Man Predicted TV, Bullet Trains - in 1892
Saturday January 22 2005
AFP
LONDON: He might be little remembered as a sportsman, but 19th century Scottish golfer Jack McCullogh is causing a stir with a novel that appears to eerily predict the modern era, a report said.
A previously unknown 1892 novel by McCullogh, which tells the tale of a man who sleeps until 2000, depicts such things as digital watches, bullet trains, televisions and women's equality, the Times newspaper said.
Being a golfer, McCullogh also paid attention to what he knew, calling the book Golf in the Year 2000, or What We Are Coming To, and predicted the advent of both golf carts and golf professionals.
The book, chronicling the tale of a character who falls into a deep sleep in 1892, waking 108 years later, is among books being sold at an auction in Edinburgh later this week, the Times said in its Thursday edition.
"The book is a cross between Nostradamus and the tale of Rip van Winkle, because the main character goes to sleep," said Philip Gregory from auctioneers Lyon and Turnbull.
But unlike Michel de Nostradamus, the 16th century French philosopher and seer, who is supposed to have anticipated a series of modern events, McCullogh did not write in cryptic verse, but plain prose.
Among his predictions - many of them golf-related - were driverless golf carts, professional players and a golf competition between Britain and the United States, much like the Ryder Cup which began in 1927.
Other ideas were the digital watch, high-speed bullet trains, working women who dressed like men and a large glass screen that plays images, much like a television.
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