Ini: Ein Roman aus dem ein und zwanzigsten Jahrhundert

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Voss, Julius von. Ini: Ein Roman aus dem ein und zwanzigsten Jahrhundert (Ini: A Novel from the Twenty-first Century). Berlin: Karl Friedrich Amelang, 1810. Project Gutenberg.[1] Available as a Google Book.[2] English translation by Dwight R. Decker. Northlake, IL: Vesper Press, 2021.

Hard-copy 2021 Decker translation includes a kind of afterword as introduction to the translated first act of Berlin im Jahre 1924. Lustspiel in Zwei Aufzüge (Berlin in the Year 1924. [A] Comedy in Two Acts). It also offers "Julius von Voss: A Biography" (pp. 160-165); a list of Decker's Sources; an Afterword looking at the background of Ini, including van Voss's sources and influences on his work; "Translation and Editorial Notes," most relevant for users of this Wiki comments on "Air Travel" in Ini— balloons pulled by tamed and trained eagles — and "Telecommunications," clarifying what the novel probably means by "telegraph": optical (semaphore, actually-existing in von Voss's Europe) and acoustic — von Voss's idea (pp. 171-73, 175). Also handled briefly in the back-matter: Ini as "A Literal Bildungsroman" (with explanations on the pseudo-science of phrenology, taken very seriously in Ini), and on preservation of a convict for 50 years and then revived in a "Resurrection" (pp. 175-77).

John J. Pierce notes that "Voss somehow overlooked the industrial revolution – there are no steamships or railways (which were already in development), nor any hint of electricity, as in Daniel Falk’s earlier satire Elektropolis (1802)" — and not very long after in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: Or, The Modern Prometheus (3 vols., starting 1818); there is, though, "A telegraph system [...] throughout all of Europe," probably optical[3] — semaphores are mentioned in the text — but as text just possibly with some electrical connection (Decker trans., First Book p. 15; see though p. 152: Decker's noting "semaphore telegraph" in Berlin in the Year 1924 and p. 175, as noted above). In any event, carrier pigeons seem more important (loc. cit. & passim). Chemistry is well developed (Second Book, p. 19, & passim).

Background: Benjamin Franklin's lightning experiment: 1752, Leyden jars: 1746, Alessandro Volta's description of the electric battery: 1800.[4] Experimental "electrochemical telegraph": 1804/1809;[5] Samuel Morse's "recording electric telegraph": 1837.  

So we have in Ini an interesting data point for what we might think "in the air" (as an old expression has it) but which did not interest an author trying to present a plausible future for his story.

Pierce notes that Voss did present such technological advances as

a telephone-like system, but without wires: voices can be transmitted over a system of pipes, with mechanical amplifiers at frequent intervals. Military dispatches can be shot in cannon balls by a series of cannons. Beyond such long-range communications, there are artificial eyeballs for the blind, and artificial ears for the deaf. There are music boxes that simulate human voices and even orchestras to bring concerts to every community […]." (Pierce p. 59; see above)

Voss presents a generally positive future but an imperfect one, including warfare among competing empires "fought with weapons like airships that firebomb surface warships, naval artillery with incendiary shells, submarine troops that attack naval vessels with mines, and even poison gas and artificial plagues" (Pierce, pp. 59-60) — so see for the motif of future war.[6]

RDE, Initial Compiler, with thanks to J.J. Pierce, 14May20, 26May20, 12Sep21