Some modern technologies were invented to work or look one way but ended up getting modified. At other times, they were invented for particular purposes but were ultimately used in different ways.

This is true for several of today’s technologies—from our phones to USBs, air conditioners, sirens, and blockchains, which form the backbone of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Most were not invented for the uses they have today. And those that were didn’t end up as intended.

10 The USB Was Supposed To Be Flippable

The average person requires 2–3 tries to insert a USB into his computer. Ajay Bhatt, the inventor of the USB, was aware of this problem when he created the USB. He tried to avoid this by making the product flippable. That is, the USB could be inserted either way, the sort of thing we are seeing with USB Type-C.

At the time, Bhatt and his team did not make the USB flippable because it was an unproven technology. Before then, computer and gadget makers built different products to allow users to transfer files between their computers and other external devices. Bhatt wanted to standardize this with the USB.

However, the team was concerned with reducing the prototype production costs because they were uncertain that their product would become mainstream. The USB prototype would have required twice as many wires and circuits if Bhatt and the team had made it flippable. This would have made it more expensive to produce, which is the sort of thing you try to avoid when inventing an unproven technology.^[1]

9 The iPhone Was Never Intended To Support Third-Party Apps

Third-party apps are the mainstay of any mobile operating system today. In fact, they are a major reason that a new mobile OS cannot just arise out of the blue. Mobile phone users requiring an operating system outside Android and iOS will often need to reconsider their decision because most mobile apps are developed for these two operating systems.

Interestingly, we almost didn’t have the App Store. When the first iPhone was released in 2007, Apple only allowed developers to create web apps and not mobile apps. The web apps opened by default in Apple’s Safari browser. However, Apple started to reconsider its decision after developers raised concerns about creating web apps instead of mobile apps.

iPhone users also started to jailbreak their phones as they demanded more functionality, which could only be provided by mobile apps. Steve Jobs initially resisted the attempt to switch to mobile apps, even after several Apple executives saw the change as inevitable. Jobs was concerned about the quality of third-party apps. He later gave in, and the App Store was introduced in 2008.^[2]

8 Android Was Invented For Cameras

Android would have never been Apple’s rival if its inventors had followed their original plans of creating an operating system for digital cameras. Android was founded in 2003 by a four-man team trying to develop an operating system for digital cameras. The OS would have allowed photographers to connect their cameras to their PCs without any cables or to the cloud where they saved their photos.

The inventors maintained this vision until they started seeking funding from investors in 2004. They realized that the digital camera market was in decline. At the same time, sales of smartphones were going up. So they switched to developing their OS for smartphones. Android was later acquired by Google, which turned it into freeware for smartphone makers.^[3]

7 The Microphone Was Supposed To Be A Hearing Aid

The first microphone was invented by Emile Berliner in 1877. As with many other inventions, Berliner was not the only person working on developing the microphone at the time. In fact, Alexander Graham Bell (the inventor of the telephone) was also working on a microphone and even created a working prototype before Berliner.

However, Bell is not considered the inventor of the microphone because his device was not practical. Interestingly, Bell had a different reason for creating the microphone. While other inventors were probably interested in amplifying sound, Bell was trying to create a hearing aid that increased sound for people with hearing difficulties.

Bell got the idea to create a microphone when he visited his mother, who had hearing problems. He also worked around people with hearing problems. Bell had been involved with the hearing-impaired since he was young. As we mentioned earlier, his mother was partially deaf.

His father, Melville Bell, also invented a writing system called Visible Speech for the deaf. Alexander Graham Bell had worked as a teacher at Pemberton Avenue School for the Deaf in Boston. He later married Mabel Hubbard, who was one of his students at the school.^[4]

6 Blockchain Was Invented To Time-Stamp Documents

Most people do not realize that the blockchain—which powers cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin—was invented by Stuart Haber and W. Scott Stornetta in 1991. The duo intended blockchain as a tool for time-stamping documents. However, the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto found other uses for it when he created Bitcoin in the late 2000s.^[5]

In their original paper, which was titled “How to time-stamp a digital document,” Haber and Stornetta wrote that the blockchain would not allow users to “back-date or to forward-date [a] document, even with the collusion of a time-stamping service.” They added that it would “maintain complete privacy of the documents themselves, and require no record-keeping by the time-stamping service.”

This is exactly how cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin work. Details about the owners of Bitcoins and their transactions are private even though others can see the transaction, which is the timestamp. Bitcoins are also almost impossible to forge. However, Haber and Stornetta believed that their blockchain would be used to prove that a document existed at a certain time, which is very useful in legal cases.

