Visions of the Future: The 1900s- An Electric Theatre

It was a new decade, a new century, and a new era of technology and ideas. However, the troubles of the past were not left in the 19th century. As new discoveries and theories abounded, old rivalries and injuries festered. By the end of the decade that lasted from 1900-1909, the affairs of the world were almost ready to explode.

History:

From 1904 to 1905, the Japanese and the Russians engaged in a power struggle called the Russo-Japanese war, the conclusion of which established Japan as a leading nation in the world.

In 1905, during the aftermath of this war, Russia began a period of turbulent revolution, as the working and peasant classes were awakened to a desire for more equal treatment.  

Science:

The 1900s saw some of the most groundbreaking discoveries and inventions in recorded history.

In 1905, a young German-born physicist introduced his latest theory in a paper called “On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies”. The physicist’s name was Albert Einstein, and his theory of special relativity was to completely change man’s perception of the universe around him.

After the invention of the motion picture camera in the late 19th century, movies caught on as an art form and as a means of entertainment. The first movie theatre, “The Electric Theatre”, opened in Los Angeles in 1902.

The next year, one of mankind’s oldest dreams was realized when the Wright Glider, the first fully controllable aircraft made its first flight in 1903.

In 1906, the Victrola, a mass-market recording device was released, bringing recorded sound into the everyday lives of ordinary people. The automobile gained similar popularity two years later, when the Ford Motor Company released the assembly-line produced Model T, which was the first automobile affordable by the middle class.

Also during the 1900s, Marie Curie did much of her research into the nature of radioactivity.

Stories:

H.G. Wells continued to dominate the science fiction genre with his fantastic stories. In 1901, he published The First Men in the Moon. It tells the tale of a scientist and a businessman who travel to the moon, and discover a civilization there. This novel went on to spark the imagination of later sci-fi writer, C.S. Lewis, whose Space Trilogy was released in the 1930s and 1940s.

An early dystopian story by E.M. Forster, “The Machine Stops” was released in 1909. It takes place in postapocalyptic, underground society, and foresees technological and social developments such as the internet,and instant messaging.

Le Voyage dans la Lune, (A Trip to the Moon), released in 1902, is widely considered to be the first ever science fiction film. This twelve-minute, French silent film, directed by  Georges Méliès, was inspired by many sci-fi sources, the most notable of which was Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon. It even has a fight scene with exploding aliens. (The entire movie is on YouTube. You should check it out when you have twelve minutes to spare).

With the transition into a new genre, science fiction had entered a new era that was to absolutely transform the way it was enjoyed in the decades and centuries that followed the first ten years of the 20th century.

Keep on glowing in the dark,

Elora