In December 1900, just prior to the start of the 20th century, John Elfreth Watkins published these predictions entitled What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years, in the US women’s magazine Ladies Home Journal.  Mr Watkins was a regular writer for an off spin of this journal and, by all accounts he had used his own professional knowledge as well as undertaking more in-depth research.

He started his article with the words, “these prophecies will seem strange, almost impossible” but he was obviously well ahead of his time as at least 10 of his prophecies have come true.

One of the predictions was digital colour photography.  Obviously he couldn’t predict how computers, modern cameras etc would work but he stated that “photographs will be telegraphed from any distance”.  He further went on to state that snapshots would be able to be published an hour later and that photographs will reproduce “all of nature’s colours”. 

At the time he made this prediction, cameras and photography themselves were in their infancy and it must have been mind boggling to think that colour photographs could be reproduced, so I can’t imagine how awe inspiring it would be to think that, during the lifetime of the readers great great grandchildren, these colour photographs would find their way around the world within hours!

Another of his predictions was rather more personal and not technologically based.  He stated that Americans would be taller by 1″ to 2″.  Apparently, back in 1900 the average American male was about 5′5″ to 5′6″ (around 1.7m) but by 2000 this had increased to 5′7″ to 5′8″ (around 1.75m).

The next prediction Mr Watkins got right was the invention of the mobile (cell) phone.  He stipulated that “wireless telephone and telegraph circuits will span the world” and that “a husband in the middle of the Atlantic will be able to converse with his wife sitting in her boudoir in Chicago.  We will be able to telephone China as readily as we now talk from New York to Brooklyn”.

Once again, the telephone was a new invention, very few people had been able to afford to have one installed and it would be a further 15 years before the first call was made from one side of the US to the other so the idea of wireless calls offshore and from one country to another must have seemed like madness!

He predicted that pre-cooked meals would be delivered to your door!  In Mr Watkins words “ready-cooked meals will be bought from establishments similar to our bakeries of today”.  This could of course mean that you could just walk into a food shop and take away a meal – much like our pizza/Chinese takeaways, although it seems that Mr Watkins did actually expect the food to be delivered to your door on plates and then these would be returned to the “establishment” to be washed.  In essence, he has got our takeaway delivery system bang to rights.  How many of us order in a pizza, Chinese, or Indian takeaway?  And over here in the UK even fish & chip shops are now joining the fray – we often get our haddock or plaice and chips with mushy peas, onion rings and curry sauce delivered via a local shop just by placing an order online!

Another prediction which was spot on was that “winter will be turned to summer and night into day by the farmer, with electric wires under the soil and large gardens under glass”.

Obviously large glass houses were already in existence in 1900 but the use of electricity to provide out of season fruit and veg was something new.  Thanks to electrically heated glass houses we’re now able to enjoy fruit and veg out of season with no major ecological problems as they no longer have to be flown swiftly from one country to another to ensure their freshness.  Unfortunately though the electric wires under the soil doesn’t yet seem to have caught on although I suspect there are some farmers or horticulturalists out there who have rigged up such a system.

Another of Watkins predictions was for TV.  I know there had been quite a few predictions going around since time immemorial relating to this phenomenon but this prediction was spookily close to what we know about the workings of the TV today!  Watkins stated that “man will see around the world.  Persons and things of all kinds will be brought within focus of cameras connected electrically with screens at opposite ends of circuits thousands of miles at a span”.  That’s one of the closest definitions I’ve seen as to the development of the old goggle box!

We’ve all heard about Leonardo da Vinci’s so-called prediction regarding military tanks but Watkins prediction has advanced on that.  He states that “huge forts on wheels will dash across open spaces at the speed of express trains of today [1900]“.

One of the predictions that I wouldn’t even have considered was that fruit would be larger.  He considered that strawberries as large as apples would exist in the 21st century.  Admittedly the strawberries we have here aren’t quite as big as apples, but I do find that they’re much larger than they were when I was a child and, over the century, a lot of research has been put into making fruit and veg larger.  Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of the flavour has now gone out of the newer varieties compared to the smaller ones.  It also seems that today we have an obsession for perfectly shaped fruit and veg!  What’s wrong with a knobbly turnip or a bent banana?  Bearing in mind we seem to have a lot of starving people in the world, I cannot see the logic in just casting nature’s misshapes aside.  I grow veg in my garden and I haven’t been poisoned yet by eating a runner bean that’s a bit curly or a potato that’s not entirely ovoid but has a few lumps, bumps and warts on it!  Nor do I subscribe to our “super chefs” over here casting the skin and seeds of tomatoes to one side.

