The Moon-Voyage, page 37
CHAPTER VIII.
AT SEVENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN LEAGUES.
What had happened? What was the cause of that singular intoxication, theconsequences of which might prove so disastrous? Simply carelessness onMichel's part, which Nicholl was able to remedy in time.
After a veritable swoon, which lasted a few minutes, the captain, whowas the first to regain consciousness, soon collected his intellectualfaculties.
Although he had breakfasted two hours before, he began to feel as hungryas if he had not tasted food for several days. His whole being, hisbrain and stomach, were excited to the highest point.
He rose, therefore, and demanded a supplementary collation from Michel,who was still unconscious, and did not answer. Nicholl, therefore,proceeded to prepare some cups of tea, in order to facilitate theabsorption of a dozen sandwiches. He busied himself first with lightinga fire, and so struck a match.
What was his surprise to see the sulphur burn with extraordinary andalmost unbearable brilliancy! From the jet of gas he lighted rose aflame equal to floods of electric light.
A revelation took place in Nicholl's mind. This intensity of light, thephysiological disturbance in himself, the extra excitement of all hismoral and sensitive faculties--he understood it all.
"The oxygen!" he exclaimed.
And leaning over the air-apparatus, he saw that the tap was giving out aflood of colourless, savourless, and odourless gas, eminently vital, butwhich in a pure state produces the gravest disorders in theconstitution. Through carelessness Michel had left the tap full on.Nicholl made haste to turn off this flow of oxygen with which theatmosphere was saturated, and which would have caused the death of thetravellers, not by suffocation, but by combustion.
An hour afterwards the air was relieved, and gave their normal play tothe lungs. By degrees the three friends recovered from theirintoxication; but they were obliged to recover from their oxygen like adrunkard from his wine.
When Michel knew his share of responsibility in this incident he did notappear in the least disconcerted. This unexpected intoxication broke themonotony of the journey. Many foolish things had been said under itsinfluence, but they had been forgotten as soon as said.
"Then," added the merry Frenchman, "I am not sorry for havingexperienced the effect of this captious gas. Do you know, my friends,that there might be a curious establishment set up with oxygen-rooms,where people whose constitutions are weak might live a more active lifeduring a few hours at least? Suppose we had meetings where the air couldbe saturated with this heroic fluid, theatres where the managers wouldsend it out in strong doses, what passion there would be in the souls ofactors and spectators, what fire and what enthusiasm! And if, instead ofa simple assembly, a whole nation could be saturated with it, whatactivity, what a supplement of life it would receive! Of an exhaustednation it perhaps would make a great and strong nation, and I know morethan one state in old Europe that ought to put itself under the oxygen_regime_ in the interest of its health."
Michel spoke with as much animation as if the tap were still full on.But with one sentence Barbicane damped his enthusiasm.
"All that is very well, friend Michel," he said, "but now perhaps youwill tell us where those fowls that joined in our concert came from."
"Those fowls?"
"Yes."
In fact, half-a-dozen hens and a superb cock were flying hither andthither.
"Ah, the stupids!" cried Michel. "It was the oxygen that put them inrevolt."
"But what are you going to do with those fowls?" asked Barbicane.
"Acclimatise them in the moon of course! For the sake of a joke, myworthy president; simply a joke that has unhappily come to nothing! Iwanted to let them out on the lunar continent without telling you! Howastounded you would have been to see these terrestrial poultry peckingthe fields of the moon!"
"Ah, _gamin_, you eternal boy!" answered Barbicane, "you don't wantoxygen to make you out of your senses! You are always what we were underthe influence of this gas! You are always insane!"
"Ah! how do we know we were not wiser then?" replied Michel Ardan.
After this philosophical reflection the three friends repaired thedisorder in the projectile. Cock and hens were put back in their cage.But as they were doing this Barbicane and his two companions distinctlyperceived a fresh phenomenon.
Since the moment they had left the earth their own weight, that of thebullet and the objects it contained, had suffered progressivediminution. Though they could not have any experience of this in theprojectile, a moment must come when the effect upon themselves and thetools and instruments they used would be felt.
Of course scales would not have indicated this loss of weight, for theweights used would have lost precisely as much as the object itself; buta spring weighing-machine, the tension of which is independent ofattraction, would have given the exact valuation of this diminution.
It is well known that attraction, or weight, is in proportion to thebulk, and in inverse proportion to the square of distances. Hence thisconsequence. If the earth had been alone in space, if the other heavenlybodies were to be suddenly annihilated, the projectile, according toNewton's law, would have weighed less according to its distance from theearth, but without ever losing its weight entirely, for the terrestrialattraction would always have made itself felt, no matter at whatdistance.
