From the Earth to the Moon

FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOONI. THE GUN CLUBDuring the War of the Rebellion, a new and influential club was established inthe city of Baltimore in the State of Maryland. It is well known with what energythe taste for military matters became developed among that nation of ship-owners,shopkeepers, and mechanics. Simple tradesmen jumped their counters to becomeextemporized captains, colonels, and generals, without having ever passed theSchool of Instruction at West Point; nevertheless; they quickly rivaled theircompeers of the old continent, and, like them, carried off victories by dint of lavishexpenditure in ammunition, money, and men.But the point in which the Americans singularly distanced the Europeans was inthe science of gunnery. Not, indeed, that their weapons retained a higher degree ofperfection than theirs, but that they exhibited unheard-of dimensions, andconsequently attained hitherto unheard-of ranges. In point of grazing, plunging,oblique, or enfilading, or point-blank firing, the English, French, and Prussianshave nothing to learn; but their cannon, howitzers, and mortars are mere pocketpistolscompared with the formidable engines of the American artillery.This fact need surprise no one. The Yankees, the first mechanicians in the world,are engineers--just as the Italians are musicians and the Germansmetaphysicians--by right of birth. Nothing is more natural, therefore, than toperceive them applying their audacious ingenuity to the science of gunnery.Witness the marvels of Parrott, Dahlgren, and Rodman. The Armstrong, Palliser,and Beaulieu guns were compelled to bow before their transatlantic rivals.Now when an American has an idea, he directly seeks a second American toshare it. If there be three, they elect a president and two secretaries. Given four,they name a keeper of records, and the office is ready for work; five, they convenea general meeting, and the club is fully constituted. So things were managed inBaltimore. The inventor of a new cannon associated himself with the caster and theborer. Thus was formed the nucleus of the "Gun Club." In a single month after itsformation it numbered 1,833 effective members and 30,565 correspondingmembers.One condition was imposed as a sine qua non upon every candidate foradmission into the association, and that was the condition of having designed, or(more or less) perfected a cannon; or, in default of a cannon, at least a firearm ofsome description. It may, however, be mentioned that mere inventors of revolvers,fire-shooting carbines, and similar small arms, met with little consideration.Artillerists always commanded the chief place of favor.The estimation in which these gentlemen were held, according to one of themost scientific exponents of the Gun Club, was "proportional to the masses of theirguns, and in the direct ratio of the square of the distances attained by theirprojectiles."The Gun Club once founded, it is easy to conceive the result of the inventivegenius of the Americans. Their military weapons attained colossal proportions, andtheir projectiles, exceeding the prescribed limits, unfortunately occasionally cut intwo some unoffending pedestrians. These inventions, in fact, left far in the rear thetimid instruments of European artillery.