Weird Universe Blog — January 1, 2025
The Year 2025, as foreseen in 1925
Welcome to 2025!The scientist Archibald Montgomery Low (1888-1956) is remembered as a pioneer of drone aircraft. He also liked to make predictions about the future. Back in the early 1920s he published a book titled The Future in which he speculated about what the world would look like in 2025, as well as in the year 3000.
Some of his predictions were quite accurate. Others were more bizarre.
What I judge to be his accurate predictions:
"The average man of 2025 will be awakened by a radio alarm clock."
"At breakfast... a loud speaker will take the place of a morning paper, giving him all the news, while a 'television' machine will replace the daily pictorial newspapers."
"automatic telephones will be everywhere and will get the right number at all times"
"In the evening when a business man goes to the movies he will see half a dozen films being shown at the same time on the same screen. He will glance at the program and by setting his observation apparatus to the key number of the film he wishes to see, he will cut out all but that one."
And his inaccurate ones:
"baldness will be almost universal"
"[The man of 2025] will then go to his office in his own car, which will be carried by an elevator to the door of his office. If he has to go anywhere on foot moving sidewalks will convey him without exertion."
News of Cumberland County - Sep 15, 1925
You can read Low's book at the Internet Archive. I think he would have liked the fact that his book is available on-demand via "wireless."
Below are some illustrations from the book.
More info: "Scientist's 'ruthlessly imaginative' 1925 predictions for the future come true – mostly" (The Guardian)
Posted By: Alex - Wed Jan 01, 2025 -
Comments (6)
Category: 1920s | New Year | Yesterday’s Tomorrows
Happy New Year’s Day 2025!
Posted By: Paul - Wed Jan 01, 2025 -
Comments (0)
Category: Holidays | Hollywood | Correspondence, Telegrams, Letters, and Other Written Communications
December 31, 2024
Tree Ornament Target Practice
Gather the family round for a holiday game of shoot the Christmas tree.From Patent No. 11,918,133 (granted Mar 5, 2024):
Posted By: Alex - Tue Dec 31, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Patents | Weapons | Christmas
Funny Money
Posted By: Paul - Tue Dec 31, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators | Money | Husbands | Wives | 1950s
December 30, 2024
Kickin’ Jeans
Jeans designed for kicking people. Sold by Century Martial Arts from 1977 to around 2015. Featured an "exclusive gusset in the crotch."
Kick magazine - Aug 1981
Posted By: Alex - Mon Dec 30, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: Denim
Fracture
The Wikipedia page of the creators.
Posted By: Paul - Mon Dec 30, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Surrealism | Fantasy | Cartoons | 1970s | Europe
December 29, 2024
Up in the air
Des Moines Register - Nov 22, 1964
Posted By: Alex - Sun Dec 29, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Accidents | Children | 1960s
Korla Pandit
His Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Sun Dec 29, 2024 -
Comments (0)
Category: Hoaxes and Imposters and Imitators | Music | Space-age Bachelor Pad & Exotic | Television | 1950s
December 28, 2024
Handedness and Dental Wear
Back in 1950, Dr. Nishijima of Osaka University claimed that dentists could tell whether a person was right or left handed just by looking at their teeth — due to differential wear patterns from brushing.His claim sounds logical enough to me, but more recent research doesn't seem to support it. According to a Dec 2010 article in the Journal of Dental Sciences: "no statistically significant relationship was found between hand preference and tooth-brushing abrasion in this study."
Melbourne Sun News-Pictorial - Jan 21, 1950
Posted By: Alex - Sat Dec 28, 2024 -
Comments (1)
Category: Teeth
Mystery Illustration 115
Why are these folks gathered together?The answer is here.
Or after the jump.
More in extended >>
Posted By: Paul - Sat Dec 28, 2024 -
Comments (2)
Category: Crowds, Groups, Mobs and Other Mass Movements | 1950s
