The Bionic-Hand Arms Race: High-Tech Hands are Complicated, Costly, and Often Impractical

IN JULES VERNE'S 1865 NOVEL From the Earth to the Moon, members of the fictitious Baltimore Gun Club, all disabled Civil War veterans, restlessly search for a new enemy to conquer. They had spent the war innovating new, deadlier weaponry. By the war's end, with not quite one arm between four persons, and exactly two legs between six, these self-taught amputee-weaponsmiths decide to repurpose their skills toward a new projectile: a rocket ship.

Automated summary

Jules Verne's novel "From the Earth to the Moon" tells the story of a group of disabled Civil War veterans who form a Baltimore Gun Club and seek a new enemy to conquer by innovating weapons. With their amputated limbs from the war, they decide to utilize their skills to build a rocket ship.