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 | |  | | E-book Category: Classic, Fantasy
E-book Title: In the Year 2889
Author: Jules Verne
Book Description: Little though they seem to think of it, the people of this 29th century live
continually in fairyland. Surrounded with marvels, they are indifferent to
marvels. To them all seems natural. Could they but appreciate the refinements of
civilization in our day; could they but compare the present with the past, and
recognize the advances we have made! How much fairer they would find our modern
towns, with populations exceeding 10,000,000 souls; steets 300 feet wide, houses
100 feet high; with a constant temperature in all seasons; and lines of aerial
locomotion crossing the sky in all directions! If they could but imagine the
state of things that once existed, when through muddy streets rumbling boxes on
wheels, drawn by horses--yes, horses!--were the only means of conveyance. Think
of the railroads of old, and you will appreciate the pneumatic tubes through
which today we travel at 100 miles an hour. Would not our contemporaries prize
the telephone and telephote more, had they not forgotten the telegraph?
Surprisingly, all these transformations rest on principles perfectly familiar to
our remote ancestors, which they disregarded. Heat, for instance, is as ancient
as man himself; electricity was known 3000 years ago, and steam 1100. Nay, so
early as 10 centuries ago it was known that the differences between the several
chemical and physical forces depend on the mode of vibration of etheric
particles, which is for each specifically different. When at last the kinship of
all these forces was discovered, it is simply astounding that 500 years still
elapsed before men could analyze and describe the distinct modes of vibration
that constitute these differences. Above all, it is amazing that the method of
reproducing these forces directly from one another, and of reproducing one
without the others, should have remained undiscovered till less than a century
ago. Nevertheless, such was the course of events, for it was not till the year
2792 that the famous Oswald Nier made this discovery.
Truly was he a great benefactor of the human race. His admirable discovery led
to many others. Hence is sprung a pleiad of inventors, its brightest star our
great Joseph Jackson. To Jackson we are indebted those wonderful
instruments--the new accumulators. Some of these absorb and condense the living
force contained in the sun's rays; others, the electricity stored in our globe;
others again, energy from whatever source: waterfalls, streams, wind, etc. He,
too, invented the transformer, a more wonderful contrivance still, which takes
the living force from the accumulator, and, at the touch of a button, returns it
to space in any form desired, whether as heat, light, electricity, or mechanical
force, after having first obtained from it the work required. From the day these
two instruments were contrived should be dated the era of true progress. They
have put into the hands of man almost infinite power. As for their applications,
they are numberless. Mitigating the rigors of winter, by giving back to the
atmosphere the surplus heat stored up during the summer, they have
revolutionized agriculture. Supplying motive power for aerial navigation, they
have given to commerce a mighty impetus. To them we are indebted for the
continuous production of electricity without batteries or dynamos, of light
without combustion or incandescence, and for an unfailing supply of mechanical
energy for the needs of industry. More... | |
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