Ever thought about what it’d be like to give birth while strapped into a fighter jet doing a wild spin? No? Yeah, most people haven’t.
They were trying to make childbirth easier
Meet The Blonsky Device—the baby catapult machine.
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It was patented in 1965 by George and Charlotte Blonsky, who somehow thought this was the future of childbirth.
The Blonsky Device involved strapping the mother to a spinning table
Well, birth is long and painful, and sometimes it takes over 24 hours. The Blonskys figured, why not speed things up?
A pregnant woman would be strapped onto a metal table—wrists, ankles, and chest. The table would then lift, tilt, and start spinning. Faster and faster. Until it hit 8 G-force.
That’s the same force fighter jet pilots endure
The idea was that the spinning would literally fling the baby out… into a net, of course. Just below the mom’s feet.
A net was placed to catch the baby after being flung out
In case no one noticed a whole newborn flying into the net, a little bell would ring to let the doctors know it arrived safely.
But with that invention came so many questions:
- Would the net actually catch the baby?
- What if the mom threw up mid-spin?
- Did they pause for cervical checks, or was it just full speed ahead?
We’ll never know, because this thing never made it past the patent stage
But the curiosity around it didn’t die. Science Gallery Dublin even built a life-sized replica, and Hashem Al-Ghaili created a video showing how it would have worked. That video blew up on TikTok, with 4.4 million views.
Mothers were horrified at the thought of spinning during labor
“Not only is that insane, but I don’t even wanna think about the fluids flying 360°.”
“Imagine having contractions and then just… spinning. I’d be furious.”
“I was overstimulated when a nurse rubbed my leg. I’d simply pass away if I started spinning mid-labor.”
Surprisingly, a woman was actually one of the inventors
Charlotte Blonsky co-invented it alongside her husband. To be fair, they had no kids of their own, and sex ed in the ‘60s wasn’t exactly great.
They got the idea after watching an elephant give birth
The Blonskys saw an elephant giving birth and noticed it twisting a little. Now, elephants do not spin at jet pilot speeds, because, well… physics. But that didn’t stop the Blonskys from dreaming big.
And since their idea never took off (thankfully), no babies—or moms—were harmed in the making of this odd piece of history.
