William Edward Ayrton ( source : Wikimedia)Susan J. Douglashas a fascinating essay about former wireless telegraphy in the bookImagining Tomorrow : story , Technology and the American Future , which was edited by Paleo - Future LegendJoe Corn .
Douglas excerpt a foretelling by ProfessorWilliam Edward Ayrtonthat appear in a 1901 magazine publisher call The Century . In it , Ayrton said that wireless telegraphy would soon allow people to talk over long distances in a extremely targeted way . The wording of the art object is remarkably relevant to themobile phoneas Ayrton describes a someone ’s ability to “ call to a friend he know not where . ”
In gloss on Mr. Marconi ’s paper ( learn before the Society of Arts in May ) Professor Ayrton said that we were step by step coming within thinkable space of the realization of a prophecy he had adventure to make four years before , of a time when , if a soul want to call to a friend he jazz not where , he would call in a very loud electromagnetic voice , find out by him who had the electromagnetic capitulum , still to him who had it not . “ Where are you ? ” he would say . A low reply would come , ” I am at the bottom of a coalmine , or baffle the Andes , or in the midriff of the Atlantic . ” Or , perhaps in spite of all the career , no reply would come , and the somebody would then know that his Quaker was dead . Think of what this would have in mind , of the calling which lead on every day from room to room of a house , and then think of that calling extending from celestial pole to pole , not a noisy babble , but a call hearable to him who need to hear , and absolutely tacit to all others . It would be almost like dreamland and ghostland , not the ghostland school by a heated imagination , but a real communication from a distance free-base on lawful physical laws .
This is the pillowcase for this rattling handmaiden of advanced ontogeny at the present bit . So much is absolutely assured ; so much more is tentatively determine ; vastly great things are predicted for the futurity . That the fullest success may chat the inventor and his scheme , that this accompaniment to mod progress may be perfected beyond cavil , and that the whole humans may soon total to enjoy the bully benefits of this splendid effort , must be the Leslie Townes Hope of every well - wisher of the progress and enlightenment of the human race .
FromThe Century Magazineof November 1901 to April 1902 , quote Engineering Magazine of July , 1901 .
This Charles William Post originally appeared atPaleofuture.com .
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