Greatest Inventions That Flopped at First
Every one of these breakthroughs was mocked, rejected, or ignored before it changed the world — Western Union scoffed at the telephone, market researchers told Xerox nobody wanted a copier, and 3M nearly killed the Post-it. This list ranks the biggest comeback stories in invention history: the rockier the launch and the bigger the eventual triumph, the higher the ranking. Vote for the inventions w
What counts: Ranking blends two things: how badly the invention flopped or was dismissed at launch (Initial Flop Severity) and how massive its eventual real-world impact became (Ultimate Impact), alongside how long the turnaround took. All years, timelines, and severity/impact scores are approximate reconstructi
Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell offered the patent to Western Union for $100,000 in 1876 and was told the device was 'an electrical toy' with no commercial value. Western Union's own memo predicted it would never displace the telegraph — a call that cost the company an empire it never got
Year Invented: 1876Years to Breakthrough: 15 yrsInitial Flop Severity: 8/10Ultimate Impact: 10/10Still in Use Today: ✓Origin Country: United States
added by IJRin 2 rankings
0Edison's early bulbs burned out after roughly 13 hours, cost a fortune to install, and faced fierce lobbying from gas lighting companies who insisted electricity was a dangerous fad. Investors nearly pulled funding before Edison's team cracked a carbon filament that lasted over 1
Year Invented: 1879Years to Breakthrough: 10 yrsInitial Flop Severity: 6/10Ultimate Impact: 10/10Still in Use Today: ✓Origin Country: United States
added by IJRLight Bulb
0Post-it Notes
3M scientist Spencer Silver invented a weirdly weak adhesive in 1968 that nobody could find a use for, and when the finished sticky note finally launched in four test markets in 1977, it bombed so badly the company almost shelved it for good. A last-ditch 1980 campaign flooding B
Year Invented: 1974Years to Breakthrough: 6 yrsInitial Flop Severity: 7/10Ultimate Impact: 8/10Still in Use Today: ✓Origin Country: United States
added by IJRin 2 rankings
0Xerox Photocopier
Xerox hired a consulting firm to study demand for its 914 copier, and the firm concluded the market was tiny — carbon paper worked fine, thanks. IBM passed on licensing the technology outright. Xerox launched it anyway in 1959, and it became the best-selling industrial product in
Year Invented: 1959Years to Breakthrough: 3 yrsInitial Flop Severity: 8/10Ultimate Impact: 9/10Still in Use Today: ✓Origin Country: United States
added by IJR
0Airplane
After the Wright brothers' 1903 flight at Kitty Hawk, most major newspapers didn't even bother sending reporters, and some outlets dismissed it outright as exaggeration or hoax. It took until public demonstrations in France and the U.S. Army trials around 1908 for the world to be
Year Invented: 1903Years to Breakthrough: 5 yrsInitial Flop Severity: 7/10Ultimate Impact: 10/10Still in Use Today: ✓Origin Country: United States
added by IJRin 2 rankings
0Automobile
Karl Benz's 1886 Patent-Motorwagen was jeered at as a noisy, unreliable curiosity for wealthy eccentrics, and cities had no gas stations, paved roads, or repair shops to support it. Bertha Benz had to secretly drive one over 60 miles just to prove it could actually go somewhere.
Year Invented: 1886Years to Breakthrough: 20 yrsInitial Flop Severity: 6/10Ultimate Impact: 10/10Still in Use Today: ✓Origin Country: Germany
added by IJR
0Television
Farnsworth's 1927 electronic television demo dazzled few outside the lab, and the Great Depression plus World War II froze consumer rollout for nearly two decades while sets remained expensive novelties few could justify. Critics doubted broadcast programming would ever be worth
Year Invented: 1927Years to Breakthrough: 20 yrsInitial Flop Severity: 6/10Ultimate Impact: 9/10Still in Use Today: ✓Origin Country: United States
added by IJRin 2 rankings
0
Richard James's coil toy flopped hard at its 1945 debut, sitting untouched at Gimbels department store shelves. His wife Betty convinced him to do a live demo, and 400 units sold out in 90 minutes once shoppers watched it 'walk.' It's since sold over 300 million units and become
Year Invented: 1943Years to Breakthrough: 1 yrsInitial Flop Severity: 5/10Ultimate Impact: 7/10Still in Use Today: ✓Origin Country: United States
added by IJRin 2 rankingsSlinky
0Swiss engineer George de Mestral patented his hook-and-loop fastener in 1955 after studying burdock burrs, but the fashion and textile industries mocked it as ugly and cheap-looking, and it languished for over a decade. NASA's adoption of Velcro to secure equipment in zero gravit
Year Invented: 1941Years to Breakthrough: 15 yrsInitial Flop Severity: 6/10Ultimate Impact: 8/10Still in Use Today: ✓Origin Country: Switzerland
added by IJRVelcro
0Bubble Wrap
Sealed Air's founders originally tried selling their plastic sheeting as textured wallpaper in 1957, and it flopped completely — nobody wanted bumpy walls. A pivot to greenhouse insulation also fizzled before someone finally realized the air pockets were perfect for cushioning sh
Year Invented: 1957Years to Breakthrough: 3 yrsInitial Flop Severity: 6/10Ultimate Impact: 7/10Still in Use Today: ✓Origin Country: United States
added by IJR
0Play-Doh
Play-Doh started life in 1933 as a wallpaper cleaning putty, and it flopped when manufacturers switched to washable vinyl wallpaper that no longer needed cleaning compound. A schoolteacher's sister-in-law noticed kids loved molding the leftover product, and by 1956 it was relaunc
Year Invented: 1933Years to Breakthrough: 23 yrsInitial Flop Severity: 6/10Ultimate Impact: 7/10Still in Use Today: ✓Origin Country: United States
added by IJRin 2 rankings
0Coca-Cola
Pharmacist John Pemberton's new fountain drink sold a mere handful of glasses a day in its first year, 1886, and actually lost money for its inventor before he died broke. Asa Candler's aggressive marketing and free-sample coupons in the 1890s turned the obscure syrup into a sens
Year Invented: 1886Years to Breakthrough: 5 yrsInitial Flop Severity: 5/10Ultimate Impact: 9/10Still in Use Today: ✓Origin Country: United States
added by IJRin 3 rankings
0Milton Reynolds's 1945 launch of the Reynolds Rocket triggered a frenzy at Gimbels, but the pens leaked, skipped, and failed constantly, and sales collapsed within a year as buyers felt swindled. It took Marcel Bich's cheap, reliable disposable Bic pen in the 1950s to rebuild tru
Year Invented: 1945Years to Breakthrough: 10 yrsInitial Flop Severity: 7/10Ultimate Impact: 7/10Still in Use Today: ✓Origin Country: United States
added by IJRballpoint pen
0Raytheon's 1947 Radarange stood nearly six feet tall, weighed 750 pounds, and cost as much as a car, so almost nobody bought one for home use. It took two decades of miniaturization before affordable countertop models arrived in the late 1960s. Now it's a kitchen staple in the ma
Year Invented: 1947Years to Breakthrough: 20 yrsInitial Flop Severity: 6/10Ultimate Impact: 8/10Still in Use Today: ✓Origin Country: United States
added by IJRmicrowave oven
0Motorola's DynaTAC launched in 1983 at roughly $4,000, weighed nearly two pounds, and offered about 30 minutes of talk time, earning it the nickname 'the brick' and widespread ridicule as a rich person's gimmick. Analysts at the time predicted the mobile phone market would never
Year Invented: 1983Years to Breakthrough: 15 yrsInitial Flop Severity: 6/10Ultimate Impact: 9/10Still in Use Today: ✓Origin Country: United States
added by IJRCell Phone
0Kleenex Tissues
Kimberly-Clark launched Kleenex in 1924 as a disposable cold-cream and makeup remover, and sales were sluggish since cloth handkerchiefs already did the job fine. The company noticed customers were writing in to say they used it to blow their noses instead, and a 1930 rebrand aro
Year Invented: 1924Years to Breakthrough: 6 yrsInitial Flop Severity: 5/10Ultimate Impact: 6/10Still in Use Today: ✓Origin Country: United States
added by IJR
0
Keep ranking
Comments
Free account · your comment posts right after signup