Victorian Visions of the Future

[answer_is_42]

As far as I’m concerned, one of the most fascinating aspects of the Victorian Science Fiction genre is exploring the predictions of the Victorians themselves, the ‘Historians of the Future’ as I.F. Clarke calls them*. After all, we wouldn’t have a genre to game in if it wasn’t for this century of anticipations. Anyway, I thought it might be rather good to have a thread dedicated to Victorian-era Science Fiction (and, indeed, Science Fact, which is often just as good) and future predictions, as inspiration for our games...

First and foremost, a couple of stories.
The Battle of Dorking, published 1879. The Prussians invade Britain. Credited with beginning, or at least enhancing, the late Victorian/Edwardian 'invasion scare';
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0602091h.html

The Land Ironclads, 1903. Wells' tale of future armoured warfare which allegedly inspired the invention of the tank:
http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0604041h.html

Through my university I’ve access to the British Library online newspaper archives, mostly 19th century stuff, which includes a lot of cuttings from The Graphic. Whilst not Science Fiction per se, they nevertheless give us a glimpse of Victorian visions of future science (and war). After a bit of searching I found these:

April 9th, 1870:


January 12th, 1878 ('The War of the Future - Steam Sappers'):


Novemember 4th, 1882 ('School of Military Engineering, Chatham')


January 22nd, 1898 (German military airship):


1878:


January 9th, 1899 (Forecast of invasion; British soldiers capturing sea-sick Frenchmen who have come ashore in subs):


November 4th, 1882. This isn't VSF at all, but a sketch of the interior of the Ironclad train in the Egypt campaign, but as far as the Victorians were concerned, this was the war of the future:


To end, A cutting from the Pall Mall Gazette, December 27 1888. Land Ironclads, anyone?:



Finally, thanks to 'Donpimpom' for providing this link in the 'latest book' thread. A bit of proper VSF from Albert Robida:
http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/2005/12/robidas-future.html

Anyone else got any examples of Victorian-era Science Fiction, future wars or other anticipation pieces?

(And please note - NO STEAMPUNK!  )

* http://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/i_f_clarke_1_782204

[Dr Mathias]

Robida's "The Twentieth Century" is really quite interesting and innovative for its time (1882).

http://books.google.com/books/about/The_twentieth_century.html?id=SAa-_oM6eRgC

I've known about his fantastic drawings for a little while, and I got the first published English version for Christmas. I'm most of the way through the lengthy and overly academic forward (I had enough of words like 'hermeneutics' in grad school) and can't wait to read the actual book.

Basically he envisioned a society that is a lot like today's- instant communication, advertising on every surface, electricity everywhere... we're only missing the personal flying machines.

Cool images by the way, I love the powered tree saw!

[Mr Evil]

Robida's "The Twentieth Century" is really quite interesting and innovative for its time (1882).

http://books.google.com/books/about/The_twentieth_century.html?id=SAa-_oM6eRgC

I've known about his fantastic drawings for a little while, and I got the first published English version for Christmas. I'm most of the way through the lengthy and overly academic forward (I had enough of words like 'hermeneutics' in grad school) and can't wait to read the actual book.

Basically he envisioned a society that is a lot like today's- instant communication, advertising on every surface, electricity everywhere... we're only missing the personal flying machines.

Cool images by the way, I love the powered tree saw!

fantastic, thank you for sharing

[Fuzzywuzzieswiflasers]

Great stuff! inspirational.

Keep it coming!

Cheers
Fuzzy

[Thunderchicken]

Through my university I’ve access to the British Library online newspaper archives

Me too, good isn't it!

Can you get access to the Bodleian Library (we use Athens at my uni)? There's a section called the 'John Johnson Collection of printed Ephemera' and there are thousands of pages of................ well, old advertising but everything you can imagine and I mean everything. Even better you can view them all in PDF documents which is great for printing, as long as you adhere to the copyright rules of course.

[gloriousbattle]

This site:

http://paleo-future.blogspot.com/2007/09/french-prints-show-year-2000-1910.html

shows some French illustrations drawn in 1910, showing what life will be / was like in the year 2000.

http://www.paleofuture.com/blog/2007/4/24/postcards-show-the-year-2000-circa-1900.html

These German ones from the same year are interesting in how much the same and yet how different is their focus.

[Melnibonean]

Fantastice stuff.

I love that the "Invasion of Britain" has the camera in the foreground. Taking photographs for posterity, no doubt!

And the aluminium Military Balloon...  Steam Sappers (now that's a great concept)