From the earth to the moon summary. From the Earth to the Moon (novel)

06.09.2020

The great success of the novel “From the earth to the moon by a direct route in 97 hours and 20 minutes” (1865) is by no means accidental - this is one of the best works of the writer, a classic example of the “novel of science” genre he created, in which mathematical calculations that substantiated the possibility of interplanetary flight were made by the mathematician A. Garce. Starting from the tradition of the marine travel novel, the author is looking for ways to interplanetary space. But if his predecessors (Godwin, Cyrano, E. Poe, etc.) cared little about the plausibility of flying devices, since the main task was to show an extraterrestrial society, then Jules Verne focused all his attention on the scientific justifications for interplanetary flight.

Jules Verne was not only a marvelous master of science fiction storytelling, but also of realistic characterization, and brought to full brilliance his deeply human humor, which sometimes takes on a bitter tinge. All this explains the unflagging success of the novel with the modern reader.

An exposition to the novel, depicting not only the emergence of the "Cannon Club", but the club itself with its disabled members, demonstrating a grotesque "collection of crutches, wooden, legs, artificial arms, hand prostheses with a hook, rubber jaws, silver skulls and platinum noses", testifies to the outstanding skill of the writer-anti-militarist. With bitter humor, he notes that according to the calculations of statisticians in the club there were "less than one arm for four people and only two legs for six." The eloquent message about the favorite brainchild of the indispensable secretary of the club, J. T. Maston, a huge mortar and its destructive effect (337 people died in the explosion), is also colored with bitter humor. The same bitterness is felt in the calculations of a certain statistician who, by dividing the number of victims of artillery fire by the number of club members, found that each of them "accounted for an average of two thousand three hundred and seventy-five with a fraction of those killed"). The only concern of this scientific community, the writer notes, was "the extermination of the human race." The paradoxical combination of innate kindness and a deadly profession is not accidental for a humanist writer who believes in the healing power of science and therefore proposes, through the mouth of Barbicane, to reforge the sword into a plowshare, that is, to direct the creative energy of club members not to homicidal goals, but to deepening the knowledge of secrets universe. He condemns the "daring ingenuity" of the Yankees, aimed at creating giant cannons, ironically emphasizing that the bold experiment "to test the destructive power of the Rodman cannon, which can mow down 150 horses and 300 people," was never staged. in view of the fact that "if the horses would agree to undergo such a test, then among the people, unfortunately, there were no hunters." Although at that time J. Verne did not yet have the historical experience of the Sedan defeat, militaristic tendencies were alien to him even then, and it is no coincidence that, speaking of the desire to “put a cannonball into the moon”, the writer aimed at the “gunboat method”, noting that this "rather crude way of communicating" is quite common in "civilized" countries. Talking about the rivalry between Barbicane, who became famous for casting shells during the civil war, and Nicolas, the creator of the most durable armor, he condemningly emphasizes that ships, dressed in impenetrable armor, throw huge cannonballs at the enemy, then they do to others “what they don’t want for themselves—the basic, profoundly immoral rule to which the entire art of war is reduced.” Thus, the writer condemns all and all wars. The very interior of the "Cannon Club" becomes a means of ridiculing the misanthropic interests of its members: the light arches of the vast hall support columns of cannon barrels placed on thick mortars, and the walls are picturesquely decorated with "intricate patterns" from various types of ancient firearms. and the latest. “Thousands of revolvers connected like chandeliers” illuminate the hall, where the benches are located “in the form of ramparts and trenches”, the chairman’s chair looks like a mortar, his table is hoisted on naval cannons, a grenade serves as an inkwell, and a bell emits shots "Like a revolver." A subtle, but extremely caustic mockery in the spirit of Voltaire sounds in the description of this temple of murder.

The nature of the humor changes drastically when it comes to the implementation of the Barbicane lunar project. With laughter, it is reported about the resourcefulness of the English troupe entrepreneur, who replaced the comedy "As You Like" with the "unlucky" comedy "Much Ado About Nothing", in which Barbie-can fans saw a malicious allusion. The humor of Jules Verne is especially evident in the description of the selenomania that engulfed Barbicane's compatriots. The moon becomes truly the "lioness of the season", and under the cascade of scientific reports, even the most backward have to abandon superstitious ideas about the Earth's satellite. The scientific material used by the author (measuring the parallax of the moon, the concept of its rotation, etc.) is brightened up with humor for those who could not understand that the moon, facing the Earth on one side, making a revolution around it, at the same time rotates around their axis, they were given "practical advice" to go around the round table, all the while looking at its center. The scene of the discussion of the core and speed issue is also humorously colored, beginning with Maston's pompous and ecstatic speech, which the members of the committee listen to, devouring sandwich after sandwich (a prosaic detail immediately, as it were, “grounds” the problem). The next meeting is again accompanied by a "mountain of sandwiches" and "whole seas of tea" - this comic trope brings the necessary animation, giving vitality to the events depicted.

