Keytar
Iconic, multi-award winning Prince has many talents. Inventing, however, is one of his lesser known ones. Back in 1992 Prince filed a patent for a custom-design keytar - a keyboard-guitar hybrid - known as the Purpleaxxe. The Purpleaxxe not only epitomised Prince’s glittery fashion sense, but was portable, allowing his keyboard player to rock around the stage. Photograph: USPTO & Brian Rasic/Rex Features
Communications system
Actress Hedy Lamarr was the co-inventor of a communications system that she and composer George Antheil thought up during the second world war. The aim was to stop the enemy from jamming radio-controlled torpedoes by rapidly changing the signal from one frequency to another. Lamarr’s frequency-hopping idea is the basis for modern technologies such as Bluetooth. Photograph: USPTO & Sunset Boulevard/Corbis
Model train gadgets
Pono is far from Neil Young’s first innovative idea. A lifelong train enthusiast, and part-owner of toy company Lionel Trains, he has multiple patents for tweaks and improvements to model railway systems, including a nifty horn control. To share his passion with his sons, both of whom have cerebral palsy, he also invented a switch system operable by a big red button Photograph: USPTO & Kevin Mazur/WireImage
Aid for boats stuck on shoals
Before becoming US president, Abraham Lincoln enjoyed tinkering in the toolshed and invented a nautical device. Ships that got stuck on sandbars in shallow water had to throw buoyant cargo overboard to escape. Lincoln’s device worked by pumping air into chambers to raise the ship. It was never made and experts doubt its practicality Photograph: USPTO & Nicholas Shepherd/Hulton Archive
Sash window mechanism
Besides being a quality crooner, Crosby was a fan of a nifty design, setting up the Crosby Research Foundation with his brothers to help wannabe inventors explore and market their ideas. Crosby himself was no stranger to innovation, patenting a 'window sash holder', to keep sash windows open at the desired place should the cord or cable mechanism fail Photograph: USPTO & ITV/Rex Features
Nappy with disposable wipes
Scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis invented a disposable nappy that could presumably stop wails from parents and babies alike. Instead of carrying nappies and wipes separately, Curtis combined the two by designing a diaper with a waterproof pocket on the front. Sadly the Dipe’N’Wipe has been abandoned, so parents will have to face the horrors of nappy changing unaided Photograph: USPTO & Allstar
Bucket seat
As well as being the King of Cool, Steve McQueen designed the shell of a bucket seat to keep motorsports drivers in place when travelling at high speeds. McQueen’s seats were actually used in his Baja Boot racing buggy, while the patent itself was put up for auction in 2011 for a cool $2,000- $4,000 (£1,168-£2,337) Photograph: USPTO & Allstar
Dynamic microphone stand
Clearly a fan of rocking out, the American singer Paula Abdul patented an invention for a Weeble-like microphone stand, allowing her to grasp the microphone, balance precariously on the base and belt away without becoming tangled in the microphone cable. Rock on Photograph: USPTO & Kevin Mazur/WireImage
Adjustable blouse
Forget relativity and Nobel prizes, Einstein invented a blouse. Oh yes – in addition to being a genius, Albert Einstein was a bit of a fashionista, coming up with a 'new, original and ornamental' shirt. A sleeveless, sort-of-waistcoat affair, it has two sets of buttons so you can adjust its size around the girth – handy if you’ve just eaten a big meal. Photograph: USPTO & Corbis
Superhero tights
While immortalised as Catwoman in the 1960s Batman TV series, Newmar was also the daughter of an engineer and clearly picked up a few tips along the way. Applying her skills to underwear design, she holds patents for an almost invisible bra and some seriously magic tights. 'They make your derriere look like an apple instead of a ham sandwich,' she told People magazine in 1977. What’s not to love? Photograph: USPTO & Rex Features
Propelled filming platform
James Cameron, film director and deep-sea explorer, is something of a technological whizkid. Among his numerous inventions is one in which propellers are attached to a camera platform, creating a vehicle to pull a camera operator effortlessly through the water while allowing the lens to be pointed in any direction. That’s no drop in the ocean. Photograph: USPTO & Alamy
Adjustable strap
Another with a hankering for the catwalk, Twain invented a detachable, adjustable strap to solve clothing dilemmas. Intended for 'pantaloons, vests, or other garments', it features a crude hook and eye mechanism suspiciously similar to that of the modern bra. Twain felt the advantages of such a device 'were so obvious that they need no explanation' Photograph: USPTO & AF Bradley/Corbis
Gravity defying footwear
Finding harnesses and pulleys a cumbersome way of pulling off his gravity-defying forward leans, the King of Pop patented a pair of shoes that did the trick instead. With a special cavity in the heel, the shoes could hook on to retractable pegs that emerged from the stage floor at choreographed moments, allowing him to temporarily lean well beyond his centre of gravity. Very smooth Photograph: USPTO & Phil Dent/Redferns
Diving suit
Harry Houdini rose to fame as an escape artist, but it appears he was aware that not everyone could extricate themselves from difficulties so easily. His patent was for a diving suit that allows the wearer to free themselves in case of danger. It also allowed divers to descend to greater depths and ascend to the surface more rapidly without the need for compressing or decompressing Photograph: USPTO & Corbis
