Blackberry was 'predicted a century ago' by pioneering physicist

Tesla, a pioneering Serbian-born physicist, made the prediction about the portable messaging service in the Popular Mechanics magazine in 1909.

Tesla, whose name lives on at Tesla Motors, the electric car manufacturer, saw wireless energy as the only way to make electricity thrive. He wrote in the magazine that, one day it would be possible to transmit wireless messages all over the world.

Tesla, who spent most of his adult life in America before his death in New York in 1943, imagined such a hand-held device would be simple to use and that, one day, everyone in the world would communicate to friends using it.

This, he added, would usher in a new era of technology. Seth Porges, the magazine’s technology editor, disclosed Tesla’s prediction at a presentation, titled “108 years of futurism”, to industry figures recently in New York.

The "Crackberry" as it has been dubbed for its addictive qualities, is popular with business executives and US President Barack Obama, but has struggled in Britain to widen its appeal to a younger demographic.

The magazine, which has nine international editions that is read by millions, has been trying to imagine how the world will look in future years since it was first published in January 1902.

"Nikola Tesla was able to predict technology which is still in its nascent forms a hundred years later,” Mr Porges said.

"He talked a lot about his other great passion, which was wireless power.

"It has taken a little longer to get off the ground, but work on fascinating wireless conductive transmission is going on right now in research centres at MIT and Intel and other places.”

But some predictions have fallen short of expectations such as personal helicopters, flying cars, airports positioned on the top of giant buildings, and even an oven that also acted as a hairdryer.

In the first half of the 20th century, other magazine writers imagined trains that were transported around the country via hot air balloons, fire fighters that wore sprinkler helmets and homebuyers that chose their homes via mail order. 


/Telegraph.co.uk/