5 The Siren Was A Musical Instrument

Nowadays, sirens are considered the first sign of incoming danger. However, they were never intended to be warning systems. The modern siren was invented by Scotsman John Robison in 1799. He considered it a musical instrument even though it made the same sound as today’s sirens.

Frenchman Cagniard de la Tour also created a siren in 1819. However, he was only interested in using it for scientific experiments. Tour used his device to measure the average speed of a mosquito wing, the speed of sound underwater, and the frequency of musical notes. However, he noted that the siren could be used as a warning device on ships.

These devices only became warning signals during World War II when the British government used them to alert their people of German attacks. The US extended their use as tornado warnings after a devastating twister caused extensive damage and killed lots of people at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma in 1948. The US government turned to the already-proven siren instead of developing a new tornado warning system.

Curiously, the US government never issued tornado warnings before 1948 even though the authorities had once considered it decades earlier. In 1887, the government determined that tornado warnings were unnecessary over concerns that they could cause more confusion. The use of sirens was extended to warn of nuclear attacks when President Harry Truman passed the Civil Defense Act during the Cold War in 1950.^[6]

4 The Ice Machine Was Invented To Cool Hospital Patients

The ice-making machine was a spinoff of the refrigerator, which had been in development for centuries until William Cullen invented the first practical mechanical refrigerator in the 1720s. Several inventors improved on his design. This included Oliver Evans, who designed a refrigerator that used vapor in place of liquid for cooling in 1805.

In 1842, US doctor John Gorrie improved on Cullen’s refrigerator to create an ice machine. Gorrie used the machine to make ice to reduce the body temperatures of the yellow fever patients at the hospital where he worked. He got a patent for his invention in 1851.^[7]

3 The First Programmable Robot Was Invented For Die-Casting

The history of robots goes back centuries. However, the first digital and programmable robot was created by George Devol in 1954. He would later partner with Joseph Engelberger to found the first company dedicated to robotics.

The robot was called Unimate. It was a one-handed industrial robot, the sort used in automotive plants today. However, Unimate was not involved in building vehicles. Instead, it was used for the dangerous job of die-casting—that is, pouring red-hot molten metal into a preset mold.

The first Unimate was installed at a General Motors die-casting plant in New Jersey in 1959. Other automakers and businesses soon got the Unimate to do their die-casting jobs. A few years later, similar one-handed robots were created to do other tasks, including building vehicles from scratch.^[8]

2 The Steam Engine Was Invented To Pump Water Out Of Coal Mines

The steam engine was one of the most important inventions of the first industrial revolution. While considered archaic today, it was used to operate everything from factories, machines, mills, airships, trains, and boats a few centuries ago. This occurred even though the first practical steam engine was created to pump water out of coal mines.

The steam engine had been in development for centuries. However, like robots, early steam engines were not feasible to use. The first practical steam engine—which is actually considered a steam-operated machine and not an engine—was developed by Jeronimo de Ayanz in 1606. Ayanz created his steam machine to pump water out of coal mines.

Ayanz’s machine was not very efficient. In 1698, Thomas Savery stepped in to create what is considered the first steam engine. Like Ayanz, Savery developed his machine to pump water out of coal mines. However, his machine was not perfect, either. It could only pump water from shallow mines and was susceptible to exploding without notice.

In 1711, Thomas Newcomen improved on the steam engine to pump water from deep mines. His invention was inefficient even though it worked. In 1765, James Watt improved on Newcomen’s engine to develop an efficient steam engine. Watt’s steam engine soon found use in powering factories and, later, vehicles.^[9]

1 The First Air Conditioner Was Intended To Cool A Printing Plant

Willis Carrier invented the first practical air conditioner in 1902. Like the ice machine, the air conditioner was a spin-off of the refrigerator. Prospective inventors of the air conditioner were actually working on refrigerators when they discovered its air conditioning properties.

As mentioned earlier, Gorrie created the ice machine. He later improved it to develop a cooling system that worked like an air conditioner even though it was based on the principle of the refrigerator. However, he is not considered the inventor of the air conditioner because his invention was not practical.^[10]

In 1902, executives from Sackett-Wilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company in Brooklyn, New York, requested a cooling system from Carrier for their factory. The inside of their factory often became humid, which destroyed the colors used for printing. Carrier got to work, and the result is considered the first air conditioner.

Several trades and professions around today are much different than when they first appeared. In fact, many have changed so much that their origins would be hard to imagine. Who would believe that the world’s first airline did not have airplanes? That the first gas station was a pharmacy? Or that funeral homes operated the first ambulances?

Many trades and professions often have weird origins because they began as offshoots of other businesses. Others only got defined and structured long after they first appeared. At other times, advances in technology just introduced some new ways of doing things.