But in the case with which we are dealing, a moment must come when theprojectile would not be at all under the law of gravitation, afterallowing for the other celestial bodies, whose effect could not be setdown as zero.
In fact, the trajectory of the projectile was between the earth and themoon. As it went farther away from the earth terrestrial attractionwould be diminished in inverse proportion to the square of distances,but the lunar attraction would be augmented in the same proportion. Apoint must, therefore, be reached where these two attractions wouldneutralise each other, and the bullet would have no weight at all. Ifthe volumes of the moon and earth were equal, this point would have beenreached at an equal distance between the two bodies. But by taking theirdifference of bulk into account it was easy to calculate that thispoint would be situated at 47/52 of the journey, or at 78,114 leaguesfrom the earth.
At this point a body that had no principle of velocity or movement initself would remain eternally motionless, being equally attracted by thetwo heavenly bodies, and nothing drawing it more towards one than theother.
Now if the force of impulsion had been exactly calculated the projectileought to reach that point with no velocity, having lost all weight likethe objects it contained.
What would happen then? Three hypotheses presented themselves.
Either the projectile would have kept some velocity, and passing thepoint of equal attraction, would fall on the moon by virtue of theexcess of lunar attraction over terrestrial attraction.
Or velocity sufficient to reach the neutral point being wanting, itwould fall back on the earth by virtue of the excess of terrestrialattraction over lunar attraction.
Or lastly, endowed with sufficient velocity to reach the neutral point,but insufficient to pass it, it would remain eternally suspended in thesame place, like the pretended coffin of Mahomet, between the zenith andnadir.
Such was the situation, and Barbicane clearly explained the consequencesto his travelling companions. They were interested to the highestdegree. How were they to know when they had reached this neutral point,situated at 78,114 leagues from the earth, at the precise moment whenneither they nor the objects contained in the projectile should be inany way subject to the laws of weight?
Until now the travellers, though they had remarked that this actiondiminished little by little, had not yet perceived its total absence.But that day, about 11 a.m., Nicholl having let a tumbler escape fromhis hand, instead of falling, it remained suspended in the air.
"Ah!" cried Michel Ardan, "this is a little amusing chemistry!"
And immediately different objects, weapons, bottles, &c, left tothemselves, hung suspended as if by miracle. Diana, too, lifted up byMichel into space, reproduced, but without trickery, the marvelloussuspensions effected by Robert-Houdin and Maskelyne and Cook.
The three adventurous companions, surprised and stupefied in spite oftheir scientific reasoning, carried into the domain of the marvellous,felt weight go out of their bodies. When they stretched out their armsthey felt no inclination to drop them. Their heads vacillated on theirshoulders. Their feet no longer kept at the bottom of the projectile.They were like staggering drunkards. Imagination has created mendeprived of their reflection, others deprived of their shadows! But herereality, by the neutrality of active forces, made men in whom nothinghad any weight, and who weighed nothing themselves.
Suddenly Michel, making a slight spring, left the floor and remainedsuspended in the air like the good monk in Murillo's _Cuisine desAnges_. His two friends joined him in an instant, and all three, in thecentre of the projectile, figured a miraculous ascension.
"Is it believable? Is it likely? Is it possible?" cried Michel. "No. Andyet it exists! Ah! if Raphael could have seen us like this what anAssumption he could have put upon canvas!"
"The Assumption cannot last," answered Barbicane. "If the projectilepasses the neutral point, the lunar attraction will draw us to themoon."
"Then our feet will rest upon the roof of the projectile,' answeredMichel.
"No," said Barbicane, "because the centre of gravity in the projectileis very low, and it will turn over gradually."
"Then all our things will be turned upside down for certain!"
"Do not alarm yourself, Michel," answered Nicholl. "There is nothing ofthe kind to be feared. Not an object will move; the projectile will turninsensibly."
"In fact," resumed Barbicane, "when it has cleared the point of equalattraction, its bottom, relatively heavier, will drag it perpendicularlydown to the moon. But in order that such a phenomenon should take placewe must pass the neutral line."
"Passing the neutral line!" cried Michel. "Then let us do like thesailors who pass the equator--let us water our passage!"
A slight side movement took Michel to the padded wall. Thence he took abottle and glasses, placed them "in space" before his companions, andmerrily touching glasses, they saluted the line with a triple hurrah.
