# Jules Verne's "Tigers and Traitors"-Questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 4, 2011, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jules-vernes-tigers-and-traitors-questions/595161 "2011-09-04T13:26:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jules-vernes-tigers-and-traitors-questions/595161/1 "2011-09-04T13:26:22Z")
I can’t locate this old classic in my library-or any branch libraries in the system. At any rate-the steam powere elephant that drew thge carriage (with the heroe’s party)-how was it fueled? It looked like a really cool innovation-did anybody actually build one? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2011, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jules-vernes-tigers-and-traitors-questions/595161/2 "2011-09-05T00:05:11Z")
“Tigers and Traitors” was the English title of the second volume. The first was **the Demon of Cawnpore**. Together, the two volumes are called **the Steam House** , referring to the steam-powered elephant plus the passenger cars it dragged. For some treason, the Classics Illustrated version used the title “Tigers and Traitors” for the whole story. The book is availble online (as are many of Verne’s, although the translation may be questionable\*): > **[The End Of Nana Sahib The Steam House : Jules Verne : Free Download, Borrow,...](https://archive.org/details/TheEndOfNanaSahibTheSteamHouse)** According to Wikipedia: > [@](#): > > In fact, Steam cars of various types an designs were actually being built at the time of writing, though none in the shape of en elephant is known > **[The Steam House](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Steam_House)** > > The Steam House (French: La maison à vapeur) is an 1880 Jules Verne novel recounting the travels of a group of British colonists in the Raj in a wheeled house pulled by a steam-powered mechanical elephant. Verne uses the mechanical house as a plot device to have the reader travel in nineteenth-century India. The descriptions are interspersed with historical information and social commentary. > The book takes place in the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857 against British rule, with the pa... The entire Classics Illustrated version has been available online, but I hesitate to link to any copies. Look it up via search engine. As for what powers the steam engine, I can’t recall if they even say. Wood, I’d assume, since it travels through forests. I’ll have to check. \*The ARCO edition, published by ACE in paperback in two volumes, deletes _an entire chapter_ of **The Demon of Cawnpore**. Fortunately, I have other editions. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2011, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jules-vernes-tigers-and-traitors-questions/595161/3 "2011-09-05T02:53:55Z")
By the way, Verne was probably inspired , possibly indirectly, by Edwin Ellis’ 1868 "dime novel’ _the Steam Man of the Prairies_. This was, in turn, the inspiration for Luis Senarens’ 1876 novel _Frank Reade and his Steam Man of the Plains_ (Frank Reade was Tom Swift before there was a Tom Swift) Here’s a picture frokm Ellis’ book: [http://www.bigredhair.com/steamman/index.html](http://www.bigredhair.com/steamman/index.html) Here’s a picture from the Frank Reade book: [http://www.bigredhair.com/frankreade/steam2.html](http://www.bigredhair.com/frankreade/steam2.html) “Frank Reade” pretty obviously copied Ellis. Note that in both cases, you’ve got a steam engine in the form of a biological creature, pulling a cart with people, just as in Verne’s book. _The Steam House_ came out in 1880, after both of these examples. I don’t know if Verne knew about Ellis. He was familiar with Frank Reade, and I believe he corresponded with the author. His _Robur the Conqueror_ reportedly owes a debt to one of the Reade books. Verne’s contemporaries aren’t as well known as he is, and we temnd to overlook other influences of the era in consequence. Many of the ideas in the novels of Verne and of H.G. Wells had been written about earlier by others. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2011, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jules-vernes-tigers-and-traitors-questions/595161/4 "2011-09-05T04:04:09Z")
I’ve just flipped through my paperback edition, and it says directly that > [@](#): > > …Nothing could be better arranged in that way, for in the furnace any kind of fuel may be burnt, either wood or coal… That’s pretty much what you’d expect of a steam engine – the fuel for the fire isn’t important, as long as it boils the water to make steam. And the engine is compared many times to that of a steam locomotive,so you’d expect it to burn coal or wood. Nevertheless, without regular coaling stations (as along a railway), I’d expect to burn wood in the jungles of India, and not count on finding coal. (That’s from page 44 of _The Demon of Cawnpore_, edited by I.O. Evans, Ace Books, copyright 1959, although the paperback edition came out about ten years later. No translator given. ) As for Elephant-shaped vehicles, **Silver Dollar City** in Branson, Missouri evidently has a ride called _Elephant March_, which features rider-controlled mechanical elephants. The pictures don’t look too sexy, though: [http://bransonsilverdollarcity.com/rides-attractions/ride\_detail.aspx?AttractionID=808](http://bransonsilverdollarcity.com/rides-attractions/ride_detail.aspx?AttractionID=808) [http://www.associatedcontent.com/video/484914/elephant\_march\_ride\_at\_silver\_dollar.html](http://www.associatedcontent.com/video/484914/elephant_march_ride_at_silver_dollar.html) It’s basically the same as Disney’s Dumbo ride, and rider control is limited to “up” and “down” To commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Jules Verne’s death in 2005, a mechanical elephant called “The Sultan’s Elephant” was buil6t: > **[The Sultan's Elephant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sultan%27s_Elephant)** > > The Sultan's Elephant was a show created by the Royal de Luxe theatre company, involving a huge moving mechanical elephant, a giant marionette of a girl and other associated public art installations. In French it was called La visite du sultan des Indes sur son éléphant à voyager dans le temps (literally, "Visit from the Sultan of the Indies on His Time-Travelling Elephant"). The show was commissioned to commemorate the centenary of Jules Verne's death, by the two French cities of Nantes and Amie... Here’s axstory about mechanical elephants in 1950s Britain: > **[North East Wales | Latest News & Updates | BBC News](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/wales/north_east_wales)** > > Get all the latest news, live updates and content about North East Wales from across the BBC. Here’s Peter Sellers on a British mechanical elephant: > **[Sign in - Google Accounts](https://accounts.google.com/v3/signin/identifier?continue=https%3A%2F%2Fdraft.blogger.com%2Fblogin%3Fu%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Flearning2share.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F03%2Fpeter-sellers-man-mechanical-elephant.html&followup=https%3A%2F%2Fdraft.blogger.com%2Fblogin%3Fu%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Flearning2share.blogspot.com%2F2008%2F03%2Fpeter-sellers-man-mechanical-elephant.html&ifkv=AdBytiMqKYIrGoOIf9nQvpvCmhWujPMs_IohQ7-H-8PsIozxeya7yN091pfBSYsc8C6eWQmNZakc&passive=1209600&flowName=GlifWebSignIn&flowEntry=ServiceLogin&dsh=S-972695159%3A1755538558129221)** > **[Margate's Mechanical Elephant](http://eastcliffrichard.blogspot.com/2008/05/margates-mechanical-elephant.html)** > > I'm indebted to Philip Page, proprietor of the splendid Bling Bling Bling jewellery and piercing emporium on Margate's lower high street, fo... More mechanical elephants: > **[Mechanical Elephant Archives - cyberneticzoo.com](https://cyberneticzoo.com/tag/mechanical-elephant/)** I don’t see any huge, practical steam-engine elephants, though. Or even a gasoline or diesel-powered one. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2011, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jules-vernes-tigers-and-traitors-questions/595161/5 "2011-09-05T22:25:16Z")
Thanks for the info-I always liked the idea of a steam-powered elephant pulling a car…nice to see that some inventors have tackled it. Reminds me of the movie “Wild West”-that huge steam powered spyder was cool!