From the Earth to the Moon

This book surprised me by reminding me very much of Terry Prachett. It alternated between the antics of the ridiculous Baltimore Gun Club (which, being devestated by not being allowed to shoot people now that the country was at peace, decide instead to shoot the moon), and amazingly accurate descriptions of how to go about sending a capsule to the moon. Ideas such as launching from Florida and building the capsule from aluminium were exactly as used 100 years later in the Apollo missions. Mr Verne was also aware of the dangers of acceleration and tried to compensate for this with an elaborate mechanisim - though I do believe that the daring travellers would have been transformed into something resembling a thin tomato carpet with bits in.