Verne Book Obsura
Jules Verne: Literary
Engineer
Quentin R. Skrabec Jr.,
Ph.D.
qrskrabec@gmail.com
While
not a scientist, Verne was an engineer[i] using literature as his
drafting board and design medium. Science to him, like to the engineer, was a
resource, and he used science to craft his novels and extraordinary adventures.
Verne often approaches his technical stories like an engineering project. For
Verne, engineering is not just part of the story's background but an integral
core of the storyline. He devotes entire
chapters to his step-by-step design using scientific principles, as illustrated
in From the Earth to the Moon and 20000
Leagues Under the Sea. Verne uses words to build engineering prototypes and
direct needed research to advance technology. Much of the time, Verne is not
trying to predict the future as much as applying emerging science to his
literary engineering projects. Verne uses engineering design methodology and design
thinking in his technical novels.
Verne’s engineering problem-solving
is based on the founding principles and early rudiments of today’s engineering
methods, such as design thinking, project management, combinational innovation,
reverse engineering, Failure-Mode-Effect Analysis, and exponential thinking.
Verne’s engineering methodology is every bit as futuristic as his machines. Verne also anticipates the need for
engineering as a profession and a formal problem-solving curriculum to advance
innovation. Most important, Verne approaches problems like an engineer.
The Vernian Engineer in a Victorian World
Verne
saw the need for a new Victorian profession of engineer. This profession would
be the bridge between scientist and inventor, architect and builder, and
professor and applied scientist. This new profession would require unique
skills and an educational problem-solving curriculum. During Jules Verne’s
lifetime (1828-1905), the definition of engineering and the idea of different
engineering professions was evolving.[ii] The earliest need for engineers was road and
bridge building in the military and urban centers. The National School of
Bridges and Highways, founded in 1747, evolved into France’s premier
engineering school, École Centrale Paris, in the 1800s. Napoleon’s engineering
graduates of Ecole Centrale were behind his battlefield success, and he
envisioned civilian engineering[iii]
for the building of his empire. Napoleon proposed a unique role and application
for civil infrastructure and industry engineers. The Ecole Centrale would
be the first college in engineering and science financially supported by
Napoleon to build his empire. Verne noted Ecole Centrale's leadership in
educating the engineers of Europe in several of his novels.
In Victorian England, The Institution of Civil
Engineers, the first civil engineering society in 1818,[iv] defined a civil engineer
as: “An Engineer is a mediator
between the Philosopher and the working Mechanic, and like an interpreter
between two foreigners must understand the language of both. The Philosopher
searches into Nature and discovers her laws and promulgates the principles and
adapts them to our circumstances. The working Mechanic, governed by the superintendence
of the Engineer, brings his ideas into reality. Hence the absolute necessity of
possessing both practical and theoretical knowledge.”[v]
As
an engineer, I find this the most eloquent and insightful definition of
engineering ever written because it understands that engineers are mediators
between two very different occupations, the scientist and the mechanic. In The
Underground City (1877), Verne uses several chapters to delineate this
relationship between his engineering protagonist James Starr and his coal head
miner Harry Ford, exemplifying the Institution’s definition as a mediator.
The engineer was loosely defined in
the mid-1800s, but “engineer”
was not listed as an occupation in the 1850 United States census. Verne,
however, saw the need for the new occupation of an engineer in his scientific
adventures. Verne’s protagonists
in the 1860s, such as Captain Nemo (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the
Seas) and Impey Barbicane (From the Earth to the Moon), were prototype
engineers.
Most early Victorian engineers received engineering training
in military schools before the 1870s. Cyrus Smith (Cyrus Harding in some translations) is the
archetype of a Vernian engineer in the novel The Mysterious Island
(1874). Cyrus Smith received his engineering knowledge as a Union officer. Later
in his Voyages Exordinararie series[vi] of novels, Verne applies
engineering to broader fields of the corresponding scientific disciplines, such
as mining, mechanical, electrical, chemical, and metallurgical engineering.
Verne
also realized how the very nature of an engineer was developing. France of the
late 1870s followed a variation of Napoleon’s idea of the engineer functioning
in society. The German concept of an engineer was different, seeing the
engineer not as a mediator but as welding of the scientist and mechanic. The
German Victorian view was one of being focused as a technical specialist with
no concern for society or the environment. Verne’s engineering protagonists are
often the antithesis of the socio-oriented engineer he believed in. Verne saw
the application of technology as a struggle between good and evil. The decision
of which Verne believed was the responsibility of the engineer.