Another prediction was uncannily true.  He basically envisioned  “the Acela Express” (which runs between Boston and Washington).  Watkins stated that by the 21st century trains would run two miles to the minute normally and express trains one hundred and fifty miles an hour.  The Acela Express can reach speeds of up to 150 miles an hour. 

And over here in the UK we’ve possibly got the HS2 speed train on the horizon once the government can convince the populace it’s a good thing.  Unfortunately the route for this train will take a huge chunk out of our beautiful landscape and is going to cost god knows how many million pounds to actually get up and running.  As you can imagine, it’s going down here like a lead balloon!  Firstly because of the environmental disturbance, secondly because of its noise and upset to local inhabitants and thirdly the amount of tax payers’ money which is going to be wasted when so many people in the UK are struggling to make ends meet due to the recession.  I can see the logic for such a train in a large country like the US but I’m sure it can’t be necessary on a little island like the UK!

I understand from the BBC website that Watkins also foresaw the invention of central heating and air conditioning, cheap cars; average life expectancy to rise to 50 (although I’m sure his calculations are a little on the low side there! – nonetheless life expectancy has of course increased); free university education; and refrigerating food for transportation.

However, like most people who make predictions, Watkins obviously made a couple of cock ups!  He considered that the letters C, X and Q would no longer be necessary  in our alphabet.  I just hope that no-one takes up the challenge of bringing this about as I’d be well and truly stuffed as a work from home typist!!!

Another most definite boo-boo was that everybody would be walking 10 miles a day.  I suspect Watkins would be horrified to learn that most of us can’t even manage to walk one mile a day let alone 10!  This is in evidence in our small village.  Young mums who could walk to the local schools in less than five minutes actually get their cars out to deliver their kids!  My partner and I enjoy walking out in the country and often go for a 30-40 minute walk to pick up a loaf of bread and a few lighter food items from our local village shop, but again, most of our younger mums will take the car out rather than put feet to tarmac!

Watkins also thought that there would be no more cars in large cities.  To some degree, he would have been correct if he’d applied this theory to the UK as we are now discouraged to take vehicles into the city. 

Car parks are prohibitively expensive in our multi storey parks and spaces in our open air, ground level car parks are slowly being reduced.  Instead, we have Park and Ride bus systems set up on the outskirts of cities.  We drive the car to the huge Park and Ride car parks which, in our area, are interspersed with wonderful landscape gardens to encourage wildlife.  We then buy a very inexpensive bus ticket.  We have three options; one for a single person, one for a couple and one for a family.  These buses run very regularly so you don’t need to stand … you just wait for the next bus to come along.  The buses stick to bus lanes and don’t stop for pick ups between the Park and Ride and the city centre so it’s quick, efficient, comfortable and cheap now to get from A to B!

The other prediction which sounds wonderful but most certainly hasn’t manifested itself is that, by the 21st century mosquitoes, house flies and cockroaches would have been exterminated.  I suspect a lot of us would be glad to see the back of these bugs but, when I considered the wider impact, I came to the conclusion it would NOT be a good idea.  We all know that humans are keen to eradicate the nasty parts of life and nurture the nicer things, but in reality, if we eradicated these insects, in all likelihood it would have a knock on effect on wildlife in general.  I’m strongly of the opinion that humans have dabbled too much with nature over the years and it’s been seriously damaging to our environment and ultimately this will affect humans too!  We may think ourselves more intelligent than our animal friends, but sometimes I do wonder – animals get on with what they’re designed to do but we seem to feel it’s our right to hatch, match and despatch our fellow earth creatures as if we’re gods!

So here you have it – not only have I given you some 100 year old predictions which have come true but I’ve also had the opportunity to vent my spleen!!  Two articles for the price of one!!!

Thomas Alva Edison, a walk through time.

