Alcuni secondi della vita di Pascal o di Newton sono più preziosi di tutta l'esistenza dell'indigesta folla degli imbecilli...
(pagina 12)

In quell'emisfero di sinistra si stende il «Mare delle Nuvole,» in cui va così di frequente ad annegarsi la ragione umana. Poco lungi apparisce il «Mare delle Pioggie» alimentato da tutti gli intrighi dell'esistenza; più oltre si apre il «Mare delle Tempeste» in cui l'uomo lotta senza tregua contro le sue passioni troppo spesso vittoriose. Poi sfinito dai disinganni, dai tradimenti, dalle infedeltà e da tutto il corteo delle miserie terrestri, che trova egli al fine della sua carriera:? Il vasto «Mare degli Umori,» a mala pena temperato con poche goccie delle acque del «Golfo della Rugiada!» Nuvole, pioggie, tempeste, umori; la vita dell'uomo contiene forse altro e non si riassume tutta con questo quattro parole? L'emisfero di dritta, «dedicato alle signore,» contiene mari più piccoli, i cui nomi significativi riflettono tutti gli incidenti d'una esistenza femminina. Vi è il «Mare della Serenità» sul quale si china la giovinetta; il «Lago dei Sogni» che le riflette un ridente avvenire! E il «Mare del Nettare» coi suoi flutti di tenerezza, le sue brezze d'amore! E il «Mare della Fecondità,» e il «Mare delle Crisi,» poi il «Mare dei Vapori» le cui dimensioni forse sono troppo ristrette, e infine quel vasto «Mare della tranquillità,» dove si assorbono tutte le false passioni, tutti i sogni inutili, tutti i desiderii insoddisfatti ed i cui flutti si versano placidamente nel «Lago della Morte.
(pagina 87)

Agli occhi dei viaggiatori riappariva quell'aspetto arcaico dei passaggi lunari, crudi di toni, senza gradazioni di colore, senza sfumature d'ombre, brutalmente bianchi e neri, poichè la luce diffusa fa loro difetto. Peraltro, la vista di quel mondo desolato li impressionava per la sua stessa singolarità. Essi scorrevano sopra siffatta regione caotica come se fossero trascinati dal soffio d'un uragano. Vedevano le vette sfilare sotto i loro piedi, tuffavano lo sguardo nella cavità, scavalcavano le scanalature, si arrampicavano sulle bastite, scandagliavano le misteriose bocche: ma non era traccia di vegetazione, non apparenza di abitato; nulla, null'altro, fuorchè stratificazioni, canali di lava, piani puliti come specchi immensi, che riflettevano i raggi solari con uno splendore irresistibile. Nulla d'un mondo vivente, tutto d'un mondo morto, dove le valanghe, precipitantisi dalla vetta delle montagne, s'inabissavano senza rumore in fondo alle voragini. Avevano il movimento, ma lo strepito loro mancava ancora.
(pagina 127)
( )

En esta segunda parte de una de las más famosas novelas de Julio Verne, sus protagonistas realizan un extraordinario viaje a través del espacio visitando la cara oculta de nuestro satélite. Y hasta en sus más mínimos detalles -viaje, incidencias y retorno- diríase que el autor lo hubiera visto con nuestros propios ojos, como un profeta fascinado por lo que hoy es la realidad de cada día.

review of
Jules Verne's Round the Moon
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - July 15, 2017

My complete review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/574470-jules-verne

This is the sequel to Verne's From the Earth to the Moon (1863 or 1865). I'm not sure whether I read that one or not. If I did I might've read it 50 yrs ago. Round the Moon was written in 1869 or thereabouts. I find it interesting partially b/c as far as Verne's Science Fiction goes it's more SCIENCE than it is an adventure story. It seems evident to me that Verne researched this fairly thoroughly & dwelled perhaps a bit too much on presenting astronomical data in a barely fictionalized way. As such, I find it hard to imagine that this was as popular as his other Voyages Extraordinaires. It seems to me that this wd've appealed more to scientists concerned w/ nit-picking his facts than it wd've been to a general readership.

Verne posits a gun club founded during the American Civil War membership in wch involves inventing or modifying a cannon or other weapon.

"Then the war comes to an end—a black day for the members of the Gun Club. What future is there for its unique services to the military arts? The club's President, Impey Barbicane, calls a special meeting, assuring members that there will be an announcement of the greatest importance. He lays before them a proposal which takes their collective breath away : the Gun Club will sponsor a monster cannon which will fire a projectile to the moon!" - p 6

The above quote is from Robert A. W. Lowndes's introduction. One of the strange things about it is that the club's president is referred to as "Barbicane" while everywhere else in the bk he's "Barbican".

