The inventor of a horse-powered vehicle has given up on his creation and is offering it up sans horse to a lucky winner along with its patent and a $100,000 cash prize. All you have to do is remind him exactly why he built it in the first place because he isn't sure.
If you're stuck at a job that doesn't require you to spend hours trolling the internet for photos of ridiculous inventions, you might have missed the 2008 debut of the Naturmobilt and the inevitable "horse-power" jokes is inspired. Naturmobil is the, er, brainchild of Iranian inventor Hadi Mirhejazi, who figured a horse strapped to a treadmill is the only logical replacement for the internal combustion engine. According to the Guardian, Naturmobil uses a treadmill connected to a 20-gear drivetrain that, when trotted upon, simultaneously recharges the battery and powers the two-seater up to 28 mph.
It's amazing that anyone ponied up the cash to build such a contraption, but we fear the neigh-sayers have won. Mirhejazi's unbridled enthusiasm for the project has waned, and he is offering the Naturmobil to anyone who answers the question, "Why was it really invented?" While the official Naturmobil website says the vehicle was apparently built for the purpose of advertising and tourism, we doubt Mirhejazi is interested in such relatively practical concerns.
Mirhejazi said his equine odyssey began on a smoggy day. According to the contest website, the inventor thought that clouds had rolled in "but it was not too long that he realized that he was witnessing a high level of over polluted air. Because of this bewilderment, the whole concept of Naturmobil was born." While the "About the Inventor" section of his website is mysteriously blank, we imagine that his personality type falls somewhere between Don Quixote and a four-year-old child.
According to the website, Naturmobil was "designed to achieve both growth in economy and protection in the environment at the same time." Though we're sure a city full of Naturmobils would be a veritable stimulus package for farriers and saddlers, we must inform him that he's not entirely correct about the whole environmentally-friendly claim. The average horse emits more than 950 cubic feet of methane each year, though most of it will end up trapped inside the cabin of the Naturmobil: As a sort of ur-catalytic converter, Mirhejazi developed a colostomy bag that discharges horse waste underneath the treadmill. If he's attempting to draw attention to the problem of global warming, we suggest he put any greenhouse effect naysayers in the front seat of the Naturmobil's enclosed glass cabin on a hot day shortly after feeding the powertrain.
We'd love to see someone valet this thing at a five-star hotel, so we're hoping you all enter the contest. Sadly, there's no link on the Naturmobil website to actually answer the question of why it was invented, but you can let us know your theories in the comments section. You might not win a truly horseless carriage, but would you really want one?
Photo: Naturmobil
