From the Earth to the Moon; and, Round the Moon

by Jules Verne

  CHAPTER VIII

  AT SEVENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN LEAGUES

  What had happened? Whence the cause of this singularintoxication, the consequences of which might have beenvery disastrous? A simple blunder of Michel's, which,fortunately, Nicholl was able to correct in time.

  After a perfect swoon, which lasted some minutes, the captain,recovering first, soon collected his scattered senses.Although he had breakfasted only two hours before, he felt agnawing hunger, as if he had not eaten anything for several days.Everything about him, stomach and brain, were overexcited to thehighest degree. He got up and demanded from Michel asupplementary repast. Michel, utterly done up, did not answer.

  Nicholl then tried to prepare some tea destined to help theabsorption of a dozen sandwiches. He first tried to get somefire, and struck a match sharply. What was his surprise to seethe sulphur shine with so extraordinary a brilliancy as to bealmost unbearable to the eye. From the gas-burner which he litrose a flame equal to a jet of electric light.

  A revelation dawned on Nicholl's mind. That intensity of light,the physiological troubles which had arisen in him, theoverexcitement of all his moral and quarrelsome faculties-- heunderstood all.

  "The oxygen!" he exclaimed.

  And leaning over the air apparatus, he saw that the tap wasallowing the colorless gas to escape freely, life-giving, but inits pure state producing the gravest disorders in the system.Michel had blunderingly opened the tap of the apparatus to the full.

  Nicholl hastened to stop the escape of oxygen with which theatmosphere was saturated, which would have been the death of thetravelers, not by suffocation, but by combustion. An hourlater, the air less charged with it restored the lungs to theirnormal condition. By degrees the three friends recovered fromtheir intoxication; but they were obliged to sleep themselvessober over their oxygen as a drunkard does over his wine.

  When Michel learned his share of the responsibility of thisincident, he was not much disconcerted. This unexpecteddrunkenness broke the monotony of the journey. Many foolishthings had been said while under its influence, but alsoquickly forgotten.

  "And then," added the merry Frenchman, "I am not sorry to havetasted a little of this heady gas. Do you know, my friends,that a curious establishment might be founded with rooms ofoxygen, where people whose system is weakened could for a fewhours live a more active life. Fancy parties where the room wassaturated with this heroic fluid, theaters where it should bekept at high pressure; what passion in the souls of the actorsand spectators! what fire, what enthusiasm! And if, instead ofan assembly only a whole people could be saturated, what activityin its functions, what a supplement to life it would derive.From an exhausted nation they might make a great and strong one,and I know more than one state in old Europe which ought to putitself under the regime of oxygen for the sake of its health!"

  Michel spoke with so much animation that one might have fanciedthat the tap was still too open. But a few words from Barbicanesoon shattered his enthusiasm.

  "That is all very well, friend Michel," said he, "but will youinform us where these chickens came from which have mixedthemselves up in our concert?"

  "Those chickens?"

  "Yes."

  Indeed, half a dozen chickens and a fine cock were walkingabout, flapping their wings and chattering.

  "Ah, the awkward things!" exclaimed Michel. "The oxygen hasmade them revolt."

  "But what do you want to do with these chickens?" asked Barbicane.

  "To acclimatize them in the moon, by Jove!"

  "Then why did you hide them?"

  "A joke, my worthy president, a simple joke, which has proved amiserable failure. I wanted to set them free on the lunarcontinent, without saying anything. Oh, what would have beenyour amazement on seeing these earthly-winged animals pecking inyour lunar fields!"

  "You rascal, you unmitigated rascal," replied Barbicane, "you donot want oxygen to mount to the head. You are always what wewere under the influence of the gas; you are always foolish!"

  "Ah, who says that we were not wise then?" replied Michel Ardan.

  After this philosophical reflection, the three friends set aboutrestoring the order of the projectile. Chickens and cock werereinstated in their coop. But while proceeding with thisoperation, Barbicane and his two companions had a most desiredperception of a new phenomenon. From the moment of leaving theearth, their own weight, that of the projectile, and the objectsit enclosed, had been subject to an increasing diminution. If theycould not prove this loss of the projectile, a moment would arrivewhen it would be sensibly felt upon themselves and the utensilsand instruments they used.

  It is needless to say that a scale would not show this loss; forthe weight destined to weight the object would have lost exactlyas much as the object itself; but a spring steelyard forexample, the tension of which was independent of the attraction,would have given a just estimate of this loss.

  We know that the attraction, otherwise called the weight, is inproportion to the densities of the bodies, and inversely as thesquares of the distances. Hence this effect: If the earth hadbeen alone in space, if the other celestial bodies had beensuddenly annihilated, the projectile, according to Newton'slaws, would weigh less as it got farther from the earth, butwithout ever losing its weight entirely, for the terrestrialattraction would always have made itself felt, at whatever distance.

  But, in reality, a time must come when the projectile would nolonger be subject to the law of weight, after allowing for theother celestial bodies whose effect could not be set down as zero.Indeed, the projectile's course was being traced betweenthe earth and the moon. As it distanced the earth, theterrestrial attraction diminished: but the lunar attractionrose in proportion. There must come a point where these twoattractions would neutralize each other: the projectile wouldpossess weight no longer. If the moon's and the earth'sdensities had been equal, this point would have been at an equaldistance between the two orbs. But taking the differentdensities into consideration, it was easy to reckon that thispoint would be situated at 47/60ths of the whole journey,_i.e._, at 78,514 leagues from the earth. At this point, a bodyhaving no principle of speed or displacement in itself, wouldremain immovable forever, being attracted equally by both orbs,and not being drawn more toward one than toward the other.

