from different parts of the country and both grew up with them called a ‘Rudda Duda’

If you do get a trolley, get one with 3 wheels instead of one, on each side. They climb up kerbs and stairs without you having to drag them.

@Nat6999 thanks for reminder of the frozen chocolate desserts. The ones our local shop sold had different shapes embossed in the bottom, animals or Disney characters. Once your eaten your dessert you could use them as moulds with plaster of paris. Or, in hindsight, jelly.

And the trifle dish, I'll have to ask my sister if she's got mum's.

Anyone remember Carmen heated rollers? My mum had a set in all different sizes.

I think there's a sparkling catapult at Urquhart Castle, but I'm a bit rusty on my engines.

Bocasan for poorly mouths.. anyone remember? It all fizzed up so you thought you were going to explode!
Did the trick though.

I was thinking about these a couple of days ago when I overtook a car with a slight dip in the road in front of us. I knew there wasn’t a car on the other side of the road as I would have been able to shed the roof of even an old sports car but there could have been a Sinclair C5. They were not safe then and I think extremely dangerous now. Cars are wider and higher. A person in one risks not being seem.

As for inventions no longer seen.

Chamber pots
Monocles
Floppy disks - or the smaller harder disks
Modems
Deep tvs and computer monitors
Hifis

Oh gosh the typos… perhaps I should have included spell check 🙈

How do those pastry cutter things work then? And the Danish dough mixer on the same link, I ‘m intrigued. Is it for wonderful cinnamon buns?

There was someone on Anglesey with a c5, only one I ever saw in the wild. It had a long aerial with a flag, like those reclining bikes usually do.

Does anyone else remember those little circlets of wire that were used to attach buttons. I always thought they were to make the buttons detachable for mangling.

The only time I saw a C5 in the 80s was on a main road. Speed limit at least 40 mph at the time.

My Nan used to have a mini Ewbank type thing for the table top. She'd whizz it about to pick up all the crumbs on the tablecloth.

Dd1 is taking our trebuchet to Uni 🙁

Scottishthistle77

Called a Sheila maid, and you can still biy them.

Just remembered! My first office job. Aged 20
My boss (50+) sent me to supermarkets for supplies: milk coffee etc. she made me buy a month's worth of stuff and use a
Tartan trolley to wheel it back

Mortified 😳