Books: Jules Verne`s: From The Earth To The Moon

 (Drivebycuriosity) - In the year 1969 the first human landed on the moon, in the year 1865 Jules Verne dreamed an early version of the journey to the earth`s satelitte: "From the Earth to the Moon". 

Verne´s moon shot happens in an alternate world, short after an undefined war, that destroyed the business of the canon producers. The President of the American gun club, that represents the American canon industry, has an idea how to compensate the missing business. Why not construct a giant canon and use it to shoot people on the moon?

Verne might have been inspired by 19th century circus shows where acrobats in the manege seemingly got shot through canons, even though the circuses used heavy rubber springs, not gunpowder, for propulsion.

The plot follows the long process from the decision to the final moon shot. The author described elaborately the engineering and the economics of the canon production and the social implications of the moonshot.  

Verne was not ignorant of the fact that humans cannot survive the immense heat & sudden push of a canon shot, so he imaged an elaborate cushioning system. "Undoubtedly the travelers would still have to encounter a violent recoil after the complete escapement of the water; but the first shock would be almost entirely destroyed by this powerful spring".

In contemporary science fiction space travelers sometimes have to survive deadly gravity caused by enormous acceleration. Scifi authors therefore imagine special beds that cushion the otherwise deadly intensified gravity.

"From The Earth To The Moon" is a funny tale, a farce, mixing fantasy with facts. Verne invented a new kind of novel, a "Roman de la Science" ("novel of science"), which allowed him to incorporate large amounts of the factual information he discovered while researching in the Bibliothèque ( wikipedia). He wrote of course for a 19th century audience, who had much less knowledge than people today. But Verne`s stories remind me a bit of a modern scifi subgenre, called cyber punk.

Even though the novel is a farce Verne acknowledges the physics of space flights: "As we recede from the earth the action of gravitation diminishes in the inverse ratio of the square of the distance; that is to say, at three times a given distance the action is nine times less". 

Anyway, "From The Earth To The Moon" is also an optimistic statement with a can-do attitude and belief into technology. Verne also praises of the efficiency of American engineering. "Nothing can astound an American. In America, all is easy, all is simple; and as for mechanical difficulties, they are overcome before they arise".

The novel has a surprising ending - but based on modern physics and cosmology. It is still fun to read. 

The novel is part of a giant omnibus reader: "Jules Verne: Complete Works (Wisehouse Classics)", that contains 47 novels! more than 10,000 pages! ( amazon).