Yesterday's Vision of Tomorrow

In the seventies, when I was in my formative years, school holiday TV often included old black and white episodes of Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers.  These were 'chapter plays' that were originally shown in cinemas in the 1930s. Both starred the square-jawed Buster Crabbe as the eponymous hero prancing around in preposterous man-pants whilst waving an unconvincing ray gun. They were old, creaky, and slightly hilarious but I did enjoy them in a broad kind of way.

Apart from the hammy acting, wobbly sets and misleading cliffhangers, an interesting aspect of features like these was they showed what is called 'yesterday's vision of tomorrow'.  In their depiction of vehicles, weaponry, robotics and clothing the scriptwriters, producers and directors were taking their best guess at what society and technology might look like hundreds of years into the future.

These ideas were given to costume designers and special effects people who worked with minuscule budgets and bits of rubbish to bring these predictions to dodgy reality. Most of the time, their efforts were tragically low quality: the rendering of a rocket ship looked just like a pimped up washing up liquid bottle with a firework shoved in its spout. Usually because that's what it was.

So, embracing this theme, you'll remember that over the last few blogs I've been looking into the car world of yesterday via a pile of ancient Autocar magazines. It occurred to me that the reports from the annual Olympia shows of the thirties, similar to the chapter plays, offer an insight into what the car aficionados of the past thought would comprise the vehicles of tomorrow. Adopting this mindset, I delved into the publications once again and the results are remarkable.

Let's start with this picture of the 'unconventional but attractive' Cord. I can well believe Flash Gordon could get to the planet Mongo in such a thing so maybe the future had arrived. But what else did the thirties promise?

Plastic Prediction

Composite car bodies have been around for some time. Whether that's the high tech carbon fibre of modern supercars or the fibreglass of Reliants or TVRs. We're now quite used to these materials being used in cars as a durable alternative to metal. In 1934, this was pure science fiction. The mainstream plastic of the age was Bakelite that, although functional and attractive, was also brittle and heavy.

How prescient then, the wizard-like Mr. H Potter's prediction that plastics, within twenty years, would be used for car manufacturing. Even in 1934 weight for weight, plastic was as durable as iron or steel.  We should note Mr. Potter was chair of the plastics group in the Chemical Engineering Society so he may have been slightly biased. Nevertheless, was he wrong? No, by Jingo, he was not!

Self Driving Cars?

As modern a phenomenon as you could possibly find. The age of self-driving vehicles is just around the corner. Even as you read, viable SDCs are abroad on our roads. Knowing this, the following advert caught my eye. 'You only steer' it proclaims. What? A car capable of taking care of the majority of driving procedures? In 1934? Did such a car exist? Well, according to Warwick & Wright Ltd it did, as they proudly extolled the many automated functions of the 'Safety Stutz'.

Hmmm, colour me skeptical, but this seems to smack of misleading advertising. The claims, even in these times of alternative facts, are the kind that we would censure in the modern age. Nevertheless, it's amusing to think of their gullible customers, beguiled by the 'fully auto-controlled' claim, sitting on their drive vainly stirring away at the steering wheel expecting the car to do the rest. Caveat emptor indeed!

On your bike!

You may consider the shrill chorus of cyclists complaining about lack of respect from drivers is a modern phenomenon. It's usually the refrain of a peloton of thin, angry, Lycra-clad men but it was also the basic point made by a bike rider from the thirties who demanded 10 feet wide cycling lanes. Even in times of less traffic, this seems an inordinate amount of room for him and fellow pedallers. His claims would get short shrift today when some roads fail to meet the basic needs for cars but it just goes to show biker militancy is by no means new (and still gets so few column inches in the motoring press!)

An iPad?

More a trick of the eye than a true prediction of the future but I couldn't resist including this advert for a radiator muffler as it did cause a double take.  Have a look. To all intents and purposes, he's holding something that looks just like an iPad in a contemporary, ironic kind of way.  Of course, things like TV or computing or apps or, well, iPads were years off so it's a whimsical notion. But fun too. 

To conclude, it's worth remembering that many things included in these crumbling mags were innovative in some way or other, at least to the motorists of the thirties. They give an accurate definition of the idea that almost everything is relative. One day, the advances that are rocking our world will soon look just as quaint which is amazing to consider.

OK, l'll leave you on that thought. So, until next time, happy classic motoring!