At the end of the 19th century, the average person's understanding of
outer space would have come almost exclusively from works of fiction.
The solar system was thought to have eight planets (Pluto was not
discovered until 1915.) There was a fascination with Mars, which was
thought to have canals upon its surface, possibly indicating the
presence of intelligent life. The concept of interplanetary travel was
approached by several works of fiction, but this was often done in a
fanciful manner, and did not much resemble the "hard sci-fi" of today
that provides a wealth of realistic detail about the hardware
involved. The term "outer space" had not yet come into common usage in
1899.
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Here you will find an excellent timeline of 19th Century science
fiction:
Magic Dragon
http://www.magicdragon.com/UltimateSF/timeline19.html
======================================================================
I've selected some major 19th Century works of science fiction that
deal with space-related subjects. Below you will find a brief
description of each, and a link to the full online text.
======================================================================
"Moon Hoax", Richard Locke, 1835
The "Great Moon Hoax" was perpetrated in 1835 by Richard Adams Locke,
a writer hired by the newly established New York Sun. Having already
dabbled in science fiction, it occurred to him to expand his activity
in this direction without actually telling anyone. For his subject, he
chose the astronomical expedition of John Herschel to the Cape of Good
Hope. Beginning with the August 25, 1835 issue of the Sun, Locke
describes in detail all kinds of fantastic discoveries having been
made by Herschel with a telescope of such power, he said, that it
could see objects on the lunar surface as small as 18 inches across.
In the second installment, the exotic variety of life supposedly found
by Herschel is revealed, including a goatlike animal with a single
horn and "an amphibious creature of spherical form, which rolled with
great velocity across the pebbly beach." On August 29, Locke broke the
news that lunar intelligence had been found in the guise of
"Vespertilio-homo", or bat-men. Finally, on August 31, he spoke of the
discovery of yet higher beings and of "the universal state of amity
among all classes of lunar creatures..." Huge interest was created by
the articles and, briefly, the Sun became the best-selling newspaper
in the world. The New York Times believed the reports both "probable
and possible", the New Yorker thought they heralded "a new era in
astronomy", Yale was said to be "alive with staunch supporters",
while, according to another report, an American clergyman considered
starting a collection for Bibles for the lunar inhabitants.
The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy, and Spaceflight
http://www.angelfire.com/on2/daviddarling/MoonHoax.htm
The full text of the serialized moon hoax is available here:
Museum of Hoaxes
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/moonhoax1.html
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"From the Earth to the Moon," Jules Verne (1865)
"In Jules Verne's classic 1865 story From the Earth to the Moon,
protagonist Impey Barbicane sends a group of passengers to the moon by
firing their space vehicle out of a giant cannon. Though Verne implies
our heroes survive the experience, the concept now seems quaintly
naive. No person could actually survive a launch in that fashion.
But Verne's fancy may not be as far off as one might think. Now, over
130 years since Verne published his space-flight fantasy, perhaps we
are coming full circle. After visiting the moon several times and
routinely launching space shuttle missions into orbit, scientists
recognize that further exploration of space will require the
development of a large-scale space infrastructure to support the
effort. A major obstacle is the high cost of sending materials needed
for construction of large space systems up into orbit and beyond. Many
of these raw materials can withstand high degrees of pressure and
stress during the launching process.
University of Washington researchers have devised a scheme called the
ram accelerator, not totally unlike Verne's approach, that has the
potential to send acceleration-insensitive cargo into space, and
moreover, to launch it in a more cost-effective way than any other
method devised to date."
University of Washington
http://www.washington.edu/research/pathbreakers/1983a.html
The full text of this novel is available here:
Online Literature: From the Earth to the Moon
http://www.online-literature.com/verne/earth_to_moon/
======================================================================
"Round the Moon," Jules Verne (1873)
"During the year 186-, the whole world was greatly excited by a
scientific experiment unprecedented in the annals of science. The
members of the Gun Club, a circle of artillerymen formed at Baltimore
after the American war, conceived the idea of putting themselves in
communication with the moon!-- yes, with the moon-- by sending to her
a projectile... It was made of a cylindro-conical form. This species
of aerial car was lined with strong springs and partitions to deaden
the shock of departure. It was provided with food for a year, water
for some months, and gas for some days. A self-acting apparatus
supplied the three travelers with air to breathe. At the same time, on
one of the highest points of the Rocky Mountains, the Gun Club had a
gigantic telescope erected, in order that they might be able to follow
the course of the projectile through space."
Online Library of Literature
http://www.literature.org/authors/verne-jules/round-the-moon/preface.html
The full text of this novel is available here:
Zvi Har'El's Jules Verne Collection: Round the Moon
http://jv.gilead.org.il/pg/round/
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"Off on a Comet," Jules Verne (1877)
"It concerns the travels of a French foreign legionnaire, his
sidekick, and various others carried off on a comet which sideswipes
the earth in the 1800's. This 'comet' is a small, planetoid-like world
with atmosphere, land, and ocean. The journey is utterly unbelievable
in the light of present knowledge, but Verne is as scientifically
correct relative to the knowledge of his day as he could be. Before
the travelers are redeposited on the earth in another grazing
collision, the comet's eccentric orbit carries them near Venus and
Mars, causing them to suffer through terrible extremes of climate."
