Inventions ahead of their time...

**My random thoughts on what they were, why they didn't work (yet) & what their successor ended up being...

Did you know the vending machine was actually invented in the 1st century? Yep. It was originally invented to dispense holy water in exchange for a coin. Hmmm... Wonder why that didn't work out... It was another 2000 years before the vending machines we all know and love for our sweet & salty fixes was reintroduced. I guess there wasn't much of a market back then.

How about Ask Jeeves? Does anyone else remember that site or am I just showing my age now? Ask Jeeves was the bomb.com when it came out, but technology wasn't ready for it. Think of it as a pre-Google.

Handheld gaming. Did anyone else have the Electronic Quarterback by Coleco? My step-brother & I used to fight over that game constantly! Again, not a huge market yet. Parents weren't fans of these little distractions yet. Hell, the Nintendo Gameboy didn't release for another 12 years after this. We all know how that worked out. 

If you're interested, there's tons of things like this...

Parachutes
Picture phones (FaceTime, Skype)
Apple Newton (iPad) 
WebTv (Smart TV's)