In
Begum’s Millions, Verne contrasts the German idea of engineering to that
of the societal-oriented engineer of the French. In one of Verne’s earliest
novels, Paris in the Twentieth Century (1863)[vii],
Verne worries that the rise of science and technology in colleges would result
in the decline of the fine arts, literature, and classical studies. In Verne’s Propellor
Island (1895), he illustrates more shortcomings of technology in urban
design. Verne foresaw technological utopias that were more dystopian and
unbalanced.
In Begum’s
Millions (1879), Verne contrasts different industrial city designs with the
problem of industry damaging the environment and harming the health of city
dwellers. In Begum's Millions,
Verne’s French Alsatian engineering student, Marcel Bruckmann, faces the
contrast of technology applied in the ideal German city (Stahlstadt) versus the
perfect French city (France-Ville). Marcel graduated from Europe’s premier
engineering school, École
Centrale Paris, and was the epitome of a Vernian engineer. The combination of
excellence in science and mathematics with the arts and classical study gave
the character Marcel the proper balance to challenge the technological-based
society of Stahlstadt.
In
The Barasc Mission (1905), Verne’s protagonist engineer raises a city
and farmlands out of the desert with technology, ignoring the societal
improvement needed for such a utopia. Verne commonly portrayed advances in
technology moving faster than society’s ability to adapt and advance. He warned
that the arts, humanities, and liberal studies would be needed to counter the
propensity of technological societies toward war, environmental destruction,
and authoritarian rule.
Verne
augured the holistic approach of “Design Thinking”[viii]
of today. Verne realizes that engineering is a combination of man and machine.
The holistic approach brings society and the environment into design
methodology. We see Verne's holistic engineering approach in the building of
Verne’s enormous moon-shot cannon (From the Earth to the Moon). Verne
notes the lack of concern for fatal construction accidents in America. In From
the Earth to the Moon (1865), project engineer Barbicane puts in a safety
program to ensure the “accident rate did not exceed that of countries overseas
noted for their extreme precautions.”[ix]
Unfortunately,
American and most European engineering schools regressed by the 1900s into
demanding technical curriculums to advance technology above the humanities. The
German model of the engineer won out with the exponential growth of technology,
just as Verne predicted. Interestingly, as Verne’s popularity resurfaced in the
1960s, engineering schools sought to integrate the social sciences, literature,
and the arts into the curriculum. Today we are returning to the socio-oriented
engineer that Verne favored. This type of holistic engineer can function beyond
the single-minded mechanical expert. For Verne, the broader education of a socio-oriented engineer made for the perfect
engineering project manager.
Vernian Project Management
Verne’s
stories were those of significant engineering challenges and scientific
adventures. Verne approaches these challenges as engineering projects, not as
individual inventions. Verne’s novels Twenty
Thousand Leagues Under the Seas and From the Earth to the Moon are
project management manuals for aspiring engineers. Verne’s project engineers
are holistic and problem-solving-oriented.
Most
modern readers and reviewers of From the Earth to the Moon (1865) are
amazed at coincidences of the actual 1960s (a hundred years later) moon
landing, such as the Florida launch location, the soft water landing,
retro-jets, and the use of an aluminum capsule. However, the novel's practical
outline for engineering project management is more impressive for engineers. It
is written like the project files of today’s engineering companies. Verne’s
moon project included team selection, location analysis, cost analysis,
comparison of competing materials and technologies, intermediate necessary
design changes, community impact, worker health and welfare, and identifying
the need for technical development in needed components, testing, and
prototypes.
Verne’s
moon project was led by the fictional Impey Barbicane, who had been Chief of
Artillery for the Union Army. Verne describes Barbicane as “contributed
mightily to the development of weaponry and constantly inspired new research.”[x]
Barbicane’s vision is using a giant cannon to propel a capsule to the moon.
Barbicane sets the goal and makes it a national project, announcing it before a
group of military artillery experts.
Barbicane
goes to the scientists at the Cambridge Observatory for a feasibility study to
set his plan's scientific and astronomical requirements. The feasibility study
defined the precise details such as the launch location, velocity requirements
to achieve breaking from the pull of gravity and launch timing requirements.
Barbicane then moves to build national support, set a national goal, and make a
mission statement. Of course, the Vernian approach can also be applied at the
organizational level.
Verne
realized the importance of public involvement and investment in a project such
as a trip to the moon. Impey Barbicane would combine the leadership of John F.
