“What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years” 1900

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pete9012S
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“What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years” 1900

Post by pete9012S »

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John Elfreth Watkins Sr. (1852–1903)

Mr. Watkins was a civil engineer, a railroad man who became a curator at the Smithsonian Institute after suffering a disabling accident. In 1900, he contributed an article to Ladies’ Home Journal titled

“What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years”.

Within this article, Mr. Watkins made lots of predictions, large and small, for the next century; some of these proved, despite their counter-intuitiveness, to be amazingly accurate. Among the more astonishing predictions—and keep in mind this was over a hundred years ago:
“Wireless telephone and telegraph circuits will span the world. A husband in the middle of the Atlantic will be able to converse with his wife sitting in her boudoir in Chicago. We will be able to telephone to China quite as readily as we now talk from New York to Brooklyn.” —nobody on the planet not named Tesla was thinking along these lines, except apparently Mr. Watkins.
“Man will see around the world. Persons and things of all kinds will be brought within focus of cameras connected electrically with screens at opposite ends of circuits, thousands of miles at a span.” —could apply to satellite television, the Internet, or both.
See whole article and all predictions:

http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/t/w/t ... happen.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unfortunately, Watkins died before seeing a single one of his predictions come to fruition, in 1903.
" A kind heart always brings its own reward," said Mrs. Lee.
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Re: “What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years” 1900

Post by Eddie Muir »

A very interesting article. Thanks for sharing it, Pete. :D
'Go down to the side-shows by the river this afternoon. I'll meet you somewhere in disguise. Bet you won't know me!' wrote Fatty.

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Re: “What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years” 1900

Post by number 6 »

Fab article, Pete! Mr Watkins certainly had his finger on the 'prediction pulse'! Great stuff. :D
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Anita Bensoussane
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Re: “What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years” 1900

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Fascinating stuff! Some of the predictions are pretty close to what did happen but others are way off:

"Building in blocks will be illegal."

and some are rather alarming:

"There will be no wild animals except in menageries."

I wonder what life will be like a hundred years from now!
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Re: “What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years” 1900

Post by pete9012S »

Yes,I was thinking the same as you after reading the article Anita. Will mankind still be here in 100 years - or even next year!!
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Re: “What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years” 1900

Post by Francis »

I wonder how many posts Nigel will have done by then?
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