Transport of the future: technologies of the XXI century as imagined by our ancestors

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Each person at least once thought about what the world will be like in a century or two. But, unfortunately, we will never know about this, but we can analyze the dreams and predictions of our ancestors. Thanks to the drawings of retrofuturist artists who lived at the beginning of the last century, we will be able to find out what kind of transport people dreamed of then, and whether their vision of progress in this direction was embodied in life.

A hundred years ago, people dreamed of such transport, but now it is already a reality.

A hundred years ago, people dreamed of flying machines instead of an ordinary carriage or steam locomotive, which was recently described by the authors on the pages of Novate.ru. But today we will talk about more earthly, but no less significant - ground transportation.

This is how retrofuturist artists portrayed the predictions and dreams of achievement in the transportation industry.

Although in those days, less attention was paid to wheeled transport, because cars were already "running" on the pavements of large cities and people ceased to be surprised at this, but, nevertheless, given the then problems with land transport, the lack of a normal interchange and unsettled roads and sidewalks, dreams in this matter were quite specific. Let's see what we managed to bring to life, what we even succeeded in, and what we did not bring to mind.

1. Personal pedestrian transport

In all ages, man dreamed of a personal vehicle. It doesn't matter if it will be a bicycle that can ride on water without any problems or electric rollers, or maybe ordinary water skis, with the help of which it will be possible to cross to the other side without a bridge.

And Italian artists dreamed of an individual mini-car, in which you can get to work very comfortably. Although standing, but fast and any bad weather does not care.

2. Cars

Even though passenger cars were no longer a novelty (at least in big cities), the speed of movement left much to be desired and faster. Therefore, on postcards of those times, many artists depicted not so much prophecies as the dream of super-fast cars and its fast and convenient service.

3. Rail transport

The dream of high-speed trains has already come true.

Many magazines of those times, on their covers, printed prophecies in the field of the achievements of science and technology.

In those distant times, trains were the only land transport that could relatively quickly and comfortably deliver a large number of people to the right place. Therefore, some imagined trains as all-terrain vehicles, while others even rushing almost at the speed of sound.

Moscow artists dreamed that trains would move high in the sky and not with wheels on a track, but that the roof would slide along the rails. And any passenger can get to the desired place faster than a telegram.

4. Public transport

Such high-speed and comfortable buses have long become a reality.

And in those days, residents of large cities have had enough of traveling by public transport, and therefore dreamed of comfortable caravans. It is clear that I would like to move around the city faster, but on long journeys, comfort is paramount. On the postcards-predictions, which were invested in boxes of chocolates produced at the confectionery factory "Partnership Einem" (now "Red October"), you can see the hustle and bustle of all kinds of vehicles on the streets of Moscow.

5. Transport for agricultural needs

American retrofuturist artists portrayed the dreams of farmers in this way.

At all times, labor on the land was very hard and naturally farmers always dreamed of outlandish devices, which in the future will certainly help to quickly harvest the crop and keep it as long as possible. Artists of agrarian countries depicted the harvesting process in a completely fantastic genre, but a lot has come true and agricultural land is now processed much faster and better than some 50 years ago.

5. Military equipment and vehicles of various rescue services and law enforcement services

Military equipment in the dreams of people who lived 100 years ago.

Both in the sky and under water, these services will always come to the rescue.

Police, firefighters and military are a special contingent of people who need to have all the most modern and ultra-fast. Therefore, the futurist artists of those times developed this theme very thoroughly. On whatever vehicles they just didn’t portray them, because these services should be on guard of peace, tranquility and safety in any place and at any time.