Customer Reviews

Prophets of Zoom

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In 1936 the Scottish cigarette maker Mitchell & Sons issued a set of fifty cards called 'The world of tomorrow'. With one to a pack smokers back then had to get through a ton of tobacco leaves to collect the set. Apart from the subject matter what set these cards apart from all the others was that they were in black and white. Generally other cigarette cards were in color, mostly illustrations but here was the future in glorious black and white, I suppose this gave the photos some credibility as if they had appeared in a newspaper or magazine.

This is a delightful little book with the front and back of each card, reproduced life-size, on a left hand page and facing it a color photo of today's real-life version. Speed and transport was always a favorite for future folk so here is a Road liner (Mercedes coach) Railplane (Shanghai's maglev monorail) Streamlined train (Tokyo-Osaka bullet train) Super-airplane (Airbus A380) Launching a space ship (NASA Space shuttle).

Actually the 1936 look at the future threw up some strange concepts, for example: Frost eliminator (Swiss gas heater for crop protection) Revolving house (San Diego had one in 2003) Rocket post (Email) and something that most likely will never happen: the Gibraltar Dam! Overall the predicted future from 1936 really did turn out to be real a few decades later.

'Prophets of zoom' is a fun book and nicely can be picked up now at bargain prices. A book I enjoyed that covered the same subject is Yesterday's Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future with a broad look at everything futuristic as seen from the past.

***LOOK INSIDE THE BOOK by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.