Thomas Edison’s Predictions For 2011

A hundred years ago in 1911 the great inventor Thomas Edison was asked his predictions for the future, one hundred years ahead, for 2011.

Some of these predictions were scarily accurate and show the mind of a true visionary.

After all, Edison's inventions are still vital today.  He invented the light bulb, generator for mass distribution of electricity (although his direct current design was replaced by alternating current), the phonograph, and arguably the movie projector,  among many others.  Check out the list and see how many you can say 'check' about. (via neatorama.com)

1. The steam engine will be obsolete
2. Railway trains will be driven "at incredible speed" by electricity.
3. Travelers will, quote, "fly through the air, swifter than any swallow, at a speed of two hundred miles an hour, in colossal machines."
4. Houses will be, quote, "furnished from basement to attic with steel, at a sixth of the present cost -- of steel so light that it will be as easy to move a sideboard as it is today to lift a drawing room chair . . . converted by cunning varnishes to the semblance of rosewood, or mahogany."
5. "Books . . . will all be printed leaves of nickel, so light to hold that the reader can enjoy a small library in a single volume."
6. "Gold . . . will be as common and as cheap as bars of iron or blocks of steel. . . . In the magical days to come there is no reason why our great liners should not be of solid gold from stem to stern; why we should not ride in golden taxicabs, or substituted gold for steel in our drawing room suites."