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Another vehicular omission in Verne?

From: <rfbagby~at~aol.com>
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:16:11 -0500
To: jvf~at~gilead.org.il

This discussion reminds me of a similar issue -- where are the bicycles
in Verne?!
I noticed this when reading a book on French history by Eugen Weber, in
which he discusses how sensationally polarizing cyclists were in late
19th century France. In particular, Verne's occasional collaborator
Grousset was credited with winning his Parliamentary seat due to "the
bicycle vote"!
Ross Bagby

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter Harold <haroldmania~at~yahoo.se>
To: Jules Verne Forum <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
Sent: Fri, 25 Jan 2008 13:14:51 +0100 (CET)
Subject: Engines by Lenoir in one title only?

Hello Valetoux !

I am not sure I would have survived a meeting with
this kind of machine on this photo! So huge! Its
monstrous! I would have a heart-attack if I met it
passing throug the walleys somewere in India! At least
it it happend in 1880! ;-) Thanks for letting me see
it!

I think the 19th Centyry must have been a wonderful
time both for inventors and for authors like Jules
Verne. The progress had some estetic aspects, which is
absent in todays progress. It's difficult to paint an
image from recent Nobel prize-winning exploration.

I agree with you that Verne wasn't into motors. Anyway
he wrote about it in his novel "Paris of the 2oth
Century"; he mention the cars driven by Lenoir-motors,
and in my Swedish translation of "Maître du monde" I
read in the first chapter about a car race when
everyone was passed by a strange veihcle (driven by
Robur). In the novels between these titles, I can't
recall any further information about cars, and it
surprise me. In 1900, France was the leading country
in automobile industry, with 4'800 cars produced that
year (U.S. was ranked as the 2nd place with "only"
4'000 cars), an before 1900 it have been several
famous races with cars by Panhard, de Dion, Mors,
Renault... and it seems that Verne only noted this in
"Maître du monde" with just a few lines.

Perhaps he disliked cars? They was very noisy, and he
seems to prefer silence in his elder days. Or perhaps
he concidered car driving wasn't a question about
travelling - categorizing it being just an another
kind of sport/pleasure.

On the other side, I wasn't avoiding strange ways to
travel; he prefered to use the steam for his
elephant-machine. Perhaps he never believed in the
machines by Lenoir and Otto? And as you mention; the
1867 salon had the huge department of locomobiles. The
concept did stand in front of his eyes.
But it is still worth to wonder about his possible
doubts for Lenoirs' and Ottos'; I would pay a penny
for Jules Vernes thoughts about this question! ;-)

Best regards,
Peter

--- Valetoux <valetoux~at~wanadoo.fr> skrev:

> Dear Peter,
> Yes, this article about Bollée is exciting, as a
> black/white syncoped film
> of our grant-grantdadies.
> But the reality is different as nobody created
> something from nothing. Very
> often, an industrial realisation is the sum of years
> and years of research
> done by very different peoples thinking about the
> same subject with
> different approaches.
> Bollée was one of those men of progress, but about
> the wagons and
> locomobiles, he was certainly not the first one.
> Officially, the first application of steam to mobile
> was done by "Cugnot"


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Received on Fri 25 Jan 2008 - 16:16:28 IST

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