From the Earth to the Moon Part 2

Just at this crisis, as though she comprehended all this agitation regarding herself, the moon shone forth with serene splendor, eclipsing by her intense illumination all the surrounding lights. The Yankees all turned their gaze toward her resplendent orb, kissed their hands, called her by all kinds of endearing names. Between eight o'clock and midnight one optician in Jones'-Fall Street made his fortune by the sale of opera-gla.s.ses.

Midnight arrived, and the enthusiasm showed no signs of diminution.

It spread equally among all cla.s.ses of citizens-- men of science, shopkeepers, merchants, porters, chair-men, as well as "greenhorns,"

were stirred in their innermost fibres. A national enterprise was at stake. The whole city, high and low, the quays bordering the Patapsco, the s.h.i.+ps lying in the basins, disgorged a crowd drunk with joy, gin, and whisky. Every one chattered, argued, discussed, disputed, applauded, from the gentleman lounging upon the barroom settee with his tumbler of sherry-cobbler before him down to the waterman who got drunk upon his "knock-me-down" in the dingy taverns of Fell Point.

About two A.M., however, the excitement began to subside.

President Barbicane reached his house, bruised, crushed, and squeezed almost to a mummy. Hercules could not have resisted a similar outbreak of enthusiasm. The crowd gradually deserted the squares and streets. The four railways from Philadelphia and Was.h.i.+ngton, Harrisburg and Wheeling, which converge at Baltimore, whirled away the heterogeneous population to the four corners of the United States, and the city subsided into comparative tranquility.

On the following day, thanks to the telegraphic wires, five hundred newspapers and journals, daily, weekly, monthly, or bi-monthly, all took up the question. They examined it under all its different aspects, physical, meteorological, economical, or moral, up to its bearings on politics or civilization.

They debated whether the moon was a finished world, or whether it was destined to undergo any further transformation. Did it resemble the earth at the period when the latter was dest.i.tute as yet of an atmosphere? What kind of spectacle would its hidden hemisphere present to our terrestrial spheroid? Granting that the question at present was simply that of sending a projectile up to the moon, every one must see that that involved the commencement of a series of experiments. All must hope that some day America would penetrate the deepest secrets of that mysterious...o...b.. and some even seemed to fear lest its conquest should not sensibly derange the equilibrium of Europe.

The project once under discussion, not a single paragraph suggested a doubt of its realization. All the papers, pamphlets, reports-- all the journals published by the scientific, literary, and religious societies enlarged upon its advantages; and the Society of Natural History of Boston, the Society of Science and Art of Albany, the Geographical and Statistical Society of New York, the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, and the Smithsonian of Was.h.i.+ngton sent innumerable letters of congratulation to the Gun Club, together with offers of immediate a.s.sistance and money.

From that day forward Impey Barbicane became one of the greatest citizens of the United States, a kind of Was.h.i.+ngton of science.

A single trait of feeling, taken from many others, will serve to show the point which this homage of a whole people to a single individual attained.

Some few days after this memorable meeting of the Gun Club, the manager of an English company announced, at the Baltimore theatre, the production of "Much ado about Nothing." But the populace, seeing in that t.i.tle an allusion damaging to Barbicane's project, broke into the auditorium, smashed the benches, and compelled the unlucky director to alter his playbill.

Being a sensible man, he bowed to the public will and replaced the offending comedy by "As you like it"; and for many weeks he realized fabulous profits.

CHAPTER IV

REPLY FROM THE OBSERVATORY OF CAMBRIDGE

Barbicane, however, lost not one moment amid all the enthusiasm of which he had become the object. His first care was to rea.s.semble his colleagues in the board-room of the Gun Club.

There, after some discussion, it was agreed to consult the astronomers regarding the astronomical part of the enterprise.

Their reply once ascertained, they could then discuss the mechanical means, and nothing should be wanting to ensure the success of this great experiment.

A note couched in precise terms, containing special interrogatories, was then drawn up and addressed to the Observatory of Cambridge in Ma.s.sachusetts. This city, where the first university of the United States was founded, is justly celebrated for its astronomical staff. There are to be found a.s.sembled all the most eminent men of science. Here is to be seen at work that powerful telescope which enabled Bond to resolve the nebula of Andromeda, and Clarke to discover the satellite of Sirius. This celebrated inst.i.tution fully justified on all points the confidence reposed in it by the Gun Club.

So, after two days, the reply so impatiently awaited was placed in the hands of President Barbicane.

It was couched in the following terms:

_The Director of the Cambridge Observatory to the President of the Gun Club at Baltimore._

CAMBRIDGE, October 7.

On the receipt of your favor of the 6th instant, addressed to the Observatory of Cambridge in the name of the members of the Baltimore Gun Club, our staff was immediately called together, and it was judged expedient to reply as follows:

The questions which have been proposed to it are these--

"1. Is it possible to transmit a projectile up to the moon?

"2. What is the exact distance which separates the earth from its satellite?

"3. What will be the period of transit of the projectile when endowed with sufficient initial velocity? and, consequently, at what moment ought it to be discharged in order that it may touch the moon at a particular point?

"4. At what precise moment will the moon present herself in the most favorable position to be reached by the projectile?

