Task: Story Composition
Input (English): Fact1: Barbicane demolishes Nicholl 's material and portion of countryside, Fact2: continuing work on Power X be considered act of war, Fact3: pieces of Nicholl 's metal retrieved from demonstration have been converted into extremely strong yet lightweight ceramic, Fact4: Ankrum not resist chance to construct spaceship to travel to Moon, Fact5: Barbicane and Nicholl then fire rockets send young couple on way back to Earth
Output (English): Shortly after the end of the American Civil War, munitions producer Victor Barbicane Joseph Cotten announces that he has invented a new explosive, Power X, which he claims is much more powerful than any previously devised. Metallurgist Stuyvesant Nicholl George Sanders scoffs at Barbicanes claims and offers a wager of 100,000 that it cannot destroy his invention, the hardest metal in existence. Barbicane stages a demonstration using a puny cannon and demolishes Nicholls material and a portion of the countryside. President Ulysses S. Grant Morris Ankrum requests that Barbicane cease development of his invention after several nervous countries warn that continuing work on Power X could be considered an act of war. Barbicane agrees, but when he discovers that pieces of Nicholls metal retrieved from the demonstration have somehow been converted into an extremely strong yet lightweight ceramic, he cannot resist the chance to construct a spaceship to travel to the Moon. He recruits Nicholl to help build the ship. Meanwhile, Nicholls daughter Virginia Debra Paget and Barbicanes assistant Ben Sharpe Don Dubbins are attracted to each other. After completing the spaceship, Barbicane, Nicholl, and Sharpe board it and, amid much fanfare, take off. Once they are in outer space, the strongly religious Nicholl reveals that he has sabotaged the vessel, believing that Barbicane has flouted Gods laws. When it is discovered that Virginia has stowed away, Nicholl cooperates with Barbicane in a desperate attempt to save her. Sharpe is knocked out, and he and Virginia are placed in the safest compartment of the ship. Barbicane and Nicholl then fire rockets that send the young couple on their way back to Earth, while the two scientists land on the Moon in another section, with no way off. They are able to signal to the young couple that they have reached the Moon safely.