"From the Earth to the Moon"

     Jules Verne's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon, deals with a post-Civil War gun club in Maryland, suffering from an existential crisis. Since the end of the Civil War, there had been no use for guns, cannons and other artillery. So members of the Gun Club did not know what their future had in store, since they had devoted most of their lives to the development of artillery. However, this all changed when the president, Barbican, announced a plan to send a projectile to the moon. The rest of story follows them as they prepare for, and eventually execute, this experiment.

     In a speech given by Barbican, he says, "I have asked myself if, by means of suitable apparatus constructed with reference to well determined laws of resistance, it would not be possible tons end a ball to the Moon!". The president of the Gun Club does not wish to send a projectile to the Moon for financial gains or even scientific reasons. He merely wants to know if he can. He is curious. And it is his inquiry that fuels all the events in this book.

     From the Earth to the Moon does not focus on the event of landing on the Moon, but rather, all of the preparations done preceding the launch. Verne goes into detail regarding all of the necessary planning to send a projectile to the Moon. He has a chapter dedicated to the type of cannon to be used. He writes about the dimensions and the material that the cannon is be be made out of. Similarly, he spends another chapter on the characteristic of the projectile and a third chapter on the type of fuel to be used to launch the satellite.

     Not only is inquiry the foundation for the book, all of the characters in the story are inquisitive. Once the plan to send a projectile to the Moon was announced, everyone in the United States became fascinated with the subject. They read everything about Barbican's plan itself. They also devoted themselves to read what and been published about the Moon itself, everyone becoming curious about something that had never held their attention before. Verne writes, "The immediate effect of Barbican's proposal was to make every body brush up whatever astronomical knowledge he had ever acquired regarding the Moon. All books on the subject were in immediate and universal demand."

     All of the remarkable things accomplished in From the Earth to the Moon were done because of inquiry. If the people had not been curious, they would not have constructed a giant cannon, built roads and railroads, and other things. It was even inquiry that sent the first people to the Moon. Barbican originally only planned on sending a ball, but that changed with the arrival of Michael Ardan.

     Ardan arrived from France during the construction of the giant gun. He proposed to Barbican that a projectile capable of carrying passengers be used instead of the original design. When asked why he wanted to go to the Moon, he responded: "I don't know whether the other worlds are inhabited or not, and as I don't know, I am going to see!" The childlike character of Ardan is the embodiment of inquiry.

     Inquiry is a huge part of our existence, in particularly as children. When the Gun Club is threatened with their existential crisis, it is inquiry and a curious mind that saves them and gives purpose to their lives again.