Ray Saintonge wrote:
I certainly think that there is a place in an encyclopedia for the offbeat and ephemeral. ... In science and technology there are any number of attempts that might have worked but were superceded by a more practical idea ... the Collins International Telegraph Company scheme ... the 1920s plan to put a series of floating airports as refueling stops across the Atlantic....
Hear, hear! And don't forget the ideas that were superceded by a less practical but more politically expedient ones, such as the Nicaragua Canal.