On reading Verne's From the Earth to the Moon

The profession of the artillerist was central to Verne's story, From the Earth to the Moon. Of course. The cannon designer of the day was the most apt candidate to solve the problem of how to vault to the moon. After all, there were no aeronautical engineers. The artillerist's art - not much considered today - was that which most applied to the task at hand, to imagine a trip to the moon.

Verne's imagined moon influenced Goddard and others who in turn influenced the individuals who ultimately built the 'moon cannon,' the Nasa Saturn Apollo 11. Verne's work was at least some influence on magician, impresario, and early film maker Georges Melies.

Verne imagined the Gun Club. Its effective members numbered 1833. Every candidate was to have designed or perfected a cannon unit. The Gun Club was headquartered in Baltimore at the time of the Civil War. Peace was not their fodder, for they were here to create cannons. But peace followed war, and the jaunty nihilist capitalists of the Gun Club faced what was for them a dilemma - they awoke to a world without massive daily obliteration.

Then imagines Verne the manifest of what in our time was called the Peace Dividend. How can thee dark talents be put to another use? At the onslaught of ennui the Gun Club took to reveries of calculations 'regarding the laws of projectiles.' And they set upon a project to shoot the moon.

Links
Project Gutenberg's From the Earth to the Moon text
Zvi Har'El's Jules Verne Collection
Nasa's John Graham on the beginning of space flight
On Melies' A Trip to the Moon
Gilead's On Jules Verne Virtual Bookstore

Last update: 4/12/2003; 11:47:28 AM.