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Re: Some more inconsistencies

From: <jcrovisier~at~free.fr>
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 09:36:17 +0200
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

As Garmt already wrote, I have put a web page with notes - in French - on
"The Fur Country" in relation with solar eclipses:

http://www.lesia.obspm.fr/~crovisier/JV/verne_PF.html

The solar eclipse of 18 July 1860 was indeed a famous eclipse for
astronomers. Many european expeditions in Spain and Noth Africa were
organized for its observation. Among the scientific returns were the first
successful photographs of a solar eclipse, the discovery of the coronal
mass ejection phenomenon, and decisive observations that showed that the
corona is due to the Sun rather than an hypothetical lunar atmosphere.

The eclipse totality zone crossed North and North-East Africa, Spain, and
North America, but not as far North as in "The Fur Country". Indeed, a US
expedition was organized by the US Coast Survey to observe the eclipse in
Labrador. The ship encountered some problems with fog and icebergs. Jules
Verne was probably not aware of this expedition, but I am sure he would
have loved it. There are also reports of US observations on the West coast
(Seattle).

So, Jules Verne choose to use a real eclipse in his novel, to make it more
realistic. But he mistook the totality zone. In my mind, he would have
better not specified a precise eclipse, keeping it "anonymous" by not
indicating any year in the novel.

The 1896 eclipse indeed occurred on 8 August, not on 9 August as written in
"The Fur Country". (But Camille Flammarion also specified "9 August" for
the same eclipse in his "Astronomy Populaire".) As specified by Jules
Verne, the totality zone encompassed North Scandinavia and Siberia, but not
North America (thus not in the same place). (I checked with the 1896 issue
of "Connaissance des Temps")

Jacques Crovisier
Received on Fri 16 Jun 2006 - 10:36:23 IDT

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