A moment later we were seated on a couch in the lounge, cigars between our lips. The Captain placed before my eyes a working drawing that gave the ground plan, cross section, and side view of the Nautilus. Then he began his description as follows:

"Here, Professor Aronnax, are the different dimensions of this boat now transporting you. It's a very long cylinder with conical ends. It noticeably takes the shape of a cigar, a shape already adopted in London for several projects of the same kind. The length of this cylinder from end to end is exactly seventy meters, and its maximum breadth of beam is eight meters. So it isn't quite built on the ten–to–one ratio of your high–speed steamers; but its lines are sufficiently long, and their tapering gradual enough, so that the displaced water easily slips past and poses no obstacle to the ship's movements.

These two dimensions allow you to obtain, via a simple calculation, the surface area and volume of the Nautilus. Its surface area totals 1,011.45 square meters, its volume 1,507.2 cubic meters—which is tantamount to saying that when it's completely submerged, it displaces 1,500 cubic meters of water, or weighs 1,500 metric tons.

In drawing up plans for a ship meant to navigate underwater, I wanted it, when floating on the waves, to lie nine–tenths below the surface and to emerge only one–tenth. Consequently, under these conditions it needed to displace only nine–tenths of its volume, hence 1,356.48 cubic meters; in other words, it was to weigh only that same number of metric tons. So I was obliged not to exceed this weight while building it to the aforesaid dimensions."

Basic set up:

In this passage Captain Nemo explains to Professor Aronnax the magnificent technical feat that is the Nautilus submarine.

At the time that Jules Verne wrote 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (probably his most famous work) electricity was a pretty new thing. Heck, submarines had hardly been invented. And those submarines that did exist certainly didn't run on electricity.

But in his novel, Verne describes a submarine to beat all submarines. It's an electric submarine—which, for the Victorians, was super-nifty and high-tech.

In the passage above, we get a really detailed description of this fabulous submarine, the Nautilus. The passage is full of technical details and measurements. This is important because it reflects sci-fi writers' obsession with technology. Sci-fi writers love gadgets of all kinds. And the Nautilus is one of the most famous gadgets in the history of sci-fi.

As we've already mentioned the excerpt above is just chock-full of technical detail. We're given exhaustive measurements ("its surface area totals 1,011.45 square meters, its volume 1,507.2 cubic meters") and details about its shape (the submarine is the shape of a "cigar").

All of this technical description emphasizes just what a big theme technology is in Verne's novel. At the time that Verne was writing, there were all kinds of new technological developments taking place. And we see the age's obsession with technology reflected in this excerpt.