Kennedy and the imagination of Wernher von Braun (1912–1977), who headed the
American NASA moon project a hundred years later. Like von Braun’s famous 1960s educational
tour of the United States to teach science to the public and gain their
support, Verne’s Barbicane used the national press to make it “no longer
permissible for the least learned of the Yankees to be ignorant of even one known fact of his satellite.”[xi]
Again like NASA’s early informal motto, “Everything we do is to get there,”
Barbicane notes, “their sole ambition now was to take possession of [Moon] …
and plant on its highest peak the starry flag of the United States of America.”[xii]
Finally, Verne created a team and steering committee to address the significant
engineering considerations of the cannon, projectile, and powder that needed to
be discussed.
Verne’s
project teams use the basics of what is known today as Design Thinking to
understand project needs, challenge assumptions, redefine problems, use
dimensional analysis, and create innovative solutions. 
Verne
dedicates an entire chapter to each project's engineering issues: cannon,
projectile, gunpowder, location selection, and construction. Although Verne
made some scientific errors, he used fundamental engineering analysis to arrive
at his cannon and lunar projectile design. In Chapter 7, “Hymn to the
Cannonball,” a design committee discusses the history of big projectiles and
the project requirements. Here Verne details historical obstacles to the
project’s success. The chapter also describes the various design calculations,
such as needed escape velocity and cost estimates, but Verne’s project design
is broader than the physical requirements.
One
of the artillery experts, J. T. Maston, exemplifying Verne’s type of holistic
engineer, takes the floor at the meeting. Maston takes a different view of the
project’s needed projectile, “This cannonball that we are sending to the moon
is our messenger, our ambassador, and I ask to consider it from a strictly
moral, intellectual point of view. . . in order to ponder the mathematical
cannonball, the moral cannonball, and philosophical cannonball.”[xiii]
Its size takes in the idea that earth telescopes would have to see it and the
landing to supply the needed verification of success. The design considers that
should there be beings on the moon, how they might perceive the engineering of
men. This approach reflects the holistic method of French engineering schools
of the time.
When
the committee chose an aluminum capsule for weight considerations, they also
noted that such an exotic metal would demonstrate the level of earthling
technology. The design requirements for a 20,000-pound aluminum projectile were
visionary for Verne. Verne’s character Barbicane admits it would be the largest
order ever for aluminum in 1865. Here Verne proves himself both prophet and
writer. Verne’s translator, Walter Miller, notes that Verne is extrapolating,
realizing the exponential growth of technology. His readers at the time would
have known about aluminum from the daily Victorian articles about this new
wondrous metal. Furthermore, his readers would live to see his predictions of
such an order of aluminum in the 1890s.[xiv]
The following chapter, “The Story of the
Cannon,” takes place at another committee meeting with “mountains of sandwiches
and a veritable ocean of tea,”[xv]
reminiscent of the famous pizza and Coke endless project design meetings in the
early days of Apple and Microsoft. The design, dimensions, material, cost, and
fabrication issues for the cannon were considered based on the artillery
experience of the committee members. The giant guns of Verne’s time were in the
25-foot length range. Verne takes us through the historical evolution of cannon
size to estimate his moon cannon size using dimensional analysis. Brass and
cast iron cannons' advantages and disadvantages were considered. Cast iron won
out based on cost and ease of casting. Based on cannon design rules of thumb
used during the Civil War, J. T. Maston requested a half-mile-long cannon,
which the committee found impractical. Here Barbicane uses a different solution
of casting the gun into the ground of 900 feet and a bore nine feet. The cannon
would require 68,000 tons of cast iron. Verne details the Rodman design and
manufacturing in the following chapters.
In later meetings, New York’s Cold Spring Foundry[xvi]
was selected to supply the pig iron and be a subcontractor to “recruit and
manage the workforce.”[xvii]
Cold Springs engineer, J. Murchison, is added to the project management team. A
city of modular iron sheet cabins would be needed to house the workers. The
city design took into consideration the health of the workers.
Verne
realized that for such a colossal cannon to be made in 1865 would require
engineering beyond that available at the time. Here Verne proves himself an
engineer. He combines Rodman's cutting-edge casting technology with Krupp
Steel's casting methodology of the 1860s. Verne details his casting methods in
several chapters. Initially, the Parrot design[xviii]
was selected, but eventually, a modified Thomas Rodman design[xix]
for a “Columbian” as construction problems occurred. Barbicane changes the initial Parrott cannon
design. Verne notes, “A clause in the required that the Columbian with hoops of
wrought iron be put in place,”[xx]
which were the hallmark of the Parrott design. Barbicane cancels this clause as
construction is near its end.
Verne’s
hybridized design augured the 1960s space race and arms race design methods.
