The past is one weird and wacky place. In the age before smart-
phones, grandma and grandpa had to use their imaginations to have
fun, and they were doing some mindblowing stuff back then. We’ve got
the clips to prove it, so let’s head right into the bizarre olden times!

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It’s the westing house Total Electric hole the past is one weird and wacky Place how big is this this one is 12 in high this is the largest of my miniature bites and the age before smartphones grandma and grandpa had to use their imaginations to have fun and they were

Doing some mind-blowing stuff back then nice and slow and out the way we’re doing it all the time goodbye Michael we’ve got the clips to prove it so let’s head right into the bizarre olden days getting contacts fitted in the 1940s back in 1948 getting contact

Lenses involved more than a trip to the optician in fact it was more like an audition for a sci-fi movie imagine sitting in a chair while an optician who in this video happens to be Australia’s only contact l lens Craftsman prepares to take a mold of your eyeball sound

Uncomfortable well yeah it was they’d anesthetize your eye and then press a cup filled with some goop against it to get the eyeball impression a little later this mold turns into your very own contact lenses now you have the same vision correction as glasses but without

The nerdy look this process was not for the faint-hearted it was pricey too in fact it cost a small fortune yet film stars jockeys and athletes jumped on the bandwagon and all of them eager for that invisible Aid to better their Vision after some initial haziness you could

Wear them for around 6 to 8 hours these lenses were a game changer but beauty comes at a price sometimes you know what else is expensive self- parking cars but you could have had one of those in the 1930s check it out in the 1930s a California inventor decided that

Parallel parking should be less of a chore and more of a party trick to entertain the whole neighborhood entered the fifth wheel a pretty pretty cool addition to cars that made parking in tight spots as easy as pie this genius device worked by swinging the car’s rear

End sideways into the spot using a spare tire as a pivot the spare tire wasn’t just for flat tires anymore it was now an integral part of the car’s parking acrobatics is it as slick as a Tesla maybe not but how many Tesla drivers stand around looking Swank in a bowler

Hat and a smoking pipe not many perhaps it was too ahead of its time or maybe people just weren’t ready to see their cars dance into parking spots whatever the case it never caught on back then but you know what caught on like crazy back in the day female bodybuilding this

One is going to amaze you these machines seem more likely to beam you up than tone your muscles but I promise you this was what a workout was for women back in the’ 40s just check out these Hightech Contraptions this was the OG way to sculpt the perfect figure without

Breaking a sweat running around in circles was for guys let the gals have the machines that do all the leg work back then how about these vibrating belts that jiggle away the fat or these peculiar Contraptions that twist and turn the body in every conceivable Direction it’s not hard to laugh at the

Earnestness with which these machines were marketed long before the days of Zumba and Crossfit you’d just stand there and let a weird Space robot literally shake the fat off of you watching this I can’t help but appreciate the Simplicity and effectiveness of modern workouts but personally I’m still into the idea of

Getting shape while lying down just get ready next up we have some random Contraptions that this one might just save your life in 1939 two Sheffield uk-based Engineers unveiled a new invention that could have revolutionized driving safety or at least made for some entertaining roadside attractions they

Call it the car Catcher And this device was basically a giant scoop attached to the front of a car it was designed to mitigate the consequences of pedestrian accidents but how well let’s Che Check It Out imagine driving down the street with what looks like a large dust pan at

The front of your car this thing is ready to gently scoop up any unsuspecting jaywalker the demonstration footage shows the device in action harmlessly catching a volunteer and thereby in theory saving lives while the intention behind the invention was Noble it’s not too difficult to see why the

Sight of a grown man being scooped up like a piece of oversized litter didn’t quite catch on and if you thought that was a weird car invention what about a car that’s just one big old Tire let’s take a look the dinosphere a name as eccentric as the vehicle itself this is

Another wacky invention straight from the 1930s this was an ERA that was ripe with Innovation and I mean let’s be honest some pretty strange inventions this mono wheel Marvel was pretty much just a giant wheel with the driver perched inside check him out zipping along like a hamster and an exercise

Ball the is done this way imagine rolling up to a party in one of these you’d be the coolest person in town as long as you could stop without toppling over back in the 1930s The Road Less Traveled was a giant hamster wheel but alas it never made it big maybe due to

The lack a trunk space come on Elon build one of these anyway from hamster wheel we now go to baby cages and you’re probably not going to believe this one back in the 30s City dwellers suffered from lack of outdoor space for babies in Urban Flats a problem that persists

Today so they figured why not just hang the baby out of the window in a cage let’s not focus on the cage part too much this was more like a penthouse for the pin-sized here we see Mrs Morris she was undeterred by the absence of a garden or Courtyard in her West London

