The Inventions Of Jules Verne
A depiction of the underwater vehicle in Verne’s “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”
Today’s steampunk subculture immortalizes many elements that appeared in 19th century science fiction author Jules Verne’s novels. But what is most impressive is how so many ideas Verne had in his books came to fruition well after Verne created them.
In his most famous work, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, the submarine captained by the salty Captain Nemo far surpassed early prototypes of the invention itself. Indeed, it would take decades to reach the level of majesty Verne envisioned.
In Robur the Conqueror, the main character constructs an aircraft from a strong, but light-weight, material called pressboard, which used rotors to fly. Verne took the first prototypes for what we now refer to as helicopters and expanded on them, predicting the ways in which they would develop.
Most famously, in From the Earth to the Moon, Verne predicted that one day man would set foot on the moon. While Verne’s means of getting a character there (via a cannon) were not particularly scientific, his idea to send man to the moon predated the actual moon landing in 1969 by more than a century.
Next, see five inventions made by Leonardo da Vinci that changed history forever.