"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 University, 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." - p 9

Ha ha! The stage is set, the recap is in place. According to an online inflation calculator, $5,500,000 in 1869 wd be worth $93,173,707.43 in 2016. Given that I'm from BalTimOre this whole biz about the Baltimore Gun Club titillates me (or something). BalTimOre is a city of violence (& extreme narrow-mindedness) & I'm sure that the preponderance of guns there contributes to that enormously. As such, when the former Mayor of BalTimOre turned Governor turned Presidential candidate, Martin O'Malley, came out in favor of gun control in his presidential campaigning I was both pleasantly surprised & sure he knew what he was talking about. I rue the day that guns were invented & wd like to see arms merchants shot to the moon in a cannon under the conditions described in this novel. The recap continues by stating that the projectile/spacecraft:

"had not reached its mark, though it had approached near enough to be affected by the Lunar attraction; and that, its rectilinear motion having become circular, it should henceforth continue to describe a regular orbit around the Moon, of which in fact it had become the Satellite." - p 11

That having been the case, our heros the astronauts died off pretty quickly & that was that. Really there's no further reason to even discuss the novel (JUST KIDDING!). Now, of course, this having been written in 1869 it's bound to be a bit short on the scientific end of things considering the developments in the almost 150 yrs that've elapsed since then. There are some phenomenal DUH moments that're so far-fetched that they're practically unforgivable even as plot devices in the mid 19th century. One of them is that the astronauts don't even give a thought to what they're going to do once they get to the moon (other than land on it) nor do they give a thought about how they're going to get back. That's just unbelievably stupid, even for members of the Baltimore Gun Club.

"how were they ever to get back? Could they ever get back? or ever even be heard from?" - p 12

""See here, friends!" cried the Captain; "this going to the Moon is all very well, but how shall we get back?"

"His listeners looked at each other with a surprised and perplexed air. The question, though a very natural one, now appeared to have presented itself to their consideration absolutely for the first time." - p 77

Right. Do you really expect us to believe that Mr. Verne?! Even dogs on the Moon seems believable by comparison.

"["]Compel those Selenites to acknowledge, on spite of themselves, that the terrestrial race of canines is far superior to that of the very best Moon dog among them!"

""Dogs in the Moon!" sneered McNicholl, "I like that!"

""Plenty of dogs!" cried Ardan, "and horses too, and cows, and sheep, and no end of chickens!"

""A hundred dollars to one there isn't a single chicken within the whole lunar realm, not excluding even the invisible side!" cried the Captain, in an authoritative tone, but never taking his eye off the chronometer." - p 17

Verne might be on slightly more solid ground when he imagines the propulsive force necessary: ""Oh! four and a half little minutes!" went on Ardan. "Only think of it! We are shut up in a bullet that lies in the chamber of a cannon nine hundred feet long. Underneath this bullet is piled a charge of 400 thousand pounds of gun cotton, equivalent to 1600 thousand pounds of ordinary gun powder!["]" (p 18) Then again, maybe he isn't, I'd be no judge.

The following passage made me think of The Hunt for the Meteor, wch was the last Verne bk I reviewed ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2027470957 ):

""It is a simple bolide, but one of such enormous dimensions that the Earth's attraction has made it a satellite."

""What!" cried Ardan, "another satellite besides the Moon? I hope thyere are not more of them!"

""They are pretty numerous," replied Barbican; "but they are so small and they move with such enormous velocity that they are seldom seen.["]" - p 30

I don't know how obvious some of the stupidities of the astronauts wd've been to the 19th century reader, probably not very, but to this 21st century reader Verne plays the the-reader-is-smarter-than-the-characters card a bit too much:

""What do you know?" cried the Captain, stretching over and seizing him by the left.

""The reason why we did not hear the report!"

""Well, why did we not hear it!" asked both rapidly in the same breath.