Verne anticipates that applying new scientific principles could be amalgamated
to achieve the engineering needed for the project. He saw technology as
exponential growth. When the project team feels overwhelmed by the engineering
advances needed, chief engineer Barbicane enforces their faith, “if we put our
minds to it and take advantage of scientific progress, we should be to make
cannonballs ten times heavier.”[xxi]
Verne uses the same exponential thinking in his chapter “The Powder Question.”
When the project team seemed blocked by the sheer amount of gunpowder needed,
Verne had Barbicane gamble on the emerging technology of guncotton, even
though, in 1865, it was considered too unstable for use by the military.
Verne's exponential-based guess would be justified in a few years by the
development of chemical stabilizers for guncotton in the 1870s.
Once
the Vernian team settles the physical requirements for the cannon, they apply
their systematic approach to compare Texas and Florida for the launch site.
Site considerations included seaports and river navigation needed to an
extended supply chain to New York and the engineering properties of the soil
necessary for casting. Again, we see the broader scope of the Vernian project
team taking into account malarial fever common in Florida and multiple
political considerations. Overall Verne lays out a classic and usable model for
today’s project managers.
Still,
Vernian engineers were technical wizards first. Vernian engineers, above all,
were disciplined technological problem solvers. Verne’s real contribution to
engineering was to view design as a backward and forward process, and the heart
of that process was experimentation and problem-solving. Verne’s
problem-solving techniques are as futuristic as his inventions. He anticipates
the use of Failure-Mode-Effect-Analysis (FMEA) developed by the US Military at
the end of the 1940s.
Failure-Mode-Effect-Analysis (FMEA) and Design Thinking
Before
Verne became a famous science fiction author, he had a brief experience with an
actual engineering project. His study of the failure of the
balloon, the Geant (Gaint),[xxii] in 1863 offers an
example of FMEA. Verne was a founding member of the Society for the
Encouragement of Aerial Locomotion by Means of Heavier-than-Air- Machines.[xxiii] The first effort of
this engineering society was to build the world’s largest balloon.
Verne used FMEA concepts to design
his fictional steel steamer, Queen and Czar, in his trans-Africa
expedition in The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in
Southern Africa (1872). He faced a significant design issue in the
expedition’s steel riverboat, Queen and Czar. The headlines and
scientific journals at the time discussed Dr. David Livingstone’s failed
Zambesi expedition of 1858-62.[xxv] Much blame was on the
failure of Livingstone’s world's first steel river yacht, the Ma Robert,
built at the famous Laird’s shipyard[xxvi]. Some blamed the rapid
steel corrosion for the failure in the African jungle.[xxvii] For Verne’s story, he
needed a lightweight steel ship to be assembled and dissembled to portage
rivers and waterfalls for his trans-African expedition. Furthermore, he had to
design against steel corrosion to use a steel ship in a humid tropical environment
that had plagued Livingstone’s yacht. Verne would apply electrochemical
principles to improve his exploration yacht.
Verne was a great student[xxviii] of Davy's early
electrochemical corrosion studies in the 1800s[xxix] on the galvanic
corrosion cells created when dissimilar metals come in contact, which caused
rapid corrosion. Verne proved himself a master of electrochemical batteries and
a chemical engineer in Five Weeks in a Balloon (1863), Twenty
Thousand Leagues under the Sea (1870), Mysterious Island (1873),
Doctor’s Ox (1874), and Robur the Conqueror (1886).[xxx]
Verne understood that batteries run on corrosion.
Verne applied his knowledge of
electrochemistry and galvanic corrosion cells by avoiding connecting dissimilar
metals in constructing the fictional Queen and Czar steamer. In
his design, Verne noted: “The bolts, which fastened the plates over the
framework, were of the same metal.”[xxxi] Verne’s metallurgical
design against two metal galvanic corrosion is an example of solid design using
FMEA. Amazingly this design error of dissimilar metals continues even
today. In 2014 the U. S. Navy had to
decommission one of its advanced Littoral Combat Ships, the USS Independence,
because it was “slowly disappearing, one molecule at a time” from
dissimilar metal galvanic corrosion.[xxxii]
Verne even goes a step further with
his fictional Queen and Czar steamer. Verne applied Laird’s shipyard’s
experimental galvanized (zinc-coated) steel to eliminate steel corrosion[xxxiii] in the extreme
humidity of Africa.
Backward and Forward
Engineering
Verne’s
futuristic designs required more than FMEA of current or past technology. Verne
needed to take the equipment for his famous journeys and extrapolate it into
futuristic design requirements. Verne’s famous fictional ships, submarines, and
airships drew from the past with FMEA and the future with Design Thinking. The
essence of Design Thinking[xxxiv] is human-centric,
user-specific, and mission and story-specific in the case of Verne. Verne’s
technology is used to support his unique futuristic journeys.
