The Confederacy's been defeated, and in the glow of
post-Civil War America, there are new challenges to undertake...like conquering
the Moon...
Jules Verne was a man ahead of his time. As seen in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas, Verne was exploring
technology that was a hundred years in the making. From nuclear submarines to men landing on the
Moon, Verne envisioned a future that smacked of impossibility. From
The Earth To The Moon was published in 1865, the same year America's Civil
War came to a close. While Yankees and
Confederates were bleeding themselves dry across the farms, fields, and forests of the U.S.,
Jules was sitting at a desk in France, figuring out how Man could reach Space. Surprisingly, the calculations and methods he
devised eventually came to be...
As the story begins, we find a group of gentlemen, who style
themselves "The Baltimore Gun Club”, looking for adventure, maybe
fame, perhaps wealth, possibly an extraordinary league... This band of merry zealots build the World's
largest cannon, and cobble together a method of shooting themselves all the way
to Terra Luna. Not to be left out, a
single Frenchman is included in this brain trust of 19th century American
spacefarers...I didn’t see that coming, Jules being French and all...
Verne's genius and lasting legacy lay in his grasp of science and technology, not in his ability to create characterizations. His portrayal of Americans in his writing leaves something to be desired. I would guess that he merely used the United States as a geographical setting for his writing, giving the players an extremely French flair, and in my opinion, creating a cast of clichés.
Verne's genius and lasting legacy lay in his grasp of science and technology, not in his ability to create characterizations. His portrayal of Americans in his writing leaves something to be desired. I would guess that he merely used the United States as a geographical setting for his writing, giving the players an extremely French flair, and in my opinion, creating a cast of clichés.
Putting the writing style aside, this is how close Jules Verne came...The Columbiad
cannon, which was sunk into the ground vertically, launched the capsule. A controlled explosion created propulsion and
sent the little shell shaped capsule on its way, much like contained explosions
within rocket engines propelled men into Space a hundred years later. Verne's moon mission launched from the State
of Florida, which became home to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center in
the 20th century. In addition, the
capsule returns with a "spashdown" water landing in the Pacific
Ocean, just like Mercury, Gemini and Apollo...
You can read a first American edition of the book here: