All Around the Moon

壼
All Around the Moon

The Project Gutenberg EBook of All Around the Moon, by Jules Verne This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: All Around the Moon
Author: Jules Verne
Translator: Edward Roth
Release Date: August 6, 2005 [EBook #16457]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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ALL
AROUND THE MOON
FROM THE FRENCH OF
JULES VERNE
AUTHOR OF "FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON", "TO THE SUN!" AND "OFF ON A COMET!"
BY
EDWARD ROTH
ILLUSTRATED
PHILADELPHIA DAVID MCKAY, PUBLISHER 23 SOUTH NINTH STREET

CONTENTS.
PRELIMINARY
I. FROM 10 P.M. TO 10. 46' 40''
II. THE FIRST HALF HOUR
III. THEY MAKE THEMSELVES AT HOME AND FEEL QUITE COMFORTABLE
IV. FOR THE CORNELL GIRLS
V. THE COLDS OF SPACE
VI. INSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATION
VII. A HIGH OLD TIME
VIII. THE NEUTRAL POINT
IX. A LITTLE OFF THE TRACK
X. THE OBSERVERS OF THE MOON
XI. FACT AND FANCY
XII. A BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF THE LUNAR MOUNTAINS
XIII. LUNAR LANDSCAPES
XIV. A NIGHT OF FIFTEEN DAYS
XV. GLIMPSES AT THE INVISIBLE
XVI. THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
XVII. TYCHO
XVIII. PUZZLING QUESTIONS
XIX. IN EVERY FIGHT, THE IMPOSSIBLE WINS
XX. OFF THE PACIFIC COAST
XXI. NEWS FOR MARSTON!
XXII. ON THE WINGS OF THE WIND
XXIII. THE CLUB MEN GO A FISHING
XXIV. FAREWELL TO THE BALTIMORE GUN CLUB

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
1. HIS FIRST CARE WAS TO TURN ON THE GAS
2. DIANA AND SATELLITE
3. HE HELPED ARDAN TO LIFT BARBICAN
4. MORE HUNGRY THAN EITHER
5. THEY DRANK TO THE SPEEDY UNION OF THE EARTH AND HER SATELLITE
6. DON'T I THOUGH? MY HEAD IS SPLITTING WITH IT!
7. POOR SATELLITE WAS DROPPED OUT
8. THE BODY OF THE DOG THROWN OUT YESTERDAY
9. A DEMONIACAL HULLABALOO
10. THE OXYGEN! HE CRIED
11. A GROUP _à la Jardin Mabille_
12. AN IMMENSE BATTLE-FIELD PILED WITH BLEACHING BONES
13. NEVERTHELESS THE SOLUTION ESCAPED HIM
14. IT'S COLD ENOUGH TO FREEZE A WHITE BEAR
15. THEY COULD UTTER NO WORD, THEY COULD BREATHE NO PRAYER
16. THEY SEEMED HALF ASLEEP IN HIS VITALIZING BEAMS
17. THESE ARCHES EVIDENTLY ONCE BORE THE PIPES OF AN AQUEDUCT
18. ARDAN GAZED AT THE PAIR FOR A FEW MINUTES
19. OLD MAC DISCOVERED TAKING OBSERVATIONS
20. FOR A SECOND ONLY DID THEY CATCH ITS FLASH
21. HOW IS THAT FOR HIGH?
22. EVERYWHERE THEIR DEPARTURE WAS ACCOMPANIED WITH THE MOST TOUCHING SYMPATHY

PRELIMINARY CHAPTER,
RESUMING THE FIRST PART OF THE WORK AND SERVING AS AN INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND.
A few years ago the world was suddenly astounded by hearing of an experiment of a most novel and daring nature, altogether unprecedented in the annals of science. The BALTIMORE GUN CLUB, a society of artillerymen started in America during the great Civil War, had conceived the idea of nothing less than establishing direct communication with the Moon by means of a projectile! President Barbican, the originator of the enterprise, was strongly encouraged in its feasibility by the astronomers of Cambridge Observatory, and took upon himself to provide all the means necessary to secure its success. Having realized by means of a public subscription the sum of nearly five and a half millions of dollars, he immediately set himself to work at the necessary gigantic labors.
In accordance with the Cambridge men's note, the cannon intended to discharge the projectile was to be planted in some country not further than 28° north or south from the equator, so that it might be aimed vertically at the Moon in the zenith. The bullet was to be animated with an initial velocity of 12,000 yards to the second. It was to be fired off on the night of December 1st, at thirteen minutes and twenty seconds before eleven o'clock, precisely. Four days afterwards it was to hit the Moon, at the very moment that she reached her perigee, that is to say, her nearest point to the Earth, about 228,000 miles distant.
The leading members of the Club, namely President Barbican, Secretary Marston, Major Elphinstone and General Morgan, forming the executive committee, held several meetings to discuss the shape and material of the bullet, the nature and position of the cannon, and the quantity and quality of the powder. The decision soon arrived at was as follows: 1st--The bullet was to be a hollow aluminium shell, its diameter nine feet, its walls a foot in thickness, and its weight 19,250 pounds; 2nd--The cannon was to be a columbiad 900 feet in length, a well of that depth forming the vertical mould in which it was to be cast, and 3rd--The powder was to be 400 thousand pounds of gun cotton, which, by developing more than 200 thousand millions of cubic feet of gas under the projectile, would easily send it as far as our satellite.
These questions settled, Barbican, aided by Murphy, the Chief Engineer of the Cold