Abacci Books
http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=1481
The full text of this novel is available here:
Zvi Har'El's Jules Verne Collection: Off on a Comet
http://jv.gilead.org.il/pg/comet/
======================================================================
"Looking Backward," Edward Bellamy (1887)
"In the classic Looking Backward, Bellamy's hero wakes from a
one-hundred-year sleep to the futuristic year 2000, when the
abolishment of private property has liberated humanity from scarcity,
greed, and lust for power. In the typical turn-of-the-last-century
utopia, which reaches back to Plato's Republic, society is egalitarian
but run on a military model, with production and consumption regulated
by technocratic elites. Culture is the superior scientific (and often
Christian) culture of the Northern hemisphere, driven by
macro-technologies: heavy industry, eugenics, centralized planning,
atomic energy, space travel, and building of colossal scale."
Rain Taxi
http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2001summer/robinson.shtml
The full text of this novel is available here:
Eserver: Looking Backward
http://eserver.org/fiction/bellamy/contents.html
======================================================================
"The War of the Worlds," H.G. Wells (1898)
"In 1898, the noted scientist Percival Lowell was observing what he
took to be artificially created canals on the surface of Mars, a
theory that quite captured the public imagination of the time. Perhaps
influenced by these events, (and certainly because of German
unification and rumblings of a pan-european war) Wells would that same
year create one of the most powerful concepts in the field of science
fiction. What if there were indeed life on Mars, in fact intelligent
creatures technologically far in advance of our own world, and what if
those creatures were hostile?
In The War Of The Worlds (1898), Wells conceived just such a species.
Forced to flee their own dying world, his Martians attempt to make a
home on earth by force of arms, landing in an ill-prepared Victorian
England, where they begin a devastating reign of terror. Sweeping
aside all resistance in their tripod legged war machines, the Martians
lay waste to the snug Victorian way of life."
Homepage of John Gosling
http://www.btinternet.com/~jd.gosling/wotw/hg.htm
The full text of this novel is available here:
Bartleby: The War of the Worlds
http://www.bartleby.com/1002/101.html
======================================================================
Search terms used:
"19th century" + "science fiction"
"hg wells"
"wells hg"
"jules verne"
"verne jules"
"edward bellamy"
"bellamy edward"
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Thanks for asking a question that was truly interesting to research.
If anything I've said is unclear, or if a link does not function,
please request clarification; I'll gladly offer further assistance
before you rate my answer.
Best wishes,
pinkfreud |
Clarification of Answer by
pinkfreud-ga
on
25 May 2003 08:22 PDT
What is now called "outer space" was typically referred to as "the
depths of space" in the 19th Century (or, as in Richard Proctor's
"Other Worlds Than Ours," simply as "space.") Many years ago, Isaac
Asimov wrote an essay which discussed the terminology of space travel.
I have not been able to locate the essay online, but I do recall that
Asimov traced the popularization of the phrase "outer space" to the
rocketry boom of the 1940s.
The abacci.com link must be one of those on-again, off-again things.
In case it's down when you try it, here is the full text of the page
(minus the ads for Amazon, eBay, and such):
"What one reviewer said about Off on a Comet: A Journey Through
Planetary Space (Translation of Part 2 of Hester Servadas) by Jules
Verne:
I became interested in Off On A Comet through the old Classics Comics
version, and I was able to track it down once in the late 1970's; this
book is exceedingly rare. It concerns the travels of a French foreign
legionnaire, his sidekick, and various others carried off on a comet
which sideswipes the earth in the 1800's. This 'comet' is a small,
planetoid-like world with atmosphere, land, and ocean. The journey is
utterly unbelievable in the light of present knowledge, but Verne is
as scientifically correct relative to the knowledge of his day as he
could be. Before the travelers are redeposited on the earth in another
grazing collision, the comet's eccentric orbit carries them near Venus
and Mars, causing them to suffer through terrible extremes of climate.
Verne delights in the ability of human ingenuity to overdome
obstacles, conflicts, and deprivation as they explore and edure their
temporary home. The flights of imagination involved are remarkable and
the characterizations are good. I was, however, surprised at the
vicious anti-Semitism evident in the characters and the narrative.
This will be an enormous problem for many readers, and is a major flaw
in an otherwise superb work."
While I was looking for the Asimov reference mentioned above, I came
across a site that contains quite a bit of information that may be
helpful to you:
CollectSpace
http://www.collectspace.com/resources/books_visions_ofthe_moon.html
~pinkfreud
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