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1st Prize for
Stupid
This Canadian WW1
invention must take the cake for the stupidity. It was supposed to
be used as a shield when firing a rifle through it and then as a
shovel when digging. |
Modelled
on a Swiss invention this device was intended to be used as both a
shield and a shovel. Patented in the name of one of Sir Sam Hughes
private secretaries it was a complete failure in every respect. The
handle was too short, the shovel too dull to dig with, the hole in
the blade was too low to shoot through unless mounted on a low pile
of dirt and worst of all it was not bullet proof.
The entire
shipment of 22,000 shovels which had cost the (Canadian) government over
$29,000 was sold off as scrap in 1917 for $1,400. . .and just to add insult to
injury, a right handed shooter would have almost no protection even if
the thing was successful as the aperture is on the wrong side.
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