John Elfreth Watkins: What may happen in the next hundred years

[Amelia]

Hundred-year-old predictions (mostly) came true

Who could have ever predicted in the year 1900 that the age of telegrams would morph into texts, tweets and 24-hour news channels?

American civil engineer John Elfreth Watkins imagined it. In an article he wrote for Ladies' Home Journal, entitled "What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years," Watkins laid out a vision for the future that is now regarded as amazingly accurate.

Of the 25 or so predictions made in that article 112 years ago, a surprising number of them were more or less bang on. Ladies Home Journal recently re-posted Watkins' paper on its website. Here's a look at what he got right, mostly right and just plain wrong.

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