Are you excited for 2021? The people of 1921 sure were!

in hive-120412 •  4 years ago 

As we enter this new year, full of hope and trepidation and the
scars of 2020, I thought it would be helpful to see what people
from a full century ago envisioned for us. They’d recently
survived World War I and the Spanish Flu of 1918, and they were
witnessing a technological revolution. Electricity, commercial
aviation, radio, and many other innovations were new. How, they
wondered, would these things transform their world?
To find out, I searched for the phrase “the year 2021” in the
newspapers of 1921. Articles of the day were full of predictions—
some right, and some very wrong.
The mistakes are intriguing, of course. (For example, the Evening
News of Harrisburg, PA, predicted that Mexico will be “a greater
power than any in Europe.”) But I prefer the correct predictions.
The people of 1921 imagined fanciful conveniences that today we
take for granted—like controlling the temperature in our homes,
cooking more easily, and flying around the world. These were
fantasies of theirs! And they’re our reality.
It should make us think: For all the real hardships we face, we are
also living in someone else’s dream world… and we now get to
build towards our own future dreams.
Here are some of the predictions I found.

  1. We Will Be Masters of Temperature
    Charles Steinmetz, an electrical engineer known as “The Wizard of
    Schenectady”, wrote a piece that was widely distributed at the
    time. He began by talking about a revolution in home
    environments:
    “When heating is done all electrically, and I want 70 degrees in my
    home, I shall set the thermostat at 70 and the temperature will
    not rise above that point. This temperature will be maintained
    uniformly regardless of the weather outside.
    “This will also hold true on the warm day when the temperature
    outside may be 90 or 100 degrees. The same electrical apparatus
    will cool the air. And what’s more, it will keep the humidity
    normal at all times.”
  2. Entertainment Will Happen At Home
    Steinmetz was ready to Netflix and chill. Here’s what he imagined:
    “There will be no need to go to some congested, poorly
    ventilated hall for a musical concert. We just push a plug into a
    base receptacle, as we do for the vacuum cleaner or table lamp,
    and we can have the concert brought into our homes.
    “Music will be supplied by a central station and distributed to
    subscribers by wire, just as we get our telephone service today.
    Perhaps this may be by wireless, the home being equipped with a
    radio-receiving apparatus. With this arrangement improved, we
    may hear grand opera stars as they sing in European capitals while
    sitting in our libraries at home.”
  3. Electricity Powers Our Wheels
    Steinmetz saw the future of electric transportation, but we’re still
    catching up to it. Here he imagines Tesla cars and Lime scooters…
    and a storage solution we haven’t quite adopted yet.
    “The most essential purpose of the cellar today is a satisfactory
    place to house the heating furnace, the coal supply and ashes.
    With the home electrical, these two purposes, as well as many
    others of lesser importance are eliminated. So what use can we
    put this space?
    “With the electrical improvements to come, there will be a change
    in our transportation system. There will be more electric
    automobiles and electric bicycles and tricycles will be developed.
    Because of their simplicity and low price they will be available to
    almost everyone. Our cellars will be the place to keep them. “
  4. Books Will Be Read To Us!
    In August of 1921, the Miami News ran a column by Moses Folsom
    called “One Hundred Years From Now”. Among his great
    predictions: He described what’s essentially the audio book.
    “By 2021 the phonographic principle may have become practically
    infallible and the best books will be reproduced in plates for use
    in many different styles of speaking machines. The exact tones of
    the elocutionist in speaking the words of the dramatist, poet,
    teacher, philosopher and novelist will be imitated in the library or
    parlor of every home. The exact tones of the sweet singer will
    also be faithfully reproduced on records to last long after the
    voice of the singer is silent in the sleep that knows no waking.”
  5. Faster, Brighter, Better!
    That same Miami News writer rattled off some big predictions—
    some of which came true, and some of which (like eco-conscious
    manufacturing) we’re still working towards.
    “Moving sidewalks and elevators may be found in the densely
    populated cities, and tubes may connect cities and men travel in
    them at a speed that is dazzling to the senses. Colored
    photography will be a fact and vast improvements made in movie
    pictures. The tides may be used for power as well as the rays of
    the sun for heat and power.
    “Utensils and dwellings will be manufactured largely of pulps and
    cements so as to utilize vegetation and stone in every stage of
    decade, ordinary waste or unfitness.”
  6. Oceans Are No Obstacle!
    In Fall River, Massachusetts, the local newspaper invited
    schoolchildren to write in with their predictions. Some predicted
    police officers flying in the skies, or potatoes growing in the
    streets. But the best entry, by 14-year-old Thomas Gooley,
    imagined a person from 1921 waking up in 2021, being alarmed to
    find massive airplanes ahead and no doors on buildings (because
    they’re all now on the roof), and then trying to escape to
    Europe. He wrote:
    “On reaching the wharf we would ask for a ticket for a first
    class cabin passage on the next boat. The ticket seller would
    laugh at us and say, ‘You do not go over the Atlantic any more,
    old man, but under it in a tunnel.’”
    “Looking stupidly about us we might ask, ‘Well what year is this
    anyhow?’ And somebody might answer: ‘The year of 2021.’”
    Of course, we don’t travel in tunnels under the Atlantic in 2021.
    But young Thomas Gooley was basically right: Boats are no
    longer the primary way to cross an ocean… and we do, in fact,
    have some kind of tunnel across the ocean. The internet travels
    using hair-thin wires , that are strung across the ocean floor.
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