Thomas Edison with his phonograph ; 1877

Thomas Alva Edison (more commonly known as Thomas Edison) was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio, United States but grew up in Port Huron, Michigan. He was the seventh child of Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. And Nancy Matthews Elliott. In school, young Edison’s mind often wandered and his teacher called him addled. Much of his education came from reading R.G. Parker’s School of Natural Philosophy. He had some hearing problems at a young age which was caused by a scarlet fever during childhood which left him with an untreated ear infection. In the middle of his career his chemical laboratory in a boxcar caught fire which then he was thrown out of the train for. He sold candy and newspapers on trains, and he sold vegetables to supplement his income. Thanks to this, he gained experience and talents as a businessman with eventually led him to founding 14 companies including one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world; General Electric; which is still in existence.

Thomas Edison 1878

Edison became a telegraph operator after saving 3 year-old Jimmie MacKenzie from being stuck by a runaway train which then led Jimmie’s father to training Edison as a telegraph operator. He was working the night shift when working with a lead-acid battery when he spilled sulfuric acid onto the floor, he was fired the next day. Thomas Edison began his career as an inventor, but the invention which first gained him notice was the phonograph. This accomplishment made the public thought even magical. However, it had poor sound quality and the recordings could only be played a few times. He gained money for his inventions through selling them hoping to get $4000 – $5000, in which he got $10000.

It is a common misconception to say that Thomas Edison invented the first electric light bulb, but instead invented the first commercially practical incandescent light. By 1879, Thomas Edison produced a new concept which was a high resistance lamp in a very high vacuum which would burn for hundreds of hours. He first tried many experiment with platinum and other metal filaments but returned to a carbon filament. In 1878, Edison formed the Edison Electric Light Company, and made the first public demonstration of incandescent light bulb on December 31, 1879, in Menlo Park. He even said that “We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles”.

Thomas Edison 1889

On October 8, 1883, the US patent office said that Edison’s patent was based on the work of William Sawyer and was therefore invalid, but until October 6, 1889, a judge ruled that Edison’s electric light improvement claim for “a filament of carbon of high resistance” was valid. He did not want another court battle with Joseph Swan, whose British patent had been awarded a year before Edison’s, he decided to form a joint company called Ediswan to manufacture and market the invention in Britain.

With knowledge that he gained from working as a telegraph operator, he learned the basics electricity. This made him able to make his early fortune with the stock ticker which was the first electricity-based broadcast system. He was also granted a patent for the motion picture camera or “Kinetograph”. In 1891, Thomas Edison built a Kinetoscope, or peep-hole viewer and this device was installed in arcades which people could watch short, simple films. His favorite movie was The Birth of a Nation which is one of the most racist movies ever created, and it was produced by the Ku Klux Klan. President Woodrow Wilson also favorited this movie.

Thomas Edison died of complications of diabetes on October 18, 1931, in his home, “Glenmont” which was in Llewellyn Park in West Orange, New Jersey, which he purchased in 1886 as a wedding gift for his wife Mina. He is buried behind his home. Edison’s last breath is contained in a test tube at the Henry Ford Museum. Ford reportedly convinced Charles Edison to seal a test tube of air in Thomas Edison’s room shortly after his death. A plaster death mask was also made.

He died on October 18, 1931 in West Orange, New Jersey, United States.

Swinscow was clearly nervous and evasive in his answers but vehemently denied any involvement in the theft. It was only under repeated questioning and when it appeared that he was going to be charged with the crime that he at last owned up to where the money had come from. He had made the money working as a prostitute, he said. He named Charles Hammond as his employer and told the Police that he ran a male brothel at 19 Cleveland Street in plush Fitzrovia. He elaborated that he had been encouraged to work as a prostitute by Charles Newlove, an eighteen year old post office clerk, and that two other telegraph boys, George Alma Wright and Charles Ernest Thickbroom, also worked there.

Homosexual encounters between men, consenting or not, in private or not, had been made outlawed in the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885. The case was handed to Detective-Inspector Frederick Abberline, who had been prominent in the Jack the Ripper investigation the previous year.

On 6 July, Frederick Abberline visited the premises at Cleveland Street with a warrant for the arrest of Charles Hammond and Charles Newlove.  He found that the premises had been locked and two men gone. Newlove was later arrested at his mother’s house in Camden Town whilst Hammond was staying with his brother in Gravesend.

