The September 11, 1960 edition of Arthur Radebaugh's Closer Than We Think envisioned a type of disaster response vehicle that could seemingly accomplish many of the things people still complain about whenever governments respond to crises. With a decimated infrastructure those "terra tires" (crushing cars, mind you) would certainly come in handy. It's interesting that the illustration gives no clue as to what horror these people must be running from; an uncharacteristically chilling image from pop-utopian Radebaugh.

Tomorrow's methods of coping with catastrophes will make our present-day equipment as obsolete as the horse-drawn drays that handled the San Francisco fire havoc in 1906.

New king-size disaster wagons will face up to any kind of upheaval -- atomic, atmospheric or volcanic. Their low-pressure "terra tire" doughnut wheels will permit movement across any kind of terrain, traffic or wreckage. Supplies will include hospital equipment, pharmaceuticals, blood, dehydrated food and the like.

Such wagons are now in the planning stage for military purposes. Compare also the enormous vehicles already in use as missile carriers, also those used in the mining and logging industries.

Next week: Sub Squelcher

Previously on Paleo-Future:

• Closer Than We Think! (1958-1963)
• Will War Drive Civilization Underground? (1942)
• Technology and Man's Future (1972)
• Newton the Household Robot (1989)

The April 24, 1960 edition of Arthur Radebaugh's Closer Than We Think imagined a futuristic world of robot-driven trains. Looking at this image makes me think that someone could produce some pretty awesome steampunk art featuring James J. Hill and a Katrina Van Televox type robot, even though the "robots" described in this strip weren't of the humanoid variety.

Future trains will be fully automatic -- robots that can regulate their own speed and control their own movements to meet the most precise schedules.

The Union Switch and Signal Division is currently working on two kinds of electronic "brains" to make this possible. One type would be a trackside "decision maker," to regulate train speed, routing, starting and stopping. The other would be a "control servo," to signal that the robot train is obeying orders -- or isn't, and why. A central monitoring panel would oversee train movements for hundreds of square miles. The first such installation may be on the New York subway shuttle trains.

Next week: Lunar Power Pack

Thanks to Tom Z. for supplying the color version of this strip.

Previously on Paleo-Future:

• Closer Than We Think (1958-1963)
• Farm to Market (1958)
• Speed is Key to Future Travel (1965)
• Car-on-Train Pallet System (1968)
• Robot Drivers (1985)

Imagine a Hypercolor t-shirt. Now, instead of a t-shirt, imagine a car. And instead of a lame 90's fashion fad, imagine a lame 90's automotive fad.

The September 21, 1958 edition of Arthur Radebaugh's Closer Than We Think illustrated just such a possible fad. I mean... innovation.

 The automobile industry is studying a new kind of specially sensitive car body finish whose color can be changed at will. An electromagnetic gun would emit rays that would instantly "repaint" the car in any desired hue or combination -- perhaps to harmonize with milady's new fall outfit.

D. S. Harder, retired executive vice-president at Ford, recently described research in this direction. He added that this new kind of "photosensitive" surface would also be self-cleaning -- with the silent energy of static electricity or a supersonic vibrator driving off all dust and dirt.

 

Previously on Paleo-Future:

• Disney's Magic Highway, U.S.A. (1958)
• Closer Than We Think (1958-1963)
• Chrysler VP Predicts Solar-Powered Cars (1958)
• Cars Detroit Forgot To Build, 1950-1960
• Flying Family Car (1958)
• GM Car of the Future (1962)

I'd put this retro-futuristic prediction in the "why the hell would you do that?" file.

The August 7, 1960 Chicago Tribune ran this panel of Arthur Radebaugh's Closer Than We Think, titled "24-Hour Daylight." It imagines a world in which miniature artificial suns illuminate cities of the future. To be fair, those people look like they couldn't be happier. Does sleep deprivation cause some sort of euphoric state?

Man-made balls of fire may be used to light up tomorrow's cities. American scientists are currently pondering an idea along those lines that was first described in technical papers by George Babat, a Russian.

