Chapter 19 Chapter 19 General Assembly

The next day, the celestial body of the day opposed the impatience of the crowd, and they got up late.For a sun that has the duty to shine on such a festival, this is laziness.Barbiccan, who worried Michel Ardan about the imprudent questioning of the crowd, had intended to limit the audience, for example, to members of his own school, and to allow his members to attend.However, this is like building an embankment to stop Niagara Falls, which is completely ineffective.So he had to abandon his original plan and let his new friend try his luck at the mass meeting.The new Exchange Hall at Tampa, though large, was still too large for such a solemn assembly, which it was estimated might have the size of a true mass meeting.

The venue was chosen in an empty field outside the city.It only took a few hours for people to completely cover the sunlight on the venue.It turned out that the boats in the harbor were stocked with sails, rigging, replacement masts, and rigging, providing the necessary materials for building tents.So the canvas tents were stretched out across the hot grass to keep out the force of the day.Three hundred thousand people found their seats and waited for the French for hours in the sweltering heat.Of the multitude present, one-third could see and hear; another third could barely see, but could not hear; Don't hesitate to applaud and cheer.

At three o'clock, accompanied by the principal members of the Cannon Club, Michel Ahmad entered the meeting place. He let Chairman Barbicane hold his right arm, and Maston held the left arm. His face was as red as the noon sun. And be radiant.Ah Dang stepped onto the platform and glanced down, only to see a mass of black top hats covering the venue. He didn't look flustered or pretentious, just like in his own home, happy, calm, and kind.To the warm cheers from the crowd, he politely returned a salute, then raised his hand to ask everyone to be quiet, and he said in fluent English:

"Gentlemen, I am very sorry to take up your time in this heat, explaining travel plans that may interest you. I am not an orator, nor a scientist, and I have no intention of giving public lectures! But My friend Barbicane told me that this would please you, and I consented. So I beg you to listen to me with six hundred thousand ears, and to forgive the speaker for his grammatical mistakes." Those present were appreciative of his opening remarks, and the buzz of murmurs indicated their satisfaction. "Gentlemen," he continued, "we do not limit expressions of approval or disapproval. That is clear, and I shall begin now. First of all, I ask you not to forget that dealing with you He is an ignorant man, so ignorant that he has forgotten what difficulties are. So it is simple, natural, and easy for him to go to the moon in a cannonball. To be realized, as for what kind of means of transportation to use, it has to adapt to the law of progress. Human beings started to travel with four claws at first, and then one day they used two feet, and then they used two-wheeled carriages, four-wheeled carriages, and covered carriages. Wagons, wagons, and then trains! Well! Cannonballs are the vehicles of the future, and the planets are, in truth, projectiles, but cannonballs thrown by the Creator. But let us go back and talk about Let us talk about our car. Gentlemen, some of you will think that the speed it is subjected to is too great, it does not matter, all bodies have a speed greater than it, the earth itself carries us around the sun, Three times faster than it is, I will now give some examples. But I ask you to allow me to calculate in French, because I am not familiar with the American system of measurement, I am afraid I have miscalculated." This request seems simple , passed without any difficulty.

So the orator went on: "Gentlemen, I now turn to the velocities of the individual planets. I must confess that, in spite of my ignorance, I know this detail of astronomy quite correctly, but in two minutes you will be as learned as I am, Listen, the speed of Neptune is 5,000 leagues per hour, Uranus is 7,000, Saturn is 8,858: Jupiter is 11,675: Mars is 22,000 Eleven leagues, Earth 27,500; Venus 32,190; Mercury 52,520; some comets have a velocity of 1,400,000 leagues! But the speed of our cannonball, wandering leisurely through the air, has not yet surpassed 9,900 leagues, and it is getting smaller and smaller! Excuse me, all this Isn't it fascinating? Isn't it obvious that someday it will be left behind by greater speeds—light and electricity may be their sources of energy?"

No one doubted Michel Ardan's conclusions. "Dear listener," he went on, "if some man with a beady eye is to be believed--the adjective fits him well--mankind remains in that impenetrable magic circle of Pobilius, Destined to grow on this sphere, never to be put into planetary space! Never mind! We're going to the moon, to the planets, to the stars, as easily as we get from Liverpool to New York today. Quickly, safely, we're going to go through Oceans of atmosphere, oceans through the moon! Distance is only a relative term, and will eventually become zero." Although the audience looked at the French hero differently, they were still a little bit surprised by his bold theory.Michel Ardan seemed to understand the psychology of the audience.