""Because we were shot up 30 times faster than sound can travel!"" - p 35

That was 'painfully' obvious to this reader many pages before the characters ever had the epiphany. Given that the speed of sound is reputed to've been discovered in 1640 that knowledge was presumably not that obscure over 300 yrs later when this bk was written. The projectile still has fairly Earth-like gravity until it reaches the gravipause between the Earth & the Moon. "Every now and then, he would climb up, by means of iron pins fixed in the wall, to inspect his treasures" (p 42) It's my understanding that they wd've experienced zero gravity long before then. Then again, I can just look that up on the internet. Didn't Verne know how to use the internet? Sheesh, those 19th century people were retarded. Well, ok, I take that back. They did know how to use Integral Calculus:

""It means," said the Captain, now taking part in the discussion, "that the half of v prime square minus v squared equals gr multiplied by r over x minus one plus m prime over m multiplied by r over d minus x minus r over d minus r ........that is———"" - p 48

Verne gets into quite a bit of what is to me abstruse math. This is endearing to me but reinforces my assertion that "I find it hard to imagine that this was as popular as his other Voyages Extraordinaires" A footnote on the bottom of page 52 is interesting in this light:

"NOTE. In the French edition, the algebraical formulas having been very incorrectly printed, it cost the Translator a good deal of time and trouble to rectify them. The idea of explaining in the text how they had been arrived at, though at first seriously entertained, was soon abandoned. Doing so might perhaps have gratified the curiosity of some rare scientific student, but it would certainly have exhausted the patience of the general reader. For the benefit of our friend the student, however, we here append another of the means for solving the problem, over which the Cambridge men had so woefully blundered. It is furnished by one of our mathematical teachers." - p 52

The problem solving for this goes on for another 1.5 pages. I'm grateful for it even tho I didn't understand enuf of it for it to be of any value to me.

The dig at the "Cambridge men" is interesting. Their miscalculation cd've cost the whole mission's success. There are 3 astronauts, 2 Americans & one Frenchmen. Verne was French. He uses the Frenchman for comic relief & gives the Americans the serious scientist characteristics. That seems politically motivated on his part. He essentially predicts that the Americans will reach the moon 100 yrs before it happened. I have to wonder why he picked the "Cambridge men" to be blunderers. That seems to be potentially touchy. Maybe somebody at Cambridge gave a bk of his a bad review.

"How could they imagine that the Observatory men had committed such a blunder? Barbican would not believe it possible. He made the Captain go over his calculation again and again; but no flaw was to be found in it. He himself carefully examined it, figure after figure, but he could find nothing wrong. They both took up the formula and subjected it to the strongest tests but it was invulnerable. There was no denying the fact. The Cambridge professors had undoubtedly blundered in saying that the initial velocity of 12,000 yards a second would be enough to carry them to the neutral point. A velocity of nearly 18,000 yards would be the very lowest required for such a purpose. They had simply forgotten to allow a third for friction." - pp 54-55

Interesting. Verne has scientists making mistakes. This is realism, maybe it's even a realism that appears in other Verne bks but I don't remember that happening. Round the Moon is full of things going wrong & human error. That's one of the things I like the most about it. It's not populated by scientific super-beings but more by regular humans. Well, actually, they're a bit on the dumb side:

"["]When we get to the Moon, what shall we do there? How are we going to amuse ourselves? I'm afraid our life there will be awfully slow!"

"His companions emphatically disclaimed the possibility of such a thing.

""You may deny it, but I know better, and knowing better, I have laid in my stores accordingly. You have but to choose. I possess a varied assortment. Chess, draughts, cards, dominoes—everything in fact, but a billiard table."

""What!" exclaimed Barbican; "cumbered yourself with such gimcracks?"

""Such gimcracks are not good to amuse ourselves with, but are eminently calculated also to win us the friendship of the Selenites."" - p 57

Despite Verne's obvious attempts to be as scientifically accurate as possible throughout most of this (when he's not just being silly) things like this drinking-in-zero-gravity description aren't very convincing:

"A slight effort carried him sailing over to the side of the Projectile. Opening a cupboard and taking out a bottle and a few glasses, he placed them in a tray. Then setting the tray itself in the air as on a table in front of his companions, he filled the glasses, passed them around, and, in a lively speech interrupted with many a joyous hurrah, congratulated his companions of their glorious achievement in being the first that ever crossed the lunar line." - p 90

It's easy to be critical of a description like this 148 yrs later. I'm sure that if I were to try to describe a situation 148 yrs in the future it wd be ridiculous. Still, how, exactly, did Ardan, the French adventurer, pour the alcohol? If the glasses were staying still in mid-air wdn't the booze also stay still in the bottle when it was turned upside-down? Wdn't this, then, necessitate applying some force to the bottom of the bottle to eject the alcohol in the direction of the glasses & wdn't that force then move the glasses as the booze hit it? Still, Verne does get into such thing as changes in relative muscular power:

""Shall my muscular strength dimish in the same proportion?" was the next question.

""On the contrary, it will be relatively so much the more increased that you can take a stride 15 feet in width as easily as you can now take one of ordinary length."

""We shall be all Samsons, then, in the Moon!" cried Ardan.

""Especially," replied McNicholl, "if the stature of the Selenites is in proportion to the mass of their globe."