"5. What point in the heavens ought the cannon to be aimed at which is intended to discharge the projectile?

"6. What place will the moon occupy in the heavens at the moment of the projectile's departure?"

Regarding the _first_ question, "Is it possible to transmit a projectile up to the moon?"

_Answer._-- Yes; provided it possess an initial velocity of 1,200 yards per second; calculations prove that to be sufficient.

In proportion 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._ Consequently, the weight of a shot will decrease, and will become reduced to _zero_ at the instant that the attraction of the moon exactly counterpoises that of the earth; that is to say at 47/52 of its pa.s.sage. At that instant the projectile will have no weight whatever; and, if it pa.s.ses that point, it will fall into the moon by the sole effect of the lunar attraction.

The _theoretical possibility_ of the experiment is therefore absolutely demonstrated; its _success_ must depend upon the power of the engine employed.

As to the _second_ question, "What is the exact distance which separates the earth from its satellite?"

_Answer._-- The moon does not describe a _circle_ round the earth, but rather an _ellipse_, of which our earth occupies one of the _foci_; the consequence, therefore, is, that at certain times it approaches nearer to, and at others it recedes farther from, the earth; in astronomical language, it is at one time in _apogee_, at another in _perigee_. Now the difference between its greatest and its least distance is too considerable to be left out of consideration. In point of fact, in its apogee the moon is 247,552 miles, and in its perigee, 218,657 miles only distant; a fact which makes a difference of 28,895 miles, or more than one-ninth of the entire distance. The perigee distance, therefore, is that which ought to serve as the basis of all calculations.

To the _third_ question.

_Answer._-- If the shot should preserve continuously its initial velocity of 12,000 yards per second, it would require little more than nine hours to reach its destination; but, inasmuch as that initial velocity will be continually decreasing, it will occupy 300,000 seconds, that is 83hrs. 20m. in reaching the point where the attraction of the earth and moon will be _in equilibrio_. From this point it will fall into the moon in 50,000 seconds, or 13hrs. 53m. 20sec. It will be desirable, therefore, to discharge it 97hrs. 13m. 20sec. before the arrival of the moon at the point aimed at.

Regarding question _four_, "At what precise moment will the moon present herself in the most favorable position, etc.?"

_Answer._-- After what has been said above, it will be necessary, first of all, to choose the period when the moon will be in perigee, and _also_ the moment when she will be crossing the zenith, which latter event will further diminish the entire distance by a length equal to the radius of the earth, _i. e._ 3,919 miles; the result of which will be that the final pa.s.sage remaining to be accomplished will be 214,976 miles. But although the moon pa.s.ses her perigee every month, she does not reach the zenith always _at exactly the same moment_. She does not appear under these two conditions simultaneously, except at long intervals of time. It will be necessary, therefore, to wait for the moment when her pa.s.sage in perigee shall coincide with that in the zenith. Now, by a fortunate circ.u.mstance, on the 4th of December in the ensuing year the moon _will_ present these two conditions. At midnight she will be in perigee, that is, at her shortest distance from the earth, and at the same moment she will be crossing the zenith.

On the _fifth_ question, "At what point in the heavens ought the cannon to be aimed?"

_Answer._-- The preceding remarks being admitted, the cannon ought to be pointed to the zenith of the place. Its fire, therefore, will be perpendicular to the plane of the horizon; and the projectile will soonest pa.s.s beyond the range of the terrestrial attraction. But, in order that the moon should reach the zenith of a given place, it is necessary that the place should not exceed in lat.i.tude the declination of the luminary; in other words, it must be comprised within the degrees 0@ and 28@ of lat. N. or S. In every other spot the fire must necessarily be oblique, which would seriously militate against the success of the experiment.

As to the _sixth_ question, "What place will the moon occupy in the heavens at the moment of the projectile's departure?"

_Answer._-- At the moment when the projectile shall be discharged into s.p.a.ce, the moon, which travels daily forward 13@ 10' 35", will be distant from the zenith point by four times that quant.i.ty, _i. e._ by 52@ 41' 20", a s.p.a.ce which corresponds to the path which she will describe during the entire journey of the projectile.

But, inasmuch as it is equally necessary to take into account the deviation which the rotary motion of the earth will impart to the shot, and as the shot cannot reach the moon until after a deviation equal to 16 radii of the earth, which, calculated upon the moon's...o...b..t, are equal to about eleven degrees, it becomes necessary to add these eleven degrees to those which express the r.e.t.a.r.dation of the moon just mentioned: that is to say, in round numbers, about sixty-four degrees. Consequently, at the moment of firing the visual radius applied to the moon will describe, with the vertical line of the place, an angle of sixty-four degrees.

These are our answers to the questions proposed to the Observatory of Cambridge by the members of the Gun Club:

To sum up--

1st. The cannon ought to be planted in a country situated between 0@ and 28@ of N. or S. lat.

2nd. It ought to be pointed directly toward the zenith of the place.

3rd. The projectile ought to be propelled with an initial velocity of 12,000 yards per second.

4th. It ought to be discharged at 10hrs. 46m. 40sec. of the 1st of December of the ensuing year.

5th. It will meet the moon four days after its discharge, precisely at midnight on the 4th of December, at the moment of its transit across the zenith.