"A Plunge into Space" was first printed in 1890 and continuously reprinted until 1910, earning the enthusiastic plaudits of Jules Verne. This edition features a foreword by Jules Verne, the only foreword that Verne ever wrote.In the book, Henry Barnett discovered how to control the ethereal force after 20 years of experimenting, "which permeates all material things, all immaterial space" and that combines electricity and gravity: "...I have discovered the original and essence of that law which, before me, never man did ought but name, or, at best, did but chronicle its known effects --the law which makes that universe of worlds a grand well-ordered army instead of helpless mob of mutually destroying forces; when I tell you that within this ragged room, there stands a man who --grant him but ten years of human life-- could sway a star in its course, could hurl a planet from its path? Man, I have discovered the mightiest secret of creation. ...I have discovered the origin-of-force!"Barnett succeeds in his experiments and a large, black and globular spaceship called the "Steel Globe" is secretly built in an inaccessible region in Alaska. "A spiral staircase wound round the interior circumference of the globe. This staircase, or rather sloping path, had one very curious feature. The handrail was duplicated, so that if by any superhuman means the enormous bulk could be turned upside down one could walk on the underside of the spiral... Across the center of the Steel Globe a commodious platform swung like a ship's lamp. On this a very large telescope was fixed... the platform was literally packed with astronomical instruments. Strange registers, the graduated lines on which were so fine as to be almost invisible without the aid of a magnifying glass, were set into the woodwork of a solid table in the middle of the swinging deck. Strongly made iron tanks filled a considerable portion of the interior space. ...These tanks contained compressed air. ...Innumerable windows pierced the whole circumference of the globe."With the Steel Globe, Barnett and his friends travel to Mars where they find utopia. The Martians travel around in luxurious airships, but also have other means of negating gravity at their disposal: The Martians "were instructed....in the strange exercise of what may be called --in default of a better name-- animal elecricism. This discovery enabled the Martians to regulate at will the attraction of gravity upon them so that they could move at any distance they wished from the ground."On the return trip they discover a stowaway --a Martian girl. The life-support systems of the ship cannot accommodate and extra passenger, and each crew member has some essential skill for bringing the ship safely to earth. The drama builds with enormous tension to a fateful climax as the girl becomes the key to life --or death-- for the space voyagers.Robert Cromie (1856-1907) was a Northern Irish writer and journalist.