Examples of elaborate and useless features in naval technology include: Modern naval rams, which became popular in the late 19th century after the Battle of Lissa (1866).
Cage masts, seen in battleships before Pearl Harbor. They were supposed to let shells fly through without toppling the mast. I do not know if they ever did that but they were top-heavy and no defense against aircraft bombs. There are many examples of useless weapons, especially during times of rapid technological change, because people seldom actually fight wars and they have little idea how to do it until the war begins. People often overestimate the potential effect of a weapon. In 1914 the Germans were anxious to mobilize and begin fighting World War I exactly according to a predetermined schedule which was dictated by railroad transportation. They thought that the first country to put millions of soldiers on Western Front would easily win. In 1941, Marshal and other Distinguish soldiers thought that a handful of US long-range B-17 bombers in the Philippines could devastate Japan. There are also weapons and peaceful technologies that turn out to be more effective than most people anticipated. The personal computer and the Internet are good examples, as are unmanned drone aircraft from the recent wars in the Middle East. I have no doubt that cold fusion will be far more effective than most people can now imagine. Defkalion's assertion that it will be "one energy solution out of many" is, in my opinion, preposterous. This is like saying in 1978 that slide rules and metal-part calculators will surely remain competitive against electronic calculators. Twenty years after effective cold fusion devices are sold there is no chance the fossil fuel industry or wind turbine industry will exist, in any form, period. It will bankrupt these industries much faster than the Internet put an end to first class mail, or microcomputers bankrupted DEC, Data General and the other minicomputer makers. - Jed
