Chapter 3 The first half hour of chapter two

What happened in the projectile?What was the aftermath of this terrible impact?Has the projectile builder's elaborate masterpiece achieved a welcome result?Would those springs, bumpers, and drains with brittle material partitions soften the impact?Can they withstand the terrible recoil at a muzzle velocity of eleven kilometers per second?At this speed, it takes only a second to cross Paris or New York.And, of course, that's the question that the thousands of people who witnessed this exciting spectacle asked themselves.They forgot the purpose of the trip and only thought about these three travelers!If any of them could look into the projectile -- as Maston wanted to do, say -- what could he see?

Can't see anything.It was pitch black in the cannonball.But its cylindrical and conical walls hold up well.No cracks, no bends, and no warping.Under the violent burning of the gunpowder, this remarkable projectile was not damaged at all, and it did not turn into a rain of aluminum, as everyone obviously feared. All in all, there was little confusion inside either.Only a few things were flung abruptly up the vault, but everything important seemed to survive the impact.All ropes are intact. After the water cushion partitions ruptured and the clear water escaped, the movable metal circular floor sank all the way to the bottom of the projectile.On the floor lay three motionless bodies.Are Barbicane, Nicholl and Michel Ardan still breathing?Did the projectile turn into a metal coffin, carrying three corpses in the space? ...

A few seconds after the shell was fired, one of the three bodies moved: its arms swiveled, its head raised, and finally it got up and knelt on the floor.It was Michel Ardan.He touched himself and called out, "Hi!" Then say: "Michel Ardan is safe and sound. Now let's see the others!" The brave Frenchman tried to get up, but he couldn't stand.His head was spinning, blood rushed to his brain suddenly, and his eyes were blinded.He looked like a drunk man. "Hey!" he said. "It's as if I've drank two bottles of Cordon. But this wine is not very good!"

Then he raised his hand, rubbed his forehead, massaged his temples for a while, and finally exclaimed in a firm voice: "Nichor! Barbicane!" He waited a moment anxiously.no answer.There was not even a single sigh to show that the hearts of his companions were still beating.He called again.The same silence. "Damn it!" he said. "It's as if they fell from the sixth floor!" Then he said with confidence that would never waver under any circumstances, "As long as a Frenchman can get up on his knees, two beauties can do it without difficulty." Stand up. But let's find out the situation first."

Ah Dang felt life returning to him like a wave, his blood had calmed down and normal circulation had resumed.He pulled himself together and regained his balance.At last he stood up, took a match from his pocket, rubbed the phosphated end, and lit the match.He immediately approached the lamp and lit the gas lamp.The gas cylinder suffered no damage.No leaks.Besides, if there is a leak, it can be smelled, and in this case Michel Ardan will not walk with impunity in this place full of hydrogen with a lighted match.The mixture of hydrogen and air becomes an explosive gas, and the explosion may complete the destruction that the vibration of the shell did not complete.

Immediately after lighting the gas lamp, Adam leaned over to look at the bodies of his companions.Two people stacked together, like two lifeless objects.Nicholl on top, Barbicane on the bottom. Adang helped the captain, let him lean on a sofa, and rubbed hard on him.His ingenious massage finally brought Nicholl back to consciousness. He opened his eyes, regained his composure for a moment, grabbed Adam's hand, and then looked around again. "Where is Barbicane?" he asked. "Everyone has his turn," said Michel Ardan nonchalantly. "I started with you, Nicholl, because you were up there. Now it is Barbicane's turn."

Having said this, Ardan and Nicholl lifted the chairman of the Cannon Club and placed him on a couch.Barbicane seemed to suffer more than his two companions.There was blood on him, but Nicholl was relieved when he confirmed that the blood was coming from a slight wound on his shoulder.It was just a skin scrape, and he bandaged it carefully at once. However, it took some time before Barbicane regained consciousness. Before that, his two companions, panicked and frightened, massaged him vigorously. "He's still breathing though," Nicholl said, putting his ear to the injured man's chest.

"Yes," replied Ardan, "he breathes like a man who undergoes massage therapy every day. Come, massage, Nicholl, massage hard." The two cameo masseuses massaged so long and so well that Barbicane finally regained consciousness.He opened his eyes, sat up, seized the hands of his two friends, and asked in the first sentence: "Nichor, are we moving?" Nicholl and Adam glanced at each other.They have not yet thought of their projectiles.Their first concern is the passengers, not the carriages. "Seriously! Are we moving?" Michel Ardan repeated. "Perhaps we'll just stay quietly on Florida soil?" Nicholl asked.

