“The classical age elevated man through poetry. The Hebrews introduced them to the moral law. The teachings of Jesus redeemed them with the religion of love. The glorification that elevates them to the highest level of perfection still remains – this is knowledge. It will be the triumph of knowledge when the mortal who says of himself: ‘I am the God!’ takes off his crown before the mortal who says: ‘I am the man!’”
“now the child begins to rejoice in the wild flight,
and soars above his leader, drawn by desire into the sky,
striving for a higher path. The heat of the nearby Sun softens
the fragrant wax of his feathers, the binding bond of its girdle;
the light wax melts: his bare arms flap, flap,
and without oars he cannot catch the air with them,
his lips cry out, calling for his father, but then
the blue sea, which takes its name from him, swallows him up in its current…”
Jules Verne’s work was written fourteen years later than the Novel of the Next Century. Here too the airplane is at the centre of the plot – as an invention of world-transforming significance. The adventurous, fantastical novel, similar to Jókai’s work, also considers the electrically powered machines as more effective than gas-powered airships.
“After all, it is not a bird to grow tired after flying too long; nor is it a balloon that, when it lacks gas, is forced to land. The Albatross has provided for itself for long weeks, and in its wonderfully reliable mechanism there is neither weakness nor fatigue.”
In 1896, Ede Ludwigh, a locksmith from Szolnok, submitted his helicopter design to the French Academy, which the committee found suitable for flight. However, upon returning home, he did not receive funding to build it, so the helicopter he had envisioned sank into obscurity. The structure would have been built on a principle that was still thought to be functional at the end of the 19th century, with flapping wings. This principle proved to be a dead end by the beginning of the 20th century, but Ludwig’s helicopter included several technical solutions that were later applied in the development of later helicopters.
The Novel of the Next Century also discusses three theories of flight. The inventors, constantly arguing with each other in a madhouse, present three different technologies.
The first “madman” presents the theory of the steerable airship. Although hot air balloons began to be used as early as the 18th century, their controllability was still far from being solved. The first controllable airship made of aluminium was only completed fourteen years after the novel was written, and was designed by a Hungarian inventor, Dávid Schwarz. He did not enjoy the success of his invention, and after his death it was purchased from his widow by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who launched the first Zeppelin airship in 1900, which he further developed from Schwarz’s design.
The theory of flight of the novel’s second madman compares the machine to the movement of fish, a theory that goes back to Aristotle. The resulting technology is a propeller-driven machine, but it could not yet be called a helicopter.
The third theory of flight in the novel is developed by the father of the protagonist, Dávid Tatrangi, but it is perfected by his son with the invention of a special, unbreakable, flexible glass-like ichor. The structure works on the principle of ornithopters, or flapping-wing aircraft. In the 19th century, people were still experimenting with the design of this type of aircraft. This technology was soon replaced by the development of fixed-wing aircraft. The Wright brothers flew the first powered airplane in 1903.
“‘Ichor’. – Ah! that’s a good name for it. Ichor is the ‘white blood’ of the Olympian gods. You discovered the blood of gods...”
“The dominant ore, which is currently dominating of all steam, hot air and gas engines by itself will be displaced by our invention. Hyalichor steam boilers, cylinders, and pipes do not crack, do not oxidize, do not absorb scale, and can withstand infinitely greater tensile forces than wrought iron. Hyalichor machine wheels do not wear out or break. Hyalichor weapons are four times lighter than iron-barrelled weapons, and their chambers can hold three times the amount of gunpowder, so they shoot more reliably and farther than iron-barrelled weapons.
During World War I, aircraft underwent a leap in development. At the beginning of the war, the opposing sides used dirigible airships for long-range reconnaissance and also carried out bombing attacks from them. However, based on wartime experience, they were quickly withdrawn from the fronts and focus shifted towards developing aircraft. The World War I collection of the National Széchényi Library’s Map, Poster and Small Prints Collection preserves the material from a children’s drawing competition, in which we can see the presentation of technical equipment on the front from a futuristic perspective, captured by children’s imagination.
At the end of the 19th century, scientific and technical innovations, as well as the novels of Jules Verne, inspired broad sections of society to think about the future. Illustrated newspaper publishers also saw an opportunity in this. In America and Europe, futuristic magazines began to be printed in huge numbers, depicting a future organized around technical devices. At the beginning of the 20th century, a large number of maps depicting Hungarian cities as they might appear in the future were produced in Hungary.
Sándor Bortnyik: Az ember és a gép [The Man and the Machine], 1921–1925, Museum of Fine Arts – Hungarian National Gallery
Ádám Würtz: Repülők és zuhanók [Flying and Falling], 1976, National Széchényi Library Map, Poster and Small Print Collection
Ádám Würtz: Gondolatok [Thoughts], 1980, National Széchényi Library Map, Poster and Small Print Collection
Robur the Conqueror, slide film, drawn by Antal Szemere, 1974, OSZK Historical Photo and Interview Archive
Ede Ludwigh’s flapping-wing helicopter model with lift-and-drag propellers, 1:10, the first helicopter of Hungarian design, Hungarian Museum of Technology and Transport
Hot air balloon shaped desk clock, Museum of Applied Arts
Anemometer, Hungarian Museum of Technology and Transport
Bussola, Hungarian Museum of Technology and Transport
Commutator, Hungarian Museum of Technology and Transport
Electric motor model, Hungarian Museum of Technology and Transport
Compass, Museum of Applied Arts
Béla Kondor: Holdkomp [Lunar Shuttle], 1968, Museum of Fine Arts – Hungarian National Gallery
Children’s drawings from World War I, National Széchényi Library Map, Poster and Small Print Collection
Kőszegi hegyek a jövőben [Kőszeg Mountains in the Future], around 1930, National Széchényi Library Map, Poster and Small Print Collection
Nyíregyháza a jövőben [Nyíregyháza in the Future], around 1900, National Széchényi Library Map, Poster and Small Print Collection
Nagybánya a jövőben [Nagybánya in the Future], around 1920, National Széchényi Library Map, Poster and Small Print Collection
Keszthely 100 év múlva [Keszthely in 100 years], 1914–1915, National Széchényi Library Map, Poster and Small Print Collection