Paul Fairie

Jan 1 • 24 tweets • 6 min read • Read on X

A List of Predictions Made in 1924 About 2024

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Beds will automatically fling children out in the morning

A Century Hence SCHOOL LIFE IN 2024 A.D. CRASH! My bed turns over automatically and I am deposited on the floor. It is eight o'clock and the switch, operating the above fiendish substitute for an alarm clock, is operated from school so that, at the moment, I am in the same predicament as the rest of the 450 scholars. After donning my one piece asbestos suit (washing being unnecessary under new atmospheric conditions) I partake of breakfast in tabloid form & step outside in time to catch the 8.10 aerobus & arrive at school two minutes later. The first lesson is English, and... the English ...

Horses will no longer exist

Future of the Horse Another scientists says that the horse is to be extinct, and he sets the date a century hence. The extinction process may be at work, says the Washington Star, but whether the horse will go to the vanishing point in that time one does not know. If horses would decrease in the same ratio as in the last ten years, it might be easy to tell when the last horse would give up his stall to an automobile and pass on to that realm where good horses should go, and perhaps where old Pegasus still rears and canters through the clouds. But the decrease in horse population -- or in &...

Women will be beautiful, physically strong dancers

Daughter of Terpsichore in 2024? RB von Klein Smid, president of the University of Southern California in speaking of the girl of tomorrow makes this prediction: "She will be physically strong, vital and alert, loving the out-of-doors and rejoicing in its lure; active in sports, engaging by choice in those to which a bit of risk adds the spice of danger. She will be beautiful, enhancing the qualities of inheritance through habits of temperance. "Dancing will continue in its rush toward the exotic, and Terpsichore will be wild and full of animation. Mentally she will be no sluggard...

Automobiles will travel on speedways through the centre of town

In the city of 2024, this authority predicts, there will be three-deck roads; speedways through the heart of town; skyscrapers with entrances for automobiles as high as 15 stories; monorail expresses to the suburbs replacing street cars and motor-omnibuses; ever-moving sidewalks and underground freight carriers which will go in all directions, serving all railroad stations and business districts, and which will replace to a large extent the heavy trucks and wagons of today. The city of 100 years from now, in fact, will have a good many big and little movements with meanings of their own onl...

Men's legs will wither away from underuse

An eminent scientist predicted that a century hence men's legs would be atrophied from lack of exercise, due to continued use of the automobile. He made no mention of the pedal extremities of the pedestrian, but we presume he expects us to take ti for granted that the species will have been completely exterminated by the aforementioned motorist. --The Osawatomie World, 20 March 1924

Canada will have a population of 100 million

HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE IN CANADA IN A CENTURY Predicting a hundred million people for Canada a century hence, the same for the old country, "all provided." and 60 millions for Australia. Sir George Foster addressed the Canadian Club yesterday. "A century hence Canada will be the greatest exporter of wheat in the world -- and whose fault will it be if my prophecy of a hundred million of people is not fulfilled?" he declared. Midst great applause he urged his large audience to let their mind occasionally dwell on these problems "rather than golf or bridge or jazz o...

Interplanetary travel will be as easy as trans-Atlantic travel

A Century Hence Who knows what may not come to pass in the next century? Already the world is making such rapid strides ahead that it is hard for anyone to keep up with it. In a century people will be flying around and exploring space. Aeroplanes will travel at what is now thought of as an incredible speed, yet the people of that age will not think any more about it than we now think about the present speed records. In the days that are coming people will think no more of going to some planet that is sailing gloriously around through space than we now think of a trip across the ocean. --T...

Concerts will be performed remotely

What Will the Music of 2024 A.D. Be Like? Many inconveniences which the touring artist now has to suffer will no doubt be eliminated. It will not be necessary to travel great distances. The strain of the concert tour will be dispensed with. The changes in living habits and daily regimen that make these trips trying even to the seasoned performer will be dispensed with. Artists may not even have to leave their homes, to endure the artificialities of the concert platform. --The Butte Daily Post, 20 August 1924

Debutantes will dye their skin all the colours of the rainbow

Debutantes of 1924 are shingle-haired, sleek-looking maidens with delicately rouged cheeks and provocative red lips. As the Victorian debutante concealed her personality under voluminous hoops and draperies, the 1924 debutante successfully conceals hers under paint and powder. The debutante of 100 years hence may revert to type and frankly copy her ancestors who dyed their skins with woad, only with the modern instinct for progress, she may go still further and dye her complexion and hair all the colours of the rainbow. --Evening Express, 7 June 1924

Diamond engagement rings will be replaced with 100 pound bags of sugar

"Say It With Sugar," Girl of Century Hence Will Stuttering Swain Diamond Supply to Be Exhausted Within 100 Years, Jewelers Predict -- Couples Will Plight Troth With Synthetic Gem Fused From Sugar --The Omaha Morning Bee, 7 May 1924