10 Funeral Homes Operated The First Ambulance Services

Funeral homes launched the first ambulance services when they helped to evacuate the wounded to hospitals during the US Civil War. The early ambulances only had a stretcher, a blanket, and a bottle of whiskey as anesthesia. Later alterations included oxygen. The personnel on board also learned some lifesaving medical procedures, making them the first paramedics.

The ambulances were actually hearses—the same ones used by funeral homes to transport dead people to cemeteries. The hearses worked because regular horse-drawn carriages were not long enough to allow the patients to lie down.

However, the funeral homes were not really interested in saving lives or even in the money they charged their clients. Over half of their clients never even bothered to pay. The real profit was in the death of the client because the funeral home that provided the ambulance was the likeliest to receive an offer to arrange the burial.

Funeral homes stopped providing ambulance services after Congress passed the Highway Safety Act in 1966. The act set regulations over what sort of vehicles could be used as ambulances. It also required ambulances to be staffed by trained personnel. The funeral homes could not meet the regulations and left the business for hospitals and other operators.^[1]

9 The First Gas Station Was A Pharmacy

In early August 1888, Bertha Benz (the wife of Karl Benz, who invented the first practical automobile) completed the first road trip in a motorcar when she and her two sons traveled from Mannheim to visit her mother in Pforzheim, Germany. The car was the Patent-Motorwagen No. 3, which was built by her husband.

At the time, Karl Benz had problems marketing the vehicle. When Bertha suggested that they make a road trip to publicize the car, he refused. Undeterred, Bertha and her two sons went without her husband’s permission. Karl only realized what had happened when he saw her letter informing him that she had left for her mum’s.

The vehicle broke down several times, but Bertha handled the repairs. However, her greatest challenge arose when she ran out of fuel. She walked to a local pharmacy where she purchased Ligroin, a petroleum solvent that was used as fuel at the time. The pharmacy had the stuff because it was used for cleaning surfaces.

That pharmacy in the town of Wiesloch is considered the first filling station in the world. In keeping with the tradition, other pharmacies stocked up on Ligroin and then gasoline and sold these products to car owners until the first gas stations appeared. For Bertha, her trip made the news and popularized her husband’s car as a reliable means of transportation.^[2]

8 The First Motels Were Unbelievably Luxurious

Motels are often less expensive than budget hotels even though motels were never intended to be cheap. In fact, the first motels were actually hotels with parking garages for car owners. That’s why they were called “motels” (motor hotels).

Arthur Heineman built the first one in 1925. Vehicles were becoming mainstream in the US at the time, and Heineman had observed that conventional hotels did not have enough parking spaces for traveling drivers. So he built the first motel at San Luis Obispo, which is between Los Angeles and San Francisco. He called it the Milestone Mo-Tel Inn.

It consisted of several bungalows with garages that could accommodate up to 160 people in total. Lodgers paid $1.25 to sleep in one of the rooms for a night. Car owners parked their vehicles in the garages while they slept in nearby rooms. The motel also had separate rooms for chauffeurs in case the car owner had one.

Heineman spent $80,000 to build his motel. It had central heating, showers, a bell tower, and other expensive features that are alien to today’s motels. He planned to build a chain of 18 motels in California alone. However, the Great Depression soon came along, forcing him to slow down on his plans.

By the time it was over, several competitors had sprung up to steal a share of the market. They engaged in price wars that quickly turned motels into budget lodges without luxurious facilities.^[3]

7 The World’s First Airline Used A Fleet Of Airships

Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft (“German Airship Transportation Corporation Ltd.”), aka DELAG, was the world’s first airline. It was founded on November 16, 1909, as a subsidiary of the Zeppelin Company, the German airship maker. Little wonder that it had a fleet of airships in place of airplanes.

However, DELAG did not provide scheduled flights until 1919 when it started to operate flights between Berlin and southern Germany. Until then, it operated tour flights for sightseers who wanted to view the Earth from high above.

The Zeppelin Company founded DELAG to create an alternate stream of income. Before then, the Zeppelin Company had focused on selling its airships to the German military. However, it was unsure whether the military would buy enough airships to keep it afloat. DELAG remained in business until 1935.^[4]

6 The World’s First Commercial Airline Used Airboats That Flew 1.5 Meters (5 Ft) Above The Water

We already mentioned that DELAG—the world’s first airline—did not offer scheduled commercial flights until 1919. This is why The St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line, which was founded in 1913, is considered the world’s first commercial airline to offer scheduled flights.

