One might think, looking around at the world today, that we are living in somewhat of a technological utopia, but there are said to be some inventions that would have transformed society were it not for the 'powers that be.'
YouTube user Top5s has put together a collection of five such innovations that were briefly seen and then disappeared before they could reach the public.
It should come as no surprise to conspiracy theorists that several of the suppressed inventions were devices that purportedly promised energy independence.
A 'vapor carburetor' and a geomagnetic generator are among the creations once thought to be incredible breakthrough ideas that have now been relegated to fringe science.
Skeptics say that this is because the inventions did not really work, but others contend that they worked too well and, as such, were a threat to the enormously powerful energy industry.
One recurring element featured in each of these cases of alternative energy devices that never came to fruition is that their inventors seem to have died under mysterious circumstances.
This had led to their stories gaining an additional layer of intrigue which suggests that perhaps they had been eliminated.
However one innovation featured in the video has nothing to do with alternative energy and, in fact, may be the most heartbreaking.
The 'palladium cigarette' was a type of cigarette developed by the tobacco company Liggett and Myers over the course of two decades.
By infusing palladium nitrate into the tobacco of cigarette, researchers were able to greatly reduce the cancer-causing agents created when smoking.
Incredibly, the tobacco industry ultimately quashed the idea because they were afraid that introducing a 'safe' product would leave companies vulnerable to lawsuits from consumers who had heretofore smoked the more dangerous cigarettes.
Countless lives could have been saved by the palladium cigarette, but it was tragically withheld from an unknowing public in the name of corporate greed.
Check out the complete video to learn more about these once-promising ideas that sadly never saw the light of day.
Source: YouTube