Movies will bring about world peace

"In the year 2024 the most important single thing which the cinema will have helped in a large way to accomplish will be that of eliminating from the face of the civilized world all armed conflict. Pictures will be the most powerful factor in bringing about this condition. With the use of the universal language of motion pictures the true meaning of brotherhood of man will have been established throughout the earth... All men are created equal... --Oakland Tribune, 11 May 1924

Americans will laugh at radios

The radio set that so amazed you the first time you "listened in" will excite laughter among Americans of A.D. 2024. The six-cylinder auto you drive, or would like to drive if you could afford it, will excite mirth among the populace of that distant day. --The Cincinnati Post, 23 January 1924

Everyone will wear flying clothes

NEW YORK, Jan. 10, 2024 -- The airplane and the bootlegger have proved the greatest modifying forces except feminism upon the styles of the past century. Everyone now wears flying clothes out of doors, those of men and women being practically similar in cut, and differing only slightly in in material. The most fashionable suits for men are made of the inner skin of the Patagonian elephant lined with steel wool, experiment having proved this combination at once durable and cold-resisting, as well as expensive. --The Fresno Bee, 11 January 1924

Life expectancy will be 100 years – and 75 will be considered young

EXTENDING LIFE'S SPAN AVERAGE EXPECTATION IN 2024 Sir H. Kingsley Wood, MP, presiding last night at the centenary festival dinner of the London Friendly Institution, at Stewart's Restaurant, Piccadilly, said there was no doubt that by 2024 the average expectation of life would be at least 100 years, and a person at 75 would be a comparatively young man. --The Daily Telegraph, 25 September 1924

Men will wear police-proof pockets

Styles of Year 2024 Glimpsed Muff-Toting Men With Police-Proof Pockets Seen Police-Proof Pockets Since the anti-cigarette legislation spread from Utah and Indiana over the whole country many shops have been showing garments with police-proof pockets. But these are now going out of fashion. The discovery that tobacco can be grown among the volcanoes of Iceland has made them unnecessary to all except the most hardened smokers. The theory is that anyone can not go fifteen minutes without a cigarette and consequently one who carries his own with him is suspected of being too poor to buy an up...

Jazz music will be considered classical

THINKS JAZZ MUSIC WILL BE CLASSICAL CENTURY FROM NOW Paul Kochanski, Russian Violinist, Says It Is Not Destructive Force. "Jazz music is a powerful force for development of music in America, and in a hundred years will be accepted as classical." --Great Falls Tribune, 10 February 1924

Movies will be so realistic that it will be difficult to distinguish them from real life

In other words, from the standpoint of naturalness, motion pictures 100 years from now will be so nearly like the living person or the existing object pictures that you will be unable, sitting in your orchestra seat, to determine whether they are pictures or the real thing." --The Christchurch Star, 5 July 1924

New York City will have a population of 30 million -- and no transit problems

30,000,000 in New York City in 2024, Predicts J.P. Day The year 2024 will find New York City with a population of 30,000,000 souls and adequate subway facilities to provide seats for all, according to Joseph P. Day, one of the largest real estate operators in the country. Mr. Day did not hazard a guess as to who would be Mayor in this millennial era of no transit problems. The prophecy was broadcast from station WNYC last night, and it disclosed interesting information relative to the manner in which the city's present modest population of 6,000,000 would swell 500 percent without undue gro...

The human family will be at the point of starvation

FOOD IN 2024 Not very many years ago men ate meat and bread principally, with a few vegetables. Nowadays we have a large variety and great quantity of foodstuffs. We even take some of our edibles and drinkables from coal and other minerals. Col. William Boyce Thompson has founded an Institute of Plant Research whose experts will try to counteract the food shortage which is predicted for 2024. Many scientists believe that the human family will be at the point of starvation in or near that year. --The Post-Crescent, 4 October 1924

Apartment buildings will be 100 stories tall

IN 2024. In a hundred years, says Joe P. Day, There'll be thirty million folks in our way; We'll climb to a hundred stories in air And we'll burrow below; pay homeward fare; Our city a hive, with a huge population, Will swallow the farms of a fifth of the nation. Our slogan will be "more!" In twenty-twenty four. --The Standard Union, 18 December 1924

Men will stop wearing corsets

"Men, Discard The Corset!" The new movement for masculine emancipation and male suffrage has not yet borne much fruit in the domain of fashion. A few more daring spirits among the weaker sex have ventured to appear in public in knickerbockers and last week a man carrying a banner inscribed: "Men, Discard the Corset!" was seen on Broadway. But as these radicals were promptly arrested, it is not to be supposed that their influence will be great. --The Fresno Bee, 11 January 1924

Family albums will be videos instead of photographs

FOR one thing, there is going to be a movie in every home. "Trains, which will be traveling twice or three times as fast as they do now, will have film theaters on board. Families will make their albums in motion pictures. --The Evening Sun, 12 May 1924

If you enjoy these predictions, you'll enjoy my new book, all about visions of the future from the past, our repeated complaints (nobody wants to work anymore!), our capacity to blame & more from the newspaper vaults. Pre-order here (writing almost done!): unbound.com/books/thepress…

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