The airline offered regular flights from St. Petersburg to Tampa, Florida, using a two-seat airboat called the Lark of Duluth. An airboat is an airplane that lands and takes off from water. The Lark of Duluth had just two seats. The pilot sat in one while one or two passengers were cramped in the other. The airplane itself skirted just 1.5 meters (5 ft) above the water.

The St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line made its first flight on January 1, 1914, and the passenger was Abram C. Pheil, the former mayor of St. Petersburg. Pheil got the seat after winning a $400 auction. Later passengers paid $5 for a single trip.

The St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line was a success because it made the 29-kilometer (18 mi) flight in just 23 minutes. At the time, steamships covered that distance in two hours, trains in 4–12 hours, and cars in 20 hours. However, the airboat line could not remain in business and shut down in 1914.^[5]

5 Barbershops Doubled As Operating Rooms

Barbers doubled as surgeons until a few centuries ago. Both professions were so closely linked that they had a single association called the Company of Barber-Surgeons from the 16th to the 18th centuries. The barbers often treated medical ailments like syphilis, which physicians of the day wanted nothing to do with. Barbers also helped to remove painful teeth, which technically made them dentists.

Many barbers performed bloodletting, the now-obsolete and disproved act of draining blood from a person to expel diseases from the body. Some say that this is why barbers often have red-and-white poles outside their shops. The red represents the blood while the white is the bandage. However, this theory is disputed.

Nevertheless, we know that barbers often advertised their bloodletting services by leaving bowls of blood in their windows. Several surgeons were not comfortable with the barbers and desperately wanted to separate their trade from the barbers. The surgeons got their way in 1745 when the Company of Barber-Surgeons was split.^[6]

4 The First Newspapers Were Books

Newspapers have existed as pamphlets, corantos, and newsbooks for centuries. However, the direct predecessors of modern newspapers are newsbooks. Made of several news pamphlets bound together to create a small book, they were published like regular books and even had title pages.

Unlike modern newspapers that report a variety of news stories, the newsbooks and pamphlets often only reported single events like battles, disasters, and celebrations. However, what we consider the first newspaper was published by Johann Carolus and sold in the city of Strasbourg, Germany, in September 1605.

Carolus called his newspaper Relation aller Furnemmen und gedenckwurdigen Historien. Like its predecessors, it was also a newsbook. However, it reported a variety of news. Carolus’s weekly newspaper was 4–6 pages long.^[7]

3 The First Movie Was Only 2.11 Seconds Long

We expect our movies to run for around two hours these days. Interestingly, the first movie ran for only 2.11 seconds. Yes! That was no mistake. 2.11 seconds. The movie was titled Roundhay Garden Scene and was produced by French inventor Louis Le Prince in 1888.

Roundhay Garden Scene was a video of Louis’s son Adolphe and several friends and relatives walking around a garden. Louis Le Prince created the film while testing a new video camera he had invented.

To be clear, an earlier film titled The Horse In Motion was created in 1878—a full 10 years before Louis Le Prince made his movie. However, The Horse In Motion is not considered a real film because it was produced with several photo cameras timed to shoot as a horse galloped past. The photographs were later blended into a single video.^[8]

2 The First Psychiatric Hospitals Were Private Businesses

Early psychiatric hospitals were called lunatic asylums. They were private for-profit businesses run by cruel entrepreneurs who were more interested in profits than the health of their patients. The patients were treated with disdain and kept in terrible conditions that rivaled prisons.

Before the first lunatic asylums appeared, mad people were often kept in homes where their conditions were managed by their relatives. However, this was no easy task. Many families experienced some relief when the first private for-profit lunatic asylums sprang up in the 1600s.

The operators of these asylums used crude methods on their patients. They held them down with irons and applied the same brutal methods used on stubborn horses to keep their patients under control. Several churches operated more decent, nonprofit lunatic asylums. But they could not take enough patients. So most families just sent their mentally deranged relatives to these for-profit lunatic asylums.

These facilities went into decline when more decent lunatic asylums started to appear in the 1790s. The for-profits finally went out of business when the government started to build lunatic asylums in the 1800s. These places were later renamed psychiatric hospitals.^[9]

1 Priests And Medicine Men Were The First Barbers

Barbering dates to over 6,000 years ago when priests and medicine men started the side job of cutting hair. At the time, people believed that spirits could enter the body through the head. So getting a haircut was considered a religious rite.

People often let their hair grow long enough to allow the good spirits in. Then they held elaborate religious ceremonies where the hair was cut to lock the good spirits in and keep the bad ones out. The superstition seemed to have died off during the ancient Egyptian Empire when people regularly shaved their heads to keep clean because they sweated a lot.^[10]