Then Nicholl, Using His Own Calculations, Demonstrated That It Was
Absolutely Impossible To Give Any Object At All The Velocity Of
12,000 Yards Per Second.
Then Nicholl, using his own calculations, demonstrated that it was
absolutely impossible to give any object at all the velocity of
12,000 yards per second. And, algebra in hand, he maintained that
even if such a velocity could be attained, such a heavy projectile
could never be lifted beyond the limits of the Earth's atmosphere!
It would never reach even an altitude of twenty miles. And
furthermore! Even if such a speed could be attained, even if it
would suffice, the shell could not withstand the pressure of the
gases produced by igniting 1,600,000 pounds of powder. And even if
it could resist the pressure, it could not withstand the
temperature, it would melt as it left the Columbiad, and a red-hot
rain would fall on the heads of the foolish spectators.
Barbicane did not even wince at these attacks; he simply got on
with his work.
-- Jules Verne, From the Earth to the Moon (1865)
From a draft textbook manuscript submitted to a publisher.
"As Earth was being formed out of the collision of space rocks, the heat from those collisions and from the increasing gravitational energy of the planet made the entire planet molten, even the surface....