Further investigations uncovered the brothels client list and the high-level profile of many of its customers. These included Lord Arthur Somerset and Henry Fitzroy, Earl of Euston. Lord Somerset was an equerry to the Prince of Wales, and it was soon being rumoured that Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, the eldest son of the Prince of Wales and the presumptive heir to the throne had also been a frequent visitor. The British press played down these rumours but they would not go away.

That Prince Albert Victor was an unusual character, there seems little doubt. Some describe him as other-worldly, others as having a child-like mien. It would certainly appear that he enjoyed the seamier side of life. Letters would later emerge that appeared to show that he was being blackmailed by two female prostitutes. He was also later to be implicated in the Jack the Ripper murders. But for all the rumours and all the gossip there is little firm evidence for any of this. He died on 14 January, 1892, aged 28 during the great flu pandemic. Though he had earlier been diagnosed with venereal disease.

On 19 August, an arrest warrant was issued in the name of George Veck, an associate of Charles Hammond, who had been fired from his position at the Central Telegraph Office for improper conduct with the boys. He now often posed as a clergyman to lure young boys to the house in Cleveland Street. He was arrested on his return to Portsmouth from the Continent where found on his person were letters that implicated a man by the name of Algernon Allies. He was to admit, under questioning, to having received money from Lord Somerset for sex and of having had an on-going sexual relationship with him. Lord Somerset was called in for questioning for a second time. Upon his release he fled abroad.

On 11 September, Newlove and Veck went on trial charged with offences of gross indecency. Their Defence was led by Lord Somerset’s solicitor Arthur Newton who again brought up the rumours regarding the Duke of Clarence. Many years after the scandal people who knew the Duke were willing to testify that he did indeed frequent male brothels.

The events surrounding the Cleveland Street Scandal were  now beginning to be reported in the daily press. The Prince of Wales now intervened to ensure that the rumours surrounding his son went no further, and the trial moved quickly to a conclusion. Both Newlove and Veck were given light sentences of 9 and 4 months hard labour respectively after pleading guilty to charges of gross indecency. It appeared that Newton’s threats had worked.

Lord Somerset, who was once again back in England, was advised by Newton that the threat of arrest was a real one and that he should return to the Continent immediately. The Prime Minister Lord Salisbury now intervened to ensure that no extradition warrant was issued. Likewise, the case against Charles Hammond was quietly dropped.

Lord Somerset later returned to England to attend his mother’s funeral. On hearing of this the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, James Monro, insisted that an arrest warrant be issued; but the Lord Chancellor, Lord Halsbury blocked any such attempt.  It seems odd that such lengths were gone to to protect one errant aristocrat unless it was feared that further investigations would implicate others.

The Government was coming under increasing pressure to act, however. Lord Somerset was warned, perhaps by the Prime Minister himself, and by the time an arrest warrant was issued on 12 November, Somerset was again safely abroad.

The mainstream press had remained deferential in their reporting of the scandal , and it was down to the Editor of the radical weekly journal The North London Press, Ernest Parke, to delve further. He suggested that the Cleveland Street Brothel was run specifically for the benefit of the ruling elite to pursue their personal perversions whilst pretending to maintain the highest moral standards at home. He questioned the lenient sentences passed on Newlove and Veck, why the case against Hammond had been dropped, and why none of the clients of the brothel had been prosecuted even though there names were known to the police. At first, Parke refused to name names but finally pointed the finger at Henry Fitzroy, Earl of Euston. Fitzroy immediately brought a case of libel against Parke. He admitted that he had indeed visited the brothel but only once, and upon seeing for himself what was going on and the den of iniquity it was,  left never to return. Parke was found guilty on 16 January, 1890, and sentenced to 12 months in prison.

In Parliament, Henry Labouchere, the Liberal MP whose amendment to the Criminal Law Amendment Act had outlawed same sex encounters between men, accused the Government and the Prime Minister Lord Salsibury of a cover up. He was forced to withdraw the accusation. 

Any fall-out from the Cleveland Street Scandal was successfully suppressed by the Authorities, but it was to re-emerge during the trial of Oscar Wilde five years later. Reinforcing the view prevalent at the time that homosexuality, or sodomy,  was an aristocratic vice used to corrupt lower-class youths.  

