The Original Electric Car: Unplugged?
Perhaps the most notorious suppressed invention is the General Motors EV1, subject of the 2006 documentary, Who Killed the Electric Car? The EV1 was the world's first mass-produced electric car, with 800 of them up for lease from GM in the late '90s. GM ended the EV1 line in 1999, stating that consumers weren't happy with the limited driving range of the car's batteries, making it unprofitable to continue production.Many skeptics, however, believe GM killed the EV1 under pressure from oil companies, who stand to lose the most if high-efficiency vehicles conquer the market. It didn't help that GM hunted down and destroyed every last EV1, ensuring the technology would die out.
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Mind Control
Another conspiracy theory about HAARP is that the radio waves can be used for mind control. The technology to create a "Manchurian Candidate" assassin would be a powerful tool, should it exist. In that scenario, messages can be sent direct to people's minds via radio waves or even psychically using "remote influencing," which is the dark side of remote viewing, a type of ESP which governments have dabbled in.
Wilhelm Reich's estate
Cloudbuster
In 1953, when severe drought threatened the blueberry harvest in the state of Maine, Dr. Wilhelm Reich, the inventor of a supposed rainmaking device called the Cloudbuster, and he was contracted to bring rain. The Bangor Daily News reported at the time that within hours of setting up the Cloudbuster, nearly � inch of rain had fallen across the area, despite no precipitation in the forecast. Curiously, it does not seem that Reich attempted this feat again and, in 1954, the government put a stop to his work entirely. After Reich's conviction for selling a phone-booth-sized box that he claimed cured the common cold and impotence, in violation of FDA rules, Reich was sentenced to prison, where he soon died. The court also ordered that Reich's inventions, their parts and any writing about them be destroyed.
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The Death of the American Streetcar
In 1921, if the streetcar industry wasn't actually naming streetcars Desire, it was certainly desiring more streetcars. They netted $1 billion, causing General Motors to hemorrhage $65 million in the face of a thriving industry. GM retaliated by buying and closing hundreds of independent railway companies, boosting the market for gas-guzzling GM buses and cars. While a recent urban movement to rescue mass transit has been underway, it is unlikely we'll ever see streetcars return to their former glory.
Overunity Generator
A number of overunity generators, which produce more energy than they take to run, have surfaced in the past century. Ironically, they have been more trouble than they were worth. In nearly all cases, a supposedly working prototype has been unable to make it to commercial production as a result of various corporate or government forces working against the technology. Recently, the Lutec 1000, an "electricity amplifier," has been making steady progress toward a final commercial version. Will consumers soon be able to buy it, or will it too be suppressed?
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Reverse-Engineered UFO Technology
Since 1947, some incredible technology has come out of U.S. government projects: transistors, fiber optics, night vision goggles, Kevlar body armor, and stealth technology, to name a few. Many conspiracy theorists believe that some of the biggest technological breakthroughs are the result of the reverse-engineering of alien technology, specifically from the UFO that crashed at Roswell in 1947.Ben Rich, developer of the U2 and SR-71 Blackbird, lent credence to this theory when he said in a public lecture: "We now have the technology to take ET home... these technologies are locked up in black projects and it would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity... anything you can imagine, we already know how to do."
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Teleportation
In 1943, at the height of WWII, the naval shipyard in Philadelphia, PA, was the site of the Philadelphia Experiment, in which the harbor filled with a greenish fog and, when the mists lifted, a fully-staffed destroyer had disappeared. When the USS Eldridge reappeared several minutes later, the surviving crew reported feeling disoriented and nauseous. Purportedly, the experiment in teleportation (which would have greatly improved trans-Atlantic troop movements) was a disaster.But since then, rumors about the Montauk Project, a series of tests about teleportation, time travel, and psychic manipulation conducted in the 1960s and 70s with the support of the Department of Defense, have made it clear that teleportation is still being explored. Could it already have been fully achieved and we just don't know it yet?
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A Safer Cigarette?
In the 1960s, the Liggett & Myers tobacco company created a product called the XA, a cigarette in which most of the stick's carcinogens had been eliminated. Dr. James Mold, Liggett's Research Director, reported in court documents in the case of "The City and County of San Francisco vs. Phillip Morris, Inc.," that Phillip Morris threatened to "clobber" Liggett if they did not adhere to an industry agreement never to reveal information about the negative health effects of smoking. By advertising a "safer" alternative, they would be admitting the dangers of tobacco use. The lawsuit was dismissed on a technicality and Phillip Morris never addressed the accusations. Despite their own scientists' publication of research that showed less cancer in mice exposed to smoke from the XA, Liggett & Myers issued a press released denying evidence of cancer in humans as a result of tobacco use, and the XA never saw the light of day.
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The 99-MPG Car
The holy grail of automotive technology is the 99-mpg car. Although the technology has been available for years, automakers have deliberately withheld it from the U.S. market. In 2000, the New York Times reported a little-known fact, at least to most: A diesel-powered dynamo called the Volkswagen Lupo had driven around the world averaging higher than 99 mpg. The Lupo was sold in Europe from 1998 to 2005 but, once again, automakers prevented it from coming to market; they claimed Americans had no interest in small, fuel-efficient cars.
