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Question on term "transformer" used "In The Year 2889"

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quentin skrabec

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Nov 27, 2024, 4:37:40 PM11/27/24
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jules and/or his brother's use of "transformer" in In the Year 2889  (page 6)doesn't fit the engineering instrument to change electrical voltage?  Verne appears to use his "transformer" to direct and change the type of energy. i can find no similar type of instrument in 19th century science? IS THIS a Translation issue?????
thanks for your help 

Christian Sánchez

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Nov 27, 2024, 10:50:08 PM11/27/24
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transformer and transformateur are both from 1882; however, Jules and Michel may or may not have known the words.
transformer (n.)

c. 1600, "one who or that which transforms," agent noun from transform (v.). The meaning "device to reduce electrical currents" is from 1882.


2. 1882 électr. subst. (HospitalierPhys. mod., p. 323). Dér. de transformer*; suff. -ateur.


El mié, 27 nov 2024 a la(s) 6:37 p.m., quentin skrabec (qrsk...@gmail.com) escribió:
jules and/or his brother's use of "transformer" in In the Year 2889  (page 6)doesn't fit the engineering instrument to change electrical voltage?  Verne appears to use his "transformer" to direct and change the type of energy. i can find no similar type of instrument in 19th century science? IS THIS a Translation issue?????
thanks for your help 

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Jean-Louis Trudel

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Nov 28, 2024, 6:55:50 PM11/28/24
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Greetings,

Michel was his son. The word "transformateur" is used in both French
versions. Given the references to newness and inventors, I think it's
clearly a piece of futuristic/science fictional apparatus that was not
meant to be confused with any existing device (though electrical
instruments are likely inspirations). In the description, the
"accumulateurs" seem to be the device used to draw energy from
multiple sources (kinetic forces, solar light, ground currents), while
the "transformateur" converts the energy into light, heat, electrical
current, and mechanical force, as needed.

Jean-Louis Trudel

Le mer. 27 nov. 2024, à 16 h 37, quentin skrabec <qrsk...@gmail.com> a écrit :
>
> jules and/or his brother's use of "transformer" in In the Year 2889 (page 6)doesn't fit the engineering instrument to change electrical voltage? Verne appears to use his "transformer" to direct and change the type of energy. i can find no similar type of instrument in 19th century science? IS THIS a Translation issue?????
> thanks for your help
>

quentin skrabec

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Nov 29, 2024, 11:16:17 AM11/29/24
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Thank you—yes, I believe that is correct. He and his son 🙂 use accumulators in several novels, even to draw electricity from the air. We do have "equivalents" today for them. The Transformers used by Verne are futuristic, but similar devices are emerging from research.  
Today's electrical transformer is much different, stepping up and down voltage. When this novel was written in 1889, different types of transformers were being experimented with. I wanted to make sure Verne wasn't confused or the translation was confused. 
I really appreciate your expert help. As an American engineer, I can make errors when Interpreting Verne's science because I don't know French and French word etymology. i need help from experts like you

Thanks again  Quent


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John Lamb

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Dec 5, 2024, 7:56:25 PM12/5/24
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According to Arthur B Evans (1995)" 

In 1885 Gordon Bennett, the editor of the New York Herald, asked Verne to write a story about life in America in the coming centuries; Verne would have had ample time to write it and was unlikely to refuse the request of a person whose newspaper figured so often in his works.

Gordon Bennett is a fascinating character and it seems not only does Bennett's influence and the New York Herald feature strongly in "In the Year 1889" but also in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870) and its sequel The Mysterious Island (1874). Bennett was exiled to France for many years and had been educated in the country. Bennett was a lifelong employer of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and sponsored Stanley's expedition to find David Livingstone in 1873. 

In Verne's 1895 novel "A Floating Island" Verne seems to pay homage to Gordon Bennett's newspaper hoax where he had claimed animals had escaped from New York's Central Park Zoo, to great loss of life ...it was all a publicity stunt.  Attached is my research on the relationship between Bennett and Verne, I am sure there is more to be found out. As usual with all my research I include a few links with my home town of Birkenhead...there is a good Captain Nemo surprise at the end. 
Gordon Bennett and Jules Verne.pdf
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