Chapter 25 Chapter 27 Yin Ting

When a white light rose to an incredible height, all Florida was illuminated by fire, and in that incalculable instant, day replaced night over a large part of the land.This chisel-like flame piercing the sky and the earth can be seen from a hundred miles away in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean; more than one captain has recorded the appearance of this huge meteor in the journal of the voyage. With the sound of the Colombian guns came a real earthquake.Florida seemed to be shaking in its guts.The gas of gunpowder expanded under the high heat pushed away the air layer in the sky with incomparable power. This man-made storm, which was a hundred times faster than the natural storm, rushed into the sky like a tornado.

No one was standing, men, women, children, all lying on the ground like ears of wheat in a storm.Then there was an indescribable noise, and many people were seriously injured. Maston was careless for a moment and got too close. He found himself thrown twenty Torvalds away, like a ball His countrymen rolled over their heads.For a while, 300,000 people could not hear anything, as if they were numb all over. The air currents toppled huts and board houses, uprooted trees within a radius of twenty miles, drove the trains on the railway to Dapa, and hit the city like an avalanche, destroying more than a hundred houses. The church was one of them, and the new Exchange Building was cracked from top to bottom.Several boats in the harbor rammed each other and sank straight down to the bottom of the sea, and a dozen others flitting about the moorings, snapped their anchor chains like cotton yarn: headed for the shore.

But the devastation stretched even further, beyond the borders of the United States.The effects of the recoil of the guns, aided by the westerly wind, spread over the Atlantic, three hundred miles from the American ports.This man-made storm, unforeseen by Admiral Fitzroy, assailed his ships with unprecedented force; and several ships, caught in the dreadful whirlwind, sank with sails before they had time to reef, Liverpool One of them was the Son of Hellore, a tragic disaster that became the object of the British curse. Finally, I would like to add that although there is no other reliable evidence other than the dictation of a few natives, half an hour after the firing, Gorey and the residents of Saralevo said that they heard a low vibration, which was the last sound wave. waves, they cross the Atlantic Ocean and disappear off the coast of Africa.

But we should go back to Flori. .After the first commotion had passed, the wounded, the deaf, in a word, the whole crowd came to their senses, and there was a frantic cry that went up to the sky: "Hurrah, Adam! Hurrah, Barbicane! Hurrah!" Nicholl!" Millions of people turned their noses to the sky and observed the sky with large and small telescopes, forgetting their injuries and excitement, and only paying attention to the shells.But they searched and searched, and the result was in vain.I can't see it anymore, so I have to wait for Langfeng's telegram.The director of the Cambridge Observatory was at his post in the Rocky Mountains at this time, and this observation task was entrusted to such a persevering and capable astronomer.

But the patience of the masses was about to be put to the severe test by a phenomenon which had been foreseen but was not anticipated and which made man unable to do anything. The originally very sunny weather suddenly changed; cloudy clouds covered the sky. In fact, the diffusion of a large amount of gas caused by the burning of 400,000 pounds of low-nitrogen nitrocellulose, and the rapid movement of the atmosphere would inevitably produce such a result. The natural order was completely disturbed.This is not surprising, since in sea battles we often see artillery fire suddenly altering the state of the atmosphere.

The next day, the sun rose from a cloud-covered horizon, an impenetrable and heavy curtain between sky and earth, which unfortunately stretched as far as the Rocky Mountains.This is really doomed.The earth rose to protest the big mu singing. But nature was unmoved, and of course, since man has disturbed the atmosphere with cannon fire, he deserves what he deserves. For a whole day, everyone wanted to look through the cloud curtain of Menglong. In fact, this was at their own expense. Besides, it was a mistake to look at the sky like this. At any rate, when night surrounds the earth, it is a dark night where nothing can be seen, and even if the moon climbs to the horizon, it cannot be seen, and it can almost be said that it intends to Avoid the eyes of these daredevils who are bombarding it with cannonballs.Therefore people were unable to observe, and Langfeng's telegram also confirmed that they had encountered bad luck.

However, assuming the experiment was successful, the three travelers would not arrive until midnight on the 4th at 10:46:40 p.m. on December 1st.Therefore, before this period, everyone could wait patiently without shouting, not to mention that under the current conditions, it is impossible to observe an object the size of a cannonball. December 4th.From eight to midnight.The cannonball will be found in this hour, because it will appear like a black spot on the bright and clear moon.But the weather was not good, and the sky was still full of dark clouds, so the anger of the crowd became more and more uncontrollable.They scolded the moon for not showing up.This is really the sad karma in the world!

Frustrated and disappointed, Maston, secretary of the Cannon Club, left for Langfeng and lost. He wanted to make the observations himself. He had no doubts that his friends had not reached their destination.Besides, no one heard of the shell falling anywhere on the island or on the mainland, and Maston never believed that it would fall on the ocean, which covers three-quarters of the earth. Five days, same time.The astronomical telescopes of the Old World, such as those of Herschel, Loos, Foucault, etc., all aimed at the celestial bodies in the dark night, because Europe happened to encounter a clear moonlit night, but the magnification of their instruments was relatively small, so it was impossible to do it. effective observation. "

Six days, same time.Three-quarters of the planet's inhabitants are distraught.They even prepared to use the craziest method to drive away the dark clouds that piled up in the sky. For seven days, the weather seemed to be a little better.There was hope again, but this hope did not last long, for at night thick dark clouds covered the starry sky again. As a result, the matter is serious. Yes, the moon has entered the period of the last quarter moon since 9:11 am on the 11th. Since then, its bright part has become smaller and smaller. Even if the weather is clear, the luck of observation is also It won't be good: in fact, by that time, the moon only shows a smaller and smaller crescent, and finally enters the new moon period, that is, it rises and sleeps with the sun, and the sun completely covers it up.So you have to wait until 12:40 on January 3rd, when the full moon enters the period, to start observing officially.

Various newspapers and periodicals published these materials, added many annotations and told the masses to wait patiently. Eight days, no progress.On the 9th, as if challenging the Americans, the sun only showed one side and then disappeared.There were booing voices everywhere, and the sun was particularly stingy with his own light, probably because he was sad to receive such hospitality. Ten days, no change.Maston was almost insane.Everyone worried about the noble man's well-protected gutta-percha brain. But on the eleventh a terrible storm broke out in the tropics. The strong east wind swept away the dark clouds that had dominated the sky, and at night, only half of the moon was left of the night celestial body, majestically appearing among the constellations in the sky.