In the year 1900, an American civil engineer called John Elfreth Watkins wrote an article making a number of predictions about what the world would be like a century later and quite a few of them have in fact come true.

The relatively unknown engineer published a story in an American women’s magazine titled “What May Happen in The Next Hundred Years” and many of forecasts which have proved accurate include digital colour photography, air conditioning and mobile phones.

At the start of the 20th century the man reported his visions for the future and the prophecies which seemed almost impossible. The idealist anticipated television, ready-cooked meals and for the average life expectancy to rise to 50 years-old. The visionary foretold the concept of aircon in that hot or cold air will be turned on from spigots to regulate the temperature of a house, although nowadays society has digital thermostats.

The engineer did get some of the prophecies wrong however because he predicted that mosquitoes and flies would be exterminated, everybody will walk 10 miles a day, and that there would be no more letters C, X or Q in the alphabet.