Visionary predictions: How John Elfeth Watkins shaped our world

In December 1900, an article by J.E. Watkins was published in the magazine Ladies Home Journal, detailing his thoughts on how the world might appear in the next 100 years. Watkins gathered insights from some of the most knowledgeable individuals in America to formulate forecasts he believed were highly likely to come to pass. Intriguingly, many of these visions have materialised, reflecting this American engineer's remarkable foresight and imagination.

John Elfreth Watkins, an American engineer, authored an article entitled "What May Happen in the Next 100 Years" in the December 1900 issue of Ladies Home Journal. In his piece, he outlined a series of visions of the future that, although they seemed like science fiction at the time, have proven to be surprisingly accurate in many cases.

Watkins emphasised that he consulted with the foremost scientists and visionaries of his era to present the most likely scenarios for technological and societal development. Notably, many of his predictions have come to pass, making this article an especially fascinating example of forward-thinking from over a century ago.

John Elfreth Watkins demonstrated remarkable precision in several of his predictions. One of his most significant forecasts concerned digital photography. Watkins envisaged that photographs would be transmitted telegraphically over vast distances and that pictures from events on the other side of the world would be published almost immediately after being captured.

Photos will be transmitted telegraphically from any distance. If in 100 years a battle takes place in China, snapshots of the most striking events will be published in the newspaper an hour later. Even today, photos are transmitted over short distances. Photographs will capture all the colours of nature – wrote Watkins.

Today, photos are not only transmitted instantly but also reflect all the colours of nature, as the engineer foretold at the dawn of the 20th century when colour photography was still in its early stages.

Watkins also accurately predicted the development of wireless telephony. He described how it would eventually be possible to make a call from the USA to China without any hurdles, a notion unimaginable at the time. The vision of mobile phones has become a reality, and the global telecommunications network indeed spans the entire world today.

The engineer also foresaw the growth of the takeaway food market. He outlined a system where ready-made meals would be available in special establishments similar to today's bakeries. Although he was mistaken about the method of delivering meals (anticipating they would be served on returnable plates), his vision of the expansion of the gastronomy sector has undoubtedly been realised.