JF Ptak Science Books Post 2802
While pacing through a volume of Technical World for December 1911 I found an interesting paper on what the world of the future--in 1950--held for the average person in 1911.
Introduction
“Wait! Every ten years in America sees a revolution. Industrial phases assume new proportions, commerce enlarges its borders to rush over strange seas, politics become a tangled web during its evolutionary processes, economic problems broaden their scope. Were the possibilities of the great labor divisions of the world gauged by the strides made during the last fifty years, one would stand in wholesome awe of the vision. The last word in the reconstruction of America is far from being said, though tireless workers of science are constantly forming the new America out of natural forces already largely under their control.”
Air travel and airplanes
--“Charles K. Hamilton recently stated that the form of aeroplane now in use can be indefinitely increased in size, and that the speed and carrying power can be proportionately augmented. He believes the limited size of aeroplanes, thus far, to be merely a question of cost,...This will come today or tomorrow, and after that will come the Mauretanias of the air. In 1950 we may have air-ships a thousand feet long, flying at a rate of speed so high as to bring New York and London as near together as New York and Chicago now are.
--Thomas Edison: “...the most serious difficulty to be overcome in aerial navigation—the difficulty of carrying fuel. “I do not know how to do it,” says the inventor of the phonograph, “but a method will be discovered of wirelessly transmitting electrical energy from the earth to the motor of a machine in mid air. There is no reason to believe it cannot be done.”
Cars, Trains, Tall Buildings
--William R. Wilcox: “Within twenty years we may expect to see gyrocars flying about our heads. Think what the coming of these high speed trains will mean to dwellers in the cities! The problem presented by over crowding will be solved. From each great center a vast system of transportation lines will radiate, permitting the worker to live in the country at fifty or a hundred miles from his place of occupation. And he will cover this distance as quickly as he now covers a like number of blocks! Then the cities themselves! Mr. Wilcox has said that many things point to the use of moving platforms under our streets within, say, twenty years. The arcade, or underground street, will very likely follow the line of the moving side walk. The moving platform permits a person to get on or off at any point, and so we may expect to see great shopping streets below the surface of our present thoroughfares. Sidewalks may also be built along the front of our high buildings, say at the tenth floor. Picture a vast structure of steel and masonry, lifting myriad towers into dizzy heights, and spreading out into an intricate net-work of tunnels and caverns be neath the earth!”
“ No passenger automobile of the future should cost more than five hundred dollars. A statement by O. Irving Twomblym gives an idea of the place these machines already take in the nation's life of pleasure and industry. “By the beginning of 1911,” he says, “we shall have five hundred thousand cars, worth six hundred million dollars and developing a power equal to ten million horses.”
Boats and Ships
--”Tesla who has been experimenting with the model of a boat operated by electric power transmitted without has been operated at a distance...wires, finds the results astounding. Tesla has been able to control the movements of the boat absolutely from a central station with out electrical connections of any kind...Probably coal will be used at first, full energy, or a much larger portion of but the supply is rapidly vanishing and it, out of a piece of coal, this method will be entirely too ineffective for the transportation companies of the future.”
--“Thomas Nixon predicts that the present naval engines will be speedily supplanted by the gas engine and he furthermore states that the use of the gas engine will cut the world's coal bill in half. “
Solar/Tidal/Wind
--Edison: “According to Edison a mere glimpse of our environment has been gained. Plans by which we shall control it are fast being laid. The incalculable energy expended in that swing and heave of the waters of the sea which surges around the earth twice each day will be trammeled and harnessed to our use. These restless waters all a source of more power than would be needed to run all the ships that float upon them. Aside from the tides, there is enough energy in the mere jogging of the waves along the sides of a vessel like the Mauretania to propel her engines. The sun pours enough power upon the earth to run all its industries. This power is already utilized in California for irrigation purposes. But solar engines are imperfect as yet, and can convert only a small part of the fourteen-hundred horse power, or more, that is shed on an acre of land while the sun shines. They are bound to be perfected, however. Of this scientists are sure. The winds offer another possibility of which little advantage has been taken. Windmills will do more than pump water, and in England today, there are many private lighting-plants deriving their current from storage batteries charged by these old friends...When a yoke has been laid upon sun, and wind, and tide, so that they will pull evenly and do our bidding, we shall laugh at the vanishing coal supply.”
Automation
--”Edison sees machines for the future that will turn out finished products instead of making parts to be after ward assembled; for instance, a machine into which the raw materials will be fed from which will come finished shoes all boxed and ready for shipment.”
--Edison. “...prophesies that all manual labor will be done by ma chines, and that it will then be unnecessary for anyone to work more than five or six hours a day.”
Farming
--Edison. “...further declares that automatic machinery and scientific farming will make commodities cheaper and thus rapidly better the lot of the poor. The Small farmer will purchase a wagon for five hundred dollars that will transport his product on week days and carry his family to church on Sundays, while in between times the motor will be re moved and connected up to different machines where it will cultivate his fields, saw and split his firewood, cut and thresh his grain, milk his cows, separate his cream, churn his butter, pump his water...” he says.
Interplanetary Communication
--Tesla “...says in the realm of the imagination interplanetary communication challenges the longest vision with the future.
--Hiram Maxim. “With 800,000,000 horse power...(interplanetary) messages can be sent and this will be the next great achievement of science.”
Communication with Martians
--Oliver Lodge. “A believer in a Spirit Land Sir Oliver Lodge, the famous English scientist, even forecasts that the first message received by the Martians will be answered by “We have been calling you for the last ten thousand years,” for he and the other scientists are of the opinion that the Martians are much farther advanced in the chemistry of civilization than we are. Once communication has been established the Martians will gradually comprehend our language, for in reality that feat would be no more difficult, think scientific men, than teaching the deaf and dumb to understand.”
Weapons of War
“The recognition that heat, light, and electricity are nothing more than waves of ether, vibrating at different velocities, and the discovery of other phenomena of ether vibration, such as the X-ray, give the tempting hope that rays shall be found more powerful than any of these, rays like light, for instance, so strong that they will annihilate the distance that separates us from the heavenly bodies. Thus far in the world's history, wars have dotted the march of progress, arresting it for short periods during which the way has been cleared for further advancement. Now we say we live in an age of peace, but this simply because the greater powers, made prudent by mutual respect, have avoided any serious rupture for some time. Yet they are constantly preparing for war. The historian who writes of the future war will turn the pages of Greek legends and smile sadly at Jove's smiting lightning. The old War God hurling his thunderbolts will seem impotent beside man wielding the forces of nature for weapons. Magazines exploded without warning by darting, invisible, all-penetrating currents of electricity; devastating waves of electricity, or of some more powerful force, flashing over hundreds of miles consuming all that comes within their scourging blast. Guns, explosives, and projectiles will sink into the past, even as have the bow and arrow, giving place to howling elements clashing under man's direction. Our times are pregnant with voices, some uplifted in the shout of victory won, some ringing with the triumphant note of victory close at hand, and others whisper ing in the low clear tones of hope. That humanity is marching with firm, quick steps towards the conquest of the physical world, is a cry that all may hear. Can it be that we are at last to peer behind the portals of the spiritual world? Insistent whisperings of spiritual intelligence are growing clearer every day. “
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