The scam read a bit like a news article, but the whole thing was a terrible scam. I was quick on the case and wrote about the scam. But now it’s resurfaced in the below form:-

Listen guys!

I SAID LISTEN!!!

You cannot, I repeat CANNOT earn this sort of money at home, without breaking some sort of law. And this scam is still costing people thousands. Stop believing, if it looks too good to be true, IT IS!

In order to get this to work, you need to have millions of people flooding to your site each day, it WILL NOT happen!

Read the full story here!

Please if you are tempted to sign up for something like this, do not.

Today 6 people alone have contacted me about this saying they have been scammed. Imagine how many others there must be that have not found my articles on this matter. 

As a description of physical phenomenon, it fits nothing as well as it fits the nature of “Electricity”. As a concept, we may find it difficult to wrap our minds around. But the implications of the term are inescapable:

in-stan-ta-ne-ous (in’ stan tay‘ nee uhs) adj. 1. occuring, done or completed in an instant; immediate: an instantaneous response. 2. existing at or pertaining to a particular instant – in‘-stan-ta‘-ne-ous-ly, adv in‘-stan-ta‘-ne-ous-ness, in‘-stan-ta-ne‘-i-ty. Marshall McLuhan tried to warn us in his then radical Understanding Media. Alvin Toffler tried to prepare us in his then ground breaking Future Shock. Neither publication ought to have been taken lightly. although many of us did so back in 1966 and 1970, when those books were copywrighted.

Today as we Text one another on our Blackberries and follow whoever we wish to Twitter on our ipods and pads and meet, greet, schmooze and socialize in cyberspace, and buy, trade, barter and sell on ebay - our instantaneously digitalized, light-speed information environment is a given which we’ve all learned to take for granted… it’s just “…what we do”! And recent surveys have shown: we’d rather get a divorce than live without our cellular phones.  Give us 24/7 access to everyone and everything – instantly – or give us death!

Who could have known, back in the 1800’s when the Telegraph became the replacement for the Pony Express, that, by the year 2000, more events, inventions and innovations would take place in the next ten years than had happened in the entire century before it? And who knew that with the combined effects of globalization,  digitalization,  and miniaturization – influenced by robotics and computer generated graphics that technology would begin to hybridize and clone itself exponentially? As fact merges with magic, reality reels, cultures and concepts congeal, converge, blend blur and re-emerge replicated in altered states…

… and we all evolve as it all revolves at nearly light speed! – we find ourselves promising to slow it down – tommorow!… or was that yesterday? We are caught somewhere between information overload and the instant replay; between evolving nostalgia and our Tivo… and a hundred-twenty available channels on Cable – and Oprah’s 25 years are up! We are frazzled, bedazzled, entranced and intrigued, enthused and beguiled – all on the same day; all in the same eight hours – not necessarily in the same time zone – but, inevitably and inescapably, instantaneously! EVERYTHING IS HAPPENING AT THE SAME TIME!

We almost find ourselves like the young players who rashly decide to be brave enough to drop by the Jam Session to hang out with the pros, hoping they’ll play a tune we’ve practiced enough to follow.  And what do they do? Break into a break-neck, up-tempo rendition of “Cherokee” – about twice as fast as you’ve ever heard “Flight of the Bumblebee” played! And, suddenly, the spotlight is on you – and the audience is focused, listening intently to your every note. And now there’s no more time to “practice”.

 We who write can thank our lucky stars that our art is not governed by the laws of improvisation. We can revise, improve and edit our creative efforts. Yet, with the ever increasing speed of mass communication today and the increasing digitalization of information, we find ourselves pressed as we approach light speed! So much to say; so little tiime. Or, as one Romantic Poet penned it: “…at my back I always hear time’s winged chariot hurrying near”. Such pressures make us struggle to maintain our levels of quality – and keep us focused on the value and necessity of sticking to the fundamental mechanics of the Language.

Harold Camping, aged 89 announced that May 21st would mark the End of the world and would start with a “RAPTURE” of earthquakes across different parts of the world. But this all changed on 21st May. Most people claimed that the preacher wanted to get attention, and for a lot of believers, there was major disappointment seen on their faces. TELEGRAPH UK even reported that even twitter users were disappointed to see the event did not take place.To my views, there was abnormal traffic seen on 21st May over the Internet and for some top notch organizations like goggle, the event proved to be good source of income.