Bendix researcher Donald Ritchie recently reported that balls of light -- actually miniature suns -- might be created by focusing huge transmitting devices so that the rays they generate would cross each other and produce electromagnetic fields. These luminous fields could be used to light up large areas underneath them. Rays would be pointed as necessary to determine exactly where the artificial "sunlight" would fall.

Next week: Missile Movers

Previously on Paleo-Future:

• Closer Than We Think! (1958-1963)
• Experimental City of the Future (1967)
• Rejuvenated Downtowns (1959)

The March 3, 1959 edition of Arthur Radebaugh's Closer Than We Think depicts a highway to Russia, as imagined by Senator Warren G. Magnuson. According to Wikipedia, (the only source for anything that my generation might care about) this was not a new idea. Joseph Strauss, designer of the Golden Gate Bridge, proposed something similar for railroads in the 1890s.

Sen. Magnuson of Washington has a bold new idea for linking our newest state, Alaska, with Siberia via a bridge or vehicular tunnel across the 30- to 40-mile stretch of shallow waters of the Bering Strait. It would go from Wales, on the tip of Seward Peninsula, to Little Diomede and Big Diomede Islands, thence to Peyak, Siberia.

The Senator forecasts this hook-up within the lifetime of the present generation, to create a rail and highway route between points as distant as New York and Paris. "I am convinced," he says, "that the tourists who one day will drive this route will be our best ambassadors!"

Next week: Plastic Schoolhouses

Previously on Paleo-Future:

• How Experts Think We'll Live in 2000 A.D. (1950)
• No Shooting War Before Year 2000 (1949)
• Highways by Automation (1958)
• Closer Than We Think (1958-1963)
• Closer Than We Think! Magic Beam Highway (1961)
• Magic Highway U.S.A. Publicity Stills (1958)

This "hospital in the sky," as imagined by Arthur Radebaugh in the May 11, 1958 edition of his comic Closer Than We Think, operates under the assumption that the "weightlessness, irradiation and low temperatures of outer space" would allow for more effective treatment of patients.

The American Rocket Society has reported to President Eisenhower that practical medical science could benefit importantly from the weightlessness, irradiation and low temperatures of outer space. So we may find that some of tomorrow's hospitals may actually be anchored in the heavens.

One of these hospitals might be shaped like a disc atop elevator tubes leading to the control section. The mushroom-like disc would contain weightless operating rooms for treating heart and other organic troubles as well as bone diseases. It would also serve as a nucleus for crystal balls which, orbiting slowly, would utilize concentrated sunrays to treat cancer, skin diseases and similar ailments. There would also be experimental areas for the study of low temperature therapy -- a challenging new field for medical investigation.

As always, thanks to Tom Z. for the full-color version of this Radebaugh panel.

Previously on Paleo-Future:

• Medical Predictions for 1995 (1955)
• Bloodless Surgery, Closer Than We Think! (1959)
• How Experts Think We'll Live in 2000 A.D. (1950)

The November 29, 1959 edition of Arthur Radebaugh's Closer Than We Think features a job interview of the future. And what job interview of the (paleo)future would be complete without a man from Philadelphia and his entire family chatting via videophone with a potential employer in Buenos Aires?

Until recently, a man limited his job hunting to his home town. Now he sometimes searches the country. Tomorrow's job markets -- and opportunities -- will be world-wide.

Television will make it possible for an employer in Buenos Aires to interview a job seeker in Philadelphia. New Yorker Felix Cuervo has already pioneered in this direction, interviewing applicants for Civil Aeronautics Administration positions over a 2-way closed circuit. Said Cuervo: "Dress, bearing, manner and ability can be gauged over television about as accurately as in personal interviews."

Thanks again to Tom Z. for the color version of this Closer Than We Think panel.

Previously on Paleo-Future

• Little Work, Big Pay Forecast Year 2000 (1969)
• The End of Work (1966)
• Work Days of Two Hours (1923)
• Governor Knight and the Videophone (1955)