The float pictured, “Opening of the Liquid Air Railway Line”, won the prize for “best local hit” in the annual Fourth of July parade for 1899. It was a “burlesque” on an imagined future trolley line on Harvard St. powered by the just-developed “liquid air”. This was undoubtedly inspired by the recent lecture delivered to a huge crowd in town hall, on April 4, by William Peckham, an electrical engineer from New York. He had been advancing new manufacturing methods for liquid air and fantastical claims were being made for its potential (a company was developing an automobile named “Liquid Air” with the prediction of being able to travel long distances when powered by liquid air.)

The people on the float are playing various roles imagined for the world of 1950. The parade route: begin Harvard Sq., north on Washington St., right on Park St., right on Beacon St., right on Charles St., left on Sewall Ave., right on Kent St., right on Aspinwall Ave., left on Harvard St., continue south on Washington St. to the Village Sq., right on Boylston St., right on Cypress St. to the playground by Davis Ave.
[ref. Brookline Chronicle, April 8, 1899, pg. 18].
[ref. Brookline Chronicle, July 8, 1899, pg. 4]

[Courtesy of the Digital Commonwealth (CC BY-NC-ND). From the Brookline Photograph Collection published by the Public Library of Brookline]