Verne pioneers the basics of FMEA
and Design Thinking in 20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870). Many
credit Verne with the invention of the submarine, but it came from a detailed
study of earlier efforts. Verne’s visionary submarine was, however, the
result of the failure analysis of the actions of earlier inventors. Verne
studies the failed efforts of the French submarine, the Plongeur. A
model of Plongeur[xxxv],
the French submarine, was displayed at the 1867 Paris Exposition, where Verne
studied it.
From Plongeur to the
Nautilus, we see Verne, looking backward and forward to manage his
story’s futuristic requirements. Verne took the engineering problems of the Plongeur
and addressed them to support the far more challenging storyline of the 20000
Leagues Under the Sea (1870). Verne had to look forward. Verne’s
fictional submarine had a depth range of 16,000 feet; the failed
Plongeur achieved a mere 30 feet. The diving time of the Plongeur would
be in hours, not the days needed for Verne’s story. These design shortcomings
of the wooden Plongeur included limitations of compressed air propulsion
and its depth of drive.
Verne reviewed the shortcomings of
failed early submarines such as the Plongeur and applied engineering
solutions but also had to look forward. Verne’s Nautilus would travel
65,000 miles, average 43 knots (53 mph), and could maintain a dive time of five
days. Verne’s storyline required a
futuristic design capable of staying submerged for days, air purification,
seawater distillation, rechargeable batteries, electric stoves, lighting,
electric steering, and a propulsion system.
Depth of dive was critical to
Verne’s story. Verne had used a steel double hull as the solution. Verne was
one of the earliest to see the evolving Steel Age, and his novels spanned the
time of this evolution. The Victorian era in the 1860s was on the edge of
moving from iron to steel. The Civil War saw the first steel-hulled Confederate
blockade-running ships built in Scotland’s shipyards. Verne had studied steel hulls, and his
novella, The Blockade Runners (written in 1865),[xxxvi] detailed their
success. Verne would augur and promote this new wave of steel construction.
Steel’s properties offered a new strength and flexibility for construction.
Verne was convinced of the future of steel even before Andrew Carnegie, who
1870 hesitated to invest in it[xxxvii]. Verne used the new
material of steel in seven of his novels[xxxviii]. Years before, the
world navies accepted steel hulls in the 1890s.
During the Civil War, the
man-powered submarine, the Huntley, did use steel, but the pressures for
deep-sea travel required extensive design upgrades. To reach the depths needed
for the story, Verne engineered the idea of a double-hulled steel submarine in
his 1870 submarine. The double hull might also be considered an early adoption
from his study of the Great Eastern in 1859.[xxxix] Verne uses a chapter
in 20000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870) to explain the science and
needs for such a hull. In 1900, the French Navy proved Verne right using a
steel double-hulled submarine, the Narval (Narwhal). To support Verne’s
story of traveling 20,000 leagues under the sea, Verne had to address other
design issues of 1870.[xl] Verne had predicted in
1859 that electricity would revolutionize the world. The literary design of his Nautilus used
electrical power for cooking, air and water purification, lighting, and screw
propulsion.
Verne goes beyond physical design
requirements using holistic design to address the living conditions of the
crew. Verne’s Design Thinking was a human-centered way of approaching product
design, man-machine interaction, innovation, and problem-solving. He realized
the human issues of living days at a time underwater. Verne uses “Ruhmkorff
lamps” or “apparatus”[xli] to facilitate his
journey to the earth's center and explore the ocean's bottom with the needed
light. These inventions at the time were works in progress. Verne also
acknowledges and applies FMEA to the harsh brightness of the 1860s electric
arc-type lights and the need to soften with wall paintings or the painting of
fixtures.[xlii]
Verne uses FMEA and Design Thinking
to note and improve Ruhmkorff’s lamp design. A technical historian noted:
“Verne’s use of Ruhmkorff light adapted
the individual’s relationship with the flame of earlier light sources and
solved some of flame light’s less useful attributes. The apparatus ‘makes no
smell’ and produces a ‘white steady light.’ Unlike gas lamps, or candles, ‘it
enables one to venture without fear of explosions into the midst of the most
inflammable gases, and it is not extinguished even in the deepest waters.”[xliii] Although in the case
of Ruhmkorff's “apparatus or lamp,” Verne may be adopting a stream of new and
different technologies, such as Bunsen’s electric cell and a gas-filled
Geissler tube, to engineer a new lamp.