But in describing the rivalry between Texas and Florida deputies, which almost ended in a street massacre, humor approaches satire. American mores of this kind do not at all arouse the sympathy of the writer, which is the reason for the satirical connotation.

It should be noted that the description of the United States in this novel is somewhat utopian - it is an America of dreams, and not a real America dominated by business, which is vividly shown already in The Floating City, and even more convincingly in The Floating Island. And in the lunar dilogy, the author notes that the disinterested feverish excitement that has gripped the entire population of the United States defies description and that it would be pure madness to try to portray this excitement, since such a task surpasses "all human strength."

A lot of space is given in the novel to mathematical and technical calculations, a description of the preparation of the shaft for casting the co-lumbiad, as well as the casting process itself. The fantasy of the description increases if we remember that there were no earth-moving machines at all and the main tool for laying the mine was a pickaxe. No less fantastic is the idea of weakening the impact force with water.

But along with the development of a fantastic plot, science is systematically popularized, and the author does not forget (through Barbicane) to mention the literary predecessors of his heroes who flew to the moon. Not limited to literary parallels, he generously introduces scientific materials from the field of selenography and even selenology, without annoyingly interspersing them into the fabric of the novel. Either he cites a letter from the director of the observatory in Massachusetts, scientifically substantiating the possibility of implementing the project, then he makes a report on the origin of the solar system, then he succinctly outlines contemporary data from the field of selenography, then, drawing discussions caused by Barbicane’s daring plan, he reports a lot of information about the moon and about scientific and technical issues related to the implementation of the project, then describes in detail the process of casting the columbiad or the “experience” of Maston, who sat in the projectile for a whole week, etc.

Current page: 1 (total book has 25 pages) [accessible reading excerpt: 17 pages]

Jules Verne
From earth to moon by direct route in 97 hours and 20 minutes. Around the Moon (compilation)

From earth to moon by direct route in 97 hours and 20 minutes

Chapter first
"Cannon Club"

During the American Civil War, a new and extremely influential club arose in Baltimore, Maryland's capital city. We know with what force the military spirit of the Americans awakened then - this people of entrepreneurs, merchants and mechanics. The common merchants abandoned their stalls and suddenly became captains, colonels, and generals, doing just fine without diplomas from the military schools at West Point; they quickly caught up in the "art of war" with their European counterparts and, like them, not sparing the nuclei, millions, and most importantly, people, began to win victory after victory.

And in artillery science - in ballistics - the Americans, to the marvel of everyone, even surpassed the Europeans. It cannot be said that their shooting techniques reached greater perfection, but they created weapons of extraordinary size, hitting hitherto unheard of distances. In the art of flat, mounted and hurricane fire, flank, longitudinal and rear shelling, the British, French and Prussians reached a high level of perfection; but their guns, howitzers, and mortars seem like mere pistols compared to the colossal guns of the American artillery.

However, there is nothing to be surprised. The Yankees are the first mechanics in the world; they seem to be born engineers, as the Italians are musicians, and the Germans are metaphysicians. Naturally, they also introduced their bold, sometimes daring ingenuity into artillery science. Hence their giant cannons, much less useful than their sewing machines, but just as amazing and even more admirable. Everyone knows the extraordinary firearms of Parrot, Dalgrin and Rodman. Their European counterparts Armstrong, Palizer and Trey de Beaulieu could only bow to their overseas rivals.

During the bloody war between the northerners and the southerners, artillerymen enjoyed special honor. American newspapers enthusiastically proclaimed their inventions, and it seems that there was no such small shopkeeper or ignorant booby 1
Simpleton, fool (English).

Which day and night would not puzzle over the calculation of a crazy trajectory.

And when an American has an idea, he looks for a comrade who would share it. If three of them agree, one of them is immediately elected chairman, and the other two secretaries. If there are four of them, then an archivist is appointed - and the “bureau” is ready. If there are five of them, then a “general meeting” is convened - and the club is established!

It was the same in Baltimore. The first person who invented a new cannon entered into an alliance with the first person who agreed to cast this cannon, and with the first person who undertook to drill it. This is how the “core” of the “Cannon Club” arose. A month later, the club already had 1,833 full members and 35,365 corresponding members.

Anyone wishing to join the club was given a conditio sine qua non 2
Sine qua non (lat.).

He had to invent or at least improve the cannon, and in extreme cases some other firearm. However, it must be said that the inventors of fifteen-shot revolvers, rifled fittings and saber-pistols did not enjoy special honor. Artillerymen eclipsed them everywhere and everywhere.