"Honest masters," he went on, with a lovely smile, "you don't seem quite convinced yet. Well! Let's study again. Do you know how long it takes us to get to the moon by express? Three hundred days No more. That's a journey of eighty-six thousand four hundred and ten leagues. What's the big deal? It's less than nine rounds of the earth. Every sailor or active traveler spends a lifetime All have traveled a longer distance than this. Please consider that I have only ninety-seven hours on the road! Ah! You think that the moon is very far away from the earth, and you must study it carefully before starting this adventure!

But if you were to go to Neptune, which orbits the sun at 1.147 million leagues, what would you say?Given the value of five sous per kilometer, few people would be able to make such a trip!Although Baron Rothschild has a fortune of one billion, he can't afford a ticket. Because he lacks 147 million, he has to stop halfway! " It seems that the audience seems to welcome such a debate; besides, Michelle.Fascinated by the subject, Adam threw himself into the debate, refreshed and refreshed; feeling that everyone was eagerly listening to him, he went on with an air of confidence: "Very well! My friends, the distance between Neptune and the sun is insignificant when compared with the distances of the fixed stars; indeed, to calculate the distances of these fixed stars we must enter into a dizzying number. In the field, the smallest number has nine digits, so we have to use 100 million as the unit of calculation. Please forgive me for talking about this issue, but it is also a fascinating topic. Please judge after listening! The distance is eight trillion far miles, Vega fifty thousand million, Sirius fifty-two million, Arcturus fifty-two thousand, Polaris one hundred and sixteen thousand, Auriga the star Auriga. One hundred and seventy trillion fares, and there are many stars at a distance of tens of millions of fares! How can anyone talk about the distance between the planets and the sun! Some people insist that this distance exists! This is a mistake! Great! Wrong! Insanity!

You know what I think of this solar system from the radiant celestial body to Neptune?Would you like to hear my opinion?It's actually very simple!To me, the solar system is nothing more than a uniform solid: the planets that make up the solar system are packed tightly together, seem to touch each other, stick together, and the space between them is as dense as silver, iron or platinum. The space between the metal molecules is almost the same!So I have the right to make a conclusion, and I have the right to use everyone's convincing belief to say it again: distance is a false word, distance does not exist! "" Well said!OK!Ulla! "All the audience in the hall, affected by the posture, voice, and bold idea of ​​​​the orator, shouted with one voice. . .

"That's right," said Maston, Secretary of the Cannon Club, louder than anyone else. "There is no distance!" Due to the excessive movement, his body rushed forward, and he almost lost control of himself and fell off the platform.Fortunately, he found the center of gravity again, so he didn't fall, otherwise, this fall would ruthlessly prove that distance is not a false word.Then the stirring orator went on. "My friends," said Michel Ardan, "I think the matter is now settled. If I have not convinced you all, it is because my examples have not been bold enough and the evidence I have presented has not been strong enough. This can only be blamed on the fact that I have not yet mastered the theory. In any case, I repeat to you that the distance between the earth and its satellites is indeed so insignificant that a serious-minded person should not take it to heart. If I say that in the near future we will build a cannonball train that will take us on a trip to the moon, it is not too early. There is no vibration, shaking, or fear of derailment when riding on this train. Without getting tired, the train arrived at its destination quickly, just as your hunters used to say, as the bees fly without turning. In twenty years, half the people on the earth will have visited the moon!"

