Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History From the Earth to the moon; and, round the moonThe Project Gutenberg eBook of From the Earth to the moon; and, round the moon This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: From the Earth to the moon; and, round the moon Author: Jules Verne Release date: September 1, 1993 [eBook #83] Most recently updated: November 24, 2023 Language: English Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/83 *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON; AND, ROUND THE MOON *** [Illustration] From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne Contents: From the Earth to the Moon CHAPTER I. The Gun Club CHAPTER II. President Barbicane's Communication CHAPTER III. Effect of the President's Communication CHAPTER IV. Reply From the Observatory of Cambridge CHAPTER V. The Romance of the Moon CHAPTER VI. The Permissive Limits of Ignorance and Belief in the United States CHAPTER VII. The Hymn of the Cannon-Ball CHAPTER VIII. History of the Cannon CHAPTER IX. The Question of the Powders CHAPTER X. One Enemy _v._ Twenty-Five Millions of Friends CHAPTER XI. Florida and Texas CHAPTER XII. Urbi et Orbi CHAPTER XIII. Stones Hill CHAPTER XIV. Pickaxe and Trowel CHAPTER XV. The Fete of the Casting CHAPTER XVI. The Columbiad CHAPTER XVII. A Telegraphic Dispatch CHAPTER XVIII. The Passenger of the Atlanta CHAPTER XIX. A Monster Meeting CHAPTER XX. Attack and Riposte CHAPTER XXI. How A Frenchman Manages An Affair CHAPTER XXII. The New Citizen of the United States CHAPTER XXIII. The Projectile-Vehicle CHAPTER XXIV. The Telescope of the Rocky Mountains CHAPTER XXV. Final Details CHAPTER XXVI. Fire! CHAPTER XXVII. Foul Weather CHAPTER XXVIII. A New Star Contents: Round the Moon PRELIMINARY CHAPTER-Recapitulating the First Part of This Work, and Serving as a Preface to the Second CHAPTER I. From Twenty Minutes Past Ten to Forty-Seven Minutes Past Ten P. M. CHAPTER II. The First Half Hour CHAPTER III. Their Place of Shelter CHAPTER IV. A Little Algebra CHAPTER V. The Cold of Space CHAPTER VI. Question and Answer CHAPTER VII. A Moment of Intoxication CHAPTER VIII.At Seventy-Eight Thousand Five Hundred and Fourteen Leagues CHAPTER IX. The Consequences of A Deviation CHAPTER X. The Observers of the Moon CHAPTER XI. Fancy and Reality CHAPTER XII. Orographic Details CHAPTER XIII. Lunar Landscapes CHAPTER XIV. The Night of Three Hundred and Fifty-Four Hours and A Half CHAPTER XV. Hyperbola or Parabola CHAPTER XVI. The Southern Hemisphere CHAPTER XVII. Tycho CHAPTER XVIII. Grave Questions CHAPTER XIX. A Struggle Against the Impossible CHAPTER XX. The Soundings of the Susquehanna CHAPTER XXI. J. T. Maston Recalled CHAPTER XXII. Recovered From the Sea CHAPTER XXIII. The End FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON CHAPTER I. THE GUN CLUB During the War of the Rebellion, a new and influential club was established in the city of Baltimore in the State of Maryland. It is well known with what energy the taste for military matters became developed among that nation of ship-owners, shopkeepers, and mechanics. Simple tradesmen jumped their counters to become extemporized captains, colonels, and generals, without having ever passed the School of Instruction at West Point; nevertheless; they quickly rivaled their compeers of the old continent, and, like them, carried off victories by dint of lavish expenditure in ammunition, money, and men. But the point in which the Americans singularly distanced the Europeans was in the science of _gunnery_. Not, indeed, that their weapons retained a higher degree of perfection than theirs, but that they exhibited unheard-of dimensions, and consequently attained hitherto unheard-of ranges. In point of grazing, plunging, oblique, or enfilading, or point-blank firing, the English, French, and Prussians have nothing to learn; but their cannon, howitzers, and mortars are mere pocket-pistols compared with the formidable engines of the American artillery. This fact need surprise no one. The Yankees, the first mechanicians in the world, are engineers-just as the Italians are musicians and the Germans metaphysicians-by right of birth. Nothing is more natural, therefore, than to perceive them applying their audacious ingenuity to the science of gunnery. Witness the marvels of Parrott, Dahlgren, and Rodman. The Armstrong, Palliser, and Beaulieu guns were compelled to bow before their transatlantic rivals. Now when an American has an idea, he directly seeks a second American to share it. If there be three, they elect a president and two secretaries. Given _four_, they name a keeper of records, and the office is ready for work; _five_, they convene a general meeting, and the club is fully constituted. So things were managed in Baltimore. The inventor of a new cannon associated himself with the caster and the borer. Thus was formed the nucleus of the "Gun Club." In a single month after its formation it numbered 1,833 effective members and 30,565 corresponding members. One condition was imposed as a _sine quâ non_ upon every candidate for admission into the association, and that was the condition of having designed, or (more or less) perfected a cannon; or, in default of a cannon, at least a firearm of some description. It may, however, be mentioned that mere inventors of revolvers, fire-shooting carbines, and similar small arms, met with little consideration. Artillerists always commanded the chief place of favor. The estimation in which these gentlemen were held, according to one of the most scientific exponents of the Gun Club, was "proportional to the masses of their guns, and in the direct ratio of the square of the distances attained by their projectiles." The Gun Club once founded, it is easy to conceive the result of the inventive genius of the Americans. Their military weapons attained colossal proportions, and their projectiles, exceeding the prescribed limits, unfortunately occasionally cut in two some unoffending pedestrians. These inventions, in fact, left far in the rear the timid instruments of European artillery. It is but fair to add that these Yankees, brave as they have ever proved themselves to be, did not confine themselves to theories and formulae, but that they paid heavily, _in propriâ personâ_, for their inventions. Among them were to be counted officers of all ranks, from lieutenants to generals; military men of every age, from those who were just making their _début_ in the profession of arms up to those who had grown old in the gun-carriage. Many had found their rest on the field of battle whose names figured in the "Book of Honor" of t |