“The respect they gain,” one of the most learned orators of the Cannon Club once proclaimed, “is in direct proportion to the “masses” of their cannons and the “square distances” their projectiles travel.

A little more - and it would be possible to extend Newton's law of universal gravitation to the entire spiritual life.

It is easy to imagine the extent of American ingenuity since the founding of the Gun Club. Military weapons began to take on colossal proportions, and shells began to fly over all permitted distances, sometimes tearing harmless passers-by to shreds. All these inventions soon left the modest European guns far behind. Here are the numbers.

Previously, "in the good old days," a thirty-six-pound cannonball could only shoot through thirty-six horses placed across its path, or sixty-eight men, at a distance of three hundred feet. It was the infantile time of artillery art. Since then, the shells have flown far ahead. For example, Rodman's cannon hit at a distance of seven miles, and its core, weighing half a ton, could easily "mow down" one hundred and fifty horses and three hundred people. The Cannon Club even raised the question of whether this bold experiment should be carried out. But if the horses would have agreed to undergo such a test, then among the people, unfortunately, there were no hunters.

In any case, these guns were very deadly: with each of their shots, the combatants fell in whole rows, like ears of corn under the blows of a scythe. And how pitiful in comparison with this kind of projectile would seem the famous cannonball, which in 1587 killed twenty-five people at the Battle of Kutra, and the one that killed forty infantrymen at Zorndorf in 1758, and, finally, the Austrian cannon, which hit in the battle of Kesseldorf with each of his shots, seventy people. What did the Napoleonic cannons mean now, the murderous fire of which decided the fate of the battles of Jena and Austerlitz? All these were only the first flowers! At the Battle of Gettysburg, a conical shell fired from a rifled cannon killed one hundred and seventy-three Southerners at once, and at the crossing of the Potomac River, one Rodman shell sent two hundred and fifteen Southerners to a better world. Mention should also be made of the huge mortar invented by J. T. Maston, an eminent member and indispensable secretary of the "Gun Club"; its effect was extremely destructive: during its test, three hundred and thirty-seven people were killed; however, they all died from the explosion of the mortar itself!

What else remains to be added to these eloquent figures? Absolutely nothing. Therefore, no one will dispute the following calculation of Pitcairn's statistics: by dividing the number of victims of artillery fire by the number of members of the "Gun Club", he found that for each member there were "an average" of two thousand three hundred and seventy-five killed with a fraction!

If you think about these figures, it becomes clear that the only concern of this learned society was the extermination of the human race (albeit for philanthropic purposes) by improving the weapons of war, which were equated with the tools of civilization. It was a kind of union of the angels of death, who in life, however, were distinguished by a very good-natured disposition.

It is necessary, however, to add that the Yankees, as courageous people, were not limited to calculations alone and often paid with their lives for the triumph of their cause. Among the members of the "Cannon Club" there were officers of all ranks from lieutenants to generals; military men of all ages: both newcomers to military affairs and old servicemen who have turned gray at a combat post. Many of them died on the battlefield, and their names are entered in the honorary book of the "Cannon Club", and most of the others who returned from the war left indelible traces of their bravery. In the club, one could see a whole collection of crutches, wooden legs, artificial arms, hooked prostheses, rubber jaws, silver skulls and platinum noses. The aforementioned statistician Pitcairn also calculated that the Gun Club had less than one arm for four people and only two legs for six.

But the brave gunners did not attach any importance to such "little things" and were justly proud when the newspapers reported that in the new battle the number of dead and wounded exceeded ten times the number of shells fired.

The day has come, however—a sad, vexatious day! – when the survivors stopped killing each other and peace was signed. The shots ceased, the rumble of mortars ceased; howitzers were shut up for a long time; cannons with lowered muzzles were placed in arsenals, the cores were stacked in pyramids. Gradually the bloody memories faded; cotton plantations flourished in fields lavishly fertilized with human flesh and drunk with blood; mourning dresses were worn out, suffering subsided, and the members of the "Cannon Club" were doomed to complete inactivity.

True, other tireless inventors still continued to design grenades of unprecedented dimensions. But what was theory without practice? Little by little the halls of the Cannon Club were empty, footmen dozing in the anterooms, piles of newspapers on the tables were moldy, mournful snoring came from dark corners, and the members of the club, until recently so noisy, fell asleep from boredom, indulging in solitude platonic dreams of the successes of artillery .

- You can go straight to despair! the brave Tom Gunter complained one evening in the smoking-room; he stretched out his wooden legs to the fireplace, not noticing that their ends were gradually beginning to char.

- Absolutely nothing to do! And hope for nothing! What a dismal existence! Where is the time when every morning we were awakened by the cheerful shots of cannons?

