Chapter 13 Chapter Thirteen Some Numbers

After a while, we sat on a couch in the living room, each with a cigar in his mouth.The captain placed before me a detailed plan of the Nautilus in plan, profile, and projection.He then described the shape of the ship in the following words: "Mr. Aronnax, the following is the shape and volume of the boat you are on. The boat is a long cylinder with conical ends. Obviously, it looks like a pistachio. This form The structure of some ships in London has already been adopted. The length of this cylinder, from head to stern, is exactly 70 meters, and its horizontal handle is 8 meters at its widest point. Therefore, the structure of this ship is the same as that of ordinary long-distance sailing ships. Big steamboats are not exactly the same, their width is one-tenth of their length, they are long enough from end to end, they are well built, and their waists and bottoms are quite round, so that when the ship is running, the accumulated water can be easily drained away without any hindrance. It's sailing.

"Using the two quantities above to calculate the width and length, you can get the area and volume of the Nautilus. The total area is 1,011 square meters and 45 centimeters, and the total volume is 1,500.2 cubic meters. —That is to say, when the ship is fully submerged, its water volume or weight is 1,500 cubic meters or 1,500 tons. "When I sketched this underwater boat, I asked for nine-tenths of its draft and one-tenth of its surface so that it could balance in the water. Therefore, in Under these conditions, its displacement can only be nine-tenths of its volume, which is 1356 cubic meters and 48 centimeters, that is, the weight of the boat is equal to this number of tons. So I build this boat According to the volume above, the overall weight of the ship cannot exceed this number.

"The Nautilus is made of a double hull, one is the inner hull and the other is the outer hull. Between the two hulls, many T-shaped shoes are used to connect them to make the hull extremely rigid. Yes. , due to this cellular structure between the shells, the ship is like a large piece of solid iron, full and seamless in the middle, resistant to everything. Its edges cannot be loosened; the hull is united because of The strength of the structure itself is not due to the fastening of the anchors; because the disposition of materials fits perfectly, and the construction is uniform, it can ride on the sea, and not fear the roughest waves.

"The two hulls are made of steel plates. The ratio of the density of steel to the density of seawater is ten to seven to eight. The first hull is at least five centimeters thick and weighs 394.96 tons. The second inner shell, which is the keel, is 50 centimeters high, 25 centimeters wide, and weighs only 62 tons. Machines, shipwagons, various accessories and fixtures, and various interior wall panels and wood The weight and the 394.6 tons of maggots on it are part of the total weight of 1,356.48 tons. Do you understand this?" "Understood." I replied. "So," continued the captain, "under these conditions, when the Nautilus is at sea, she is a tenth of the surface. But if I install a storage tank equal to this tenth The tank, with a water capacity of 150.72 tons, if I fill the tank with water, then the displacement or weight of the boat is 1,507 tons, and it is fully submerged. Professor, That's how it turned out. These tanks actually existed, and they were on the lower deck of the Nautilus. I opened the doors to the tanks, and the tanks filled up, and the ship, which had just been submerged at the top of the water, sank. .

"Yes, Captain, but there are practical difficulties here. This way, you can keep the surface of the boat in line with the surface of the ocean, which I can understand. But then, going down, below the surface, isn't your submersible machine encountering a kind of pressure Do you encounter a buoyant force from the bottom up? This force is calculated based on the pressure of a water column at a height of thirty feet, that is, the pressure of an atmosphere, that is, a force per square centimeter of about one kilogram. " "Yes, sir." "So, only if you fill the Nautilus completely with water, otherwise, I don't understand how you submerged the ship to the bottom of the sea."

