12 Fantastic Scifi Vehicles from a Century Ago

Electric airships, submarines, and other futuristic vessels were the main attractions on the covers of a pulp novel series called Frank Reade Weekly Magazine: Containing Stories of Adventures on Land, Sea & in the Air .

The Smithsonian Librariess tumblr has just posted some of the best examples of these paleofuturist transportation devices. They explain:

The Frank Reade Weekly Magazine was a series of cheap and colorful dime novels published at the turn of the 20th century aimed at a young, predominantly male audience. They spun tales of adventure in exotic settings often in polar regionswith the inventor hero traveling in futuristic airships and submarines.

12 Fantastic Scifi Vehicles from a Century Ago

You can read twelve issues of the magazine online, from the digital collections of the Smithsonian Libraries. Here are all the covers containing awesome artwork, showing bold visions of future transportation.

Searcher, a Snow locomotive

12 Fantastic Scifi Vehicles from a Century Ago

Ranger, an electric ice ship

12 Fantastic Scifi Vehicles from a Century Ago

Explorer, a submarine boat

12 Fantastic Scifi Vehicles from a Century Ago

Kite, a flying sailboat

12 Fantastic Scifi Vehicles from a Century Ago

Four-wheeled airship

12 Fantastic Scifi Vehicles from a Century Ago

The Engine of the Clouds

12 Fantastic Scifi Vehicles from a Century Ago

Dolphin, an electric submarine

12 Fantastic Scifi Vehicles from a Century Ago

Treasure hunter deep sea divers, and a submarine boat in the background

12 Fantastic Scifi Vehicles from a Century Ago

Dart, an airship with butterfly sails

12 Fantastic Scifi Vehicles from a Century Ago

An airship called Spectre

12 Fantastic Scifi Vehicles from a Century Ago

Dart, a submarine boat

12 Fantastic Scifi Vehicles from a Century Ago

Sea Diver, an electric submarine boat

12 Fantastic Scifi Vehicles from a Century Ago