Flat so she decided her toddlers deserve their slice of sunshine and fresh air enter the baby cage a contraption that today might send shivers down the spine of any modern parent Little Sally and brother Paul are the lucky occupants of this aerial playground seemingly unfazed by their terrifying perch can you see

This one catching on today as a parenting hack it’s a reminder that necessity is the mother of invention but the outcomes can be pretty bewildering you might have noticed that Ronald McDonald has been quietly retired by McDonald’s where did he go and why the answers remain mysterious but maybe the

Fact that clowns are in insanely terrifying has something to do with it and when he started out oh boy look away now if you have chorophobia that’s a fear of clowns the 1963 debut of Ronald McDonald and his first commercial might just be the stuff of unintentional nightmares rather than the dreams of

Happy Meals this early version of the now beloved clown mascot portrayed by weatherman Willard Scott is a far cry from the friendly face that we know today with his cup nose a tray of food for a belt and his slightly manic energy this Ronald seems to have wandered out

Of a surreal Dreamscape rather than a family restaurant the commercial lands right in the uncanny valley with Ronald’s magic tray and his eagerness to befriend children through the TV screen coming off as more creepy than enchanting for sure this Ronald McDonald might have been aiming for the hearts of

Children but he might have lingered a bit too long in their nightmares instead next up we have another crazy vehicle a real life UFO the average car was an alleged top secret project that looks like it’s the brainchild of a 1950s math scientist this wasn’t your average UFO

Though this was a genuine effort to get a saucer-shaped vehicle off the ground this kind of ridiculous looking vehicle was essentially the military’s attempt at a real flying saucer the footage shows this wacky Contraption hovering awkwardly looking as if it’s about to zip off to another galaxy but

Maybe not quite making it there it’s kind of like an oversized Frisbee with Stellar Ambitions the avoc car it might not a revolutionized Transportation like its inventors hoped but it certainly left us with some entertaining footage not all Flights of Fancy lead to the stars but we’re giving them an a for

Effort but our next strange moment from the past is all about trying to score an F for beauty in 1965 ugliest man competition held in England is a peak into a contest where charm lies in the lack of conventional Beauty these dudes are letting it all hang out and they’re

Proud of it Taffy Thomas of cockermouth the reigning Champion face stiff competition from a group of American contenders the reigning champion who claims the title of the ugliest man in the world is teffy Thomas of Koka this International angle proves that the art of pulling faces known locally as gning

Knows no borders in the end we got to celebrate a new champ Albert bennison of country Durham was crowned the the world’s ugliest man and he was delighted let’s not forget that beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder but back in the US football players have long hoped

To protect their pretty faces from destruction with the use of football helmets so how did they evolve into their current form well let’s take a look in this 1932 spectacle of innovation a daring inventor introduced a football helmet that he claimed would drastically reduce fatalities and injuries on the field with the

Confidence of a man who’s either very brave or has complete trust in his creation he decided to demonstrate its Effectiveness personally he’s lining up some bone crunching hits to show the awesomeness of his new design but boy do they look painful and now watch him take

It right on the old Bean the video shows him willingly taking hits to the Head from various angles this is more like a slapstick comedy routine than a scientific demonstration each whack to the helmet is met with the kind of enthusiasm you’d expect from someone who’s just discovered the cure for

Headaches not someone testing their Noggin limits but hey the inventor’s optimism is infectious you’re really rooting for him and his helmet even if you win at every impact but the School of Hard Knocks shown here it probably really did save a lot of future grid iron players from injury so good work

Sir how about another insanely dangerous sport like Wing flying did you know it’s almost 100 years old okay well let’s take a look at its early years this video gives us a rare look at the earliest attempts at wing suit flying this was clearly a time when the line

Between bravery and sheer lunacy was thin as the fabric of their suits these Pioneers threw caution to the wind literally watching these early aviators strap on their homemade Contraptions and leap into the air is terrifying but you also can’t help but admire their courage as you question their sanity today’s

Wing suits are engineered with Cutting Edge material and aerodynamic designs they allow Pilots to soar with Precision with the grace of a bird thanks to these Fearless folks what once seemed like a reckless dream is now a thrill seeking reality from Wing suits we go to fullon Airship rescue next check this awesome

Drama out an American airship swooped in to save a motorboat Enthusiast after his craft capsized in Chesapeake Bay this was back in 1928 and it was a Serene day on the water but it quickly turned into into a spectacle worthy of a silent movie Cliffhanger and it was complete