In 1888, the French Navy launched trials on an
electric-powered submarine, the Gymnote. Solving the problem of a
reliable underwater propulsion system as Verne had predicted in 1870. In 1899,
the French submarine, Narval was a pioneering ship using Verne's
double-hulled design. It set the standard for submarine design throughout the
First and Second World Wars until the advent of the teardrop-hulled nuclear
submarine of the 1950s in the United States.[xliv] Verne’s had captured
the imagination of submarine designers and engineers.
Verne became a submarine expert in
the eyes of the public. In 1904, Verne was asked to pen a technical article in Popular
Mechanics on the “The Future of the Submarine.”[xlv] In 1904, America,
France, and England had submarines in operation, so Verne wrote the article to
predict submarines' more short-range evolution and applications.
Interconnective and
Exponential Thinking
There
were two other engineering methodologies that Verne anticipated and pioneered
in his literary designs. Over the years, studies have linked innovation to
engineers' exponential thinking.[xlvi] A
recent innovation blog said, "exponential thinking is bread and butter for
engineers and scientists, but it’s still not a popular mindset among other
professionals. If we want to use technology to solve all kinds of problems,
then ‘exponential literacy should be a mandatory course in every school.”[xlvii] Verne had a true sense of exponential
growth. Verne’s ability to foresee the
exponential growth of technology overcomes his natural human bias to think
linearly. Exponential thinking allows Verne to design into the future based on
the past. Verne never mentions technology's “exponential” growth in his
writings but demonstrates it using history and statistics.
Exponential
growth in the early phases appears slow and linear until it makes a visual
inflection. This visual nova is called a
singularity or a breakthrough. Verne often
writes a decade before the visible singularity, where people have not fully
noticed the increasing rate of specific technology. Mathematicians call this pre-event region on
the overall exponential curve near the singularity[xlviii]the
deceptive zone. Having exponential thinking was one of Verne’s greatest assets.
He was able to see through the deceptive zone to a technological breakout.
Verne
described the achievement of singularity as the streams of research and testing
coming to the point where “one fine, day true success bursts into view for all
to see.”[xlix]
This part of the exponential curve is where inventors, investors, engineers,
designers, and science fiction writers make money. It is a time frame best
described by Ralph Waldo Emerson "Certain ideas are in the air. We are all
impressionable, for we are made of them; all impressionable, but some more than
others, and these first express them. This explains the curious contemporaneousness
of inventions and discoveries.”[l]
Verne
anticipates the 1960s and 70s exponential approach to the engineering design of
the B1 bomber, where the overall design proceeded before some component
technology was available. Designers used composite materials for components and
more powerful engines than existed at the time. This projection was based on
the reality that taking a new fighter aircraft from the drawing board to its
first flight would take 8 to 10 years. Using exponential thinking, they could
foresee component development by the start of full production.
Verne
also combined the exponential projections of various component technologies
into significant inventions. Verne
realized the dynamics of “combinational innovation drives the rapid advance of
technology and the achievement of a singularity.”[li]
This combinational innovation is “any
idea or technology can also be understood as a novel configuration of
pre-existing parts.”[lii] Verne understood James Burke's view[liii]
of technology as connections from various streams of ideas. Verne saw
electricity as the father of an array of future technologies. Captain Nemo's
words in 1870: “There's a powerful, obedient, swift, and effortless force that
can be bent to any use and reigns supreme aboard my vessel. It does everything.
It lights me, it warms me, and's the soul of my mechanical equipment. This
force is electricity."[liv]
Verne’s
most extraordinary insight and study area would be his “Demon of Electricity”
in his first 1863 novel Paris in the Twentieth Century. Verne foresaw the exponential growth nature
of electrical applications. Electricity would be the connective driving force
of his futuristic inventions. Electricity would control his balloon Victoria
in Five Weeks in a Balloon (1863), drive his submarine Nautilus,
fly his airship Albatross, power his multi-purpose vehicle Terror,
steer his floating island in Propellor Island (1895), light his
underground city, create Doctor Ox’s experimental town, light his journey to
the center of the earth, and allow an endless array of communication
inventions.
Conclusion
No person captures the essence of
Victorian technological advances as Verne. Understanding Verne gives today’s
engineers a map for an exponential journey into the future. Verne’s
problem-solving approach is a classic model. Verne also defines the ideal for
today’s holistic approach to engineering. Verne remains both inspirational and
educational today.
[i]
Engineers are not a sub-category of scientists. So often in the past, the two
terms are used interchangeably, but they are separate, albeit related,
disciplines. Scientists explore the natural world and show us how and why it is
as it is. Engineers innovate solutions to real-world challenges.