 Technological Determinism 

Technological determinism is the belief that technologies have the influence to change civilization and to shape people’s view of the world they live in. When examining the connection involving nationalism and technology, a hub on technological determinism draws notice to the impacts technological changes have had on national societies and attitude. Case in point, it can be made known that new transport technology and communications break down boundaries between social groups and unify people in new ways.

Communications Impact on Nationalism

When the telegraph was invented, it signaled in a new era for communications as people could communicate much quicker than ever. It was the precursor to the telephone, a device which would bring the world much closer. Coming in the 20th century, the telegraph and telephone were used effectively as communication tools. People, anywhere in the nation or even the world, could now keep in touch. What was happening in the world was now a newspaper away.

Nationalism Affected by the Telegraph, Telephone and Printing Press

Before the telegraph or the telephone, printing technology, for instance, help to standardize languages through time and space, making it feasible for a larger group of people to share a widespread consciousness and language. Also, the printing press would aide in helping increase education in the liberal arts. Given a centrality of language to nationalist perspective, it is easy to realize why the printing press might, consequently, be seen as having been a main cause for the rise of nationalism. Ideas could easily be spread with the help of the printing press. The hold on widespread knowledge was now threatened.

The printing press is not alone in having caused a major rise in nationalism. There are various technologies which have been historically shown to help unify people through a formation of a shared national civic culture. Four such technologies are the factory, automobile, railway and the modern school.

Nationalism Affected by the Factory, Automobile, Rail and School

The factory was a major shaper in the rise of nationalism because it played a major role in the emergence of mass culture. In addition to that, the factory precipitated the emergence of a society divided greatly along economic class lines. The automobile was a major shaper in the rise of nationalism because it changed the social and physical landscape of a nation from urban centers to giving vitality to isolated communities. Individuals would be influenced by the automobile by how they would become more mobilized and earn a living. In addition to that, consumerism would be changed for ever.

The railway linked the American East and West Coast and was seen a national triumph. It, however, ushered in the fall of the American Indian community with lasting consequences for the condition of first nation groups inside the American nation. The modern school became noted for helping the masses of people. A more educated population was seen as being more productive than a less educated one. What’s more, the school could also be used as an indoctrination center. National perspective could easily be widened through way of the school. Lastly, the railway, even though being a unifier, also divided the nation. So, in retrospect, when examining the effects of technology on nations and nationalism, it should be remembered that new technologies can both enable and constrain national sentiments.

Sources:

Murphie, Andrew. Potts, John. “1″. Culture and Technology (2003). London: Palgrave. p.21.

In 1843 he managed to persuade a skeptical Congress to fund a project to construct a telegraph line from Washington DC to Baltimore. In May !844, Morse sent the first official telegram over the line. Over the next few years several private companies under Morse’s patent were set up all over the north east of the US. In 1851 one of these companies was called the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company, it would later become known as Western Union. In 1861, as Western Union the first transcontinental line across the United States was completed. Five years later and the first line was established across the Atlantic, by the end of that century telegraph systems were in use in Africa, Australia and Asia.

Telegram companies charged by the word, and because the word ‘stop’ was free it became the norm for ending a sentence as any punctuation marks had to be paid for. Singing telegrams were introduced in 1933. Telegrams also became dreaded during times of conflict as these were in many countries used as a way of informing the next of kin of any one from the military having been killed in action.

As the 20th century progressed telegraph messages were gradually replaced by cheaper long distance telephone calls, then faxes and eventually email. Samuel Morse the creator of the telegraph and the communications code that bears his name died a wealthy and famous man in New York City on the 2nd of April 1872 aged 80.

Dr Hawley Crippen

Dr Hawley Harvey Crippenwas born in Michigan in 1862 and qualified as a doctor in 1895.  He worked for a patent medicine company in the US for a while and then moved to London in 1900 with his second wife, Cora Turner, a theatrical singer, otherwise known as Belle Elmore who originally came from New York.  They took up residence at 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Holloway.

