In 1987 Ronald Reagan declared that the US was about to enter an incredible new era of technology.
Levitating high-speed trains, super-efficient energy generators and ultra-powerful supercomputers would become commonplace thanks to a new breed of materials known as high temperature superconductors (HTSC).
"The breakthroughs in superconductivity bring us to the threshold of a new age," said Reagan. "It's our task to herald in that new age with a rush."
But 20 years on, the new world does not seem to have arrived. So, what happened?
Early promise
Superconductivity was first discovered in 1911 at the University of Leiden in solid mercury metal.
Superconductors have no electrical resistance, so unlike conventional conductors they allow an electric current to flow through without any loss.
At the start, the phenomenon was only seen in materials cooled to close to absolute zero, the hypothetical temperature of zero heat.
Three quarters of a century later the highest temperature achieved for the onset of superconductivity, the so-called transition temperature, was a frigid 23 degrees Kelvin (-250C).
This had allowed scientists to exploit the phenomenon in specialist applications such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanners and high energy physics particle colliders, cooled by liquid helium.
But more day-to-day applications, such as replacing the electricity grid with superconducting wires, remained impossible until a material that could operate at higher temperatures was discovered.
The breakthrough came in 1986.
Two IBM researchers, Georg Bednorz and Alex Mueller, discovered a new family of ceramics, known as the copper-oxide perovskites, that operated at 35 degrees Kelvin (-238C)
The work was rapidly followed up Paul Chu of the University of Houston who discovered materials that operated at 93 degrees Kelvin (-182C)
The material was not as simple as we originally thought
The discovery meant that superconductors had entered the temperature range of liquid nitrogen (77 degrees Kelvin/196C), an abundant and well understood coolant.
"All of a sudden everything was different," said Professor Chu. "There was a euphoric feeling. People in the field thought nothing was impossible.
The discovery prompted a huge gathering of physicists in New York to discuss the breakthrough, a meeting later called the Woodstock of Physics.
Precise structure
But large scale commercialisation of the technology would prove more difficult.
"The material was not as simple as we originally thought," said Professor Chu.
Despite an intensive two-decade search, the underlying mechanism of superconductivity in the ceramics is still disputed.
In addition, their exact structure, which requires ultra thin layers of different elements stacked one on top of each other, meant they were very difficult and expensive to manufacture
"Atomically, you have to line them up very precisely in order for the super current to flow," explained Professor Chu.
Coupled with the fact that ceramics are brittle, making them difficult to turn into flexible wires and films, the prospects were never good for immediate exploitation.
"I think the expectations were a little unrealistic," said Dr Dennis Newns of IBM.
"The typical time it takes from inventing a new concept to application is 20 years," he said. "And that is exactly what we have seen."
Companies in Japan, Europe, China, Korea and the US are forging ahead with applications.
Cool running
In the US, American Superconductor has developed a way to "bend the unbendable", creating HTS wires which can carry 150 times more electricity than the equivalent copper cables.
"Twenty years ago you would see people making ceramic fibres and trying to bend them and it was like a dry stick of spaghetti," said Greg Yurek, CEO and founder of the company.
To get round this brittleness, the company embeds up to 85 tiny filaments of superconducting ceramic in a ribbon of metal 4.4mm (0.17 inches) wide.
"Think of optical fibres," said Dr Yurek. "If you have a rod of glass and you whack it on your desk it will shatter.
"Drop down to a fine optical fibre and it becomes flexible - it's the same principle here."
The company also produces wires with a one micron (millionth of a metre) thin coating of the ceramic on a metal alloy. Both are cooled by a sheath of liquid nitrogen.
Short sections of the wires have already been installed in Columbus, Ohio and a further half mile of cable will soon be laid on Long Island, New York.
In the short term, longer stretches of the super-cooled cable will be difficult to install as it requires an infrastructure to pump liquid nitrogen around the grid.
But Dr Yurek believes that it will not be long before other firms will start to offer utility companies these cryogenic services.
"This is the model they have used in the MRI industry to guarantee the cold," he said.
Shrinking motors
The company also used its HTS wires for other advanced applications.
Central Japan Railways uses coils of it for their superconducting experimental magnetic levitation (maglev) train.
American Superconductor has also developed an electric motor using coils of superconducting wire for use in next generation US Navy destroyers.
Electric motors are already used by most commercial cruise liners but are typically very bulky.
Using HTSC dramatically shrinks their size and also increases their efficiency.
The company is just about to start testing their latest 36.5 Megawatt engine that is cooled by off-the-shelf liquid helium refrigerators and weighs 75 tonnes (75,000 kg). By comparison, an engine based on copper wires would weigh 300 tonnes (300,000 kg).
"That's great for cruise ships and the Navy because they can use that space for other things like passenger cabins or munitions," said Dr Yurek.
"New age"
Experimentally things have also moved on.
New superconductors have been found. For example a new mercury-based compound has a transition temperature of 134 degrees Kelvin (-139C)
"When we applied pressure we raised it up to 164 degrees Kelvin (-109C), that's a record" said Professor Chu.
"Of course from an application point of view it's hopeless."
I think we're on a launching pad here and we're now ready to take off
However, other experimental work raises the possibility of one day discovering room temperature superconductors that would require no exotic cooling equipment.
A new theory, outlined in a paper in Nature Physics by Dr Newns and his IBM colleague Dr Chang Tsuei, seeks to explain the elusive mechanism of superconductivity in the class of ceramics discovered in 1986.
Intriguingly, the theory does not discount that room temperature superconductors could exist.
"We don't see any fundamental limits," said Dr Tsuei.
"If someone discovered a room temperature superconductor tomorrow which fits with what is outlined by our theory, we wouldn't be surprised at all," said Dr Newns.
This kind of optimism, seen the first time in the mid 1980s, now seems to be deserved.
There has been a crescendo of research, while at the same time the first commercial HTSC products are rolling out of factories.
According to Dr Yurek, this is a sign that the new age, once promised by Ronald Regan, is finally here.
"I think we're on a launching pad here and we're now ready to take off," he said.