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From The Earth To The Moon
''From the Earth to the Moon: A Direct Route in 97 Hours, 20 Minutes'' () is an 1865 novel by Jules Verne. It tells the story of the Baltimore Gun Club, a post-American Civil War society of weapons enthusiasts, and their attempts to build an enormous Columbiad#In fiction, Columbiad space gun and launch three people – the Gun Club's president, his Philadelphian armor-making rival, and a French poet – in a projectile with the goal of a Moon landing. Five years later, Verne wrote a sequel called ''Around the Moon''. The 2 modern unabridged English translations were done by Walter James Miller in 1978 and Frederick Paul Walter in 2010. Background Verne's novel was not the first literary work to recount a journey to the Moon; these include ''A True Story'', by Lucian (second century AD), Francis Godwin's ''The Man in the Moone'' (1638), the ''Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon'' (1657) by Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac, Cyrano de Bergerac, John Wilkins's novel ''T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis Mercier
Reverend Lewis Page Mercier (9 January 1820 – 2 November 1875) is known today as the translator, along with Eleanor Elizabeth King, of three of the best-known novels of Jules Verne: ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'', ''From the Earth to the Moon'', and ''Around the Moon''. To avoid a conflict of interest with his position as chaplain, Mercier wrote under the pen names of Louis Mercier, MA (Oxon) and Mercier Lewis. Chronology Born on 9 January 1820 (christened 7 February 1820, Old Church, Saint Pancras, London,) the only son of Francis Michael Jacob Mercier, Lewis Page Mercier came of French Huguenot stock; his grandfather was pastor of the French Protestant church in Threadneedle Street, London. As a child he almost certainly spoke a species of French at home, a possible qualification for his later translations of Verne. The family was located in the London Borough of Hackney, home of the original silk industry of French mercers (). In 1837 Mercier entered Trinity Col ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lucian
Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridiculed superstition, religious practices, and belief in the paranormal. Although his native language was probably Syriac, all of his extant works are written entirely in ancient Greek (mostly in the Attic Greek dialect popular during the Second Sophistic period). Everything that is known about Lucian's life comes from his own writings, which are often difficult to interpret because of his extensive use of sarcasm. According to his oration ''The Dream'', he was the son of a lower middle class family from the city of Samosata along the banks of the Euphrates in the remote Roman province of Syria. As a young man, he was apprenticed to his uncle to become a sculptor, but, after a failed attempt at sculpting, he ran away to pursue an educati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Purchase Of The North Pole
''The Purchase of the North Pole'' or ''Topsy-Turvy'' () is an adventure novel by Jules Verne, published in 1889. It is the third and last novel of the Baltimore Gun Club, first appearing in ''From the Earth to the Moon'', and later in '' Around the Moon'', featuring the same characters but set twenty years later. Like some other books of his later years, in this novel Verne tempers his love of science and engineering with a good dose of irony about their potential for harmful abuse and the fallibility of human endeavors. Plot In an unspecified year in the 1890s (written "189–" in the novel), an international auction is organized to define the sovereign rights to the part of the Arctic extending from the 84th parallel, the highest yet reached by man, to the North Pole. Several countries send their official delegates, but the auction is won by a representative from an anonymous United States buyer. After the auction closes, the mysterious buyer is revealed to be Barbicane and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nadar
Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (; 5 April 1820 – 20 March 1910), known by the pseudonym Nadar () or Félix Nadar'','' was a French photographer, caricaturist, journalist, novelist, balloon (aircraft), balloonist, and proponent of History of aviation#Heavier than air, heavier-than-air flight. In 1858, he became the first person to take aerial photographs. Photographic portraits by Nadar are held by many of the great national collections of photographs. His son, Paul Nadar, continued the studio after his death. Life Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (also known as Nadar) was born in early April 1820 in Paris, though some sources state he was born in Lyon. His father, Victor Tournachon, was a printer and bookseller. Nadar began to study medicine but quit for economic reasons after his father's death. Nadar started working as a caricaturist and novelist for various newspapers. He fell in with the Parisian bohemian group of Gérard de Nerval, Charles Baudelaire, and Théodore de Banville. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acceleration
In mechanics, acceleration is the Rate (mathematics), rate of change of the velocity of an object with respect to time. Acceleration is one of several components of kinematics, the study of motion. Accelerations are Euclidean vector, vector quantities (in that they have Magnitude (mathematics), magnitude and Direction (geometry), direction). The orientation of an object's acceleration is given by the orientation of the ''net'' force acting on that object. The magnitude of an object's acceleration, as described by Newton's second law, is the combined effect of two causes: * the net balance of all external forces acting onto that object — magnitude is Direct proportionality, directly proportional to this net resulting force; * that object's mass, depending on the materials out of which it is made — magnitude is Inverse proportionality, inversely proportional to the object's mass. The International System of Units, SI unit for acceleration is metre per second squared (, \ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Escape Velocity
In celestial mechanics, escape velocity or escape speed is the minimum speed needed for an object to escape from contact with or orbit of a primary body, assuming: * Ballistic trajectory – no other forces are acting on the object, such as propulsion and friction * No other gravity-producing objects exist. Although the term ''escape velocity'' is common, it is more accurately described as a speed than as a velocity because it is independent of direction. Because gravitational force between two objects depends on their combined mass, the escape speed also depends on mass. For artificial satellites and small natural objects, the mass of the object makes a negligible contribution to the combined mass, and so is often ignored. Escape speed varies with distance from the center of the primary body, as does the velocity of an object traveling under the gravitational influence of the primary. If an object is in a circular or elliptical orbit, its speed is always less than the es ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gun Barrel