Happy days are over! - answered the zealous Bilsby, mechanically trying to spread his arms, which he did not have. - It was a wonderful life! It used to happen that you invented a howitzer, they barely had time to cast it, and march with it for a test right on the enemy! Then you return to the camp - and Sherman will praise you, or McClellan himself will shake your hand! And now the generals have returned to their offices and, instead of shells, they are firing ... harmless bales of cotton from their warehouses! I swear by Saint Barbara, the future of artillery in America looks to me in the darkest light!

“Yes, Bilsby! exclaimed Colonel Blamesbury. - What a cruel disappointment! .. Why did we abandon our peaceful studies, left our native Baltimore, why did we study military affairs? Why did we perform heroic deeds on the battlefield? Is it really only so that in two or three years all our labors will go to waste? .. Now sit idle and yawn, putting your hands in your pockets!

In truth, it would have been difficult for the bellicose colonel to confirm his words with an appropriate gesture: he had pockets, but no hands left.

- No war is even expected! - sighed the famous J. T. Maston, scratching his gutta-percha skull with an iron hook that replaced his hand. - Not a single cloud on the horizon ... and yet there are so many gaps in artillery science! By the way, this morning I finished the drawings of a new mortar - a horizontal section and a diagram; this weapon can radically change the laws of war!..

- Indeed? exclaimed Tom Gunter, who involuntarily presented himself with a picture of a "test" of the latest invention of the venerable Maston.

- Indeed! Maston answered. - But, one wonders, why did I work so hard, puzzled over complex calculations? Have I worked in vain? The peoples of the New World have definitely agreed to live in eternal peace. Our militant Tribune prophesies the most gloomy future for humanity in connection with the increase in population, which is taking on downright unacceptable proportions.

“You forget, Maston,” Colonel Blamesbury objected, “that wars continue in Europe, national enmity has not yet died out there.

- Well, so what?

“Well, we can try to do something there, if only they will accept our services…”

- What are you, what are you! exclaimed Bilsby. – Engage in ballistics for the benefit of foreigners?

It's still better than not doing it at all! the colonel said.

- Of course, it's better! Maston put in. “But you shouldn't even think about it.

Why not? the colonel was surprised.

- Yes, because they, in the Old World, have an idea about a military career for us Americans that is not at all acceptable. It doesn’t even occur to these people that one can become a commander-in-chief without starting the service with the rank of second lieutenant ... After all, it’s like saying that you can’t be a good gunner if you don’t know how to cast guns yourself! And this is real...

- Ridiculous! said Tom Gunter, hacking at the arm of his chair with a hunting knife. - So, in the present state of affairs, we can only plant tobacco or distill whale oil!

- How! exclaimed Maston in a thunderous voice. “Are we going to grow old and die without devoting the last years of our lives to the improvement of firearms?” Shall we not get a chance to test the range of our guns? The sky will not light up with the fire of our volleys anymore? Will there never be international complications that will allow us to declare war on some overseas power? Surely the French won't sink a single one of our ships? Do the British not even once violate international law - well, for example, do not hang up three or four of our fellow countrymen?

“No, Maston,” said Colonel Blamesbury, “we shall not be so fortunate!” Not! Not a single incident will occur, and if it does, we will not be able to use it. National pride in the United States is waning every day; soon we will all become real women! ..

- Yes, we often have to humiliate ourselves! Bilsby agreed.

- More than that - we are humiliated! exclaimed Tom Gunter.

- True truth! said Maston with renewed vigor. “Thousands of reasons for war are in the air, but there is still no war! Our government takes care to save the legs and arms of people who don't know what to do with their limbs. And why look far for a pretext for war: had not North America previously belonged to the British?

- Without a doubt! exclaimed Tom Gunter, furiously stirring the coals in the fireplace with his crutch.

“If so,” continued Maston, “then why shouldn’t England, in turn, belong to the Americans?”

- That's fair! said Colonel Blamesbury.

“Go and offer it to the President of the United States!” shouted Maston. How will he receive you?

- It will be bad! said Bilsby through the last four teeth left from the war.

“I swear on my honor,” exclaimed Maston, “let him not count on my vote in the next election!”

And he won't get ours! - unanimously picked up militant invalids.

“So,” concluded Maston, “this is my last word: if I am not given the opportunity to test my new mortar on a real battlefield, I resign from the members of the Gun Club and leave Baltimore. I'd rather bury myself alive in the savannas of Arkansas.

“And we will follow you,” said the comrades of the brave J. T. Maston.

Such was the state of affairs in the club; the ferment of minds grew stronger, the club was already in danger of an imminent collapse, but one unexpected event prevented this catastrophe.

The next day after the conversation described, each of the members of the club received the following circular message:

The chairman of the "Cannon Club" has the honor to inform his fellow members that at the general meeting on the 5th of the current month he will make a message capable of arousing their most keen interest. As a result, he humbly asks the members of the club, postponing their next business, to come to this meeting.

