@Invisible
I had equal luck on picking up "The World Set Free" by H.G. Wells written in 1913 before the first world war. Some of the technology and events he wrote within the plot materialized decades later. He named the element uranium as "Carolinum" that could create a chain reaction that would leave radiation behind so that nothing would survive afterwards. This inspired the physicist, Dr. Leo Szilard to theorize an atom that could split causing a chain reaction. This led to the development of the first atomic bomb.
But it's not only that the prose is stirring, it is poetic as well, providing a texture that surpasses much of what is current in Sci Fi. An example from the introduction:
"THE history of mankind is the history of the attainment of external power. Man is the tool-using, fire-making animal. From the outset of his terrestrial career we find him supplementing the natural strength and bodily weapons of a beast by the heat of burning and the rough implement of stone. So he passed beyond the ape. From that he expands. Presently he added to himself the power of the horse and the ox, he borrowed the carrying strength of water and the driving force of the wind, he quickened his fire by blowing, and his simple tools, pointed first with copper and then with iron, increased and varied and became more elaborate and efficient. He sheltered his heat in houses and made his way easier by paths and roads. He complicated his social relationships and increased his efficiency by the division of labour. He began to store up knowledge. Contrivance followed contrivance, each making it possible for a man to do more."
