The world is shrinking.  Populations are growing.  New nations are forming.  The need to communicate is spreading over the globe in ever-widening circles.

For centuries man's perception of his world was hobbled by distance.  His attempts to relay information over the miles pushed human inventiveness to its heights.  Now, wherever wires can be taken, wherever towers can be built, wherever satellites may orbit, man spans vast oceans and continents seeking to understand and be understood.

The telephone is an American invention.  It is one of the tangible examples of the many material things that give our nation the world's highest standard of living.  The very fact we enjoy such service is taken for granted.  And so it is destined to be in the 21st century.

Some of the fantastic communications services which my be yours in the 21st century can be seen at the Bell System exhibit at Seattle World's Fair.  In the main rotunda, visitors will thrill to a demonstration of communications by satellites in orbit around the earth.

Other exhibits dramatically depict present and future communications for business, industry and the home.  For example you'll se machines "talking" to machines and future design telephones such as the picture phone, which one day may make it possible to display books, clothing, groceries and even art treasures in your home.

The next forty years will see astonishing advances over those made by the communications industry in the last eighty-five.  But plans for tomorrow, "far out" as they may sound, are inextricably tied to the fantastic network of circuits and switches which now guide your voice wherever you wish to send it.

Of greater significance is the realization that no longer are there "remote" areas of the world.  Communications in the 20th Century has made neighbors of all mankind.  The Space Age Exhibit and Communications Building is sponsored by Pacific Northwest Bell and its Bell System partners.  The Bell System is searching for ways to extend communications beyond tomorrow into Century 21.
 

IBM PAVILION

The International Business Machines Corporation exhibit, "New Paths to Knowledge," tells the story of the search to improve life and the world.  The story begins with the first crude tools and progresses through new electronic computers that perform hundreds of thousands of calculations a second and automatically translate foreign languages.  Computers are telling scientists about the weather, about human illnesses.  New information machines will help scientists look farther into the unknown.  An orbiting astronomical observatory will search out knowledge about the universe and spaceships will be flown theoretically with the assistance of the computers before they are built.

In the IBM Pavilion, nontechnical terms are used to show how computers build new and wider paths to greater knowledge.  The pavilion, with silver poplars forming the exterior walls and maple and birch trees growing amid colorful displays, has three gardens of learning.

One garden displays technological and artistic accomplishments of the past.  The second, with operating models and visual displays , explains how computers operate.  In the third, visitors are shown how computers are used today and some of the ways they may help solve many of the mysteries in the world of tomorrow.

The distinctive exhibit, in a garden court setting native to the Pacific Northwest, displays the achievements and potential of some of the most marvelous machines devised by the imagination of man.

Next to the IBM Pavilion on Friendship Mall is a showcase building of petroleum products, sponsored by the Standard Oil Company of California.  Standard's story reached into the past with a replica of the world's first service station, which was built in Seattle in 1907.  And the company projects the future of petroleum products and petrochemicals with displays of oil research and of farming in the next century.

The Christian Witness Pavilion is both a children's center and a religious exhibit.  Under the guidance of a professional staff, children from three to seven are cared for while parents are free to roam the grounds.  In another area of the building a seven-minute message of hope and faith in God is presented.

The Official Information Center, on Friendship Mall, is sponsored by the General Insurance Company of America.  Visitors may obtain complete information of the fair from trained personnel.  In addition, the information center offers assistance with housing, entertainment and regional vacation tours.

Complete banking service is available during the fair hours at the Century 21 Branch of the Seattle-First National Bank.  The flags of all countries represented at the fair are displayed on the bank building.  In addition to the normal banking functions, the Century 21 Branch also offers loan service and foreign currency exchange.

The American Home of the Immediate Future embodies structural innovations and advance designs to demonstrate economical home construction and unusual living comfort.  The house was manufactured in prefabricated units by the Panelbid Division of the United States Plywood Corporation for a group of sponsors.  The basic structure of the house is of wood frames and the room units are made of paneling.

The Moody Institute of Science presents twice-daily appearances by Dr. George Speake, who delivers his famous sermons on science.

The unique oval Nalley's Pavilion contains a theater which shows movies of the great Pacific Northwest.  In the lobby of the building are displays of the food products from Nalley's plants on the West Coast.

The Hall of Commerce and Industry is on American Way, overlooking the Plaza of the States and the Boulevards of the World.  The exhibitors are the National Cash Register Company, the Carnation Company, Northwest Airlines, United Air Lines, the Rohr Aircraft Company, the H.J. Heinz Company, the Aluminum Industry and the Bekins Moving and Storage Company.

Across the fair on Freedom Way stands the House of Living Light, the pavilion of the Douglas Fir Plywood Association.  The model home uses newly developed flexible plywood, which is constructed much like corrugated paper, to present a preview of living in the next century.  Cone-shaped sky lights on top of the home follow the sun to provide natural lighting throughout the day.