“The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys.”
- Sir William Preece, 1878.
Drink in these words, and you can be forgiven for thinking the speaker was some stubborn, stuck-in-the-1700s throwback, fearful of emerging technology and pompous enough to believe Brit messenger boys were all that and a plate of chips (with vinegar).
But William Henry Preece wasn’t uppity, nor was he a troglodyte. In his 79 years, Preece was an electrical engineer, an inventor, an undersea telegraph cable repairman, a Morse code pioneer, the Chief Engineer of the British Post Office, and one of the earliest backers of a young Italian by the name of Guglielmo Marconi – he of the Nobel Prize and the “father of radio” designation. Preece was no ostrich – he sought to solve long-standing problems, often using new concepts and ideas to do just that.
Moreover, Preece was actually a strong believer in the telephone, even demonstrating one of Alexander Graham Bell’s creations to a hoity-toity group of British scientists in the late 1800s.
So why the quote? Despite his keen interest in technology and long-distance communications, Preece simply didn’t feel the need for a future phone of his own.
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Click through the different predictions below:
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The movie industry is going all-digital. The incandescent lamp is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. The phonograph is strictly a (fading) niche market. Mimeograph machines (yes, Edison invented the mimeograph) are gone.
Basically, only one thing Edison invented is still in use (and likely for the foreseeable future).
Charcoal briquettes.
Metcalfe wasn’t too far off when he predicted the downfall of the internet. Although it didn’t completely crash, it may be worth noting the “dot com” bubble bust of 2000 was a significant blow to the internet’s growth and profitability.