From the Earth to the Moon
(by Jules Verne - excerpts)
Chapter 2: President Barbicane's Communication"As regards the corresponding members, notices were delivered by hundreds throughout the streets of the city, and, large as was the great hall, it was quite inadequate to accommodate the crowd of savants. They overflowed into the adjoining rooms, down the narrow passages, into the outer courtyards."
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"A violent movement of interest and surprise here greeted this remark of the speaker.
'Permit me,' he continued, 'to recount how certain ardent spirits, starting on imaginary journeys, have penetrated the secrets of our satellite."
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" 'But, to bring this rapid sketch to a close, I will only add that a certain Hans Pfall, of Rotterdam, launching himself in a balloon filled with a gas extracted from nitrogen, thirty-seven times lighter than hydrogen, reached the moon after a passage of nineteen hours. This journey, like all the previous ones, was purely imaginary; still, it was the work of a well-known American author - I mean, Edgar Poe!
'Cheers for Edgar Poe! roared the assemblage, electrified by their president's words' "
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" 'Hear! Hear! Silence!' resounded from all sides.
As soon as the excitement had partially subsided, Barbicane resumed his speech in a somewhat graver voice.
'You know,' he said, 'what progress artillery science has made during the last few years, and what a degree of perfection fire-arms of every kind have reached. Moreover, you are well aware that, in general terms, the resisting force of gunpowder are practically unlimited. Well! Starting from this principle, I ask myself whether, supposing sufficient apparatus could be obtained constructed upon the conditions of ascertained resistance, it might not be possible to fire a shot to the moon?' "
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Chapter 4: Reply from the Observatory of Cambridge
"...is justly celebrated for its astronomical staff. There are to be found assembled all the most eminent men of science. Here is to be seen that powerful telescope..."
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Chapter 5: The Romance of the Moon
"Meanwhile, other studies of the moon were being completed. It appears to be riddled with craters, and every new observation confirms its volcanic character."
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Chapter 10: Florida and Texas
"...Barbicane produced a magnificent map of the United States. 'Gentlemen,' said he, in opening the discussion. 'I presume that we are all agreed that this experiment cannot and ought not to be tried anywhere but within the United States extend downward as far as the 28th parallel of the north latitude. If you will cast your eye over this map, you will see that we have at our disposal the whole of the southern portion of Texas and Florida' "
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Chapter 13: Pickaxe and Trowel
"...a choice legion of stokers, iron-founders, lime-burners, miners, brick-makers, and artisans of every trade, had been enlisted..."
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"Our business is to construct a cannon measuring nine feet in its interior diameter...."
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"Many workmen, it is true, paid with their lives for the rashness inherent in those dangerous labours..."
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Chapter 14: The Fete of the Casting
" 'This fete of the casting will be a grand ceremony.' "
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"...the preparatory works of the casting had simultaneously been carried on with extreme rapidity."
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"Barbicane and his colleagues, perched on a neighbouring eminence, were present at the operation. In front of them was a piece of artillery ready to fire on the signal from the engineer. Some minutes before midday the first driblets of metal began to flow..."
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"Twelve hundred melting-troughs were simultaneously opened and twelve hundred fiery serpents, unrolling their incandescent curves..."
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"The ground trembled, while these molten waves, launching into the sky their wreaths of smoke evaporated the moisture of the mould and hurled it upwards...."
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Chapter 15: The Columbiad
"The festival was animated, not to say somewhat noisy. Toasts flew backwards and forwards. They drank to the earth and to her satellite, to the Gun Club, the Union, the moon, Diana, Phoebe, Selene, the 'peaceful courier of the night!' "
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Chapter 16: A Telegram
" 'France, Paris ' 30 Sepember, 4 a. m.
'Barbicane, Tampa Town, Florida, United States. 'Substitute for your spherical shell a cylindro-conical projectile. I shall go inside. Shall arrive by steamer Atlanta.
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Chapter 19: Attack and Riposte
" 'Sir,' said the unknown, 'you maintain that our satellite in inhabited. Very good; but if Selenites do exist, that race of beings assuredly must live without breathing, for - I warn you for you own sake - there is not the smallest particle of air on the surface of the moon.' "
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" 'My good sir, there will always be enough for a solitary individual; besides, once arrived up there, I shall do my best to economize, and not to breath except on grand occasions!' "
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" 'I do not know why I should continue so frivolous a discussion! Please yourself about his insane expedition! We need not trouble ourselves about you!'
'Pray don't stand upon ceremony!'
'No! another person is responsible for your act."
'Who, may I ask?' demanded Michel Ardan in an imperious tone.
'The ignoramus who organized this absurd and impossible experiment!"
The attack was direct. Barbicane, ever since the interference of the unknown, had been making fearful efforts of self-control; now, however, seeing himself directly attacked, he could restrain himself no longer. He rose suddenly, and was rushing upon the enemy who thus braved him to the face, when all at once he found himself separated from him."
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Chapter 25: Fire
"...not less than five millions of spectators throng the soil of Florida."
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"for a whole month previously, the mass of these persons had bivouacked round the enclosure, and laid the foundations for a town which was afterward called 'Ardan's Town'."
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"The Frenchman and the two Americans had by this time entered the enclosure reserved in the center of the multitude."
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"The moment had arrived for taking their places in the projectile! The necessary operations for the descent, and the subsequent removal of the cranes and scaffolding...."
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"The earth heaved, and with great difficulty a few spectators obtained a momentary glimpse of the projectile victoriously cleaving the air in the midst of the fiery vapours!"
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Chapter 26: Foul Weather
"Not a single spectator remained on his feet: Men, women, children, all lay prostrate like ears of corn under a tempest."
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"But an unforeseen phenomenon came in to subject the public impatience to a severe trial.
The weather, hitherto so fine, suddenly changed."
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Chapter 27: A New Star
"This projectile has not arrived at its destination. It has passed to one side; but sufficiently near to be retained by the lunar attraction.
The rectilinear movement has thus become changed into a circular motion of extreme velocity, and it is not pursuing an elliptical orbit round the moon, of which it has become a true satellite."