[ii]
R. A. Buchanan, “The Rise of Scientific Engineering in Britain,” The British
Journal for the History of Science
Vol. 18, No. 2 (July 1985), pp. 218-233
[iii]
The origin of the term civil engineering
[iv]
In 1818, a small group of young engineers met in a London coffee shop and
founded the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the world’s first
professional engineering body. Its first president, who lived in a room above
the coffee shop was the famous Scottish engineer Thomas Telford (1757-1834)
[v]
Brief History of the Institution of Civil Engineers with an Account of the
Charter Centenary Celebration June 1928. London: William Clowes and Sons.
pp. 11-17
[vi] Loosely consists of 62 novels and 18 short
stories of Jules Verne
[vii]
The 1863 manuscript was found and published in 1996
[viii]
Tim Brown, “Design Thinking,” Harvard Business Review, June, 2008
[ix]
Ibid p, 82
[x]
Jules Verne (Walter James Miller), The Annotated Jules Verne: From
The Earth to the Moon, Thomas Y. Crowell Publishers, New York, 1978, p.
9 Note: Jules Verne published it in
1865. Miller’s edition is used because of its extensive engineering footnotes.
[xi]
Ibid p. 31.
[xii]
Ibid p. 34
[xiii]
Ibid pp. 35-36
[xiv]
Ibid p. 41 Footnote 10
[xv]
Ibid p. 43
[xvi]
Also known as West Point Foundry. Captain Robert Parker Parrott, an
1824-graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, was in
charge of the foundry.
[xvii]
Ibid, Chapter Orbi et Orbi, p. 71
[xviii]
Captain Robert Parker Parrott had patented his design at the Cold Springs
Foundry. Before the Civil War and up to 1863, the Parrott was the standard. The
large rifled Parrotts were, however, prone to fracture. Parrott's design shrunk
fit wrought iron loops on the finished cannon to strengthen the beech.
[xix]
For Verne, the Rodman hollow cast process was essential for his moon cannon.
The cannon was cast around a hollow pipe core. As the casting cooled, a smaller
pipe was inserted to supply cooling water. This rapidly cooled the bore and
prevented "blow holes" and porosity of other casting processes. Hot
coals were placed against the outside of the casting. This method caused the
casting to cool slowly from the inside out. As the outer part of the casting
cooled, they compressed the already cooled inner parts, making a stronger gun,
particularly in the powder chamber area.
[xx]
Ibid, p. 79
[xxi]
Ibid p. 40
[xxii]Rebecca
Maksel, “Flight of the Giant,” Smithsonian Air and Space Magazine,
October 4, 2013
[xxiii]
Jules Verne, Worlds Known and Unknown, Translation by Kieran O’Driscoll,
Edward Baxter, Alex Kirstukas, Ian Thompson, Palik Series, 2018, pp. 22-25
[xxiv]
See above- Chapter “About the Geant,” Translated by Alex Kirstukas, pp. 61-64
[xxv]
J. Gordan Parr, “The Sinking of the Ma Robert,” Technology and Culture,
April 1972, Vol. 13, No. 2,
[xxvi]
In 1859, Verne made a grand tour of the shipyards of Liverpool, England, and
Glasgow, Scotland, which was recorded in his Backwards to Britain. Verne included a detailed look at the
shipyard of Laird, Son & Co., which would pioneer steel hulls in the
1860s. In seven of Verne's novels, he
used Laird, Son, and Company of Liverpool (Birkenhead) to build his fictional ships.
[xxvii]
Ibid
[xxviii]
Verne even uses erroneously Davy’s 1824 electrochemical theory of volcanoes to
allow explorers to go into a cool earth. Davy argued that volcano were a result
of electrochemical reactions near the surface creating lava. Verne understood
Davy’s geological theory had problems as noted in the debates within the novel,
but the theory was necessary for the main premise of the novel.
[xxix]
Humphry Davy, "On the corrosion of copper sheeting by seawater, and on
methods of preventing this effect, and on their application to ships of war and
other ships". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 114
(1824), pp 151-246 and 115 (1825), pp 328-346.) Verne had used Davy’s 1830s
research on batteries and corrosion in metal to metal early in Twenty
Thousand Leagues under the Sea and Mysterious Island. Connecting two
dissimilar metals will set up a galvanic cell which one metal corrodes while the
other is protected. In a copper/steel cell steel will corrode.