"Professor," replied Captain Nemo, "statics and dynamics should not be confused; otherwise, serious mistakes will be made. It takes very little effort to reach the lower layers of the ocean, since all objects are Has a tendency to sink to the bottom. Please listen to my reasoning." "Captain, I am listening to you." "To submerge a boat, you have to add weight, and when I decide to add weight, I just have to pay attention to the amount of water volume compression at different depths." "Of course." I replied. "However, water is not absolutely incompressible, but at least it is very difficult to compress. Well, according to recent calculations, the amount of this compression is one part in ten million per atmosphere of pressure (that is, the pressure of thirty feet of water column) Four hundred and thirty-six. For example, if you want to reach a water layer of 1,000 meters deep, what I should pay attention to at this time is the amount of compression of seawater under the pressure of 1,000 meters, that is, the pressure of 100 atmospheres. This The quantity is 436/100,000. So the total weight I should add to this time is not, 1507.2 tons, but 1513.77 tons. Therefore, The added weight figure is 6.57 tons."

"Is it just this amount? "Only this amount, Mr. Aronnax. And, it is easy to prove by calculation. Originally, I have quite a lot of supplementary storage tanks, which can hold hundreds of tons of water. So I can descend to the deep place of the seabed. When I To ascend, when it is level with the ocean surface, it is enough to release the water, and when I want one-tenth of the Nautilus to surface, it is enough to drain all the water in the storage tank." I cannot, of course, raise objections to these reasonings from figures. "Captain," I answered, "I admit that your calculations are exact, and it would seem vexatious for me to dispute, for experience shows you every day to be right. But at present I feel a real difficulty."

"Sir, what's the problem?" "When you reach a depth of one thousand meters, the outer layer of the Nautilus is under a pressure of one hundred atmospheres. If at this time; , then the power of the water pump on the ship must be able to exceed the pressure of 100 atmospheres, which is 100 kilograms per square centimeter.Therefore, this force..." "Electricity alone will give me this power!" said Captain Nemo hastily. "I have repeatedly told you, sir, that the power of my machine is almost unlimited. The Nautilus's pumps have an extraordinary Power, as you should have seen, the last time the water column sprayed on the Lincoln, rushed like a powerful torrent. Besides, I only use it at moderate depths of 1,500 and 2,000 meters Those supplemental reservoirs, it's for the love of my machine, use it with care. So when I suddenly think about the bottom of the ocean two or three miles below the surface, I use other driving methods, although longer, but the same efficient."

"Captain, what method?" I asked. "Then, of course, I must tell you how I piloted the Nautilus." "I really want to know." "To steer the boat, to make it turn left and right, in short, when I want it to go on a level surface, I use an ordinary rudder, with a broad auxiliary rudder attached to the stern, and turn it with wheels and blocks. But I It can also make the Nautilus go up and down in the water. At this time, I use two vertical and inclined planes. The planes are installed in the center of the buoy line on both sides of the ship. Powerful levers are used to steer them from inside the ship. If the position of the pitching planes is parallel to the hull, the ship will travel on a horizontal plane, and if their position is tilted, the Nautilus will be driven by the thrusters. Sink along the inclined direction or along the diagonal I want, or float up along this diagonal. And, when I want to surface faster, I push the propeller, and the pressure of the water makes Nuo The Tillus floated up in a straight line, like a hydrogen balloon rising rapidly into the air."

"Amazing! Captain," I exclaimed, "but how can the navigator see you under the water indicating the course the ship should take?" "The navigator is guarded in a glass cage. This cage is located on the upper part of the Nautilus's hull. Various concave and convex glass pieces are installed in this cage to ensure that he can clearly see the route." "Can a sheet of glass resist such a strong pressure?", "It can resist. Although glass cannot withstand impact and is very brittle, it has strong pressure resistance. In 1864, an experiment using electro-optic light in the northern sea was used for fishing. We know that the glass sheet used at that time was only seven millimeters thick and could resist ten. The pressure of six atmospheres can allow intense heat rays to pass through at the same time, so that it can obtain uneven heat distribution. What's more, the thickness of the glass sheet we use is at least 21 centimeters in the center, that is to say, it is thicker than that used for fishing. The glass sheet is thirty times thicker."