Belle Elmore

Belle was a typical theatrical diva – she loved expensive clothes and jewellery, extravagant parties and also adored being adored!  One can only assume, therefore, that Crippen turned out to be a bit of dullard compared to her theatrical friends so Belle turned her attentions to more exciting admirers. 

Crippen’s home life wasn’t a particularly happy one.  It’s professed that Belle was a heavy drinker, constantly needling her husband, so he turned to his young secretary, Ethel le Neve for solace.  They then embarked on an affair.  Belle got wind of this affair and threatened to leave Crippen with nothing if he continued it.

In February 1910, following a party at the Crippen house,  Belle disappeared and in March of that year, Ethel moved in.  Crippen initially told enquirers that Belle had returned to the US to visit a sick relative and that Ethel was a relative of Belle’s who had merely come to stay with him, but family friends, Mr and Mrs Nash, considered it strange that, at a party later that year which Crippen and Ethel attended, Ethel was wearing one of Belle’s expensive brooches and later Crippen had spoken to another of Belle’s friends, a Mrs Clara Matinetti, and told her that Belle had in fact fallen sick  and may not live.  Shortly afterwards, he had sent Clara Matinetti a telegram indicating that Belle had died.  This news was duly passed on to Mr and Mrs Nash who subsequently contacted Crippen to ask where Belle had died and he told them that it was a town near San Francisco but he couldn’t remember the name of it.

This revelation raised suspicion with the Nashes so they went to Scotland Yard and Inspector Walter Dew duly attended Hilldrop Crescent and reported back that there were discrepancies in Crippen’s story and that he felt the matter required further investigation.  Crippen had at first indicated that his wife had left for America to visit a sick relative then, when pressed by friends and neighbours as to when she was likely to return, he had indicated that Belle had become sick and later died.  When he was further pressed by Dew, he then changed the story again and said that Belle had left him and gone to Chicago with her lover, a prize fighter by the name of Bruce Miller but Crippen had felt so ashamed that he concocted the story that Belle had died.

Photograph of the scene of the crime; Walter Dew is on the far right of the photograph

Dew asked Crippen if he would allow a search of the house and Crippen readily agreed to it.  The initial search threw up no evidence that foul play had been afoot in the house but, following that initial search, Crippen got a bit edgy and told Ethel that he thought it was time for a move so, when Dew returned later to tie up a few loose ends in his enquiries, he found the house empty.  As this naturally aroused Dew’s suspicions still further, he arranged for a more thorough search of the house and this eventually revealed a headless and limbless torso buried under the cellar floor.

Dr Bernard Spilsbury, a renowned pathologist at the time, examined the remains and confirmed that this was the body of the missing Mrs Crippen.  He deduced this was Bellefrom a sample of some scarred abdominal tissue.

It was also discovered that there were traces of a poison, Hyoscine (an extract of the Henbane or Nightshade plant) in the body.  This poison could easily have been administered in food and drink and, as Bellewas known to enjoy a drop of the old sauce, it would have been a simple task to ensure that Belle had a fatal dose of the poison.

News of this heinous crime eventually reached the London press and came to the attention of Crippen who convinced his lady friend they should move to Canada.  He booked a passage on the SS Montrose, which was bound for Canada via Antwerp, under the assumed name of Mr Robinson and son, John.  Crippen then shaved off his moustache, removed his glasses and bought boys clothes to disguise Ethel as his son for the passage to Canada.

However, their undoing was down to two factors.  Firstly, that Captain Kendall, the eagle-eyed master of the SS Montrose, took a very keen interest in his passengers and later commented that on one occasion he had looked through his cabin porthole and witnessed Robinson and son behind a lifeboat holding hands.  The good captain had then entered into a conversation with Robinson Senior and noticed there was a ridge on top of his nose which indicated that he normally wore glasses.  He was equally convinced that Robinson’s son was a girl so he decided he would invite the couple to his dinner table and later asked Robinson to go to his cabin to complete some forms.  Kendall then noticed that “John’s” clothing had been altered using safety pins which clearly had been added to conceal a woman’s more shapely body and make it more boyish.

Kendall compared the two suspects on board his ship with photographs which were in a newspaper he had and once he was sufficiently convinced that they were Crippen and Le Neve, he arranged to telegraph a message to the ship’s owners based in London, saying, “have strong suspicions that Crippen London cellar murderer and accomplice are among saloon passengers.  Moustache taken off – growing beard.  Accomplice dressed as boy.  Voice, manner and build undoubtedly a girl”. 

