The Brick Moon, and Other Stories

What if the solution to one of history's greatest navigational problems was simply... to build a brick moon? Edward Everett Hale's delightful Victorian fantasy follows Captain Frederic Ingham and his college friends as they conceive an audacious plan: construct an enormous brick sphere, launch it into orbit, and give sailors around the world a permanent landmark in the sky for calculating longitude. The story hums with the cheerful absurdity of men who believe they can solve the world's problems with enough ingenuity and good cheer. Through elaborate calculations, community effort, and relentless optimism, they pursue their eccentric but genuinely noble quest. First published in The Atlantic Monthly, The Brick Moon is a charming artifact of an era when science still felt like adventure, and ordinary people dared to dream astronomical dreams. It endures because it captures something timeless: the joy of intellectual friendship and the particular glory of a ridiculous idea taken completely seriously.