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The Moon-Voyage. Jules VerneЧитать онлайн книгу.

The Moon-Voyage - Jules Verne


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TO BE BELIEVED IN THE UNITED STATES

      VII. THE HYMN OF THE CANNON-BALL

      VIII. HISTORY OF THE CANNON

      IX. THE QUESTION OF POWDERS

      X. ONE ENEMY AGAINST TWENTY-FIVE MILLIONS OF FRIENDS

      XI. FLORIDA AND TEXAS

      XII. "URBI ET ORBI"

      XIII. STONY HILL

      XIV. PICKAXE AND TROWEL

      XV. THE CEREMONY OF THE CASTING

      XVI. THE COLUMBIAD

      XVII. A TELEGRAM

      XVIII. THE PASSENGER OF THE ATLANTA

      XIX. A MEETING

      XX. THRUST AND PARRY

      XXI. HOW A FRENCHMAN SETTLES AN AFFAIR

      XXII. THE NEW CITIZEN OF THE UNITED STATES

      XXIII. THE PROJECTILE COMPARTMENT

      XXIV. THE TELESCOPE OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS

      XXV. FINAL DETAILS

      XXVI. FIRE

      XXVII. CLOUDY WEATHER

      XXVIII. A NEW STAR

      * * * * *

      "ROUND THE MOON."

      PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. CONTAINING A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE FIRST PART OF THIS WORK TO SERVE AS PREFACE TO THE SECOND

      I. FROM 10.20 P.m. TO 10.47 P.m.

      II. THE FIRST HALF-HOUR

      III. TAKING POSSESSION

      IV. A LITTLE ALGEBRA

      V. THE TEMPERATURE OF SPACE

      VI. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

      VII. A MOMENT OF INTOXICATION

      VIII. AT SEVENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN LEAGUES

      IX. THE CONSEQUENCES OF DEVIATION

      X. THE OBSERVERS OF THE MOON

      XI. IMAGINATION AND REALITY

      XII. OROGRAPHICAL DETAILS

      XIII. LUNAR LANDSCAPES

      XIV. A NIGHT OF THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FOUR HOURS AND A HALF

      XV. HYPERBOLA OR PARABOLA

      XVI. THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

      XVII. TYCHO

      XVIII. GRAVE QUESTIONS

      XIX. A STRUGGLE WITH THE IMPOSSIBLE

      XX. THE SOUNDINGS OF THE SUSQUEHANNA

      XXI. J.T. MASTON CALLED IN

      XXII. PICKED UP

      XXIII. THE END

      * * * * *

       Table of Contents

      * * * * *

       Table of Contents

      THE GUN CLUB.

      During the Federal war in the United States a new and very influential club was established in the city of Baltimore, Maryland. It is well known with what energy the military instinct was developed amongst that nation of shipowners, shopkeepers, and mechanics. Mere tradesmen jumped their counters to become extempore captains, colonels, and generals without having passed the Military School at West Point; they soon rivalled their colleagues of the old continent, and, like them, gained victories by dint of lavishing bullets, millions, and men.

      But where Americans singularly surpassed Europeans was in the science of ballistics, or of throwing massive weapons by the use of an engine; not that their arms attained a higher degree of perfection, but they were of unusual dimensions, and consequently of hitherto unknown ranges. The English, French, and Prussians have nothing to learn about flank, running, enfilading, or point-blank firing; but their cannon, howitzers, and mortars are mere pocket-pistols compared with the formidable engines of American artillery.

      This fact ought to astonish no one. The Yankees, the first mechanicians in the world, are born engineers, just as Italians are musicians and Germans metaphysicians. Thence nothing more natural than to see them bring their audacious ingenuity to bear on the science of ballistics. Hence those gigantic cannon, much less useful than sewing-machines, but quite as astonishing, and much more admired. The marvels of this style by Parrott, Dahlgren, and Rodman are well known. There was nothing left the Armstrongs, Pallisers, and Treuille de Beaulieux but to bow before their transatlantic rivals.

      Therefore during the terrible struggle between Northerners and Southerners, artillerymen were in great request; the Union newspapers published their inventions with enthusiasm, and there was no little tradesman nor naïf "booby" who did not bother his head day and night with calculations about impossible trajectory engines.

      Now when an American has an idea he seeks another American to share it. If they are three, they elect a president and two secretaries. Given four, they elect a clerk, and a company is established. Five convoke a general meeting, and the club is formed. It thus happened at Baltimore. The first man who invented a new cannon took into partnership the first man who cast it and the first man that bored it. Such was the nucleus of the Gun Club. One month after its formation it numbered eighteen hundred and thirty-three effective members, and thirty thousand five hundred and seventy-five corresponding members.

      One condition was imposed as a sine quâ non upon every one who wished to become a member—that of having invented, or at least perfected, a cannon; or, in default of a cannon, a firearm of some sort. But, to tell the truth, mere inventors of fifteen-barrelled rifles, revolvers, or sword-pistols did not enjoy much consideration. Artillerymen were always preferred to them in every circumstance.

      "The estimation in which they are held," said one day a learned orator of the Gun Club, "is in proportion to the size of their cannon, and in direct ratio to the square of distance attained by their projectiles!"

      A little more and it would have been Newton's law of gravitation applied to moral order.

      Once the Gun Club founded, it can be easily imagined its effect upon the inventive genius of the Americans. War-engines took colossal proportions, and projectiles launched beyond permitted distances cut inoffensive pedestrians to pieces. All these inventions left the timid instruments of European artillery far behind them. This may be estimated by the following figures:—

      Formerly, "in the good old times," a thirty-six pounder, at a distance of three hundred feet, would cut up thirty-six horses, attacked in flank, and sixty-eight men. The art was then in its infancy. Projectiles have since made their way. The Rodman gun that sent a projectile weighing half a ton a distance of seven miles could easily have cut up a hundred and fifty horses and three hundred men. There was some talk at the Gun Club of making a solemn experiment with it. But if the horses consented to play their part, the men unfortunately were wanting.

      However that may be, the effect of these cannon was very deadly, and at each discharge the combatants fell like ears before a scythe. After such projectiles what signified the famous ball which, at Coutras, in 1587, disabled twenty-five men; and the one which, at Zorndorff, in 1758, killed forty fantassins; and in 1742, Kesseldorf's Austrian cannon, of which every shot levelled seventy enemies


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