From the engineers at Honeywell in 1957 comes this prediction that, by A.D. 2000, we will have machines under our dining room floors that suck away dirty dishes, clean them, and then stack them on the shelves. If you have any sense of what is possible in the physical world, this cutaway may offend you.… Continue reading Automatic Dishwasher and Stacker Cutaway, 1957
Category: Fantastic Living
Golden Age of the Intercom
Remember the great age of home intercoms? I don’t either! That’s because in the 1960s and 1970s, home intercoms were not found in your typical suburban house. Unless your family were “people of means,” as your Mom or Dad might have referred to your rich neighbors, you didn’t have one–sadly enough. Those neighbors with the sprawling,… Continue reading Golden Age of the Intercom
Monsanto House of the Future: When Our Future Was Made of Plastics
Built in Disneyland in 1957 as a joint project between Disneyland, Monsanto, and MIT, the House of the Future was constructed of 16 identical plastic shells that were fabricated off-site and then shipped to the building site for assembly. The home was meant to display technological marvels, such as the microwave oven and speaker phone,… Continue reading Monsanto House of the Future: When Our Future Was Made of Plastics
The Moto Ritz Towers, 1937
Bruce McCall is the patron saint of secret infrastructure. His book, Zany Afternoons, is one of my most highly valued books. For some odd reason, most of my favorite books were on sale in the bargain bin at bookstores. This one was a mere ten bucks at Barnes & Noble. While there are too many… Continue reading The Moto Ritz Towers, 1937