Emma Read filed her patent for a portable baby cage in 1922. The stated problem was reasonable: children in crowded apartment buildings needed fresh air and outdoor exposure. The proposed solution was a foldable wire enclosure suspended outside an open window and braced against the building. It is childcare reimagined as a fire escape accessory—an object that solves floor space by calmly deleting the floor.
Source: U.S. Patent 1,448,235: Portable Baby Cage
Image: Figure 1 from U.S. Patent 1,448,235 / Wikimedia Commons, public domain.