John Watkins: Americas Nostradamus

His name was John Elspeth Watkins, and you probably have never heard of him. He lived in Philadelphia, and wrote for the local newspaper. Today, they call him, The Seer of the Century.” He died in the late 40′s, but not too late to see some of his predictions come true. He predicted things like, Satellite TV, Air Conditioning, and subways. This information was recently discovered by two Indiana scientists.

Keep in mind, this was 1900, production on the first vehicle had just begun, citizens were in poor health, and had little medicine, which ended in premature death. There were no such things as airplanes, radio, television, or movies…the only thing they had was the telephone, but it was rare. He introduced his book with, “These prophecies will seem strange, almost impossible.” It really is amazing to see how things have changed, to realize our way of life seemed like science fiction to the average American of 1900. The following are excerpts from Watkins’ predictions.

“Man Will See Around the World.” (Television/Computers)

Persons and things of all kinds will be brought within focus of cameras, connected electrically with screens at opposite ends of circuits, thousands of miles at span. American audiences in their theaters will view upon huge curtains before them the coronations of kings in Europe or the progress of battles in the Orient. The instrument bringing these distant scenes to the very doors of people will be connected with a giant telephone apparatus transmitting each incidental sound into it’s appropriate place. Thus the guns of a distant battle will be heard to boom when seen to blaze, and thus the lips of a remote act

or or singer will be heard to utter words or music when seen to move.

“The Average American Will Be Taller” (Health)

His increase in stature will result from better health, due to vast reforms in medicine, sanitation, food, and athletics. He will live seventy years instead of thirty-five as at present-for he will reside in the suburbs.

“Hot and Cold Air from Spigots” (Temperature Control)

Hot or cold air will be turned on from spigots to regulate the temperature of a house as we now turn on hot or cold water from spigots to regulate the temperature of the bath…Rising early to build the furnace fire will be a task of the olden times. Homes will have no chimneys, because no smoke will be created within their walls.

“Mosquitoes and Flies” (Insects)

Boards of health will have destroyed all mosquito haunts and breeding grounds, drained all stagnant pools, filled in all swamp-lands, and chemically treated all still-water streams. The extermination of the horse and its stable will reduce the house-fly.

“Ready-Cooked Meals” (Microwavable Food)

Such wholesale cookery will be done in electric laboratories…equipped with electric stoves, and all sorts of electric devices, such as coffee-grinders, egg-beaters, stirrers, shakers, parers, meat-choppers, meat-saws, potato-mashers, lemon-squeezers, dishwashers, dish-dryers, and the like. All such utensils will be washed in chemicals fatal to disease microbes.”

“Photographs Will Be Telegraphed from any Distance” (Photography)

If there be a battle in China a hundred years hence snapshots of its most striking events will be published in newspapers an hour later. Even today photographs are being telegraphed over short distances. Photographs will reproduce all of Nature’s colors.”

“Telephones Around the World” (Telephones)

Wireless telephone and telegraph circuits will span the world. A husband in the middle of the Atlantic will be able to converse with his wife sitting in her boudoir in Chicago. We will be able to telephone to China quite as readily as we now talk from New York to Brooklyn. By an automatic signal they will connect with any circuit in their locality without the intervention of a, “Hello Girl.”(Operators!)

“There Will Be No Wild Animals except in menageries.” (Animals)

Rats and mice will have been exterminated. The horse will become nearly exterminated. The automobile will have driven out the horse. Cattle and sheep will have no horns. They will be unable to run faster than the fattened hog of to-day. Food animals will be bred to expend practically all of their life energy in producing meat, milk, wool, and other by-products. Horns, bones, muscles, and lungs will have been neglected.

“Submarine Boats” (Submarines)

These Submarine boats, submerged for days, will be capable of wiping a whole navy off the face of the deep.

*”Automatic instruments reproducing original airs exactly will bring the best music to the families of the untalented.”
(Music)*

In great cities there will be public opera-houses whose singers and musicians are paid from funds endowed by philanthropists and by the government. The piano will be capable of changing its tone from cheerful to sad. Many devices will add to the emotional effect of music.

*”How Children Will Be Taught” (It’s not, but it absolutely should be!)*

A university education will be free to every man and woman. Several great national universities will have been established. Children will study a simple English grammar adapted to simplified English, and not copied after the Latin. Time will be saved by grouping like studies…Medical inspectors regularly visiting the public schools will furnish poor children free eyeglasses, free dentistry, and free medical attention of every kind. Th e very poor will, when necessary, get free rides to and from school and free lunches between sessions.” {Educational Note: An incredible, revolutionary concept in 1900.)

“Oranges in…Philadelphia?”
(Produce)

Fast-flying refrigerators on land and sea will bring delicious fruits from the tropics and southern temperate zone within a few days. The farmer of South America, South Africa, Australia, and the South Sea Islands, whose seasons are directly opposite to ours, will thus supply us in winter with fresh summer foods which cannot be grown here. Scientists will have discovered how to raise here many fruits now confined to much hotter or colder climates. It’s hard to believe John Elspeth Watkins just…guessed, all this would happen. But if you really understand some of this stuff, it really is amazing.

John Watkins predicted things with such detail, it seems impossible that one man could predict such advancements in just 100 years! But John Watkins, it seems, an extraordinary man.
~GaryGoza


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