Jules Verne... A great author and visionary whose works were truly some might say... prophetic of things to come...[/caption]Jules Verne... What can I say about the guy that hasn't already been said? I mean he was a master writer... And is still a legend in his own right for the work that he did in the Science Fiction genre... But one thing that could be said that he definitely contributed to, was the predictions made for technology that we take for granted today, but were not really available during his time!
A great example of this is the use of the submarine...
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The Nautilus submarine... Probably one of the most famous ships from one of Jules Verne's most famous novels![/caption]Now don't get me wrong when I say that this was entirely something that he predicted... I mean that by the time that Jules Verne wrote, '20,000 Leagues Under The Sea' in 1870, people had for just about a century been working on this technology in some capacity... But the truth is, is that there was a certain component to the, 'Nautilus' that did not really become a reality until roughly around World War 1... But did not become a fact until World War 2... That is the long term capability of subs to stay under the ocean!
Another great example of technology that was not even near to reality (as a matter of fact, until World War 2, had been a kind of pipe dream...) Is the idea of going to space! And in the case of his novel, 'From The Earth To The Moon'... A novel that he wrote in 1865, in which he was probably the closest to being right then anyone in the 19th century world, in how ultimately the space program would eventually be... (i,e... the idea behind it, is that a gun club decides to figure out a way to shoot a projectile with people in it to the moon...) And the truth is, is it looks like largely, the projectile is shapped like a bullet, (which rather your talking about the space shuttle before it reaches orbit, or the older space ships... All of the basic shapes are like that of a projectile... And the basic concept of a projectile (i,e... A pod that eventually separates from the booster rockets) was the concept behind a lot of the older rockets used...)
One could almost say that Jules Verne's, 'From The Earth To The Moon' helped the creative inspiration for some of the most famous space missions in, 'NASA' history!
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A truly insightful book that either eerily predicted aspects of the space program correctly to the letter, or was a huge inspiration for the pioneers of the worlds Space Programs![/caption]Now this one maybe a little bit loose, and it is not exactly having to do with, 'technology' per se... But I do think that this helped inspire the pioneers in aviation to make the world seem smaller with the capabilities of jumping continents in a matter of hours on planes... And that is the novel, 'Around The World In 80 Days' ... A novel which was published in 1873.
This novel could essentially be said to be the story of a man who accepts the wager of making a trip around the world in 80 days... I am convinced that at least to some extent was the inspiration in the early part of the 20th century in the race for pilots to become the first to travel between the United States, and England with out stopping!
In the end there is more that I can say about the author, as well as some of the marvels that have come from other 19th century authors that have made predictions about modern technology... But I think you get the point!
Jules Verne was definitely ahead of his time with this one![/caption]