When the French writer Jules Verne died in 1905, powered air travel, which he placed at the center of his 1886 book "Robert the Conqueror", had already gone from fantasy to reality: just two years earlier, the Wright brothers had made the first manned flight in human history. But most of his other predictions about world-changing technologies were still far from being realized at the time of his death. The trip around the moon in a spaceship, which he described in his 1865 book "From the Earth to the Moon", seemed like a distant fantasy in those years. This fantasy of his came true in 1968 with NASA's Apollo 8 mission.
Verne's genius lies in the way he vividly imagined how existing technologies could develop, and then incorporated his ideas into exciting adventure stories. His books have inspired a number of scientists and inventors to turn his fantasies into reality. Here are four examples.
Simon Lake (1866-1945), submarine designer
Simon Lake was an American naval architect who designed some of the first submarines for the United States Navy. He says he is indebted to Verne, and in particular to his novel "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" (1869), which he first read at the age of 10 or 11.
The book describes the "Nautilus" - a submarine that is much more advanced than the rudimentary submarines that existed at the time. Lake was obsessed with the ambition of building a submarine that would equal the "Nautilus" or even surpass it.
After the submarine he designed, the "Argonaut", managed to travel 1,000 miles in 1898, Lake received a congratulatory telegram from Verne himself. Later, his grandson, Jean-Jules Verne, was invited to be the "godfather" of one of Lake's advanced submarines. Before an Arctic expedition in 1931, the ship was even renamed the "Nautilus".
Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932), aircraft designer and inventor
The Brazilian inventor Alberto Santos-Dumont not only designed some of the first powered airships, but also flew them. On one of his many trips, he circled the Eiffel Tower in Paris. This feat in 1901 brought him worldwide fame. In November 1906, Santos-Dumont flew his 14-bis aircraft.
In his book "My Airships", Santos-Dumont called Jules Verne "his favorite author" of his youth and describes some of his works as inspiring his curiosity about technology.
Igor Sikorsky (1889-1972), aviation pioneer
Igor Sikorsky's mother, Maria Stefanovna Sikorskaya, instilled in the Kiev-born aviation pioneer a love of Jules Verne's stories. Most notably "Robert the Conqueror" inspired Sikorsky to start designing the helicopters that brought him world fame.
After several unsuccessful attempts in the early 20th century, in 1939 Sikorsky managed to fly the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300 - the first functioning American helicopter.
After the early form of the helicopter was modified, the Sikorsky R-4 model became the first mass-produced helicopter in the world.
Sikorsky also designed numerous fixed-wing aircraft - especially after emigrating from Russia to the United States in 1919.
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935), a scientist between earth and sky
Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, one of the pioneers of rocketry and astronautics, points to Jules Verne as the person who sparked his interest in space flights.
Tsiolkovsky also imitated Verne as a writer - in 1893 he published his novel "On the Moon". He also wrote many philosophical and scientific works dedicated to space travel and man's relationship with space.
Like Jules Verne, Tsiolkovsky was convinced that one day people would move further into the solar system.
"Man will not remain on Earth forever. The desire for light and space will make him penetrate the limits of the atmosphere - timidly at first, but eventually he will conquer the entire solar space", says the epitaph on his obelisk, written by Tsiolkovsky himself.
Author: Timothy Jones