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FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON
A voyage to the moon is the latest project which is seriously put forward as the crowning point or "clou" to the Paris Exhibition of 1900. m. Mautois, the author, does not, however, propose to carry his passengers to the lunar regions in an aerial projectile car in the style of a Jules Verne, but he proposes to bring down the Moon to the reach of people whose vision extends say six miles from the earth.
The Plan (says the London Daily Telegraph correspondent) is to construct a telescope nearly 200ft. in length, and its objective glass will have a diameter of something over 4ft. 3in., the largest in the world. This collossal tube would be placed horizontally, and the image of the moon would be reflected by what is termed a mirror plane 6ft. 6in. in diameter and 15in. in thickness. Its weight would be about 8000lb. A special feature of the idea is that the image of the moon should be thrown upon a screen placed in a hall large enough to hold 600 spectators. Astronomers calculate that, with an apparatus of these dimensions, it would be possible to discern very easily objects of the size of Notre Dame Cathedral towers, and to distinguish the evolutions of a lunar regiment. At all events, should the opening of the twentieth century be signalised by volcanic eruptions in the mountains of the moon, the visitors to the Exhibition would have a grand spectacle. There is but one drawback - the possibility of a recurrence five years hence of the abominable weather which this summer reduced astronomical observers to the depths of despair.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald, 20 September, 1895