[xxx]
See William Jenson “Captain Nemo’s Battery: Chemistry and the Science Fiction
of Jules Verne.” Culture of Chemistry, Spring, 2015, pp. 205-214 and
Quentin Skrabec, “Verne’s Batteries,” Extraordinary Voyages, NAJVS, Vol
28, No.4, April 2022 for a full demonstration of Verne’s expertise.
[xxxi]
Jules Verne, The Adventures of Three Englishmen and Three Russians in
Southern Africa, 1872, translated by Ellen Frewer, page 26
[xxxii]
David Axe, “Builder Blames Navy as Brand-New Warship Disintegrates,” Wired, Jun
23, 2011. In this a new aluminum bodied ship corroded by contact with
iron/steel parts with the aluminum body corroding to protect the iron parts!
[xxxiii]
Ibid pp. 26-27
[xxxiv]
Popularity of Design Thinking started in the 2008 Harvard Business Review
article titled “Design Thinking” by Tim Brown
[xxxv]
Neil Patrick , “Plongeur – the French Submarine,” The Vintage News,
August 2, 2016
[xxxvi]
In 1871 it was published in single volume together with novel A Floating
City as a part of the Voyages Extraordinaires series
[xxxvii]
The world’s greatest steelmaker resisted investment in steel doubting its
future in 1870. Peter Krass, Carnegie, (John Wiley & sons, New York)
p, 116
[xxxviii]
Steel would be integral to his stories in The Blockage Runners (1865), The
Adventures of Three Russians and Three Englishmen in South Africa (1872), Twenty
Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1871), Steam House (1880), Paris
in the Twentieth Century (1860), The Adventures of Captain Hatteras (1864)
and Begum's Millions (1879).
[xxxix]
Jules Verne, The Floating City, reprint 1871, Jazzybee Verlag (September
29, 2014) P. 17 Note: Verne made the trip in 1867
[xl]
The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in
Pierre-Jules Hetzel's fortnightly periodical, the Magasin d'éducation et de
récréation.
[xli]
“Ruhmkorff lamp or apparatus” (depending on translation is Ruhmkorff’s coil and by combining it with
Bunsen cells and a gas filled Geissler tube, called portable mining lamp. Although
Ruhmkorff is often credited with the invention of the induction coil, it was in
fact invented by Nicholas Callan in 1836. Ruhmkorff's first coil, which he
patented in 1851. Ruhmkroff was first recipient of the Volta Prize, 50,000
French franc award by Napoleon III in1864 for one of the most important
discoveries in the application of electricity.
[xlii]
Jules Verne (editor Walter James Miller), The Annotated Jules Verne: Twenty
Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Thomas Crowell Company (New York, 1976) p.
65 “softened by exquisite paintings,”
The Butcher translation confirms paintings p. 61, the older Kindle Translation suggests the lighting
fixtures were painted p. 92
[xliii]
R.Leahy (2016). “The Evolution of Artificial Light in Nineteenth Century
Literature” (Doctoral dissertation). 2016 University of Chester, United
Kingdom.
[xliv]
The double hull design was picked up on by engineers working in Germany and was
borrowed by U-1 and many subsequent U-boat designs (and export classes
including, significantly, to Russia). Even today Russia and China still use the
double-hull.
[xlv]
Jules Verne,” Future of the Submarine,” Popular Mechanics, 1904
[xlvi]
Steve Denning, “How To Become A Winner At Exponential Innovation,” FORBES,
Feb 4, 2021
[xlvii]
Jorge Caraballo, “If you want exponential growth, forget linear thinking,” Matter.
(Online Magazine of Innovation), Jul 27, 2016
[xlviii]
A singularity being were something becomes visual, distinctive, understood or
commonly accepted. Many would argue there is no singularity such as a “knee of
the curve” in exponential growth. Thus, a singularity is subjective to the
viewer.
[xlix]
Jules Verne, Worlds Known and Unknown, Translation by Kieran O’Driscoll,
Edward Baxter, Alex Kirstukas, Ian Thompson, Palik Series, 2018, article “About
the Geant,” page 61
[l]
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life, 1860
[li]
Matt Clancy, “Combinatorial Innovation and Technological Progress In The Very
Long Run,” New Things, Jun 18, 2021
[lii]
Matt Clancy, “Combinatorial Innovation and Technological Progress In The Very
Long Run,” New Things, Jun 18, 2021
[liii]
James Burke, Connections, Simon & Schuster; Illustrated edition
(July 3, 2007)
[liv]
Jules Verne (editor Walter James Miller), The Annotated Jules Verne: Twenty
Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Thomas Crowell Company (New York, 1976) pp.
75-76
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