From the Earth to the Moon
by Jules Verne
Chapter 1 The Gun Club
During the Civil War in the United States an influential club was formed in Baltimore. The vigor with which the military instinct developed in that nation of shipowners, merchants, and mechanics is well known. Shopkeepers left their counters and became captains, colonels, and generals without ever having gone to West Point. They soon equaled their Old world colleagues in the “art of war” and, like them, won victories by lavishly expending ammunition, money, and men.
第一章 火炮俱乐部
美国内战期间，一个颇具影响力的俱乐部在马里兰州中部的巴尔的摩成立了。我们知道，在这个国家中，那些本以造船、经商以及机械制造为本业的人们是怎样生机勃勃地发展了军事才能的。尽管从未踏入西点军校，商人们也还是走出了柜台，成为了尉官、校官甚至将军。不久以后，他们的“行兵之道”便与旧大陆上那些同僚们的相差无几了，且也与他们一样，以大量损耗弹药、金钱甚至人命的方式打了几次胜仗。
But in the science of ballistics the Americans far surpassed the Europeans. Not that their guns attained a higher degree of perfection, but they were made much larger and therefore reached much greater ranges. When it comes to grazing fire, plunging fire, direct fire, oblique fire, or raking fire, the English, French, and Prussians have nothing to learn, but their cannons, howitzers, and mortars are only pocket pistols compared to the awesome engines of the American artillery.
但美国人在弹道学上可是远超欧洲人的。并不是说他们的枪支达到了多么精致完美的程度，而是他们制造的枪支大炮更大，因而其射程更远。若提及低伸射击、俯射、直接射击、斜射、或者扫射，英法以及普鲁士人已经没什么值得借鉴的了，至于他们的大炮、榴弹炮还有迫击炮与美国那些堪称恐怖的大炮相比则相形见绌了，也只能用袖珍手枪来形容了。
This should surprise no one. The Yankees, the world’s best mechanics, are engineers the way Italians are musicians and Germans are metaphysicians: by birth. Nothing could then be more natural than for them to bring their bold ingenuity to the science of ballistics. The wonders performed in this domain by men like Parrott, Dahlgren, and Rodman are known to everyone. Amstrong, Paliser, and Treuille de Beaulieu could only bow to their transatlantic rivals.
这其实没什么好大惊小怪的，与意大利人天生就是音乐家、德国人天生就是哲学家一样，这世上第一批机械专家的美国人是天生的工程师。于是他们将大胆无畏的创新投入弹道学的研究上也就再自然不过了。于此领域之中创造出奇迹的诸如帕洛特、达尔格伦、罗德曼等人已为我们所知。而那些什么阿姆斯特朗、帕里斯尔、特勒耶·伯利欧之流就只能在大洋彼岸的对手面前俯首称臣了。
And so during the terrible struggle between the North and the South the artillerymen reigned supreme. The Union newspapers enthusiastically extolled their inventions, and there was no tradesman so humble, no idler so guileless that he did not rack his brain day and night calculating fantastic trajectories.
所以在南北混战之时，大炮发明者有了无上尊崇的地位。联邦各大报纸对这些发明都极尽赞美之词，连那些以赚钱为乐的人都谦逊地放弃了夜以继日算计这不可思议的弹道发明；那闲以度日的人也坦诚地丢掉了议论这弹道发明的闲言碎语。
Now when an American has an idea he looks for another American who shares it. If there are three of them they elect a president and two vice presidents. If there are four they appoint a secretary and their staff is ready to function. If there are five they convene in a general assembly and their club is formed. That was how it happened in Baltimore. A man who had invented a new cannon associated himself with the man who had cast it and the man who had bored it. That was the nucleus of the Gun Club. A month after its formation it had 1,833 resident members and 30,575 corresponding members.
当一个美国人想出了一个主意，他就去找另一个能与他合作的美国人，若是足够三个人了就选一个总统、两个副总统。若是凑足了四个人就指任一名秘书，这样他们的参谋部就开始运作了。若是满了五个人就召开集体大会，然后俱乐部就成立了。发生在巴尔的摩的事就跟这一样。一个造出了新式火炮的人和一个浇铸出火炮的人，还有一个膛炮筒的人合作。这就是火炮俱乐部的核心成员。在成立之初，一个月间就有了1,833个正式会员和30,575个传讯点成员。
There was one strict condition for membership in the club: the applicant had to have invented or at least improved a cannon; or if not a cannon, some other kind of firearm. But it must be said that inventors of fifteen-shot revolvers, pivoting rifles, or saber pistols were not held in high esteem. The artillerymen tool precedence over them in all circumstances.
要想加入这俱乐部可有个苛刻的条件：申请人必须发明过或至少改良优化过一种火炮；如果没有火炮，那其他武器也可以。不过有句话可不得不说，发明十五响的转轮手枪、旋转步枪或者马刀式短枪的人可得不到重视。无论什么情况，火炮发明者总是要优于其他人的。
“The respect they get,”one of the most learned orators of the Gun Club said one day,“is proportional to the mass of their cannons and in direct ratio to the square of the distances reached by their projectiles.”This was almost a psychological application of Newton’s law of gravity.
火炮俱乐部中一位极其博学的演说家曾说，“他们得到的尊敬，是与他们发明的火炮体积和一定区域内的落弹精准率成正比的。”这简直就是牛顿万有引力定律在道德心理上的应用。