Scientist’s ‘ruthlessly imaginative’ 1925 predictions for the future come true – mostly
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Prof Low anticipated home speakers and gender neutral clothing, but missed his mark on herb-based street lighting. When the scientist and inventor Prof Archibald Montgomery Low predicted “a day in the life of a man of the future” one century ago, his prophesies were sometimes dismissed as “ruthlessly imaginative”.
They included, reported the London Daily News in 1925, “such horrors” as being woken by radio alarm clock; communications “by personal radio set”; breakfasting “with loudspeaker news and television glimpses of events”; shopping by moving stairways and moving pavements.
One hundred years after Low’s publication of his book The Future some of his forecasts were spot on. Others, including his prophesy that everyone would be wearing synthetic felt one-piece suits and hats, less so. Researchers from the online genealogy service Findmypast, have excavated accounts of Low’s predictions from its extensive digital archive of historical newspapers available to the public and included them in a collection on its website of forecasts made for 2025 by people a century ago.
Low, born in 1888, was an engineer, research physicist, inventor and author. A pioneer in many fields, he invented the first powered drone, worked on the development of television, was known as the “father of radio guidance systems” for his work on planes, torpedo boats and guided rockets and reportedly attracted at least two unsuccessful assassination attempts by the Germans.
In 1925, he predicted how home loudspeakers and “a television machine” would replace “the picture paper” – or newspapers – for information and on demand entertainment; access to global broadcasting at the press of a button; and the use of secret cameras and listening devices to catch criminals.