With a dashing airst strip pilot and a grateful if somewhat soggy BM Enthusiast just think about The Bravery of early 20th century rescue teams it was never sure who was in more danger them or the guy stuck in the boat and how awesome it must have been to see that Blimpy Vision

In the sky dashing very slowly to the rescue help sometimes comes from the most unexpected places or Heights some sometimes it’s better to have fun at home like this happy baby coming next the 1960s brought us Many Wonders but none were quite as bouncy as the baby

Bouncy featured in this video kind of looks like a cross between a space age harness and a medieval torture device it was designed to keep babies chuckling and I guess to give parents a well-deserved break the babies seem to be having the time of their lives caught somewhere between delight and Mild

Confusion it’s pretty adorable check out these tiny humans testing out their early versions of zero gravity training the baby bouncer may not have had Wi-Fi connectivity or an app but it sure did provide some old-fashioned fun it was a simpler time when all it took to

Entertain a child was a spring and a little bit of Ingenuity but what would Mom and Dad be doing while the baby was amused in its bouncer watching TV in a space helmet of course take a look at this in 1967 Walter pitler introduced the world to the TV helmet this is a

Creation that might make you think is this the future of binge watching Netflix well Netflix was a few decades away but this was an early way to shut off the world and get into some serious TV this portable living room is something like a cross between a space

Helmet and a personal Cinema it was way ahead of its time meta take note the next Oculus it might need some retro styling Alla TV helmet the wearer’s head vanishes into this futuristic capsule which is equipped with its own screen trying to navigate your living room let

Alone the outside world with this bulky precursor to Virtual Reality strapped on your head that would have been a little challenging the TV helmet was a Quantum Leap into personal entertainment but it didn’t quite become the norm I got to say I kind of want one next up a very

Different experience altogether the life of the Victorian rat catcher welcome to the somewhat Grim world of professional rat catchers this is a job that’s spray from Europe’s dire rat infestation issues back in the day being a rat catcher was a vital profession these people were tasked with keeping the

Bubonic plague at Bay and ensuring the greeneries were rodent free these unsung heroes ventured into the dark armed with a sack and maybe a rat catching dog or fet rat catchers turned their profession into an art form they even bred fancy rats for the Victorian Elite imagine

Going from chasing rats in the sewers to breeding design minor pets for royalty who knew the world of rat catching could be so rich with Oddball charm and hey some of those rats they’re they’re pretty cute I got to admit it in 1971 in kilo County Clare Ireland swimming

Lessons were a little unusual nice and slow and out the way you’re doing it all the time goodbye Michael a local guy decided the kids need to learn to swim the only problem is he couldn’t actually swim himself so what did he do he grabbed a

Rope and tied it on to the kids and sent them into the chilly water these children Tethered to a rope were gently coaxed into Swimming by a guy who really believed in them the goal here wasn’t just to swim but to overcome fears altogether the instructor’s belief that

If you can teach one you can teach 25 turns the lake into a splashy classroom of laughter Sometimes the best lessons come not from a textbook but from a leap of faith into unknown Waters now here’s a lady who also had a long journey across the water Lady Liberty let’s look

At how she was formed all the way over in Paris in the late 19th century Gustave Eiffel yeah the same Eiffel who built the famous tower embarked on a project to create a skeleton for what would become one of the most iconic symbols in the United States this wasn’t

Just any project nothing like this had ever been attempted before the statue needed to be strong enough to hold up its copper skin without sagging lots of his fellow Engineers thought that he was just crazy and that the project was impossible yet Eiffel and his team went ahead they were basically building a

Giant 3D Puzzle but without the luxury of modern technology the statue was then shipped to the US in 214 crates each contained 350 individual pieces that had to be reassembled on what is now known as Liberty Island the assembly process it took 4 months the result was a

Masterpiece the Statue of Liberty was was an awesome gift from France to the US and it really cemented the friendship between the two countries this was the television equivalent of Dorothy stepping out into Oz a new station transitioned from grayscale into the Technicolor dream of color broadcasting and this moment blew people’s minds

Viewers at home were used to the glow of black and white TV in their living rooms but suddenly they blinked and their screens exploded with color the anchor quipped about the station’s colorful characters and that snazzy 60s tie was certainly in the vibrant Spirit of the

Day with a flicker the world went from a monochrome past into a future of color meanwhile over in the USSR they still had black and white TV but to be fair unlike their American counterparts Soviet kids were building their own robots let’s see how that turned out in

The swing and 60s While most western kids were busy with yoyos and Hopscotch Soviet school children were on a whole different level they were designing robots for the first all Union robot competition this was a little more advanced than mastering the art of the perfect paper airplane these communist

