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It’s easy to look at this picture and wonder, “why is this umbrella so special that it is locked in a glass case?” But that’s before you learn it was a brilliant Soviet spy weapon:
So it was that one day, while Markov was walking to his car in London, he felt a sharp bite on his thigh. When he turned around he saw nothing, only a man who fumbled briefly with an umbrella before running off. The next day he became deathly ill, and died, as one is wont to do when becoming deathly ill. To this day no one has ever been tried for the murder.
Japanese designer Kota Nezu made a parasol that is a functional sundial. There’s a compass built into the handle to that you can point it in the right direction and get a reading on the time.
No doubt, the umbrella has evolved over time into a successful, functional personal accessory that works well in keeping rain off. In a driving rain accompanied by a powerful wind, an umbrella may turn inside out, or fail to keep one’s dress or pants dry. But it generally works well, and the latest compact designs – small enough to fit in a large jacket pocket – may cost as little as $10.
Yet it is my hobby to think up alternative ways of solving problems, and this may lead me to propose strange plausible designs or to come up with elaborately-detailed, flawed concepts intended merely as jokes. I like to feel that even though a product has locked into a specific shape and form, and become stylish and traditional over time, other design possibilities may exist “out there” that could fill an empty niche. Some of my designs might be impractical under circumstances of normal usage. While my necktie which doubles as a screw-off umbrella is a possible product, it would feel heavy when worn around the neck.
Two of my designs, published in 1983, became products many years later. One can now purchase a colorful umbrella hat, and in 2005 BusinessWeek magazine awarded a Bronze Design Award for an inflatable umbrella with a hand pump that looks similar to my design published 22 years earlier.
Over in the NeatoShop, we sell an umbrella that has a handle similar to those found on Japanese samurai swords. One college student in Atlanta owns one (although he didn’t get it from us), and when police heard that a student in a dorm had a sword, they surrounded the building and evacuated it. The owner’s girlfriend reports:
The officer then asked me to describe him, so I proceeded to describe his hair color, height, eye color, and build. The officer interrupted, “Did this person have a weapon?” Through my nervousness I perceived what the situation was about.
I replied, “He had an umbrella that looked like a weapon. It looks like a samurai sword.”
The officers looked at each other. One of them said, “An umbrella?” to which I replied affirmatively. I then helpfully volunteered, “I can call him to come right back over.”
Link - via geekologie
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