As made interactively evident by a retro-futuristicGoogle doodle, Tuesday would have been the 183rd birthday ofJules Verne. Had he lived to see 2011, the French science fiction writer also would have seen many of his fanciful inventions made real—more or less.
In perhaps his most famous novel,Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea,Verne's Captain Nemo travels the world's oceans in a giant electric submarine, theNautilus—the inspiration for the portholed Jules Verne Google doodle.
Aside from its organ, formal dining room, and other luxuries, theNautilusisn't all that different from some modern subs, such as the circa-1964, three-passengerAlvin(pictured), which is powered by lead-acid batteries.
LikeAlvin,theNautiluswas fully powered by electricity,"which at that time had a kind of magical aura,"saidRosalind Williams, a historian of technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
In the book Captain Nemo describes electricity as"a powerful agent, obedient, rapid, easy, which conforms to every use, and reigns supreme on board my vessel."
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