"Perhaps at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico?" Michel Ardan added. "Where is it!" exclaimed Chairman Barbicane. Two hypotheses put forward by his two companions brought him back to his senses at once. In any case, they were unable to comment on the condition of the shells.Since the interior is quiet and there is no contact with the outside, they cannot solve this problem.Perhaps the projectile has escaped its orbit in space?Or after rising, it fell to the earth, or even in the Gulf of Mexico? Because Florida has a long and narrow terrain, like a peninsula, this is also possible.

The situation is serious.This issue is critical and must be resolved quickly.Barbicane was so excited that his mental strength suddenly overcame his physical weakness and he rose to his feet.He is listening.It was silent outside.However, the thick wall pads are enough to block out all sounds on Earth.One incident, however, suddenly attracted Barbicane's attention.The temperature inside the projectile is particularly high.The club president pulled a thermometer out of the shield and looked at it.The thermometer rose to forty-five degrees Celsius. "Yes! Yes!" he cried, "we are moving! The suffocating heat is coming in through the outer wall of the projectile! The heat is produced by the friction between the projectile and the atmosphere. But the temperature is about to drop, because we Already in a vacuum, after the almost breathless heat, we're going to have to endure the freezing cold again."

"What?" asked Michel Ardan. "According to you, have we passed the edge of the atmosphere?" "Undoubtedly, Michel. Listen to me. It's ten fifty-five. If our muzzle velocity hadn't been slowed by air friction, we'd be able to cross the seventeen lawns surrounding the Earth in just six seconds. In the atmosphere." "Exactly," Nicholl echoed. "How much do you think our speed will be reduced by air friction?" "A third lower, Nicholl," answered Barbicane. "The speed varies greatly, but according to my calculations, it must be so. Therefore, if the initial speed is 11,000 meters, after leaving the atmosphere, the speed will decrease to 7,332 meters. In any case, we have passed through After this distance, there is..." "So," said Michel Ardan, "our friend Nicholl lost both bets: four thousand dollars because the cannon failed to explode; five thousand dollars because the projectile had risen to six miles Above. Well, Nicholl, do your duty." "We must first ascertain the facts," replied the captain, "before we can pay. Barbicane's reasoning may be correct, and I shall lose nine thousand dollars. But a new hypothesis has occurred to me, and perhaps this hypothesis Can overturn the bet." "What hypothesis?" asked Barbicane hastily. "My hypothesis is that, for whatever reason, perhaps the gunpowder was not lit at all, and our bet would be off." "For God's sake, captain," cried Michel Ardan, "I cannot conceive in my head the supposition that you are not serious! Were we not shaken to death? Didn't I wake you up? Wasn't our Chairman's shoulder injured and bleeding from the recoil?" "Agreed, Michel," retorted Nicholl, "but I have a question to ask." "Bring it on, Captain." "Did you hear the explosion? It must have been a terrible sound." "I didn't hear it," Adam replied, and he also felt very strange, "It's true that I didn't hear the explosion." "Did you hear, Barbicane?" "I didn't hear either." "What's the matter?" said Nicholl. "That's true!" muttered the club president. "Why didn't we hear the explosion?" The three friends looked at each other.This is really an unexplainable phenomenon.Since the cannonball is fired, it must make an explosion sound. "First we must find out where we are," said Barbicane. "Come! let us open the porthole." The job is simple and they do it quickly.Using a monkey wrench, they unscrewed the nuts of the shutter bolts on the outside of the starboard side window.Immediately after they had pushed the bolt out, they plugged the hole left by the bolt with a rubber piston.Thus, no sooner had the shutter been lowered on its hinges like a porthole than the lensed glass was exposed.A second similar porthole is on the left, a third is in the vault, and a fourth is in the base of the projectile.This enables observation of the sky from four different directions, through the lenses on the sides, and direct observation of the Earth and the Moon through the lenses below and above. Barbicane and his companions threw themselves upon the newly exposed porthole.There was no light outside.Despite the darkness surrounding the projectile, Barbicane exclaimed: "Yes, my friends, we did not fall to the earth! We did not sink to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico! Behold, my love, these shining stars, and the unfathomable darkness that lies between the earth and us! " "Ulla! Ulla!" cried Michel Ardan and Nicholl together. In fact, the darkness was just evidence that the projectile had left the Earth, since it was a moonlit night, and if they were still on Earth they would have been able to see the moonlight.The darkness also proved that they had passed through the atmosphere, because the light diffused in the air would leave a faint light on the metal outer wall of the projectile, and the porthole should also be slightly illuminated, but now even this kind of light cannot be seen .There is no need to doubt.The travelers have left Earth. "I lost," said Nicholl. "I should congratulate you!" said Adam. "Here is nine thousand dollars," said the captain, drawing a wad of notes from his pocket. "Do you want a receipt?" asked Barbicane, taking the money. "If it's not too troublesome," Nicholl replied, "this is more in line with normal procedures." Serious and calm, as if sitting in his own cashier's room, Barbicane