This information was then passed to Inspector Dew who boarded a faster ship, the SS Laurentic.  Although the Montrose had a three day lead it was still eleven days from its destination in Quebec.  The Laurentic, however, being the faster ship, managed to overtake the Montrose and Dew, disguising himself as a tug pilot, was able to board the Montrose along the St Lawrence River and apprehend Crippen before he could make good his escape to Canada and thence to the USA.

So Dr Hawley Crippen and his mistress Ethel Le Neve were arrested and returned to London where they stood trial at the Old Bailey.   The trial was relatively short, being just five days, and Crippen was found guilty of murdering his wife.  This was despite the fact that Crippen maintained his innocence and also that the head and limbs were missing so the identity of the victim was purely down to Bernard Spilsbury’s findings of the abdominal scar on the torso. 

Crippen was hanged at Pentonville Prison in November 1910 and Ethel Le Neve, tried separately for a lesser charge of being an accessory after the fact, was acquitted.  She subsequently changed her surname to Nelson and settled in Canada where she married, bore two children and died in 1967 at the age of 85.

This was the first criminal case whereby a ship-to-shore message was sent via the new Marconi wireless radio which ultimately resulted in an arrest.

However, our story doesn’t end there.  Recently it has come to light that Crippen may not have been guilty as charged.  New “evidence”  has arisen   A Dr Foran, head of forensic science at Michigan State University examined a sample of evidence used for the original trial in 1910 which has been held in the archives at the Royal London Hospital’s museum and concluded that, on comparing DNA samples taken from surviving relatives of Belle Elmore with those held in the museum, the torso could not have been Belle’s.  Further doubt was also cast on the previous evidence that Crippen had poisoned his wife and then dismembered her body before discarding the head and limbs and burying the torso under the cellar floor.  John Trestrail, a toxicologist also from Michigan said that it was extremely unusual for a poisoner to follow up the dastardly deed by dismembering the body and in fact this was the first case that he had encountered where such an event had taken place.  He maintained that the whole point of poisoning a victim was to avoid damaging the body.

So maybe the body wasn’t that of Belle Elmore; maybe Dr Crippen was in fact innocent of the crime.  If Crippen had left the body intact then no doubt the evidence would have been more compelling as it could have been more readily identified but it seems from the recent DNA tests that the torso under the cellar floor may not have been his wife.  And where are the rest of the body parts for this “unknown” torso?  As far as we’re aware, they were never found.

I have to admit that I’m convinced Crippen did commit murder as he would have had no reason to make a run for it, and there certainly wouldn’t have been a need to disguise himself and his lover, but maybe it wasn’t Belle who he’d murdered.  I can’t help but believe it was Bellebut I doubt the dilemma will be resolved during my lifetime although I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who will still dig and delve to try and get to the bottom of the Crippen conundrum.

Marconi was born in Bologna, Italy in 1874, to an Italian father and Irish mother. He studied physics and during his studies became interested in the transmission of radio waves. He began to conduct experiments in 1894 while still in Bologna and he first succeeded in sending a radio signal over a distance of 1.5 miles. Disillusioned at receiving little encouragement for his findings in Italy he moved to England in 1896. He formed a wireless telegraph company and was soon sending messages over a greater distance than 10 miles. In 1899 he succeeded in sending a message across the English Channel to France. In the same year he equipped two US ships to report to New York newspapers on the progress of the America’s Cup yacht race. The success of that venture caused a widespread interest in both Marconi and his wireless company.

His greatest achievement was accomplished when in 1901 he received word that his message had arrived in Canada. He continued to learn more about the laws of radio waves and the role of atmospheric conditions during radio transmissions. His would be a leading role in discoveries and innovations for the next three decades.

In 1909 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with the German radio innovator Ferdinand Braun. After he successfully sent radio transmissions from points as far apart as England to Australia, Marconi began to experiment with shorter but more powerful radio waves. He died in 1937 and on the day of his funeral the British Broadcasting Corporation had all its stations stay silent for two minutes in tribute to the contributions of Marconi and his innovation to the development of radio.