"Captain Nemo, I admit this; but if you want to see clearly in the sea, you must have light to eliminate the darkness. Excuse me, in the middle of the darkness of the sea..." "Behind the navigator's cage, there is a powerful electric searchlight, which can illuminate the ocean within half a nautical mile." "Ah! marvelous, marvelous indeed! Captain. I now understand that so-called phosphorescence of the narwhal, which dazzles the scholars! By the way, the Nautilus and the Scotus which made such a stir Was the collision of the sub-ships an accidental result?" "That was quite an accident, sir. I was sailing two meters below the surface, so there was a collision. But I also saw that the Scotia did not suffer much damage." "Yes, sir, no serious damage. But the collision with the Lincoln? . . . " "Professor, I feel a little sorry for this brave and best ship of the United States Navy for this matter, but this is someone coming to attack me, and I have to defend myself! But I only do so that this ship cannot Hurting me, it can go to the nearest harbor and repair its damage without much difficulty." "Ah! Captain," I exclaimed earnestly, "your Nautilus is truly a marvelous ship!" "Yes, Professor," replied Captain Nemo, also in great emotion, "I love it as my dearest thing! Although your ship is often attacked by accidents of the sea. Everything is dangerous at sea. The Dutchman Yang Sheng said it very well. He said that people’s first impression on the sea is the fear of the bottomless abyss, but on the Nautilus ship, people have no fear at all. There is no need to fear that the ship will be damaged. For the ship's double hull is as hard as iron; she has no hawsings or the like that the heaving or tossing of the wind and waves can destroy: she has no sails that the wind can blow away; she has no furnaces that steam can burst; There will be no terrible fires, because the ship is made entirely of steel, not wood; it will use no coal, which sometimes runs out, because electricity is its mechanical motive force; and because it walks alone in deep water, there will be no terrible fires. It doesn't have to risk a storm, because it can get absolute calm a few meters below the water surface! Sir, the above are the advantages of this boat. It is a special and unique boat! For this boat, The design engineer may have more confidence than the supervising architect, and the supervising architect may have more confidence than the captain. If this is the case, then you can understand why I have complete confidence in my Nautilus, because I also It's the ship's captain, architect and engineer!" Captain Nemo spoke eloquently.The fire in his eyes, the agitation of his gestures, made him a completely different person.yes!He loves his boat like a father loves his son! But there is a question that may be presumptuous, which naturally appeared, and I couldn't help asking him: "Captain Nemo, are you the design engineer for this ship?" "Yes, Professor," he answered me. "When I was a resident of land, I studied in London, in Paris, and in New York." "But how did you manage to build this bizarre and mind-blowing Nautilus in secret?" "Mr. Aronnax, every piece of material for the ship was sent to me from a different point on the earth with a false address. The keel of the ship was made by the Krulen factory in France, and the main shaft of the propeller was from a friend in London. The steel plate of the hull is made by the Liverpool Lia factory, the propeller is made by the Scots factory in Glasgow. The water storage tank on the ship is made by the Paris Jiayi company, and the machinery is made by the Prussian Krudger factory. Yes, the horns on the front of the ship come from the Modara factory in Sweden, and the precise testing instruments come from the Hartie Brothers Company in New York, etc. Each of the above factories receives my design drawings with different names on them and manufactures them according to the drawings. " "However," I said, "these finished pieces of material have to be matched and assembled?" "Professor, I have established my workplace on a deserted island in the middle of the ocean. On the island, my workers, my brave companions whom I have brought up, join me in taking the Nautilus Completely assembled. Then, when the work was done, I set fire to wipe out all traces of our presence on the island, and if possible I would blow up the island." "So, from this point of view, I can believe that the construction cost of this ship must be very huge?" "Monsieur Aronnax, the construction cost of a steel ship is 1,125 francs per ton. But the Nautilus has a deadweight of 1,500 tons, so its The construction cost is 1.7 million francs, including equipment costs, a total of 2 million francs, and including all the works of art and collections in the ship, a total of 5 million francs." "Captain Nemo, I have one last question for you." "Please ask, Professor." "Are you rich?" "Infinitely rich, I can pay off France's multi-billion national debt without any trouble!" I stared at this queer figure who spoke to me in this way.Could it be that he thought I could be deceived and deliberately bragged?In the future, I will have the opportunity to know whether his words are true or not.