10 Centuries-Old Predictions That Actually Came True

7. Printers

When: 1879 Where: 'The Senator's Daughter' by Edward Page Mitchell Edward Page Mitchell was a writer for New York newspaper The Sun, specialising in science fiction short stories. One of these was The Senator's Daughter, in which he describes devices that are able to print news as it happens: "He cast a stealthy glance at his knees in the mirror, and then went to one side of the room, where an endless strip of printed paper, about three feet wide, was slowly issuing from between noiseless rollers and falling in neat folds into a willow basket placed on the floor to receive it. Mr. Wanlee bent his head over the broad strip of paper and began to read attentively." This is one of the earliest references to printing in this manner, which strongly resembles the printers found in homes today. At the time, the idea of a printer simply meant someone that works in a workshop creating copies of the same page.