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Re: Long-Lost Jules Verne Short Story 'The Camera-Phone' Found ?!?

From: James Keeline <keeline~at~yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 10:41:14 -0700 (PDT)
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

--- Daniel Compère <daniel.compere~at~wanadoo.fr> wrote:

> What is this ?...
>
> ...a joke !
>
> D. Compère

> >"Le Telephon-Photographique," which Frelseien identified as having been
> >written just after Verne's masterpiece 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, is
> >narrated by Gui Cingulaire, the nephew of brilliant but monomaniacal
> >professor Bernard Cingulaire. An ambitious, gifted scientist, Bernard
> >fails to predict that his invention, a portable telephone that can take
> >photographs and send short script messages, will contribute to the
> >breakdown of traditional manners among Parisians.

This has to be a thinly-disguised joke. In the U.S. "Cingular" is tha name of
a major mobile phone carrier. "Cingulaire" is just a distortion of this name.

Not in the context of mobile phones but there is a book called TOM SWIFT AND
HIS PHOTO TELEPHONE (NY: Grosset & Dunlap, 1914) by "Victor Appleton", a
pseudonym of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. In this case, the story was written by
Howard R. Garis (1873-1962) based on an outline by Edward Stratemeyer
(1862-1930). Obviously, the context is different from the modern farce
described in this post. The text is available from Project Gutenberg (and
elsewhere) as an electronic text:

http://www.blackmask.com/books65c/17tomdex.htm

James D. Keeline
http://www.Keeline.com
http://Stratemeyer.org
Received on Wed 13 Oct 2004 - 19:41:21 IST

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