# Predictions from 1900 **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 24, 2009, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191 "2009-04-24T06:22:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Danger\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Danger\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danger_Man)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/1 "2009-04-24T06:22:50Z")
[http://www.yorktownhistory.org/homepages/1900\_predictions.htm](http://www.yorktownhistory.org/homepages/1900_predictions.htm) I saw this article linked in another thread. It is pretty interesting to read, and the predictions seem a bit more realistic than most. How many of these can we say have come true in anyway? Does anyone have any other lists like these? It would be interesting to compare. ---
**Author:** ![fifty-six](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@fifty-six](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fifty-six)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/2 "2009-04-24T06:49:15Z")
What a great read. His working makes some of the predictions seem like strange fantasies or science fiction. Even the ones that came kinda true. ---
**Author:** ![BACI](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ce73a5/32.png) [@BACI](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BACI)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/3 "2009-04-24T08:43:02Z")
That’s so great! Thanks for posting it. I was kind of wondered whether this was genuine such was the accuracy of some of the predictions. Amazing stuff! ---
**Author:** ![hammos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hammos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammos1)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/4 "2009-04-24T09:06:37Z")
Joseph Glanvill, writing in 1661, predicted that one day people conversing “at the distance of the Indies by sympathetic conveyances, may be as usual in the future as by literary correspondence”, and also speculated on the possibility of travelling to the moon. There’s more information in this [Guardian article](http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4086596,00.html); the book ‘A Brief History of Tomorrow’ by Jonathan Margolis is worth reading if you’re interested in the subject. ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/5 "2009-04-24T09:06:53Z")
I’m most impressed with the prediction of air conditioning, since that technology was far from the horizon back in 1900, whereas the advances in automobiles and telephones couldn’t have been that surprising. (Note how he was way off on air travel, for instance.) 'Tis a shame we don’t have mutant-sized strawberries, though. As for the morning commute taking “only a few minutes” – HAHAHAHAHA!!! How come traffic predictions are ALWAYS wrong?!? ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/6 "2009-04-24T12:42:58Z")
> [@KGS](#): > > I’m most impressed with the prediction of air conditioning, since that technology was far from the horizon back in 1900 Not amazingly far. From this [Wiki article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_conditioning): > [@](#): > > In 1842, Florida physician John Gorrie used compressor technology to create ice, which he used to cool air for his patients in his hospital in Apalachicola, Florida. He hoped eventually to use his ice-making machine to regulate the temperature of buildings. He even envisioned centralized air conditioning that could cool entire cities. Though his prototype leaked and performed irregularly, Gorrie was granted a patent in 1851 for his ice-making machine. His hopes for its success vanished soon afterwards when his chief financial backer died… > > In 1902 the first modern electrical air conditioning was invented by Willis Haviland Carrier in Syracuse, NY. Designed to improve manufacturing process control in a printing plant, his invention controlled not only temperature but also humidity. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/7 "2009-04-24T13:35:36Z")
Indeed, this one is more accurate than most, but I’m surprised at what he wrote about air travel in #7 and #8. I wonder whether he failed at seeing how much larger and faster the airplanes would become, or whether he wrongly expected the already-gigantic ocean liners to become superfast. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/8 "2009-04-24T16:34:11Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > I wonder whether he failed at seeing how much larger and faster the airplanes would become… Note that there were no airplanes in 1900 - just a tiny number of experimenters dabbling with heavier-than-air flight. He was probably thinking of lighter-than-air craft. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/9 "2009-04-24T18:35:13Z")
> [@KGS](#): > > I’m most impressed with the prediction of air conditioning, since that technology was far from the horizon back in 1900, whereas the advances in automobiles and telephones couldn’t have been that surprising. (Note how he was way off on air travel, for instance.) 'Tis a shame we don’t have mutant-sized strawberries, though. Or blue roses. I could have choked though on cities without “noise.” ---
**Author:** ![sweeteviljesus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/898d66/32.png) [@sweeteviljesus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sweeteviljesus)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/10 "2009-04-24T19:17:02Z")
Is it known if any writers in classical civilizations imagined the future? Rob ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/11 "2009-04-24T19:36:37Z")
What a wishful thinker. No rats, mice, mosquitoes or flies, indeed. And this prediction really turned out great: “The trip from suburban home to office will require a few minutes only. A penny will pay the fare.” Yeah, right. > [@Guinastasia](#): > > I could have choked though on cities without “noise.” I misread prediction #13 as “Strawberries as large as Los Angeles”. Now that would make a great horror movie. The embattled citizens of Anytown, U.S.A. bring down the enormous strawberry by hurling peas the size of beets at it, while it is strafed by Airborne War Conveyances. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/12 "2009-04-24T19:59:21Z")
> [@](#): > > Prediction #22: Store Purchases by Tube. Pneumatic tubes, instead of store wagons, will deliver packages and bundles. These tubes will collect, deliver and transport mail over certain distances, perhaps for hundreds of miles. They will at first connect with the private houses of the wealthy; then with all homes. Great business establishments will extend them to stations, similar to our branch post-offices of today, whence fast automobile vehicles will distribute purchases from house to house. The Internet! It’s a series of tubes! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2009, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/13 "2009-04-24T21:25:28Z")
