Jules Verne - 8 Fictional Machines That Became Fact

Born on February 8th 1828 Jules Verne author of the classics Around the World in Eighty Days and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is cited as being the father of Science Fiction and the inventor of the Steam Punk genre, his books were filled with fantastical beasts and enormously elaborate machinery.
Who could have predicted back then that less than two centuries after his books were published that some of his seemingly impossible and totally fantastic machines would actually exist?

Newscasts

In an 1889 article titled In the Year 2889 that offered predictions of life a thousand years hence Verne predicted that instead of people getting their news from Daily newspapers that they would instead hear it, albeit in personal discussion with journalists, scientists and and political leaders rather than it being delivered by dedicated newsreaders.
The first newscast happened in 1920 just over 30 years after Verne’s prediction.

Lunar Modules

In his book From the Earth to the Moon Jules Verne described ‘small projectiles that would be used to ferry passengers to the moon’. Admittedly his were fired from an enormous gun in order to obtain the velocity required to break earth’s gravitational pull but other than the method of delivery his version of lunar modules were eerily similar to those that actually transported men safely to the surface of the moon in the mid 20th century.

Solar Sails

Another predicted piece of astronomical machinery the Verne wrote about in From the Earth to the Moon were his spacecraft that were propelled by light. Today Solar Sails are a reality with many of them orbiting the Earth even now.

Skywriting

Yes, Skywriting. In another of Verne’s predictions from his In the Year 2889 article he foresaw the concept of the sky itself being used as a format for advertising.
“Everyone has noticed those enormous advertisements reflected from the clouds, so large they may be seen by the populations of whole cities or even entire countries.”
Perhaps we don’t get whole country shows but there are plenty of people who’ve had birthday wishes and proposals writ large in the sky for them.

Videoconferencing

How about the Phonotelephote? No? Another invention predicted in the article “The Year 2889” was a method of allowing ‘the transmission of images by means of sensitive mirrors connected by wires” and sounds eerily familiar to today’s video-conferences.

The Taser

We move to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea for our next invention prediction.
A gun that delivers an electric jolt although not via barbed prongs but rather through a propelled ball

“Because the balls sent by this gun are not ordinary balls, but little cases of glass. These glass cases are covered with a case of steel, and weighted with a pellet of lead; they are real Leyden bottles, into which the electricity is forced to a very high tension.”

Splashdown Spaceships

Returning to From the Earth to the Moon and we come to Verne’s imagined method of safe return to the Earth for those who had ventured into space. Floating down on a parachute to gently rest in the water and await rescue.

The Electronic Submarine

Last but certainly not least, the jewel in the crown of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea The Nautilus. Perhaps it is missing the ostentatiousness of an organ and the sumptuous formal dining room but other than that, he wasn’t all that far off the Alvin sub (pictured)