The Moon-Voyage by Jules Verne Read Free Book Online Page B

shot! superb projectile! I like to think you will
be received up there with the honours due to a terrestrial ambassador!"
    Cheers greeted this brilliant peroration, and J.T. Maston, overcome with
emotion, sat down amidst the felicitations of his colleagues.
    "And now," said Barbicane, "that we have given some time to poetry, let
us proceed to facts."
    "We are ready," answered the members of the committee as they each
demolished half-a-dozen sandwiches.
    "You know what problem it is we have to solve," continued the president;
"it is that of endowing a projectile with a speed of 12,000 yards per
second. I have every reason to believe that we shall succeed, but at
present let us see what speeds we have already obtained; General Morgan
can edify us upon that subject."
    "So much the more easily," answered the general, "because during the war
I was a member of the Experiment Commission. The 100-pound cannon of
Dahlgren, with a range of 5,000 yards, gave their projectiles an initial
speed of 500 yards a second."
    "Yes; and the Rodman Columbiad?" (the Americans gave the name of
"Columbiad" to their enormous engines of destruction) asked the
president.
    "The Rodman Columbiad, tried at Fort Hamilton, near New York, hurled a
projectile, weighing half a ton, a distance of six miles, with a speed
of 800 yards a second, a result which neither Armstrong nor Palliser has
obtained in England."
    "Englishmen are nowhere!" said J.T. Maston, pointing his formidable
steel hook eastward.
    "Then," resumed Barbicane, "a speed of 800 yards is the maximum obtained
at present."
    "Yes," answered Morgan.
    "I might add, however," replied J.T. Maston, "that if my mortar had not
been blown up—"
    "Yes, but it was blown up," replied Barbicane with a benevolent gesture.
"We must take the speed of 800 yards for a starting point. We must keep
till another meeting the discussion of the means used to produce this
speed; allow me to call your attention to the dimensions which our
projectile must have. Of course it must be something very different to
one of half a ton weight."
    "Why?" asked the major.
    "Because," quickly answered J.T. Maston, "it must be large enough to
attract the attention of the inhabitants of the moon, supposing there
are any."
    "Yes," answered Barbicane, "and for another reason still more
important."
    "What do you mean, Barbicane?" asked the major.
    "I mean that it is not enough to send up a projectile and then to think
no more about it; we must follow it in its transit."
    "What?" said the general, slightly surprised at the proposition.
    "Certainly," replied Barbicane, like a man who knew what he was saying,
"or our experiment will be without result."
    "But then," replied the major, "you will have to give the projectile
enormous dimensions."
    "No. Please grant me your attention. You know that optical instruments
have acquired great perfection; certain telescopes increase objects six
thousand, and bring the moon to within a distance of forty miles. Now at
that distance objects sixty feet square are perfectly visible. The power
of penetration of the telescope has not been increased, because that
power is only exercised to the detriment of their clearness, and the
moon, which is only a reflecting mirror, does not send a light intense
enough for the telescopes to increase objects beyond that limit."
    "Very well, then, what do you mean to do?" asked the general. "Do you
intend giving a diameter of sixty feet to your projectile?"
    "No."
    "You are not going to take upon yourself the task of making the moon
more luminous?"
    "I am, though."
    "That's rather strong!" exclaimed Maston.
    "Yes, but simple," answered Barbicane. "If I succeed in lessening the
density of the atmosphere which the moon's light traverses, shall I not
render that light more intense?"
    "Evidently."
    "In order to obtain that result I shall only have to establish my
telescope upon some high mountain. We can do that."
    "I give in," answered the major; "you have such a way of