With cordial regards

your Impey Barbicane, P.P.K."

Chapter Two
Message from Chairman Barbicane

On October 5, at eight o'clock in the evening, a whole crowd crowded into the halls of the club, at number 21 in Union Square. All members of the club, without exception, who lived in Baltimore, considered it their duty to appear at the invitation of their chairman. Hundreds of out-of-town correspondent members alighted from courier trains arriving in Baltimore. No matter how large the meeting room was, it could not accommodate all who aspired to get there; learned people flooded the neighboring halls and corridors, occupied even half of the outer courtyard. A huge crowd of "strangers" crowded at the doors of the club, everyone tried to get ahead in order to quickly learn something about the important message of Chairman Barbican; citizens jostled, crushed each other's sides, squeezing with the energy and ease characteristic of a people brought up in the spirit of self-government 3
Self-government (English).

A foreigner who would find himself in Baltimore that evening would not be able to enter the central hall of the Gun Club for any money. Except for full members and corresponding members, no one had the right to enter it, even the most important persons in the city, and the local authorities were forced to stand in the crowd of citizens in the courtyard of the club and catch on the fly the news that was transmitted from time to time from the interior.

Huge hall 4
Hall (English).

The club presented a curious spectacle. This vast hall was exceptionally suited to its purpose. Its light arches - skillfully stamped iron lace - rested on high columns of vertically placed cannon barrels; thick mortars served as abutments for the columns. The walls were picturesquely decorated with intricate designs of muskets, blunderbusses, arquebuses, carbines, and other firearms, old and new. Thousands of revolvers connected like chandeliers, girandoles from pistols and candelabra from bundled guns cast a bright gaseous light. In this amazing lighting, models of cannons, bronze guns, shot through targets, metal boards pierced by the Cannon Club shells, all kinds of piercers and banners, pyramids of cannonballs, garlands of grenades stood out - in a word, everything that had to do with artillery.

These artistically grouped collections gave the impression of more decorative accessories than awesome instruments of death.

In a place of honor, behind a magnificent display case, was a fragment of a cannon "casserole", broken, broken, twisted by the action of powder gases - a precious remnant of the notorious mortar of J. T. Maston.

The chairman sat at the back of the hall, on a vast dais, surrounded by four secretaries. His chair, placed on a carved cannon carriage, had the imposing appearance of a mortar with a thirty-two-inch muzzle, mounted at an angle of 90 ° and suspended on axles so that during the heat the chairman could always freshen up, swaying in it, as in rocking-chairs. 5
rocking chair (English).

The chairman's table was replaced by a large piece of sheet iron lying on six ancient naval guns; an excellently carved grenade served as an inkwell, and the chairman's bell emitted shots like revolvers. But during heated discussions, even this peculiar call barely covered the voices of ardent gunners with its volleys.

In front of the presidium, there were zigzags in the form of ramparts and trenches of the auditorium benches, where members of the "Cannon Club" sat; that evening, not without reason, it could be said that the entire garrison of the "Cannon Club" was in combat readiness. The members of the club were all there. They knew their chairman too well and were convinced that he would not bother them without a very good reason.

Impy Barbicane was a man of about forty, calm, cold, stern, with a serious, concentrated mind, accurate as a chronometer, with an unshakable character and iron will; he, it is true, was not distinguished by chivalrous inclinations, but he loved adventure and brought his practical spirit into the most risky undertakings. He was a typical representative of New England, a Northern colonialist, a descendant of the "round-headed" ones, fatal to the Stuart dynasty, an inexorable enemy of the "masters" of the southern states, these former cavaliers of Old England. In a word, it was a Yankee from head to toe ...

Barbicane made a great fortune trading in timber. When war broke out, he was appointed chief of the artillery; in this position, he became famous for a number of inventions and the amazing courage of his ideas. A brave innovator, he significantly contributed to the success of artillery and carried out his experiments on an unprecedentedly large scale.

He was a man of average height, with all of his limbs intact, a rarity in the Gun Club. The sharp features of his face seemed to have been drawn with the help of a square and a drawing pen, and if, as they say, you can guess the character of a person by looking at his profile, then Barbicane's profile undeniably proved his energy, courage and composure.

For the moment he sat silent and motionless in the chair, engrossed in his own thoughts; a black silk top hat was pushed over his forehead, which seemed to be screwed to the head of an American.

Barbicane paid no attention to the noisy conversation of the people around him, although they asked each other questions, expressed all kinds of assumptions; some stared at the chairman, trying in vain to unravel his secret, but Barbicane's face remained impassive.