This influence of the attractions lasted scarcely an hour. Thetravellers saw themselves insensibly lowered towards the bottom, andBarbicane thought he remarked that the conical end of the projectiledeviated slightly from the normal direction towards the moon. By aninverse movement the bottom side approached it. Lunar attraction wastherefore gaining over terrestrial attraction. The fall towards the moonbegan, insensibly as yet; it could only be that of a millimetre (0.03937inch), and a third in the first second. But the attractive force wouldgradually increase, the fall would be more accentuated, the projectile,dragged down by its bottom side, would present its cone to the earth,and would fall with increasing velocity until it reached the Selenitesurface. Now nothing could prevent the success of the enterprise, andNicholl and Michel Ardan shared Barbicane's joy.
Then they chatted about all the phenomena that had astounded them oneafter another, especially about the neutralisation of the laws ofweight. Michel Ardan, always full of enthusiasm, wished to deduceconsequences which were only pure imagination.
"Ah! my worthy friends," he cried, "what progress we should make couldwe but get rid upon earth of this weight, this chain that rivets us toher! It would be the prisoner restored to liberty! There would be nomore weariness either in arms or legs. And if it is true that, in orderto fly upon the surface of the earth, to sustain yourself in the air bya simple action of the muscles, it would take a force 150 times superiorto that we possess, a simple act of will, a caprice, would transport usinto space, and attraction would not exist."
"In fact," said Nicholl, laughing, "if they succeeded in suppressinggravitation, like pain is suppressed by anaesthesia, it would change theface of modern society!"
"Yes," cried Michel, full of his subject, "let us destroy weight andhave no more burdens! No more cranes, screw-jacks, windlasses, cranks,or other machines will be wanted."
"Well said," replied Barbicane; "but if nothing had any weight nothingwould keep in its place, not even the hat on your head, worthy Michel;nor your house, the stones of which only adhere by their weight! Noteven ships, whose stability upon the water is only a consequence ofweight. Not even the ocean, whose waves would no longer be held inequilibrium by terrestrial attraction. Lastly, not even the atmosphere,the molecules of which, being no longer held together, would disperseinto space!"
"That is a pity," replied Michel. "There is nothing like positive peoplefor recalling you brutally to reality!"
"Nevertheless, console yourself, Michel," resumed Barbicane, "for if nostar could exist from which the laws of weight were banished, you are atleast going to pay a visit where gravity is much less than upon earth."
"The moon?"
"Yes, the moon, on the surface of which objects weigh six times lessthan upon the surface of the earth, a phenomenon very easy todemonstrate."
"And shall we perceive it?" asked Michel. "Evidently, for 400 lbs. onlyweigh 60 lbs. on the surface of the moon."
"Will not our muscular strength be diminished?"
"Not at all. Instead of jumping one yard you will be able to rise six."
"Then we shall be Hercules in the moon," cried Michel.
"Yes," replied Nicholl, "and the more so because if the height of theSelenites is in proportion to the bulk of their globe they will behardly a foot high."
"Liliputians!" replied Michel. "Then I am going to play the _role_ ofGulliver! We shall realise the fable of the giants! That is theadvantage of leaving one's own planet to visit the solar world!"
"But if you want to play Gulliver," answered Barbicane, "only visit theinferior planets, such as Mercury, Venus, or Mars, whose bulk is ratherless than that of the earth. But do not venture into the big planets,Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, for there the _roles_ would beinverted, and you would become Liliputian."
"And in the sun?"
"In the sun, though its density is four times less than that of theearth, its volume is thirteen hundred and twenty-four thousand timesgreater, and gravitation there is twenty-seven times greater than uponthe surface of our globe. Every proportion kept, the inhabitants oughton an average to be two hundred feet high."
"The devil!" exclaimed Michel. "I should only be a pigmy!"
"Gulliver amongst the giants," said Nicholl.
"Just so," answered Barbicane.
"It would not have been a bad thing to carry some pieces of artillery todefend oneself with."
"Good," replied Barbicane; "your bullets would have no effect on thesun, and they would fall to the ground in a few minutes."
"That's saying a great deal!"
"It is a fact," answered Barbicane. "Gravitation is so great on thatenormous planet that an object weighing 70 lbs. on the earth would weigh1,930 lbs. on the surface of the sun. Your hat would weigh 20 lbs.! yourcigar 1/2 lb.! Lastly, if you fell on the solar continent your weightwould be so great--about 5,000 lbs.--that you could not get up again."
"The devil!" said Michel, "I should have to carry about a portablecrane! Well, my friends, let us be content with the moon for to-day.There, at least, we shall cut a great figure! Later on we shall see ifwe will go to the sun, where you can't drink without a crane to lift theglass to your mouth."
