It is the 183rd Birthday Anniversary of Jules Verne, and National Geographic is running a post detailing the 8 technologies Jules Verne mentioned in his work that have actually become a reality today.

Probably the least surprising of the list is the electric submarine and the rocket, because they’re so familiar to people who have read or heard of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and From The Earth To the Moon.

One that took me by surprise was the tazer, and how similar yet different his idea of how it would work was. He envisioned a type of glass electric bullet, whilst the real version that we have developed today involves firing a type of metal pin into someone, and administering a few thousand volts via a thin connecting cable. There is something equally visionary and quaint about the way Verne envisioned these technologies. It was much simpler age, and when you look at what he ‘thought of first’ you realise what a great mind the man really had.

You can look at all 8 by clicking HERE

You can also click HERE to download 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea from Project Gutenberg – a database of free ebooks for you to download, legally, and legitimately.