At last the clock in the meeting room struck eight loudly. Barbicane instantly stood up to his full height, as if thrown up by a spring; the hall immediately fell silent, and the orator spoke in a somewhat solemn tone:

- Dear colleagues! Too long a barren world has long condemned the members of the "Cannon Club" to sad inactivity. After several years of brilliant revival, we had to stop all our work and immediately stop on the path of progress. I am not afraid to announce publicly that any kind of war is highly desirable for us, which would immediately give us weapons in our hands ...

Yes, war! War is needed! shouted the fiery J. T. Maston.

- Listen, listen! resounded from all sides.

“However, war is unthinkable under the present circumstances,” continued Barbicane, “and however much the venerable orator, who has just interrupted my speech with his fiery exclamation, longs for it, many years will elapse before the shots of our guns roar again on the battlefield. We must come to terms with this fact and look in another field for an outlet for the thirst for activity that devours us.

The meeting sensed that the chairman would now touch on the main topic of his speech. Attention doubled.

“For some months now, dear fellow members,” continued Barbicane, “I have been asking myself the question: can we not, without going beyond our specialty, venture on some outstanding enterprise worthy of the nineteenth century, and whether the high achievements of ballistics will not allow implement it successfully? For a long time I thought, searched, labored, calculated, and came to the conclusion that we would be able to carry out one enterprise, which in any other state would have seemed unrealizable. The project of the conceived business was developed by me in all details. He will be the subject of my message. This business is worthy of you, worthy of the glorious past of the "Cannon Club" and, no doubt, will make a noise all over the world.

What about the big noise? - asked some ardent artilleryman.

“Yes, a very loud noise, even in the literal sense of the word,” said Barbicane.

“Dear colleagues,” Barbicane began again, “I ask you now to give me your full attention.

A nervous tremor ran through the meeting. Adjusting his top hat with a confident gesture, Barbicane continued in a calm voice:

- Each of you, of course, has seen the Moon more than once, or at least heard about it. Don't be surprised that I started talking about this night star. Perhaps we are destined to become the Columbuses of an unknown world! Understand me, support me - and I will lead you to conquer the moon! We will add her name to those thirty-six states that form the great power of the United States!

- The moon has been studied in great detail, - continued Barbicane, - its mass, density, weight, volume, composition, movement, distance from the Earth and in general its role in the solar system have long been accurately determined; the lunar maps are drawn up almost in more detail than those of the earth, and photography has already given photographs of lunar landscapes of incomparable beauty. In a word, we know everything about the Moon that could be learned with the help of mathematics, astronomy, physics and geology. But there is still no ... direct communication with the moon.

At these words, the audience trembled with amazement.

“Allow me,” continued Barbicane, “to remind you in a few words of those dreamers who embarked on imaginary journeys and claimed to have penetrated into the innermost secrets of the Earth’s satellite. In the seventeenth century, a certain David Fabricius boasted that he had seen with his own eyes the inhabitants of the moon. In 1649, a Frenchman, Jean Baudouin, published a book entitled: "Travel to the Moon by Dominic Gonzalez, Spanish Adventurer." Almost at the same time, Cyrano de Bergerac described an expedition to the moon in his book, which was a huge success in France. Later, another Frenchman - it must be admitted that the French are very interested in the Moon - the famous Fontenelle, wrote "The Plurality of Worlds" - one of the most brilliant books of his century. But science is moving forward, overtaking even the imagination of writers. In 1835, a curious pamphlet appeared - taken from the New York American magazine - in which it was said that the famous astronomer John Herschel, during his expedition to the Cape of Good Hope, created such an improved telescope, and even with "internal illumination" that he could see the moon as if from a distance of eighty yards. It was as if Herschel clearly saw on the moon the caves in which hippos lived, green mountains bordered by golden lace groves, saw rams with ivory horns, white roe deer and inhabitants similar to people, but with membranous wings, like those of bats. This pamphlet, written by the American Locke, was an extraordinary success. It soon became clear, however, that this was a scientific hoax, and the French were the first to laugh at it.

- They laughed at the American! exclaimed Maston. - Here's your casus belli 6
Reason for war (lat.).

- Calm down, my worthy friend! Before laughing, the French themselves were fools, because at first they believed our compatriot. To complete this brief historical review, I will add that a certain Hans Pfaal of Rotterdam, having filled a balloon with a gas extracted from nitrogen and found to be thirty-seven times lighter than hydrogen, ascended on it and reached the moon in nineteen days. This journey, like all the previous ones, was, of course, imaginary, but it was written by one of America's favorite writers, a kind of fantastic talent. I mean Edgar Poe.

Long live Edgar Allan Poe! exclaimed the audience, electrified by the chairman's speech.