""If so, what should be their height?"

""A tall man would hardly be twelve inches in his boots!"

""They must be veritable Lilliputians then!" cried Ardan; "and we are all to be Gullivers! The old myth of the Giants realized! Perhaps the Titans that played such famous parts in the prehistoric period of out Earth, were adventurers like ourselves, casually arrived from some great planet!"" - p 92

As much as I'm pleased to see Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels referred to & as much as I'm pleased by Ardan's theory re Titans, I have to say that these speculations about the size of "Selenites" as based on the same relativities of humans, as well as on humanoid form, are a bit too silly for me. For one thing, everyone knows that Moon people are all female & scantily clad & that they listen to Theremin music all day. Where Verne really starts to get tedious is where he gets into the history of Moon mapmaking. Still, I appreciate that he goes to such scholarly lengths:

"A few years afterwards, Hevel of Dantzic (1611-1688), a Polish astronomer—more generally known as Hevelius, his works being all written in Latin—undertook to correct Galileo's measurements. But as his method could be strictly accurate only twice a month—the periods of the first and second quadrant—his rectifications could hardly be called successful.

"Still it is to the labors of this eminent astronomer, carried on uninterruptedly for fifty years in his own observatory, that we owe the first map of the Moon. It was published in 1647 under the name of Selenographia." - p 104

Verne was obviously preoccupied w/ whether people actually observe the Moon or not. I respect that, I think that people take for granted many things in their life w/o ever bothering to observe them closely. I'm sure I do.

""Have you ever seen the Moon?" said a teacher ironically one day in class to one of his pupils.

""No, sir," was the pert reply; "but I think I can safely say I've heard it spoken about."

"Though saying what he considered a smart thing, the pupil was probably perfectly right. Like the immense majority of his fellow beings, he had looked at the Moon, heard her talked of, written poetry about her, but in the strict sense of the term, he had probably never seen her—that is canned her, examined her, surveyed her, inspected her, reconnoitered her—even with an opera glass!" - p 106

As our heroes get closer to the Moon in their projectile they get to observe color. This, of course, wd be Verne's extrapolations from the observations of astronomers whose work he wd've read.

"In certain spots the greenish tint was quite decided, particularly in Mare Serenitatis and Mare Humorum, the very localities where Schmidt had most noticed it. Barbican also remarked that several large craters, of the class that had no interior cones, reflected a kind of bluish tinge, somewhat like that given forth by a freshly polished steel plate. These tints, he now saw enough to convince him, proceeded really from the lunar surface, and were not due, as certain astronomers asserted, either to the imperfections of spy-glasses, or to the interference of the terrestrial atmosphere." - p 125

Verne spent a great deal of time on scientific detail in Round the Moon. I reckon he wanted to get that pert student to actually look at & think about the Moon.

"Toward five in the morning, the northern limit of Mare Imbrium was finally passed, and Mare Frigoris spread its frost-colored plains far to the right and to the left. On the east the travellers could easily see the ring-mountain Condamine, above 4,000 feet high, while a little ahead on the right they could plainly distinguish Fontenelle with an altitude nearly twice as great."

"if we remember that Tycho, though nearly a quarter of a million miles distant, is such a luminous point on the lunar disc, that almost any moonlit night it can be easily perceived by the unaided terrestrial eye. What then must have been its splendor in the eyes of our travellers whose telescopes brought it actually four thousand times nearer!" - p 180

""Now what is the consequence of this law? If the orbit were a circle, the satellite would always preserve the same distance from its primary, and its velocity should therefore be constant. But the orbit being an elipse, and the attracting body always occupying one of the foci, the satellite must evidently be nearer to this focus in one part of its orbit than in another. The Earth when nearest to the Sun, is in her perihelion; when most distant, in her aphelion. The Moon, with regard to the Earth, is similarly in her perigree, and her apogee. Analogous expressions denoting the relations of the Projectile towards the Moon, would be periselene and aposelene. At its aposelene the Projectile's velocity would have reached its minimum; at the periselene, its maximum. As it is to the former point that we are now moving, clearly the velocity mist keep on diminishing until that point is reached. Then, if it does not die out altogether, it must spring up again, and even accelerate as it reapproaches the Moon. Now the great trouble is this: If the Aposelenetic point should coincide with the point of lunar attraction, our velocity must certainly become nil, and the Projectile must remain relatively motionless forever!"" - p 200 ( )

Another overly scientific Verne book. Yes its interesting how he anticipated certain aspects of the space program but while he does the science well the story loses out, as it often seems to in my experience. ( )

