The fact that this idea’s slogan was “Witness the shows sitting in a fully lighted auditorium”, already made it very questionable. And yes, this was actually a thing back in the 1910s. Apparently, some people thought it would be a fantastic idea to play movies in an auditorium that was completely lit. As movie theaters started opening in the 1900s, many attendees didn’t like the fact that the auditorium was completely dark.
One theater owner even said that he preferred the space to be completely lit so people could watch over their loved ones and avoid ‘eye fatigue’. And so, ‘daylight motion pictures’ became a thing all over the U.S. The whole thing was a combination of darker screens, stronger projectors and a lot of hope. But as you probably guessed, this ingenious idea was short-lived because, obviously, lit theaters damaged the quality of the picture. So, moviegoers slowly started to feel safe in dark theaters, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Portable Record Players
Back in the 60s, when vinyl records were at an all-time high, many companies came up with the idea of producing portable record players. One of the most famous brands was the Emerson Wondergram, marketed as 'the world's smallest record player', and produced from 1960 to 1965. But this invention had a very obvious problem - LP records aren't exactly small, and need to be handled with extra care, so they weren't exactly portable.
Another huge problem was that, in order to play a record, even if it was with the portable player, you had to find a leveled surface to set the player and be extra careful that it didn't bump into anything. Clearly, not a great quality to have when it comes to anything portable. And so, five short years saw the end of the Wondergram and all of its friends.
The Readamatic Robotic Speed Reader
Invented in 1963, the Readamatic Robot was a device that consisted of a small box with a metal arm and a second metal bar at one end. The metal bar or mechanical plate would slide down the page of a book so it could help the reader maintain a certain pace. The goal of the Readamatic was simple: to help children and adults read faster. Unfortunately, this robotic speed reader created more problems than it solved.
The gadget was very loud, and its metal plate would emit a screeching sound every time it slid across the pages. Obviously, these are not exactly the best conditions for anybody to read in, let alone focus. The Readamatic was short-lived and never to be seen again.
The Fiske Reading Machine
In 1922, celebrity inventor Bradley Fiske created the Fiske Reading Machine, a contraption that everyone thought would revolutionize literature. Marketed as the machine that "would render printing presses obsolete", the invention was born from the idea that books would be printed on very small pages, in very tiny letters, and people would hold customized magnifying glasses up to their eyes in order to read them. It already sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?
Surprisingly, many publications claimed that the Fiske Reading Machine was great for a number of reasons: cheap manufacturing, less paper needed, longer durability of books, no need for eye glasses anymore, poor people could afford it, easy and cheap to send by mail, more free space at home, etc. Now, while all of this may be true, the Fiske reading machine was very short-lived, since, realistically, people didn't actually enjoy holding a magnifying glass up to their eyes for countless hours.
The Welte-Mignon
The Welte-Mignon reproducing piano was introduced in 1904, and was quite an interesting twist on the already existing player pianos of the decade. Player pianos were pianos that played pre-recorded music with the use of automated cylinders, but what made the Welte-Mignon special was that it focused on the performance, as well as the music. A famous pianist could play songs on the Welte-Mignon and the instrument would record their performance on special rolls.
These rolls could then be taken home by anybody that owned another Welte-Mignon, and listeners could relive the exact same performance over and over. Many thought it was a musical revolution, and while it was indeed a marvelous instrument used by several composers of the time, this reproducing piano was even replaced by the more modern record player. By 1930, Welte rolls were no longer recorded.