took out a notebook and tore off a blank page , Write a qualified receipt with a pencil, indicate the date, sign, draw a note, and hand it over to the captain, who carefully puts the receipt in his wallet. Michel Ardan took off his peaked cap, bowed to his two companions, and with such formality under the circumstances, he was at a loss for words.He had never seen such an "American" American. After completing the formalities, Barbicane and Nicholl turned back to the window to observe the constellations in the sky.In the black sky, the stars seem to be bright ideas, which are particularly eye-catching.The "celestial body of the night" running from east to west will probably climb to the top of the zenith at this time, but it cannot be seen here.This caused Adam to think deeply. "And what about the moon?" he said to himself, "doesn't it happen by chance?" "Don't worry about it," answered Barbicane. "The celestial body we live in in the future is still standing, but we can't see it here. Let's open the porthole on the other side." Just as Barbicane left this window and was about to open the opposite porthole, a shining object that was getting closer and closer caught his attention. It was a gigantic disk whose area could not be estimated at the moment.It can be said to be a small moon reflecting the light of the moon.It was advancing with incredible speed, as if its orbit around the earth was about to intersect with that of the projectile.As it advances, it rotates on its own axis, just like all celestial bodies abandoned in space. "Alas!" exclaimed Michel Ardan, "what is this, another projectile?" Barbicane ignored him.The appearance of this huge object made him both surprised and uneasy.If it collides with this object, the consequences will be unimaginable. Either the projectile is affected by it and escapes its orbit, or after the impact, the projectile falls on the earth again, and finally, it is either destroyed by the asteroid. The attraction of resistance sweeps away. Chairman Barbicane summed up the consequences of these three hypotheses in an instant, no matter which one of the assumptions became a reality, his experiment would fail.His companions looked at the sky in silence.The object was getting closer and larger, which was incredible, and at the same time, because of the visual relationship, it seemed that a projectile was speeding towards it. "By God!" cried Michel Ardan, "the two trains are about to collide!" Out of instinct, the three travelers suddenly took a few steps back.It's terrible.But it was only for a moment.Maybe only a few seconds.The tiny planet passed a few hundred meters away from them and disappeared in a blink of an eye, not because of its speed, but because its side, facing away from the moon, suddenly sank into darkness and could no longer be seen. up. "Bon voyage!" exclaimed Michel Ardan, with a sigh of relief. "Well! Space is infinitely wide enough for a poor little cannonball to travel through space without worry! Oh! What kind of celestial body is this impudent sphere that almost hit us?" "I know," replied Barbicane. "Of course! You know everything." "This is an ordinary bolide," said Barbicane, "but it is so large that it has become a satellite of the earth under the influence of the earth's gravity." "Really?" exclaimed Michel Ardan. "Then, like Neptune, the earth has two moons." "Yes, there are two moons, my friend, although it is generally said that the earth has only one moon. But this second moon is so small and has such a velocity that it is impossible for the inhabitants of the earth to see it." It. Just because he noticed some disturbances in space, a French astronomer, Mr. Patty, was able to confirm the existence of this first satellite and calculate its data. According to his observations, the fireball took only three hours and twenty It circles the earth in just one minute. Its speed is of course astonishing." "Do all astronomers accept the existence of this satellite?" asked Nicholl. "No," answered Barbicane; "but for those who have seen it, as we have seen it, there is no longer any need for doubt. I now recall that, in fact, the star almost hit us, Bolides, which can give us a lot of trouble, make it possible to determine our position in space." "How sure?" Adam asked. "Since we know its distance from the earth, we are exactly 8,140 kilometers from the surface of the earth at the place where we meet it." "More than two thousand fares!" said Michel.Adam said loudly. "Faster than the express trains on this poor celestial body!" "I believe it," replied Nicholl, looking at his watch. "Eleven o'clock, thirteen minutes since we left the American continent." "Only thirteen minutes?" asked Barbicane. "Yes," said Nicholl, "if we maintain an initial velocity of eleven kilometers per second, we can advance ten thousand leagues in an hour!" "All is well, my friends," said the club president, "and now all that remains is this insoluble problem. Why don't we hear the Colombian guns?" As there was no answer, the conversation broke off abruptly, and Barbicane, meditating, opened the shutter of the porthole on the other side.When the shutters were opened, bright moonlight suddenly poured through the windows into the interior of the projectile.Nicholl, being a thrifty man, extinguished the useless gas lamps, which, besides, hindered their observation of interstellar space. The round moon is extremely bright.The moonlight no longer needed to pass through the misty atmosphere of the earth, it penetrated directly into the porthole, and in the air inside the projectile; it was flooded with silvery light.The black curtain of the sky set off the brightness of the moon more and more. In the etheric space where light cannot diffuse, the moon can no longer cover the stars