“I have done away with attempts that I will call purely fictional and wholly insufficient for establishing relations between the Earth and the Moon. I must add, however, that there were also serious, scientifically substantiated attempts to enter into communion with the Moon. So, for example, a few years ago a German mathematician proposed to equip a scientific expedition to the Siberian steppes. There, among the wide plains, it would be possible with the help of reflectors to depict gigantic geometric figures, and, moreover, so bright that they would be visible from the moon, among other things, the Pythagorean triangle, which is colloquially called "Pythagorean pants." “Every rational being,” the geometer argued, “should understand the scientific significance of this figure. Therefore, the Selenites, if they exist, will respond with a similar figure, and then it will be easy to create an alphabet that will enable people to exchange thoughts with the inhabitants of the Moon.

So spoke the German mathematician, but his project was not carried out, and so far no connection has been established between the Earth and the Moon. However, I am convinced that the practical genius of the Americans will make connections with this celestial body. There is a means to reach the moon; the means is simple, easy, true, reliable - and I want to tell you about it.

A deafening noise, a whole storm of exclamations greeted Barbicane's speech. Every single one of the listeners was carried away, captivated, captivated by the speaker's words.

- Listen, listen! Shut up! – began to shout from all sides.

When the excitement subsided, Barbicane spoke in an even more solemn tone:

“You know what progress ballistics has made in recent years, and to what a high degree of perfection firearms could reach if the war was still going on! You also know that the strength and durability of guns and the propelling power of powder gases can be infinitely increased. So, based on these principles, I asked myself the question: is it possible with a weapon of sufficient size, sufficient power and properly installed to launch a cannonball to the moon?

At these words, a unanimous "oh" escaped from a thousand throats. There was a moment of silence, like the deep silence that precedes a thunderclap. And indeed, thunder immediately broke out: a thunder of shouts and applause, such a din that it shook the entire huge assembly hall. Barbicane tried to continue his speech, but it was unthinkable. Only after ten minutes did he achieve that they began to listen to him.

“Let me finish,” Barbicane went on coolly. “I boldly approached this question, I discussed it from all sides and, on the basis of indisputable calculations, I can say that a projectile with a muzzle velocity of twelve thousand yards 7
Yard = 914, 402 mm.

In a second, with an accurate sight, it must inevitably fly to the moon. And so, worthy fellow members, I have the honor to invite you to make this little experiment.

A number of amazing prophecies by Jules Verne became public knowledge in his unpublished work "Paris in the 20th century", the existence of which became known a few years ago. The manuscript of the novel was found by chance by the great-grandson of the writer, and this event became a sensation.

J. Verne takes readers of the novel written in 1863 by the power of imagination to Paris in 1960 and describes in detail such things that no one knew about the invention in the first half of the 19th century: cars move along the streets of the city (although J. Verne has them do not run on gasoline, but on hydrogen - to preserve the purity of the environment), criminals are executed using the electric chair, and stacks of documents are transmitted through a device that is very reminiscent of a modern fax machine. Probably, these predictions seemed too fantastic to the publisher Etzel, or maybe he found the novel too gloomy - one way or another, but the manuscript was returned to the author and, as a result, was lost among his papers for a century and a half.

In 1863, the famous French writer Jules Verne published the first novel in the Extraordinary Journeys series, Five Weeks in a Balloon, in the Journal for Education and Leisure. The success of the novel inspired the writer; he decided to continue to work in this "key", accompanying the romantic adventures of his heroes with increasingly skillful descriptions of the incredible, but nevertheless carefully considered scientific miracles born of his imagination. The cycle was continued by the novels Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), From the Earth to the Moon (1865), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1869), The Mysterious Island (1874), etc.

In total, Jules Verne wrote about 70 novels. In them, he predicted many scientific discoveries and inventions in a wide variety of fields, including submarines, scuba gear, television, and space flight. Jules Verne foresaw the practical application of electric motors, electric heaters, electric lamps, loudspeakers, transmission of images over a distance, electrical protection of buildings.

The remarkable works of the French writer had an important cognitive and educational effect for many generations of people. So, in one of the phrases expressed by the science fiction writer in the novel “Around the Moon” regarding the fall of a projectile on the lunar surface, the idea of jet propulsion in the void was concluded, an idea subsequently developed in the theories of K.E. Tsiolkovsky. It is not surprising that the founder of astronautics repeatedly repeated: “The desire for space travel is inherent in me by Jules Verne. He awakened the work of the brain in this direction.

JOURNEY TO THE MOON

Space flight in detail, very close to real, was first described by J. Verne in the works From the Earth to the Moon (1865) and Around the Moon (1870). This famous duology is an outstanding example of "seeing through time". It was created 100 years before manned flight around the moon was put into practice. But what is most striking is the amazing similarity between the fictional flight (J. Verne has the flight of the Columbiad projectile) and the real one (meaning the lunar odyssey of the Apollo 8 spacecraft, which in 1968 made the first manned flight around the moon ).

