A trip to the moon, the precursor

Beyond all the modern movies, there is one movie : A trip to the moon, by George Méliès

This movie, based on Jule Verne's novel, deals with men who go to the Moon thanks to a space capsule launched from Earth using the latest improvements in physics and mechanics. You can listen to the entire plot here :plot__part1 plot__part2

It was in....1902 ! At this time it was totally science fiction, people barely had cars ! But, 67 years later the Appolo Program landed on the moon and Neil amstrong walked on its surface.

This is one of the best examples of science fiction movies which became true.

Here is an extract of a colored version of "A trip to the moon" ( colored with a brush !), the original was of course in black and white. Enjoy !

Le voyage dans la Lune, extrait

 Now let's see how science discoveries of the XVIIth-XIXth century allowed Jule Verne to imagine such a story and allowed George Méliès to make this movie.

If Verne wrote his novel From the Earth to the Moon it's because the theory of launching an object in space had become possible, thanks to Newton's work about  the gravitation and celestial movement (yes the apple !) published in 1687. In addition it had become possible in technical terms since the middle of the XIXth century with the development of heavy artillery, metallurgy and propulsion techniques : Réaumur's work about steel in 1722, Bessemer's achievement in 1855 allowed the mass production of steel, the American Civil War led to very quick improvements in all field of artillery between the 1850s and the 1870s, first Reciprocating engine was created in 1859 by Lenoir.

All these discoveries struck the contemporaries and explain why Verne wrote his novel, and therefore why Méliès made his movie.