victorian visions of the year 2000

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Personal Flying Machines

Trying to predict what the future may look like is an obsession with the human race—while the 20th century was actually spent in dreams of space exploration and time travel, people in 1900 had very different ideas about what was going to happen in the next 100 years.
Flushed with the success of the Second Industrial Revolution, people living on the cusp of the century imagined a bright future made possible by mechanical wonders.
Hildebrand, a German chocolate company at that point, created a set of cards that depicts the awesome life that awaited in the year 2000—where railways could be built across the oceans, everyone would have their own flying machines, and houses were mobile.
In hindsight, while life has turned out even more fantastical than envisioned, these quaint ideas of futurism are still pretty great.
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House-Moving by Train

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The Combined Ship & Railway Locomotive

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Undersea Tourist Boats

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A Quick Stroll on the Water

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The Moving Pavement

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Summer Holidays at the North Pole

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Televised Outside Broadcasting

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Personal Airships

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Police X-Ray Surveillance Machine

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Roofed Cities

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The Weather-Control Machine

[via Design TAXI]

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Tom Foerstel : Founder & President

Tom Foerstel

Founder & President

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 60’s, Tom developed a strong desire to create positive change for people and planet.

He went on to pursue his passion for art and design at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and worked for design firms in Southern California before moving to Boise, Idaho in the early 80’s. Foerstel Design opened its doors in 1985. Since its inception, the firm has cultivated a bold, happy, forward-looking team focussed on creating distinct and effective work on behalf of their clients.

An integral part of Tom’s philosophy is giving back to the community in which he lives — a company cornerstone that drives Foerstel’s long history of providing pro-bono services to local non-profit humanitarian and arts programs.

One of Tom’s proudest personal achievements is his ability to say Supercalifragilisticexpyalidocious backwards.