Min Geniuses were engineering actual robots their classroom was turned makeshift robotics lab where the biggest debate of the day was whether your robot’s arm should be able to pick up a pencil or wavel these Pioneers weren’t just playing with toys this was a vision of the Soviet future this is enough to

Make any modern stem program green with EnV but these plans didn’t get much further and they were long gone by the time the USSR fell a couple of decades later but wow I wish I’d build a robot in high school this wasn’t the only area that the Soviets were dominating they had

Already nailed it when it comes to giant human chess with real people and real horses in Soviet Russia chess plays you yeah it’s real Russia decided to bring the famous battle to life what you see here is the Battle of borodino on a giant human chessboard instead of ivory

Ponds and Knights moving quietly across the checkered board we have real people and real horses what they dressed in Period costumes and reenacted this pivotal 1812 Napoleonic War battle each piece was played by actors so committed to their roles that you’d half expect them to start debating military strategy this is

Cosplay taking to a whole new Al ultimate level I wonder if Napoleon himself would have approved of seeing his military tactics play out in a game of chess well back to the future now and this time we’re checking out Alexa before anyone had heard of Alexa with

The total electronic Home Step into the total electronic home of 1959 where the future was so bright you’d need to wear shades indoors this was a time when electricity promised to do more than just keep the lights on electric was the buzzword that was set to revolutionized

Living this was a house where everything from cooking your breakfast to warming your toes was powered by the magic of electrons in this Utopia a barbecue didn’t mean wrestling with charcoal it meant pushing a button and watching the electric rotisserie spin a lawn that watered itself and a driveway that deced

At the touch of a button you got it and let’s not forget about the entertainment center which probably made the neighbors fancy a new color TV look like a relic from the past the hardest part of the work now is just deciding what button to push this was a pretty amazing time full

Of optimism about the future oo that must be so nice anyway nowadays we have Tik Tok so maybe it didn’t pan out into the Utopia westing house had in mind here but wow this was a cool home and if you thought that was cool check out what

The 2020s tech can do to footage that’s more than a 100 years old next witnessing the past through a colorized and sound enhanced lens as seen in this remastered footage of San Francisco’s Market Street is nothing short of magical it’s a window into a world long gone the addition of color to these

Ancient films breathes life into the distant past the people captured in these frames seem to become real as they move in a more familiar way with color and modern frame rates it makes the early 20th century feel as present and tangible as the world outside of our

Windows you can almost smell the ocean breeze and hear the chatter of people going by here’s the tragic part this footage was shot just days before the infamous 1906 earthquake which devastated this part of town The filmmakers Returned after the quake and shot the same Journey which chronicled the immense

Destruction more than 80% of this beautiful City was destroyed and over 3,000 people lost their lives some of whom may have been caught in this very clip well from Modern vide Tech to old school animation Here We Go San Francisco is a famous sailor town and what’s more sailor and famous than

Popeye let’s see how Popeye was created modern audiences don’t understand just how much of current media is influenced heavily by Popeye seeing the creation of a Popeye cartoon before the digital era it feels like peeking into into a Wizard’s spell book back then artists didn’t rely on the sorcery of software

Instead they had simple pencils and paintbrushes but these Geniuses used them like magic wands they could conjure incredible animations through artistic skill and a lot of patience in popey’s case the process kicked off with writers brainstorming his latest spinach infused Adventures then artists would sketch key

Scenes to create a story board then came the animators the Heroes who spent countless hours drawing each frame by hand these frames were then passed to the inkor and Painters who meticulously added color and detail but the real magic trick was the fer stereo Optical process this involved making 3D

Backgrounds from clay models long before CGI this painstaking labor of love made poey not just a cartoon but a piece of art and this assembly line process of the Craftsman ship was influenced by the very first assembly line at the Ford factory let’s take a look at that breathtaking innovation in full swing

When Henry Ford pondered how to make the Model T affordable for everyone he didn’t just think outside of the box he thought outside of the entire car the solution was the assembly line a concept so revolutionary it turned the manufacturing World on its head or rather it set it on a conveyor

Belt before this cars were assembled like a family dinner with everyone pitching in here and there until the dish was ready Ford’s idea was to make the car move to the workers not the other way around one fine August morning they gave it its first try a robust old

Timey fellow with a rope slung over his shoulder dragged the car past a lineup of workers each worker then added their piece to the puzzle and voila the assembly line was born and the rest is history this method didn’t just speed things up it slashed the model T’s

Assembly time from over 12 hours to a mere 93 minutes the price tag plummeted and suddenly owning a car went from pipe dream to reality for the average Joe Ford’s assembly line was the democratization of the automobile and all thanks to the humble conveyor belt but automobiles aren’t for everyone

