Other editions of book From the Earth to the Moon : By Jules Verne

The story opens some time after the end of the American Civil War. The Baltimore Gun Club, a society dedicated to the design of weapons of all kinds (especially cannons), comes together when Impey Barbicane, its president, calls them to support his latest idea. He's done some calculations, and believes that they could construct a cannon capable of shooting a projectile to the Moon. After receiving the support of his companions, another meeting is held to decide the place from which the projectile will be fired, the dimensions and materials of both the cannon and the projectile, and which kind of powder they are to use.An old enemy of Barbicane, a Captain Nicholl of Philadelphia, designer of plate armor, declares that the entire enterprise is absurd and makes a series of bets with Barbicane, each of them of increasing amount, over the impossibility of such feat.The first obstacle, the money to construct the giant cannon (and against which Nicholl has bet 1,000 dollars), is raised from a number of countries in America and Europe. Notably, the U.S. gives four million dollars, while England does not give a farthing, but in the end, nearly five and a half million dollars are raised, which ensures the financial feasibility of the project.Stone's Hill in "Tampa Town", Florida is chosen as the site for the cannon's construction. The Gun Club travels there and starts the construction of the Columbiad cannon, which requires the excavation of a 900-foot-deep (270 m) and 60-foot-wide (18 m) circular hole, which is made in the nick of time, but a surprise awaits Barbicane: Michel Ardan, a French adventurer, plans to travel aboard the projectile.During a meeting between Ardan, the Gun Club, and the inhabitants of Florida, Nicholl appears and challenges Barbicane to a duel. The duel is stopped when Ardan—having been warned by J. T. Maston, secretary of the Gun Club—meets the rivals in the forest where they have agreed to duel. Meanwhile, Barbicane finds the solution to the problem of surviving the incredible acceleration that the explosion would cause. Ardan suggests that Barbicane and Nicholl travel with him in the projectile, and the proposition is accepted.In the end, the projectile is successfully launched, but the destinies of the three astronauts are left inconclusive. The sequel, Around the Moon, deals with what happens to the three men in their travel from the Earth to the Moon.

Impey Barbicane thought of making the greatest cannon of them all—a powerful cannon not for war, but for peace, made to shoot not the enemy, but the surface of the moon. "Peace, peace at last! But now no one needs cannon-makers anymore . . . and I love my job and know how to do it well. If only there were cannons for peace, I could make them better than anyone." Those were Impey Barbicanes thoughts, as he was staring at the moon which gave him a brilliant idea: he would make the greatest cannon in the world, a cannon that would expand the human knowledge! Made not to fight the enemy but to launch a shell to the surface of the Moon! Indeed, that would be the cannon of peace!

A prophetic work where Verne's astounding imagination is presented. In the absence of any adventurous work at the end of Civil War, the President of Gun Club decides to send a projectile to the moon. The decision escalates world-wide excitement and wagers. The steps and procedures and ultimately the final outcome of the plan have been beautifully captured.

From the Earth to the Moon (French: De la terre à la lune) is an 1865 novel by Jules Verne. It tells the story of the Baltimore Gun Club, a post-American Civil War society of weapons aficionados, and their attempts to build an enormous sky-facing Columbiad space gun and launch three people — the Gun Club's president, his Philadelphian armor-making rival, and a French poet — in a projectile with the goal of a moon landing.The story is also notable in that Verne attempted to do some rough calculations as to the requirements for the cannon and, considering the comparative lack of any data on the subject at the time, some of his figures are surprisingly close to reality. However, his scenario turned out to be impractical for safe manned space travel since a much longer muzzle would have been required to reach escape velocity while limiting acceleration to survivable limits for the passengers.The character of Michel Ardan, the French poet in the novel, was inspired by the real-life photographer Félix Nadar.

The American Civil War had ended, and the members of the American Gun Club tried to think of something else to interest them. At last they came up with the extraordinary idea of building the greatest cannon the world had ever seen and using it to launch a man-made "bullet" to the moon! When From the Earth to the Moon was published in 1865, it was regarded as pure fantasy. Who could imagine a rocket that would carry men and animals through space? Today, like so many of Jules Verne's prophecies, space travel is a reality.

One of the great early works of science fiction, From the Earth to the Moon tells the incredible fictional story of a nineteenth century project to construct an enormous gun in Florida that would fire a manned projectile to the moon. Despite the minimal data available at the time it was written, some of Jules Verne's calculations for the story were remarkably accurate. The manned projectile is considered one of the earliest fictional spaceships to have been at the heart of a science fiction novel. Just as gripping today as it would have been when published all those years ago, the tale remains a sci-fi classic and is still widely read around the world. This meticulous digital edition from Heritage Illustrated Publishing is a faithful reproduction of the original text and includes the sequel 'And Round the Moon'. It's beautifully illustrated with a number of delightful sketches that accompanied early editions of the novel.

Nearly a century before NASA, a visionary novelist wrote this adventure classic about an international space race. Jules Verne's eerily prophetic fantasy unfolds at the close of the American Civil War, as three artillerymen resolve to build a gun big enough to propel a manned rocket to the moon. Enlivened by broad satire, this rollicking tale recounts the launch of three astronauts from a Florida peninsula and their return to Earth in a splash landing.