The "Is This Really Necessary?" Department: Fish Throwing Machine, 1932

JF Ptak Science Books LLC  Post 665

Our necessities are few but our wants are endless.
Josh Billings

"Necessity" is a fickle word and and even more elusive emotion, especially when discussing that quality in others.  But there are some things that look, well, just completely unnecessary; so very unnecessary that they are just plain wrong.  Hard to identify, difficult to codify--but everyone knows it when they see it.

Such is the case of this fish-throwing machine installed at the London Zoological Gardens.  The wooden tower seems to be 12 feet high or so, with a fish launched from its uppermost window once a zoo patron deposited their sixpence, eager to mechanically feed a sea lion.   Patrons to the zoo at Regents Park who were eager to see the sea lions fed had to arrive at slimly-appointed time; now, with the fish thrower, they could see the sea lions fed at any time, and do it themselves if they were so inclined.  I don't know exactly what happened to these beats, but constant feeding would've have gone all that well.  

And yes, you got three fish for sixpence.

Source:  The Illustrated London News, 17  September 1932.