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Michael Smith's avatar

For the equivalent of space rocket images, how about de Loutherbourg's 'Coalbrookdale by Night'? Cotton mills, perhaps less glamorous..

Will Solfiac's avatar

Yeah it's a great painting. Though I wonder how he meant it to come across, amazing or menacing?

Michael Smith's avatar

Good point. I'd better not guess, given that my instinct is to say ‘industrial revolution child labour bad!’ whereas many sensible folk at the time said ‘that’s progress, kids can help the family unit by earning money!’ - vast distance of cultural space

Little known history's avatar

Have you read John Wyndham's The Venus Adventure written in 1932? It predicts a future where pregnancy is replaced with incubators centuries before we reach the moon. Obviously very wrong.

Will Solfiac's avatar

No, interesting idea though. I can see why he might have thought that.