House of Lords Scotland and Ireland. The House of Lords was reduced to a largely powerless body, with Cromwell and his supporters in the Commons dominating the Government. On 19 March 1649, the House of Lords was abolished by an Act of Parliament, which declared that "The Commons of England [find] by too long experience that the House of Lords is useless and dangerous to the people of England." The House of Lords did not assemble again until the Convention Parliament met in 1660 and the monarchy was restored. It returned to its former position as the more powerful chamber of Parliament—a position
Useless machine Useless machine A useless machine is a device which has a function but no direct purpose. It may be intended to make a philosophical point, as an amusing engineering "hack", or as an intellectual joke. Devices which have no function or which malfunction are not considered to be "useless machines". The most well-known "useless machines" are those inspired by Marvin Minsky's design, in which the device's sole function is to switch itself off by operating its own "off" switch. More elaborate devices and novelty toys, having some obvious function or entertainment value, have been based on these simple "useless machines".