10 Sci-Fi Gadgets That Inspired Real Inventions
6. Submarines
Jules Verne published 20,000 Leages Under The Sea back in 1870 featuring The Nautilus, Captain Nero's groundbreaking submersible ship. In reality, submarine-like technology had been tried for many decades before this with ideas recorded in the 16th Century and patents placed various times in the 18th Century.
However, production stalled and the idea of a true submarine was almost given up on - until Verne's Nautilus provided inspiration. His fictional sub featured a double hull, a design separated into multiple watertight compartments and powerful pumps to empty its floodable tanks at speed and to control its buoyancy with precision. Verne even wrote about the concept of hydroplaning, in which The Nautilus dives deeply and quickly at a steep angle.
Just 28 years after the publication of 20,000 Leagues, American Simon Lake's The Argonaut became the first submarine to operate successfully in the open sea. It travelled for over 2,000 miles in dangerous waters and Lake received a congratulatory telegram from Jules Verne, whose ideas he had admitted to taking inspiration from.