Solar Power of 1999 (1956)

The fascinating book 1999: Our Hopeful Future by Victor Cohn explains in chapter nine how the world will harness the power of the sun. Below is an excerpt from chapter nine titled, "We Hitch Up the Sun."

The sun rose as usual on January 10, 1999, and went to work.

In a great, sun-drenched desert, a thousand acres of collector plates soaked up the sun's heat, intensified it and relayed it to boilers. This was the energy source for an electric power plant that operated a great sea-water purification works a few miles away. The sea water irrigated the desert.

In a field, winding rows of plastic-topped trenches soaked the sun's light into a deep green liquid that turned thicker almost as you watched. This was an algae farm using the sun's energy to grow food.

On millions of roof tops, glass collectors absorbed sun heat, to be stored in tanks. These were home-heating plants without other fuel. The world of 1999 had begun to tap the greatest energy source, the daily rays of the sun, and with this golden treasure was lighting cities and making deserts bloom, milking cows and baking sunshine cakes.

See also:
Solar Energy for Tomorrow's World (1980)
Delicious Waste Liquids of the Future (1982)
Sea City 2000 (1979)

Moving Sidewalks by Goodyear (1956)

As a follow-up to last week's post on the moving sidewalk of 1900, today we have an illustration published in 1956. The image below appears in the book 1999: Our Hopeful Future by Victor Cohn. It was produced by Goodyear and shows the (semi-realized) hopes for this paleo-futuristic technology.


See also:
Moving Sidewalk (1900)
I want an oil cream cone! (1954)
Postcards Show the Year 2000 (circa 1900)

I want an oil-cream cone! (1954)

In 1954 Victor Cohn wrote the book 1999: Our Hopeful Future. Cohn, a well respected science and medical journalist, reportedly interviewed scientists and engineers at MIT while researching for his book.

Pink snow covered the ground in 1999. Farmers sprinkled dye to absorb sunlight, speed melting and advance planting ... For lunch the Futures ate wood steak, planked and loved it - all except Billy, who bawled, "I want an oil-cream cone." ... "Where's Susan?" said John. "Oh here she comes." "Hi," said the teen-ager. "Gosh, I'm not very hungry tonight." The gang stopped at Joe's Fly-in for plankton-burgers.

Quoted from the book Bad Predictions by Laura Lee.