The October 1944 result of Science and Mechanics bet at what technical advancements Americans might expect after WWII with an article titled , “ Big Things Ahead — But Keep Your Shirt On , ” by John Silence .
What reach this article so captivating is that it expect at the advances of the future with optimism , but tempers that rosey outlook with realistic predictions . There were a number of stories in the early forties offering American readers a vision of the futurity after the war , but this is one of the few that call for people to keep their expectations in impediment . The clause opens with the common premise of the twenty-four hour period about the futuristic post - war worldly concern Americans would be living in :
Many of us have the theme that when Johnny comes marching home to his post - war world , he wo n’t know the old place . He ’ll zing in on some gadget just short of the fourth proportion , and before he can travel rapidly himself out of his uniform and into his civies , the walls of his pre - fictitious mansion will glow with electronic rut or his brow will be cooled by costless gentle wind conditioning .
The Deepfreeze in the basement will yield a perfect sirloin steak that the radio oven will bake to his favourite turn in something under 10 second , and while they ’re bringing it in on an electric - plastic tray that keeps it hot , the dehydrated mush is being turned back into honest potatoes . And so on . The piece then warn that you should n’t get your hopes up too much . It ’s really one of the most sober and subdued pieces of futurism I ’ve take from the last 100 years , but it gives us a fascinating look at the thinking of the time :
But do n’t expect too much . And do n’t expect it all at once . For many reasons , we are n’t go to turn things upside down as presently as the last nip is fired in this difference . The people who risk their money to provide the thing you corrupt are run short to hold back to find oneself out if you ’ll take it before they souse too deep . And all their inquiry may be overruled on entreaty .
The article says that glacial food will be the food of the future tense , with refrigerate trucks make regular deliveries to homes that have large freezers in their basement :
intellectual nourishment — Quick freeze has pretty much put across its test . multitude will buy frozen food , and they ’ll also lay in their own produce in rented locker or house Deepfreeze . Which way of life will the cat chute ? There are some sept who cogitate the frozen food industry may eventually — get that “ eventually”—work around to a system of rules whereby you ’ll keep a large flash-frozen food locker in your cellar , and make your purchases from a refrigerated manner of speaking truck that comes around every calendar week or so .
The article has a little fun with the idea that vast windows would be in fashion after the warfare , but may not be terribly virtual :
living accommodations — It is n’t cricket to hold cold water on your ideas about let the sun heat your home through huge dental plate looking glass windows . But please bear in mind that Mama is going to have something to say , too , and if your big windows open up the innards of your house to lever heart 20 foot across the lot line , you may come in in some fine sunny daylight to feel the pall drawn and the furnace pump out .
The small-arm pointed out that advances in medicine would revolutionize our world , though they may not get as much aid as advance in consumer goods .
Medicine — Among all the scientific advances being made during the war , medicine and surgical methods probably will draw the least public attending , but they probably will mold your post - war life more than any other . The mold drug give one example . Penicillin , the marvel mold differential coefficient , already has been released , in controlled amounts , to the populace .
And speak of consumer goods , the author acknowledges the sale sales pitch that were so uncouth from peddlers of the era :
Household appliances — When the post - war planner regale you with stories about automatic washers , ironers , dish washers , garbage disposal machines , secernate him to smile when he says it . You had all those matter before the war , and you ’ll have them again , if you ’ve got what it takes — and that ’s money and fourth dimension to wait for more to be made .
In describing the community of tomorrow the writer makes reference to anillustration from 1895that humorously imagined the future . The writer predicts that any changes in the residential district of the future tense really ca n’t be foreseen , but will likely be basic and simple .
Community Planning — A half century ago an artist did the same kind of cogitate about his future that many people today are doing about ours . He follow up with an idea of what the skyscraper of the future — say about now — would calculate like . [ … ] He reserved a enceinte plane section of the construction for a hay and feed fund ! He reckoned without the machine , which was to vary the whole complexion of thing within 10 years and make his draft appear fantastic . We can still bet on a wonderful new world opening up before our eyes , but the man who promises you a preview of it just ca n’t deliver . The furbelow and bagatelle that ease the life of the next generation are going to be governed largely on basic , believably bare , changes in our way of living that perhaps no one today can see .
The writer expects that tomorrow ’s elevator car will be leaner and more efficient with engineers figuring out how to acquire more with less . interrogatively , he also holds out hope for a steam - powered car .
Motoring — On the cornerstone of our wartime scare on the scarceness of petroleum products , it would almost seem safe to prognosticate that the automobile of the future will be lighter and more efficient , getting as much as 50 or 100 miles to a gallon of the best grades of gasoline . The engineers probably will tote up strength while ramble off free weight . But who is to say that we wo n’t be extracting a fuel like gasoline from other products that will allow us to proceed running our two - ton heaps because , if for no other reason , we like ’em ? And besides , although steam was tried and fling once as an automobile power seed , such improvements have been made in boilers and heating plants , as well as in the locomotive themselves , it is entirely possible someone will market , some sidereal day , a steam automobile that will go when you constrict your infantry on the throttle valve first thing in the morning . There are startling things afoot in both power and fuel developments . But they will be announce easy and carefully . Watch also transmission , especially in the fluid mechanics and electric field of view .
The writer predicts quite accurately that after the warfare the American world will see FM wireless and television .
Radio — What can we look for may be these thing :
At first , a set just like we ’ve always had , because the manufacturer will have all he can do at first just to fill the requirement .
Then , likely , FM , because it was about quick for the populace when the conflict started , and the vector are already reaching a good portion of listeners .
tv set — later . Because of the short carrying timbre of television waves , it will do out first in heavy dwell centers where there are transmitters .
The motorcar tools of state of war are seen as the most obvious advances that would be cursorily converted for peacetime purposes .
Machine Tools — It ’s most potential that the outstanding procession are being made now , and not waiting until after triumph is succeed . The tenseness and pressure for rapid yield is bringing about advancement in the champaign of specialised machine tools that make our res publica the unchallenged leader of the world ’s industrial output . It may be this will raise our tangible victory in the war .
futurist of the 1940s had a particular stake in helicopters , call that there would be aflying motorcar in every garageafter the warfare . But the writer of this article is quick to explain the hurdles to such a helicopter - centric society .
Aircraft — A helicopter in your back yard ? The picture is bright . You go out behind the Malus pumila tree diagram , give the rotor coil a whirl , and whizz!—you’re on the agency ceiling . At the remainder of the mean solar day , whizz!—and you ’re back in Suburbia , tend your delphiniums . Beautiful picture , is n’t it ? But you ’ll credibly have to keep your machine in stark condition , to be passed on by some safety agency , and it wo n’t be the perfunctory windshield windscreen wiper and horn test , either . The neighbors may not handle if you crock up your own skull , but they wo n’t require you doing it on their sun porches . So for some years after the war is over , the first helicopters , and other airplanes for that topic , will be flown by citizenry who can scrape together enough money to cover : ( 1 ) a motorcar in perfect term ; ( 2 ) maintenance that will keep it that path ; ( 3 ) expert training in the operation of the auto . The designers say helicopter are harder to pilot than airplane .
Americans in the 1940s had wondrous expectations about the post - war humanity . Meet one author who give notice them to curb their enthusiasm
This post originally appeared atSmithsonian.com .
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