Virtually original
Although the term 'virtual travel' has gained a lot of currency since the advent of the internet, tourist-board webcams and IMAX theatres, this year marks the 100th anniversary of what, in retrospect, might be called the first virtual travel experience. Launched in the summer of 1905 and designed for 'the working man or the one who is by any reason unable to indulge in the luxury of travel in foreign countries', Hale's Tours was the brainchild of Charles C. Hale, a former fire chief from Kentucky. Customers were seated in a mock-up of a railway carriage and film footage - shot around the globe from the front of moving trains - was projected onto a screen, while appropriate sounds were played and the carriage jolted about on a steam-powered platform. 'The splendid combination of the moving pictures and the mechanical and mental simulation of the swiftly flying express train from which the landscapes and interesting places are seen,' announced the Hale's Tours programme, breathlessly, 'gives all the sensations and pleasures of an actual visit to the places shown on the screen'.
The 'tours' were offered to customers all over the world, from New York to South Africa, Europe and even Hong Kong. Motion sickness and claustrophobia were among a few regular 'passenger' complaints and the pastime had lost its novelty by the first world war, at which time the tours ceased. Hale is said to have made US$500,000 from the business while offering millions of people 'the most natural pictures of the most interesting places of resort to which the wealthy of all nations go in their hundreds and pay huge sums for the pleasure'.
Anniversary package
Room at the back
There has been no shortage of news from airlines about advances in business- and first-class seating in recent years, but little or nothing about improvements in economy class (presumably because there haven't been any). All Nippon Airways (ANA), however, has just introduced a new seat design (above) for domestic travellers flying in cattle class that is definitely worth a mention and which could be adopted by other carriers. A couple of extra inches of legroom have been created by raising the magazine pocket to sit behind the meal tray (where it is also more accessible) and seat backs have been made slimmer, but more comfortably contoured, to allow for greater seat pitch. The seat covers have been treated using something called a 'photosemiconductor technique', which ANA claims provides 'more resistance to bacteria and odours, thus adding to a cleaner and more pleasant cabin environment'. The fact the new seat is also 5 per cent lighter than any other means it is more environmentally friendly, reducing annual fuel consumption emissions on a Boeing 777 by an estimated 40,000 litres.