A gun barrel is a crucial part of gun-type weapons such as small arms, small firearms, artillery pieces, and air guns. It is the straight shooting tube, usually made of rigid high-strength metal, through which a contained rapid expansion of high-pressure gas(es) is used to propel a projectile out of the front end (muzzle (firearms), muzzle) at a high velocity. The hollow interior of the barrel is called the bore, and the diameter of the bore is called its calibre, usually measured in inches or millimetres. The first firearms were made at a time when metallurgy was not advanced enough to cast tubes capable of withstanding the explosive forces of early cannons, so the pipe (often built from staves of metal) needed to be braced periodically along its length for structural reinforcement, producing an appearance somewhat reminiscent of storage barrels being stacked together, hence the English name. History Gun barrels are usually made of some type of metal or Alloy, metal alloy. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Non-rocket Spacelaunch
Non-rocket spacelaunch refers to theoretical concepts for launch into space where much of the speed and altitude needed to achieve orbit is provided by a propulsion technique that is not subject to the limits of the rocket equation. Although all space launches to date have been rockets, a number of alternatives to rockets have been proposed. In some systems, such as a combination launch system, skyhook, rocket sled launch, rockoon, or air launch, a portion of the total delta-v may be provided, either directly or indirectly, by using rocket propulsion. Present-day launch costs are very high – $2,500 to $25,000 per kilogram from Earth to low Earth orbit (LEO). As a result, launch costs are a large percentage of the cost of all space endeavors. If launch can be made cheaper, the total cost of space missions will be reduced. Due to the exponential nature of the rocket equation, providing even a small amount of the velocity to LEO by other means has the potential of greatly redu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marie-Anne De Roumier-Robert
Marie-Anne de Roumier-Robert was an 18th-century French writer. She wrote one of the earliest known works of science fiction, '' Voyage de Milord Céton dans les sept planètes'' ("Lord Seton's Voyage Among the Seven Planets", 1765). Biography Marie-Anne Roumier was from a family related to Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle (; ; 11 February 1657 – 9 January 1757), also called Bernard Le Bouyer de Fontenelle, was a French author and an influential member of three of the academies of the Institut de France, noted especially for his ... and received a good education. Her talent for writing had been noticed by Fontenelle. Ruined by Law's, she retired to a convent before marrying Jean Paul Robert, a lawyer in Parliament, in 1737. Marie-Anne de Roumier-Robert was a writer of the early 18th century. She was representative of the rise of women's writing in the 1760s. In her novels, she featured women using philosophical discourses. In ''Les Ond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Voyage De Milord Céton Dans Les Sept Planètes
''The Voyages of Lord Seaton to the Seven Planets'' is a 1765 romantic utopian novel by Marie-Anne de Roumier-Robert. In the form of travel literature through the Solar System, this novel addresses innovative feminist themes for the time. Summary Marie-Anne Robert describes a journey made by a heroine, Monime, guided by a genius named Zachiel. This initiatory journey which takes her into space to visit seven planets is supposed to teach her the skills she needs for her royal destiny. Analysis The novel is a bildungsroman In literary criticism, a bildungsroman () is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth and change of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age). The term comes from the German words ('formation' or 'edu ... in which the heroine tours the solar system. She discovers people who demonstrate different failings of humanity, such as frivolity, a taste for war, a taste for money or the cult of science. Her journey takes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Wilkins
John Wilkins (14 February 1614 – 19 November 1672) was an English Anglican ministry, Anglican clergyman, Natural philosophy, natural philosopher, and author, and was one of the founders of the Royal Society. He was Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death. Wilkins is one of the few persons to have headed a college at both the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. He was a polymath, although not one of the most important scientific innovators of the period. His personal qualities were brought out, and obvious to his contemporaries, in reducing political tension in English Interregnum, Interregnum Oxford, in founding the Royal Society on non-partisan lines, and in efforts to reach out to Nonconformist (Protestantism), Protestant Nonconformists. He was one of the founders of the new natural theology compatible with the Modern science, science of the time. He is particularly known for ''An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language'' (1668) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Savinien Cyrano De Bergerac
Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac ( , ; 6 March 1619 – 28 July 1655) was a French novelist, playwright, epistolarian, and duelist. A bold and innovative author, his work was part of the libertine literature of the first half of the 17th century. Today, he is best known as the inspiration for Edmond Rostand's most noted drama, ''Cyrano de Bergerac'' (1897), which, although it includes elements of his life, also contains invention and myth. Since the 1970s, there has been a resurgence in the study of Cyrano, demonstrated in the abundance of theses, essays, articles and biographies published in France and elsewhere. Life Sources Cyrano's short life is poorly documented. Certain significant chapters of his life are known only from the Preface to the ''Histoire Comique par Monsieur de Cyrano Bergerac, Contenant les Estats & Empires de la Lune'' (''Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon'') published in 1657, nearly two years after his death. Without Henri Le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
