Everybody has had a couple of hours of daydreaming of what life might be like in the future but seldom do those dreams ever come to realisation. And it appears our hopes for the future haven’t altered a lot over the past century or so. These pictures, made in 1900 as a promotional effort for German chocolate company Hildebrands, picture how Victorians imagined their future, or more precisely, the year 2000.

glass covered city

From personalized flight machines, ships driving out of the sea and glass covered urban centres; their ideas were actually pretty cool. Alas though, not very feasible. Although technological advancements have come along leaps and bounds and persist in doing so, it may be a long time prior to having inventions like these in our lives!

glass ship underwater

Even in Victorian times people were obsessed with journeying under the water, and whenever they were, without doubt they entertained living down there too. Who is to say that a subaquatic habitat wasn’t among their futurist fantasies?

house on rails

How fabulously great it would be to be capable of moving an entire home on train rails, rather than being forced to pack everything once a move is on the cards? If some smart entrepreneur would be so thoughtful as to compose the plans for this gizmo, without doubt they would have a flood of people wishing to invest in the construction. Seriously, if anything takes the trouble out of moving, it’s surely worth it.

ship driving out of the ocean