"Long live! Long live Michel Ardan!" cried the whole audience, even the half-believing. "Long live Barbicane!" answered the orator modestly. This sentence expressing gratitude to the initiator of the experiment was welcomed by the applause of the audience. "Now, my friends," continued Michel Ardan, "if you have any questions for me, it is obvious that you will stump a poor wretch like me, but I will try to answer you nonetheless." . " Up to this point, the Chairman of the Cannon Club was very satisfied with the way the discussions had gone.What is discussed here is purely theoretical, and Michel Ardan speaks vividly and imaginatively.He must now be prevented from turning to practical problems, in which he was doubtless incompetent.Barbicane hastily rose to speak, and asked his new friend whether he believed that there were people on the moon or on the planets. "My noble chairman, you are asking a great question," answered the orator, laughing; "however, if I am not mistaken, many learned men, like Plutarch. Swedenborg, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, etc., have affirmed this question. If I put myself in the position of natural philosophers, I would share their opinion that there is nothing useless in the universe; Barbicane Brother, I can answer your question in another way: I venture to say that if all celestial bodies are inhabited, they are, have been, and will be inhabited by humans." "Very good!" exclaimed the first few listeners, whose opinions had the force of law for those who followed. "No one could have given a more logical and correct answer," said the president of the Cannon Club. "Then, the question boils down entirely to this sentence: Can all celestial bodies be inhabited? For my part, I believe it is possible to "me, I can certainly be inhabited," said Michel Ardan. "But," retorted one of the members of the room, "there are arguments against the inhabitability of celestial bodies. Obviously, on most celestial bodies, the conditions of existence must be changed. Therefore, in the case of the planets, according to their altitude Some can freeze to death, some can burn to death." "Unfortunately, I do not know this venerable objector personally," replied Michel Ardan, "because I will try to answer his question. His objection is very valuable, but I believe we can successfully refute it." It refutes the theory that all celestial bodies are inhospitable. If I were a physicist, I would say that as long as the part closer to the sun generally has less heat to act on, on the contrary, the part farther away from the sun generally has less heat. If there are more parts that act, as long as there is such a phenomenon, it is enough to keep the heat in balance, and organic matter like us can adapt to the temperature of these celestial bodies. If I were a naturalist, I would tell him that according to many Opinions of eminent scientists, nature has provided us on earth with many examples of animals that can live in a variety of conditions. In an environment where fish can breathe, other animals cannot survive: two kinds of amphibians are difficult Understand the way of life, some animals in the sea live in very deep water layers, and they have not been crushed under the pressure of forty or fifty atmospheres; many kinds of aquatic insects have no sense of temperature, and they can appear in boiling springs, It can also appear in the ice sheets of the Arctic; finally, we should know that there are all kinds of means of survival in the natural world. They sometimes make people incomprehensible, but this is the real situation, and some even reach omnipotence If I were a chemist, I would talk to him about meteorites. Obviously, this material was formed outside the world of the earth. After analysis, the traces of carbon in meteorites are indisputable. This substance can only be of organic origin, and experiments at Reichenbach have proved that it must be an animalized substance. Finally, if I were a theologian, I would tell him that, according to St. Paul, the salvation of all beings seems to include not only the human beings on the earth, but also the creatures in the various worlds in the heavens.But I am neither a theologian, nor a chemist, nor a naturalist, nor a physicist.I know nothing of these great laws governing the universe, so I can only answer: I don't know if there are people in other worlds, and that's why I'm going to find out! " Would the man who opposed Michel Ardan's theory dare to put forward another argument?It was hard to say, for the frenzy of the crowd silenced all opinions.When even the furthest ones fell silent, the triumphant orator added a few more points: "You will of course notice, honorable citizens of the United States, that I have only scratched the surface of such a big issue. I have not come here to give lectures on such a rich subject. and a different series of arguments. I will leave that for now. I just want to draw your attention to the following. To those who insist that there are no people on the planets, this should be the answer: If you can prove that the earth is the universe the best world in the world, then you may be right, but no one has done so, although Voltaire once talked about it. The earth has only one satellite, while Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn, Neptune have several The satellites are at their disposal, a benefit not to be overlooked. But what makes our inhabiting of the earth particularly uncomfortable...is that the earth's axis and orbit have an inclination. Hence the days and nights are not of the same length; and here comes the nasty seasons. On our unfortunate spheroid, the weather is either too hot or too cold. It freezes to death in winter and burns to death in summer. It is a planet of colds, colds, and pneumonia, and on Jupiter, for example, its The inclination of the axis is very small, and the inhabitants can enjoy a constant temperature throughout the year; there are eternal spring zones, summer zones, autumn zones, and winter zones; each Jovian can choose his favorite climate and avoid seasons for life. Transformation. You will undoubtedly agree that Jupiter is superior to our planet, not to mention that its year is equal to twelve of ours! Besides, I think it is obvious that, under such auspicious stars, and under such favorable conditions of life, the inhabitants of this blessed world must be creatures of a superior order to our own, more learned scholars, more capable artists, good men. Even better, the bad guys aren't very bad either.oops!What does our spheroid lack in order to achieve this perfection?Only a little something is missing!As long as the inclination angle between the axis of rotation and the plane of the orbit is smaller. " Let us, then, combine our efforts to invent a machine," cried a fierce voice, "to hold the earth's axis up! " Thunderous applause followed this motion, and the person who said this was, and could only be, Maston.This bold motion may have been emboldened by the fiery secretary, prompted by the inventor's instinct.However, we must say - because it is the case - that many people support it only with their cries, and there is no doubt that if the fulcrum mentioned by Archimedes is found, the Americans will definitely build a fulcrum capable of carrying it. A lever that lifts the earth and supports its axis.But it was this fulcrum that was missing from these daring mechanists. How to say, this "very practical" idea was a great success; the meeting stopped for a quarter of an hour, and a long, long time later, the United States was still talking about this idea, which was proposed with such boldness by the Permanent Secretary of the Cannon Club. motion.