Hackaday is a website that often features unusual stories on weird technical innovations past, present and maybe one day, the future. Here are three bizarre looks back at very early innovations you probably never knew existed. 

The First Pay TV System

It literally WAS pay TV, because you had to insert coins in a box in order to see one of three special shows playing only for specially connected sets. For a while, this was set up in the unlikely borough of Etobicoke, but it eventually went out of business. But imagine being one of those early pioneers.

Pay TV In The 1960s

The First Weather Channel

Remember those Broadcast News teletype screens in the early days of cable in Toronto? I suppose this was kind of a similar version to that. It was simply rotating camera shots of various weather instruments broadcast on an empty TV channel, with a FM radio station as its soundtrack, an example of which you can see in the article below. 

The First "Weather Channel" On TV

An In-Car Record Player

It's hard to imagine they tried this given everything that could go wrong, but long before cassettes and CDs, you could hit the road with a stack of specially made records and have something to play them on. 

The First In Car Record Player