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Weather Weapons
During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military seeded clouds above the Ho Chi Minh Trial with silver iodide, causing downpours and slowing the Vietcong supply effort. When the project was made public in 1972, the military said it would stop using weather as a weapon. But what about the torrential Pakistani floods or the Russian heatwave of 2010? A Russian Foreign Ministry publication wrote, "Climate weapons may be reaching their target capacity and may be used to provoke droughts, erase crops, and induce various anomalous phenomena in certain countries." However, there is no evidence the U.S. modified the weather to weaken their "enemies."
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Alien Spacecraft
We're not inventing this one so much as borrowing it. At Area 51, the nearest military base to the Roswell crash, a number of secret aircraft tests that have taken place in the skies over New Mexico. Even if aliens aren't involved, there is suspicion that we have taken downed spacecraft and turned them into American military aircraft. Not with the previously-mentioned "reverse engineering," but just... using the exact same spaceship.From 1947 to 1969, Project Blue Book operated out of Hangar 18 and documented 12,618 UFO sightings. Some think that the sightings were actually salvage missions in which the government collected alien technology for later use.
Water-Powered Vehicles
Despite how silly it sounds, water-fueled vehicles do exist. The most famous is Stan Meyer's dune buggy, which achieved 100 miles per gallon and might have become more commonplace had Meyer not succumbed to a suspicious brain aneurysm at 57. Insiders have loudly claimed that Meyer was poisoned after he refused to sell his patents or end his research. Fearing a conspiracy, his partners have all but gone underground (or should we say underwater?) and taken his famed water-powered dune buggy with them. We just hope someone finally brings back the amphibious car.
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TENS
The Transcutaneous Electronic Nerve Stimulation (TENS) device was created to alleviate pain impulses from the body without the use of drugs. In 1974, Johnson & Johnson bought StimTech, one of the first companies to sell the machine, and proceeded to starve the TENS division of money, causing it to flounder. StimTech sued, alleging that Johnson & Johnson purposely stifled the TENS technology to protect sales of its flagship drug, Tylenol. Johnson & Johnson responded that the device never performed as well as was claimed and that it was not profitable. StimTech's founders won $170 Million, although the ruling was appealed and overturned on a technicality. The court's finding that the corporation suppressed the TENS device was never overturned
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Miracle Cancer Cure
In 2001, Nova Scotian Rick Simpson discovered that a cancerous spot on his skin disappeared within a few days of applying an essential oil made from marijuana. Since then, Simpson and others have treated thousands of cancer patients with incredible success. Researchers in Spain have confirmed that THC, an active compound in marijuana, kills brain-tumor cells in human subjects and shows promise with breast, pancreatic and liver tumors. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, however, classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, meaning that it has no accepted medical use, unlike Schedule II drugs, like cocaine and methamphetamine, which may provide medical benefits. What a buzzkill.
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Hidden Tanks
BAE Systems AB is the company behind Adaptiv, the technology that gave us the UK's "invisible tank." Adaptiv is a super-secret project that uses dragon-like scales to change the heat signature of an object. When viewed through infrared goggles or radar, BAE says a tank can "disappear." So why aren't we using it yet?
Searle Effect Generator
For over sixty years, John Searle has held the secret to abundant, fuel-less energy. In the 1940s, he came up with the Searle Effect Generator, a machine that used magnetic rollers rotating around a fixed point to generate a clean and sustainable energy source. By the 1960s, he embarked on a major advertising campaign to publicize his ideas and get the funding necessary to scale up production. But rather than embrace Searle's innovation, the U.S. government shrugged him off, which hurt his credibility with the scientific community. Searle, however, is so confident in his invention that even today he is still sharing his vision through the internet.
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Chronovisor
What if you had a device that could see into the future and revisit the past? And what if you didn't need Christopher Lloyd to help you? Father Pellegrino Maria Ernetti, an Italian priest, claimed in the 1960s to have invented what he called a Chronovisor, something that allowed him to witness Christ's crucifixion. The device supposedly enabled viewers to watch any event in human history by tuning in to remnant vibrations that are caused by every action. (His team of researchers and builders included Enrico Fermi, who also worked on the first atomic bomb). On his deathbed, Fermi admitted that he had faked viewings of ancient Greece and Christ's demise, but insisted the Chronovisor, which had by then vanished, still worked. Unsurprisingly, conspiracy theorists say the Vatican is now the likely owner of the original Chronovisor.
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Orgone Accumulator
Psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich claimed the world is full of the energy of untapped life forces, or orgone energy. Reich theorized that all life and life actions (including sex) created orgone energy. Traumatizing events, on the other hand, blocked this energy and could cause illnesses. In 1940, Reich invented an orgone accumulator, a cube constructed of layers of organic and metallic materials, which attracted orgone energy and the transmitted it into the body of the human inside the accumulator. Reich said his orgone accumulator could cure cancer, but the FDA ordered it destroyed. After disobeying an injunction, Reich spent the rest of his life in jail, dying in 2007. His will stipulated that his work on the accumulator be sealed for fifty years
Invisibility Cloak
The invisibility cloak from the Harry Potter books is "real" and you can thank Canada for it. The Canadian firm HyperStealth Biotechnology Corp. claimed to have invented an invisibility cloak but the details are classified. Purportedly, the cloak is made of light-bending technology that reflects the surroundings of the wearer. While there's a debate over how "invisible" this really makes someone, some believe the technology will develop to the point it actually does becomes effective.
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