Both spacecraft - both literary and real - had a crew of three people. Both launched in December from the Florida peninsula, both went into lunar orbit (Apollo, however, made eight complete orbits around the Moon, while its fantastic "predecessor" - only one).

The Apollo flew around the moon, using rocket engines, returned to the return course. The crew of the Columbiad solved this problem in a similar way, using the reactive power of... flares. Thus, both ships, with the help of rocket engines, switched to a return trajectory in order to again splash down in the same region of the Pacific Ocean in December, and the distance between the splashdown points is only 4 km! The dimensions and mass of the two spacecraft are also almost the same: the height of the Columbiad projectile is 3.65 m, the weight is 5,547 kg; the height of the Apollo capsule is 3.60 m, the weight is 5,621 kg.

The great science fiction writer foresaw everything! Even the names of the heroes of the French writer - Barbicane, Nicole and Ardan - are consonant with the names of American astronauts - Bormann, Lovell and Anders ...

Jules Verne

From the Earth to the Moon by direct route in 97 hours 20 minutes

CHAPTER FIRST. "Cannon Club"

Anyone wishing to join the club was given conditi o sine qua non , he had to invent or at least improve the cannon, and in extreme cases some other firearm. However, it must be said that the inventors of fifteen-shot revolvers, rifled fittings and saber-pistols did not enjoy special honor. Artillerymen eclipsed them everywhere and everywhere.

A little more - and it would be possible to extend Newton's law of universal gravitation to the entire spiritual life.

Criticism

The book is written in the usual French classical narrative tradition with a detailed description of many small details. These features make the novel similar to modern non-fiction literature. Despite the fact that the calculations for Verne's book were prepared by the famous French mathematician Henri Garce in the 20th and 21st centuries, the technical side of the novel raises a smile.

Further, the author did not take into account the air resistance when overcoming the earth's atmosphere. The projectile would have overheated greatly and, without breaking the atmosphere, would have fallen not far from the start.

A detailed scientific criticism of the novel can be found, for example, in the book Entertaining Physics by Yakov Perelman.

Preparation of the "Wagon-projectile". Illustration of the 1872 edition

Predictions

Verne provided for his heroes an apparatus based on potassium chlorate and caustic soda, for regeneration the air that travelers had to breathe. The description of the device is very naive, but the idea itself is correct.

The use of aluminum as the base metal for the construction of the shell car. Despite the high cost of aluminum in the 19th century, its future widespread use for the needs of the aerospace industry is foreseen.

Influence

Unlike his predecessors: Cyrano de Bergerac and Edgar Allan Poe, whose heroes landed on the moon in a fabulous way, Jules Verne for the first time deeply and seriously used modern scientific knowledge for him to create the plot of the book. Verne's book was already very popular during his lifetime, especially among children. Already in 1870 the novel was translated into English. According to many critics, she became the herald of a new genre in world literature - science fiction. A significant number of the author's predictions provided her with a long history, despite the naivete of style and flaws in technical details. The closest follower of Verne, who developed the theme of traveling to the moon, was Herbert George Wells in the novel The First Men in the Moon.

Screen adaptations

Footnotes

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See what "From the Earth to the Moon (novel)" is in other dictionaries:

From the Earth to the Moon by a direct route in 97 hours 20 minutes De la Terre à la Lune, Trajet direct en 97 heures 20 minutes ... Wikipedia

Other films with the same or similar title: see Trip to the Moon. From the Earth to the Moon From the Earth to the Moon ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see First people on the moon. This article or section needs revision. Please improve the article according to ... Wikipedia

Around the Moon (fr. Autour de la Lune) is a science fiction novel by the French writer Jules Verne. First published in 1869. Continues the story of the flight to the moon, begun in the novel "From the Earth to the Moon" (1865). The adventures of three are described ... ... Wikipedia

This term has other meanings, see Journey to the center of the earth. Journey to the Center of the Earth Voyage au center de la Terre ... Wikipedia

The War of the Worlds Genre: Science Fiction

Journey to the Center of the Earth Voyage au center de la Terre Genre: Science Fiction

This term has other meanings, see Mysterious Island. The mysterious island of L Île mystérieuse ... Wikipedia

Children of Captain Grant Les Enfants du capitaine Grant Genre: novel ... Wikipedia

Books

From the Earth to the Moon by a direct route in 97 hours and 20 minutes. Around the Moon, Jules Verne, Readers are offered two novels from Jules Verne's trilogy FROM THE GUN TO THE MOON. The action of the first novel - FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON - takes us to the 19th century. After the end of the American Civil War... Category: Fantasy Publisher: SVR-Media Projects, Manufacturer: