Even geniuses sometimes come up with ideas that would hardly do credit to a monkey.
Robert Fulton invented the steamship, revolutionizing transportation. But he also came up with this turkey–and spent half a million tax dollars, a staggering sum in 1814, to do it.
Let’s see if I can get you a picture of this baby.
That tiny little thing in the middle is the paddle wheel. There is no steering gear. You’d think at least someone would have noticed these defects, somewhere along the way. Maybe no one dared say anything.
They actually built this floating funhouse.
Then there was the Soviet “land battleship,” but that’s another story.