“Listen! Silence!” they shouted from all over the hall.
When the agitation had died down, Barbicane resumed his interrupted speech in a deeper voice:
“You know the progress ballistics has made in recent years, and how much more greatly firearms would have been perfected if the war had continued. You also know that, practically speaking, the strength of cannons and the expansive power of gunpowder are unlimited. Taking the fact as my starting point, I began to wonder whether, with a sufficiently large cannon, constructed in such a way as to assure the necessary resistance, it might not be possible to shoot a projectile to the moon.”
— Jules Verne, circa 1865