around it.The sky seen from here is a spectacle that the human eye can never see. We can imagine with what joy these three brave men contemplated the last destination of their voyage, the celestial body of the night.The earth's satellites are moving in their orbits and are imperceptibly approaching the zenith, that is to say, the place where it should arrive in about ninety-six hours according to mathematical calculations, although in their eyes, the mountains and plains of the moon And the entire outline is no more clearly seen than anywhere on the earth, but through the vacuum, its light is extremely strong, and the round moon disk shines like a platinum mirror.As for the earth flying away from the coffin at the feet of the three travelers, they had long since forgotten it.It was Captain Nicholl who first mentioned a lost Earth. "Yes," replied Michel Ardan, "we should not be ungrateful. Now that we have left our homeland, we must see it one last time, and I will see the earth before it is gone!" In order to fulfill his companion's wish, Barbicane set about dismantling the obstruction on the porthole at the bottom of the projectile, from which the earth could be observed directly.The metal disc at the bottom of the projectile was pushed by the recoil of the launch and dismantled with difficulty.Each part is carefully stacked at the foot of the wall and can be reused when necessary.A circular window hole with a diameter of 50 centimeters was exposed at the bottom. A piece of round glass with a thickness of 15 centimeters was inlaid in the window hole. There was a brass guard on the outside and an aluminum plate fixed by bolts underneath.Unscrew the nuts, loosen the bolts, lower the shutters, and a visual connection between interior and exterior is established. Michel Ardan knelt at the window.The window was pitch black, as if it were a piece of opaque glass. "Hey! Where is the Earth?" he asked aloud. "No! This is the Earth," said Barbicane. "What!" said Ardan, "is this crescent-shaped white thing as thin as a line?" "Don't doubt it, Michelle. The moon will be full in four days, which means that by the time we reach the moon, the earth will be completely invisible. It appears as a thin 'crescent crescent' now, but it will soon be Completely disappeared, hiding in unfathomable darkness for days on end." "Ah! This is the earth!" Michel Ardan kept saying as he looked at his hometown - the "crescent moon" of the earth. Chairman Barbicane's interpretation is correct.From the perspective of the projectile, the earth has entered the "lower string".What can be seen now is only an eighth of an arc, which looks like a long and narrow crescent moon against the black background of the sky.Its light, filtered through the thick atmosphere, was blue, paler than the light of a first quarter moon.But Earth's "crescent moon" is gigantic.It can almost be said to be a huge arched back hanging from the sky.A few particularly bright spots on the concave surface illustrate the presence of mountains: they tend to be hidden by a dark shadow not seen on the Moon.This is the cloud cover that surrounds the Earth.However, due to a natural phenomenon, just like when one-eighth of the arc of the moon is illuminated, the outline of the entire earth can be distinguished.The earth is like a gray plate, even darker than the moon.It's easy to understand.The gray light on the moon is reflected from the sunlight received by the earth.Here it's the opposite, the gray light on Earth is reflected by the Moon.Due to the different sizes of the two celestial bodies, the Earth's light is twelve times brighter than that of the Moon.Therefore, it is also natural that the outline of the earth is fainter than that of the moon.We should also add that the arc of the Earth's 2nd chord appears to be longer than the sphere, and this is purely the effect of light penetration. As the three travelers struggled to see through the darkness of space, a shower of meteors burst forth like bouquets of flowers blooming before them.Hundreds of meteors ignited as soon as they hit the atmosphere, turned into fire brooms, and seemed to sprinkle a series of sparks on the gray earth.Now is the time when the earth is approaching the perihelion, and there are a lot of meteors in December. According to the calculations of astronomers, there are even 80,000 meteors per hour.But Michel Ardan doesn't like scientific theories. He would rather believe that the earth is sending off its three children with its brightest fireworks. All in all, that was all they could see of the obscuring object.The earth is a small celestial body in the solar system, and to the large planets it is no more than an ordinary morning or evening star rising on one side and setting on the other.Although it was only a small star almost invisible in space, a faintly discernible crescent-shaped star, all their feelings were pinned there! In the same mood, the three friends watched for a long time in silence, while the projectile was speeding forward with a decreasing average velocity.After a while, they suddenly felt an overwhelming drowsiness.Is this physical fatigue, or spiritual malaise?No doubt this was the inevitable response after the overstimulation of the last hours on Earth. "Very well," said Michel Ardan, "since it is time to sleep," let us sleep. " Then the three of them lay down on their mattresses and soon fell asleep. But they had scarcely slept for a quarter of an hour when Barbicane rose suddenly and roused his companions with a terrible voice: "I've found it!" he cried. "Found what?" asked Michel Ardan, jumping off the mattress. "The answer to why we didn't hear the Colombian cannon!" "Why? . . . " said Nicholl. "Because the velocity of the projectile is greater than the speed of sound!"