Throughout history, experts of the time have made predictions about current events, future prospects and the fate of the world. There were many times where those people hit the nail on the head. However, there seemed to be many, many times where some of the biggest and most famous predictions in history were just, well, WRONG.
When you scroll through this list, you might not be able to believe that people used to believe these as fact. Wow.
1.) “The idea that cavalry will be replaced by these iron coaches is
absurd. It is little short of treasonous.” — Comment of Aide-de-camp to
Field Marshal Haig, at tank demonstration, 1916
2.) “The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We
have plenty of messenger boys.” — Sir William Preece, Chief Engineer,
British Post Office, 1878
3.) “This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously
considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no
value to us.” – Western Union internal memo, 1876
4.) “Reagan doesn’t have that presidential look.” – United Artists
executive after rejecting Reagan as lead in the 1964 film The Best Man
5.) “Rail travel at high speed is not possible because passengers,
unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia.” – Dr. Dionysius Lardner, 1830
6.) “The world potential market for copying machines is 5000 at
most.” — IBM, to the eventual founders of Xerox, saying the photocopier
had no market large enough to justify production, 1959
7.) “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” – Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943
8.) “X-rays will prove to be a hoax.” – Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society, 1883
9.) “The horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a
novelty—a fad.” – -The president of the Michigan Savings Bank advising
Henry Ford’s lawyer not to invest in the Ford Motor Co., 1903
10.) “When the Paris Exhibition [of 1878] closes, electric light
will close with it and no more will be heard of it.” – Oxford professor
Erasmus Wilson
![10.) “When the Paris Exhibition [of 1878] closes, electric light will close with it and no more will be heard of it.” – Oxford professor Erasmus Wilson](http://cdn.viralnova.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/predictions24.jpg)
11.) A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth’s atmosphere.” — New York Times, 1936
12.) “No one will pay good money to get from Berlin to Potsdam in
one hour when he can ride his horse there in one day for free.” – King
William I of Prussia, on trains, 1864
13.) “There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will
ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be
shattered at will.” – Albert Einstein, 1932
14.) “There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in
his home.” – -Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital
Equipment Corporation (DEC), in a talk given to a 1977 World Future
Society meeting in Boston
15.) “If excessive smoking actually plays a role in the production
of lung cancer, it seems to be a minor one.” – -W.C. Heuper, National
Cancer Institute, 1954
16.) “No, it will make war impossible.” – -Hiram Maxim, inventor of
the machine gun, in response to the question “Will this gun not make war
more terrible?” from Havelock Ellis, an English scientist, 1893
17.) “The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who
would pay for a message sent to no one in particular?” – -Associates of
David Sarnoff responding to the latter’s call for investment in the
radio in 1921
18.) “There will never be a bigger plane built.” – – A Boeing
engineer, after the first flight of the 247, a twin engine plane that
holds ten people
19.) “We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way
out.” – Decca Recording Company on declining to sign the Beatles, 1962
20.) “How, sir, would you make a ship sail against the wind and
currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I pray you, excuse me, I
have not the time to listen to such nonsense.” — Napoleon Bonaparte,
when told of Robert Fulton’s steamboat, 1800s
21.) “Television won’t last because people will soon get tired of
staring at a plywood box every night.” – -Darryl Zanuck, movie producer,
20th Century Fox, 1946
22.) “I must confess that my imagination refuses to see any sort of
submarine doing anything but suffocating its crew and floundering at
sea.” — HG Wells, British novelist, in 1901
24.) “And for the tourist who really wants to get away from it all,
safaris in Vietnam” – -Newsweek, predicting popular holidays for the
late 1960s.
25.) “Everyone acquainted with the subject will recognize it as a
conspicuous failure.” – -Henry Morton, president of the Stevens
Institute of Technology, on Edison’s light bulb, 1880
Not many people had faith in the advancement of technology. One thing you should be able to learn from this list of failed predictions, though, is that everything always changes. So lean into them, don’t run away.
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