Never Was Magazine (Posts tagged Technology)

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See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna

In 1952, Dutch television reported on a monorail test conducted near Cologne, Germany by the company Alweg.

Funded by a Swedish industrialist, Alweg’s bullet-shaped train reached reached a velocity of 135 kilometers per hour. According to the newsreel, the final train was meant to reach a speed of 350 kilometers per hour.

This particular train was never built, but Alweg did help construct Disneyland’s Monorail System, which opened in California in 1959, as well as the Seattle Center Monorail, which opened three years later. Both remain operational.

Alweg 1952 monorail test
Alweg 1952 monorail test near Cologne, Germany
Alweg 1952 monorail test
Alweg 1952 monorail test near Cologne, Germany
Alweg 1952 monorail test
Alweg 1952 monorail test near Cologne, Germany
Alweg 1952 monorail test
Alweg 1952 monorail test near Cologne, Germany
Alweg 1952 monorail test
Alweg 1952 monorail test near Cologne, Germany
Alweg 1952 monorail test
Alweg 1952 monorail test near Cologne, Germany
Alweg 1952 monorail test
Alweg 1952 monorail test near Cologne, Germany
1952 German Monorail Test #dieselpunk In 1952, Dutch television reported on a monorail test conducted near Cologne, Germany by the company Alweg.
Future Past Technology

Norman Bel Geddes was an American industrial designer and futurist who had a major influence on the streamlined Art Deco design of the 1930s and 40s.

Few of Geddes’ designs came to fruition. A notable exception was the General Motors Pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, also known as Futurama. (Click here for a collection of photographs from that year’s fair.)

One of his unrealized designs was “Airliner Number 4,” a nine-deck amphibian airliner that he sketched in 1929.

Airliner Number 4 elevation by Bel Geddes
Airliner Number 4 elevation by Bel Geddes
Airliner Number 4 by Bel Geddes
Airliner Number 4 by Bel Geddes
Airliner Number 4 deck plan by Bel Geddes
Airliner Number 4 deck plan by Bel Geddes
Airliner Number 4 by Bel Geddes
Image from Fantastic Plastic Models

It would have been a mammoth airship, inspired by Germany’s Dornier Do X flying boat. Geddes wanted to seat up to 600 people and provide areas for concerts, deck games, a gymnasium, a solarium — even two airplane hangars!

He put the cost of building the aircraft at $9 million, which would be something like $125 million in today’s money.

Bel Geddes’ Fantastical Airliner #dieselpunk Norman Bel Geddes was an American industrial designer and futurist who had a major influence on the streamlined Art Deco design of the 1930s and 40s.
Airships Art Deco Future Past Technology