A closer look
Necessity might be the mother of invention, but profound laziness is absolutely its father. In 1924, Carl Eliason had a foot injury that made trudging through the dense Wisconsin snow a miserable chore. Instead of just staying indoors, he slapped a two-cylinder motorcycle engine onto a wooden toboggan, added a continuous track system, and accidentally invented the modern snowmobile. He patented the contraption purely so he could go hunting without having to use his own legs, birthing a massive winter sports industry out of sheer convenience.