Especially a stinking uncomfortable death trap Like the Model T cycling is a far healthier alternative and back in the day bicycles were sometimes pocket sized check it out in 1948 Mr tab from kidderminster decided that the world of cycling was just too grandiose it needed a little austerity so he brought us the

5 1/2 in Roadster this was a bike so compact you could mistake it for a toy but don’t let its size fool you this was no Child’s Play thing it was a solution to the UK’s post-war Housing and Storage woves imagine guests no longer confusing the bike shed with your house because

Well this bike could just be parked under the sink and this freed up valuable space in the yard for growing veggies or maybe just riding about on your tiny cycle not looking silly at all how big is this this one is 12 in high this is the largest of Minature biks Mr

Tab proved that his creation wasn’t just a novalty it was also a genuinely ridable and roadworthy machine as long as you had the balance of a monkey and the reflexes of a cat I guess if you fall off at least it’s not too far from the ground he marketed it as ideal for

Shopping Housewives who could Now navigate the bustly market with ease although getting the groceries into the front basket could pose a challenge and for those with aspirations larger than their storage space Mr tab offered up scaled models this meant that even the family man wasn’t stuck pedaling in the

Past this wasn’t just a bike it was a revolution on two teeny teeny tiny little wheels all right that was a blast through the past we hope you enjoy this dark brown DeLorean style ride through a bunch of strange Contraptions so the question is would you want to live in

The past or is it better today let us know in the comments down below see you in the next video

41 Comments

  1. I liked it a lot Better when you make Countdown-videos like this that you do before
    MORE-SO…
    than making those Criminal Cases-videos that which noticeably everyone else is doing. Just be "Yourself."

  2. It is just amazing to see how far was have come throughout the ages. I enjoyed this video, thank you so much! Please keep the count down vids coming!

  3. The assembly line shot made me laughter. I have a set of head lights, tail lights and brackets for sale right now. They are called Y Brackets. Brass from a 1929 model T, the kind they started making into hot rods in the 1950s. Originally the driver had to light the kerosene for the lights to shine. The hand blown glass is hinged for that purpose. Fluted glass that's has scrolling done by hand as well thatsays ford. They cost more today( $1500. For the set) than the whole car sold for brand new back in the day.

  4. This was a fun video! A little different, which i enjoyed.

    ETA i don't know if it's still a thing, but i was born in 84 and i had a bouncy swing. Do they not have those anymore?

  5. I find it funny that nobody has linked "cosplay" with the "SCA" (Society for creative anacronyms). same thing except the SCA reenacts historical events and cosplay reenacts video games and cartoons.

  6. My grandma had one of those vibrating fat shaker belt machines lol I’d hang over it and talk like a robot(?)while it was turned on. Iiiiiiiiiiii aaaammmm aaaaa robbbbot 🤖

  7. The bouncy baby is actually called "jonny jumper" and i still have one that we used for our kids and now my grandkids! Its such a great thing! Lol. Instead of leaving the baby in a playpen, or sitting stationary in a walker, the baby is in a swing type thing that is awesome for when active babies need to burn energy, bcz they use their own legs to make them jump or swing, vs us pushing or bouncing them! One of my nephews was so hyper active, it was his favorite thing to be in bcz he felt independent and could play as long as he wanted! Poor little guy would get bloody toes from how aggressive he got in that thing! Lol. We made sure he had shoes on at all times when he was in it bcz there was no slowing him down. Lol. Todays kids dont really know what they, but i think its something more people should be using still! 👌

  8. Not exactly accurate as stated, you made a mistake. The Network's switch over to Color TV didn't happen like that. Sure the Station may have switched over to color TV, but if your parents hadn't bought an actual (New on the market) "Color TV", you didn't see or notice the switch. A black & White TV showed only Black & White, despite what was being sent from the station. You had to be watching on an actual Color TV set to see it in color, if the station wasn't broadcasting in Color, the Color TV wouldn't display 'the programming', in color.

  9. As most people know by now, Ronald McDonald was not fully human, but rather had descended from an evolutionary bottleneck known as McDonaldopithecus Ronaldiensis, whose clown bones were found to have undergone reverse fossilisation, turning into wood instead of stone. The double-arch petroglyph was always found in close proximity to Ronaldiensis burial chambers, and archaeologists now believe that the clown garb was actually the ceremonial costume of the high priest, not necessarily that of all Ronaldiensis cohorts. Linguists have also confirmed that the word "restaurant" goes back to pre-proto-Amharic meaning Res (thing) Taur (of the bull, as in Taurus) Ant (before, prior to) which loosely translates to "where's the beef?"

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