THE VICTORIANS AND THE MAN IN THE MOON...

In 1865, Jules Verne wrote his novel, From the Earth to the Moon in which a rocket was fired from America - Florida to be precise - and, after safely reaching its destination, the craft returned to Earth, splashing down into the Pacific Ocean. 

In 1901, H G Wells wrote The First Men in the Moon, a romantic science fiction in which, by means of an anti-gravity shield, two adventurers were propelled to the Moon.

And in 1902, Le Voyage dans La Lune or A Trip to the Moon was the first science fiction film to be screened. Admittedly, this was a year after Queen Victoria's death and, therefore, not strictly Victorian, but the VV thinks it fair to say that the conception and preparation would have been well under way before the actual release date. Based on the novels of both Verne and Wells, it was written and directed by Georges Melies, and shows a rocket being fired straight into the eye of The Man in the Moon.

There is something very familiar - something rather 1960's about all this, don't you think?

A scene from Le Voyage dans La Lune

You can download a free version of Le Voyage dans La Lune here.

And while on the subject of solar matters, you might also be interested in the Quack Doctor blog where Dr. Sibley's Re-Animating Solar Tincture is discussed. As it claimed to bring the dead back to life, it might well have helped some of those more sickly-looking souls in the moon scene above.