The person who proved the existence of radio waves thought they were completely pointless. Between 1886 and 1889, Heinrich Hertz did a series of intricate tests that proved the existence of a previously theoretical form of wave – electromagnetic waves. When asked about the practical uses, he responded, “It’s of no use whatsoever[…] this is just an experiment that proves Maestro Maxwell was right—we just have these mysterious electromagnetic waves that we cannot see with the naked eye. But they are there.” Hertz’s name is now used to indicate the various degrees of electromagnetic frequency despite calling them pointless.
100 Mind-Blowing Practical Facts
Telephone greeting. Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the first practical telephone in 1876, decided that the correct salutation for answering should be ‘Ahoy.’
The oldest prosthetic. In 1997, an excavation near the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes revealed the oldest prosthesis ever discovered: an engraved wooden toe, fitted to the right foot of an Egyptian noblewoman who lived 3,000 years ago. The ‘Cairo toe’ was practical, modified over time to accommodate the woman’s gait. But it was also designed with aesthetics in mind, intended to be worn in open-toe sandals, not concealed.