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He was pretty much on the dot about steel houses and electric trains and flying machines. Fairly accurate about the 'small library in a single volume' but gross
by gnok 16y ago
He was pretty much on the dot about steel houses and electric trains and flying machines. Fairly accurate about the 'small library in a single volume' but grossly off the mark with:
'Before long it will be an easy matter to convert a truck load of iron bars into as many bars of virgin gold'
Apparently, the greatest inventor of all time had a pretty strong belief in chemical transmutation of metals.
- extension 16y agoEh? Not only are houses and furniture still made of wood, but a large portion of the wood houses from 1911 are still being lived in.
- gnok 16y agoSome furniture and houses are still made of wood. I was referring to massive skyscrapers made with steel skeletons. In much of the world (where wood is expensive or hard to find), reinforced concrete (with steel) is a popular choice instead. Furniture is often steel/iron skeleton with a fabric/wood layer over it.
- tzs 16y agoI'm not sure he was thinking of chemical transmutation. In 1911 the nucleus was discovered, a few months before Edison's predictions were written. He may have been assuming that with that knowledge we would soon figure out how to manipulate atoms at the nuclear level.