> [@](#): > > A man or woman unable to walk ten miles at a stretch will be regarded as a weakling Replace “walk” with “eat” and “miles” with “burgers” and I’d have been impressed. ---
**Author:** ![Incubus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c68b51/32.png) [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/14 "2009-04-25T02:18:57Z")
Could you imagine how twlight zone -esque it would be to be thrown into these visions of the future? A despotic American Co-prosperity sphere, cowing their enemies with a mighty flotilla of Battle Blimps, united in its vision through infotube fed propiganda, as our Fearless Leader stands triumphant, clutching a strawberry big enough you can eat it like a handfruit :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/15 "2009-04-25T05:48:42Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > What a wishful thinker. No rats, mice, mosquitoes or flies, indeed. Hey, we would’ve had that, if it wasn’t for that pesky Rachel Carson. > [@1900](#): > > English will be a language of condensed words expressing condensed ideas, and will be more extensively spoken than any other. I love that. > [@1900](#): > > A husband in the middle of the Atlantic will be able to converse with his wife sitting in her boudoir in Chicago. Yeah.. until he realizes Iridium is charging him $5 a minute. Seriously… 80 artificial moons dedicated to wireless telegraph? No wonder those people went bankrupt. > [@1900](#): > > We will be able to telephone to China quite as readily as we now talk from New York to Brooklyn. Who you saying ain’t in New York? > [@](#): > > By an automatic signal they will connect with any circuit in their locality without the intervention of a “hello girl”. I could use one of those about now… > [@](#): > > Coal will not be used for heating or cooking. It will be scarce, but not entirely exhausted. The earth’s hard coal will last until the year 2050 or 2100; its soft-coal mines until 2200 or 2300. Really? Coal more scarce than oil? Pretty prophetic, though. > [@](#): > > Man will have found electricity manufactured by waterpower to be much cheaper. Every river or creek with any suitable fall will be equipped with water-motors, turning dynamos, making electricity. Along the seacoast will be numerous reservoirs continually filled by waves and tides washing in. Out of these the water will be constantly falling over revolving wheels. All of our restless waters, fresh and salt, will thus be harnessed to do the work which Niagara is doing today: making electricity for heat, light and fuel. I think I’d rather have global warming. > [@](#): > > ngland in Two Days. Fast electric ships, crossing the ocean at more than a mile a minute, will go from New York to Liverpool in two days. The bodies of these ships will be built above the waves. They will be supported upon runners, somewhat like those of the sleigh. These runners will be very buoyant. Upon their under sides will be apertures expelling jets of air. In this way a film of air will be kept between them and the water’s surface. This film, together with the small surface of the runners, will reduce friction against the waves to the smallest possible degree. I don’t know about you, but _my_ hovercraft is full of eels. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/16 "2009-04-25T08:00:14Z")
> [@Alex\_Dubinsky](#): > > Who you saying ain’t in New York? I suspect that in 1900 Brooklyn was not officially part of NYC proper. I’d have to look that up though. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/17 "2009-04-25T09:50:04Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > I suspect that in 1900 Brooklyn was not officially part of NYC proper. I’d have to look that up though. Actually it was as of 1898. But people were still angry about it in 1900. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/18 "2009-04-25T10:48:05Z")
I’m often dubious of these claims about “Predictions of life in THE FUTURE!” from sources along the lines of “_Applied Radiophonics_, August 1912”. Even when they name an author, I can never _quite_ shut off my “Bullshit Alarm” when I see them. I’m a huge fan of Retro-Futurism (basically, how people in The Past thought THE FUTURE! would look), and I’m also a historian. And getting hold of copies of magazines from a century ago isn’t quite as easy as you’d think. It’s by no means impossible, but there were _a lot_ of magazines back then- more than you’d think- and not all of them are available on microfiche or electronic format at your local library or online. I mean, Russell Brand was on TV the other night doing part of a routine based on a well-debunked article allegedly from a copy of _Housekeeping Monthly_ dated May 13th, 1955, and he was going to great lengths to assure the audience that it was actually real and not bullshit. In short, when I see anything from a decades-old “popular culture” source (ie, obscure magazine, small-town newspaper, or something else equally hard to verify) then my initial reaction is usually scepticism. FWIW, if it’s not completely on the level then it’s been done up by someone with a pretty good understanding of the language of the time, and _Ladies Home Journal_ is a well-known and easily checkable reference, so I’m pretty sure the article is genuine. Which makes its prescience quite interesting when you consider how far off the mark most Futurists usually are… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/19 "2009-04-25T18:50:56Z")
From Prediction #2: > [@](#): > > The American will … live fifty years instead of thirty-five as at present What in the world is that supposed to mean? Sure, life expectancy has increased a bit in the past century, but I’m certain it wasn’t as low as 35 years. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2009, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191/20 "2009-04-25T19:01:47Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > From Prediction #2:What in the world is that supposed to mean? Sure, life expectancy has increased a bit in the past century, but I’m certain it wasn’t as low as 35 years. If you include deaths during infancy and childhood, life expectancy could be lower than you think. But for people surviving childhood, life expectancy was of course much higher than 35. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/predictions-from-1900/494191.md?page=2)