Submarine shipbuilding came long before Verne, but it was he who predicted the development of this type of technology. In his time, submarines could sink very shallow and moved very slowly. «Nautilus» Captain Nemo, described in the novel «Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea», surpassed them in all respects. Even today, some of its technical characteristics remain fantastic.

But Verne foresaw the general trends. Autonomous submarines capable of long voyages, the study of the depths of the sea, a trip to the Pole under the ice - all this became a reality.

So, we can say that these technologies are modern.

***

Computers, fax and the internet

In the novel «Paris in the Twentieth Century» Verne there are complicated computer machines powered by electricity. They perform various operations in banks and are able to transmit information to each other over great distances. This became the prototype of computers and the Internet. Other machines he described («photographic telegraphy») are the forerunners of the fax machine.

The excerpt from the novel is below: «The machines did resemble huge pianos; by pressing the buttons on the keyboard, one could immediately calculate amounts, balances, products, ratios, proportions, amortization, and compound interest over any time frame and at any conceivable rate»(«Paris in the Twentieth Century»).

Земцова Ксения,

библиотекарь Витебской областной библиотеки  (Республика Беларусь)