Tuesday, January 25, 2011

The e-Reader Was Foreseen In 1911

The e-Reader was foreseen in 1911, 100 years ago, and of course, it was Thomas Edison who saw it (think of him as a pre-WWI Steve Jobs). Of books, he said:

Books of the coming century will all be printed leaves of nickel, so light to hold that the reader can enjoy a small library in a single volume. A book two inches thick will contain forty thousand pages, the equivalent of a hundred volumes; six inches in aggregate thickness, it would suffice for all the contents of the Encyclopedia Britannica. And each volume would weigh less than a pound.

Already Mr. Edison can produce a pound weight of these nickel leaves, more flexible than paper and ten times as durable, at a cost of five shillings. In a hundred years' time the cost will probably be reduced to a tenth.

Not exactly accurate, as e-readers are less than an inch thick and not two, and can contain more than forty thousand pages; but nevertheless, his prediction's quite close!

Click here to read the article I saw this in.

2 Comments:

Blogger Chachic said...

Hey, interesting piece of information! Even if I'm not a fan of Thomas Edison, I hear he's not a very nice person because he stole other people's ideas.

9:07 AM  
Blogger pgenrestories said...

@Chachic: Did he? Oh my. Not good. I didn't know that. (Then again, I've heard Steve Jobs can be quite the terror boss at Apple).

Still, Edison's prediction here is quite close to what's happening today.

9:22 AM  

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