Verdensrummet, ca 1885
Indeholder "1. Fra kl. 10.20 til kl. 10.46,40 om aftenen", "2. Den første halve time", "3. Man indretter sig", "4. En smule algebra", "5. Kulden i verdenrummet", "6. Spørgsmål og svar", "7. Et øjebliks beruselse", "8. 312.456 kilometer fra jorden", "9. Følgerne af en afvigelse", "10. Enkeltheder på månens overflade", "11. Månelandskaber", "12. Natten på 354 1/2 time", "13. Hyperbel eller parabel", "14. Den sydlige halvkugle", "15. Tycho", "16. Alvorlige spørgsmål", "17. En kamp imod det umulige", "18. Susquehannas dybdelodninger", "19. J. T. Maston kaldes tilbage", "20. Redningen", "21. Slutning".

Kanonklubben består af folk, der har opfundet en ny kanon eller i alt fald forbedret en, eller et andet skydevåben til nød. Jo større kanon, jo mere anseelse nyder man i klubben.
Men nu er der fred og ingen fare. Hvor kedeligt. Kanonklubbens præsident Impey Barbicane fatter den ide at sende et projektil til Månen med en kæmpekanon. Projektilet skal være så stort at der er plads til tre mand i det, Barbicane selv, en rival Nicholl der laver panser og ikke kanoner og endelig en fransk eventyrer, Michel Ardan. Nicholl tror ikke på projektet og laver en række væddemål med Barbicane om at han ikke kan skaffe pengene, at kanonen ikke kan bygges osv.

Bygningen af kanonen og projektilet lykkes og den første december bliver de tre og deres to hunde skudt op med kurs mod Månen. Både projektil og indhold klarer sig fint gennem opskydningsfasen. Michel Ardan vågner først, mens det tager længere tid at få liv i de to andre. Men da de er vågnet alle tre, er det tid til at checke projektilet. Er de på bunden af havet eller på vej til Månen? De er heldigvis på vej til Månen. De skruer dækslerne af observationsvinduerne og bliver forskrækkede over at se en stor asteroide passere forbi ved høj hastighed. De kan lave observationer indefra og glemmer helt de to hunde, Diana og Drabant, de også har med. Drabant er blevet hårdt såret under afskydningen, men Diana har det fint. De har apparater med til at lave ilt og til at absorbere kultveilte. Beregninger synes at vise at de ikke har fået fart nok på til at nå Månen, men observationerne siger noget andet. Drabant dør af sine kvæstelser, så de lukker vinduet op et kort øjeblik og smider liget ud. Senere opdager de at Drabant nu cirkler omkring projektilet. De får slået iltmaskinen til, men ikke fra, og får en farlig iltrus. Senere når de punktet hvor Månens og Jordens tyngdekraft ophæver hinanden og bliver vægtløse. Det fortager sig da de kommer tættere på Månen, men en tæt passage af et meteor i starten af turen betyder en afvigelse af banen, så de skyder forbi Månen i stedet for at ramme den. De observerer i stedet flittigt og gør notater i håb om at nogen engang vil læse dem.
Faktisk er de så heldige at de den elvte december kommer tilbage til Jorden og lander i havet. Faktisk rammer de korvetten Susquehanna, så dens bovspryd bliver smadret. Folkene på korvetten tror at projektilet er havnet på bunden af havet, så de lægger en bøje ud og søger nærmeste havn. Her bliver skibet i huj og hast udstyret med bjærgningsudstyr og dykkerdragter, der kan klare trykket på 20000 fods dybde, dvs en dybde på 6 kilometer. Heldigvis er projektilet lettere end vand, så i stedet for at finde de tre månerejsende på havets bund, finder korvetten dem den 24 december flydende på overfladen. Og i færd med at spille domino.

Jules Verne regnede på tingene, men ignorerede umuligheder. Projektilet er lavet af aluminium, støddæmpet og affyret med store mængder skydebomuld fra et nedgravet kanonrør. Vægtløshed og iltforsyning og rummets kulde bliver også regnet ind.

I praksis er det svært at få mundingshastigheden høj nok og accelerationen bliver alt for høj til at nogen kan overleve den. Ilt og mad kan man derimod sagtens pakke nok af til at overleve turen.
Barbicane, Nicholl og Ardan bliver sendt afsted efter planen med en hastighed på ca 11 km/s. Fejlagtigt antager Jules Verne at de kun er vægtløse, når tyngdekraften fra Månen og Jorden ophæver hinanden, men de er jo i frit fald, så de burde være vægtløse hele vejen.

Road movie af type ud og hjem igen. ( )