  Now if the projectile's impulsive force had been correctlycalculated, it would attain this point without speed, havinglost all trace of weight, as well as all the objects within it.What would happen then? Three hypotheses presented themselves.

  1. Either it would retain a certain amount of motion, and passthe point of equal attraction, and fall upon the moon by virtueof the excess of the lunar attraction over the terrestrial.

  2. Or, its speed failing, and unable to reach the point of equalattraction, it would fall upon the moon by virtue of the excessof the lunar attraction over the terrestrial.

  3. Or, lastly, animated with sufficient speed to enable it toreach the neutral point, but not sufficient to pass it, it wouldremain forever suspended in that spot like the pretended tomb ofMahomet, between the zenith and the nadir.

  Such was their situation; and Barbicane clearly explained theconsequences to his traveling companions, which greatlyinterested them. But how should they know when the projectilehad reached this neutral point situated at that distance,especially when neither themselves, nor the objects enclosed inthe projectile, would be any longer subject to the laws of weight?

  Up to this time, the travelers, while admitting that this actionwas constantly decreasing, had not yet become sensible to itstotal absence.

  But that day, about eleven o'clock in the morning, Nichollhaving accidentally let a glass slip from his hand, the glass,instead of falling, remained suspended in the air.

  "Ah!" exclaimed Michel Ardan, "that is rather an amusing pieceof natural philosophy."

  And immediately divers other objects, firearms and bottles,abandoned to themselves, held themselves up as by encha
ntment.Diana too, placed in space by Michel, reproduced, but withoutany trick, the wonderful suspension practiced by Caston andRobert Houdin. Indeed the dog did not seem to know that she wasfloating in air.

  The three adventurous companions were surprised and stupefied,despite their scientific reasonings. They felt themselves beingcarried into the domain of wonders! they felt that weight wasreally wanting to their bodies. If they stretched out theirarms, they did not attempt to fall. Their heads shook ontheir shoulders. Their feet no longer clung to the floor ofthe projectile. They were like drunken men having no stabilityin themselves.

  Fancy has depicted men without reflection, others without shadow.But here reality, by the neutralizations of attractive forces,produced men in whom nothing had any weight, and who weighednothing themselves.

  Suddenly Michel, taking a spring, left the floor and remainedsuspended in the air, like Murillo's monk of the _Cusine des Anges_.

  The two friends joined him instantly, and all three formed amiraculous "Ascension" in the center of the projectile.

  "Is it to be believed? is it probable? is it possible?"exclaimed Michel; "and yet it is so. Ah! if Raphael had seen usthus, what an `Assumption' he would have thrown upon canvas!"

  "The `Assumption' cannot last," replied Barbicane. "If theprojectile passes the neutral point, the lunar attraction willdraw us to the moon."

  "Then our feet will be upon the roof," replied Michel.

  "No," said Barbicane, "because the projectile's center ofgravity is very low; it will only turn by degrees."

  "Then all our portables will be upset from top to bottom, thatis a fact."

  "Calm yourself, Michel," replied Nicholl; "no upset is to befeared; not a thing will move, for the projectile's evolutionwill be imperceptible."

  "Just so," continued Barbicane; "and when it has passed thepoint of equal attraction, its base, being the heavier, willdraw it perpendicularly to the moon; but, in order that thisphenomenon should take place, we must have passed the neutral line."

  "Pass the neutral line," cried Michel; "then let us do as thesailors do when they cross the equator."

  A slight side movement brought Michel back toward the paddedside; thence he took a bottle and glasses, placed them "inspace" before his companions, and, drinking merrily, theysaluted the line with a triple hurrah. The influence of theseattractions scarcely lasted an hour; the travelers feltthemselves insensibly drawn toward the floor, and Barbicanefancied that the conical end of the projectile was varying alittle from its normal direction toward the moon. By an inversemotion the base was approaching first; the lunar attraction wasprevailing over the terrestrial; the fall toward the moon wasbeginning, almost imperceptibly as yet, but by degrees theattractive force would become stronger, the fall would be moredecided, the projectile, drawn by its base, would turn its coneto the earth, and fall with ever-increasing speed on to thesurface of the Selenite continent; their destination would thenbe attained. Now nothing could prevent the success of theirenterprise, and Nicholl and Michel Ardan shared Barbicane's joy.

  Then they chatted of all the phenomena which had astonished themone after the other, particularly the neutralization of the lawsof weight. Michel Ardan, always enthusiastic, drew conclusionswhich were purely fanciful.

  "Ah, my worthy friends," he exclaimed, "what progress we shouldmake if on earth we could throw off some of that weight, some ofthat chain which binds us to her; it would be the prisoner setat liberty; no more fatigue of either arms or legs. Or, if itis true that in order to fly on the earth's surface, to keeponeself suspended in the air merely by the play of the muscles,there requires a strength a hundred and fifty times greater thanthat which we possess, a simple act of volition, a caprice,would bear us into space, if attraction did not exist."

  "Just so," said Nicholl, smiling; "if we could succeed insuppressing weight as they suppress pain by anaesthesia,that would change the face of modern society!"

  "Yes," cried Michel, full of his subject, "destroy weight, andno more burdens!"

  "Well said," replied Barbicane; "but if nothing had any weight,nothing would keep in its place, not even your hat on your head,worthy Michel; nor your house, whose stones only adhere byweight; nor a boat, whose stability on the waves is only causedby weight; not even the ocean, whose waves would no longer beequalized by terrestrial attraction; and lastly, not even theatmosphere, whose atoms, being no longer held in their places,would disperse in space!"

  "That is tiresome," retorted Michel; "nothing like thesematter-of-fact people for bringing one back to the bare reality."

  "But console yourself, Michel," continued Barbicane, "for if noorb exists from whence all laws of weight are banished, you areat least going to visit one where it is much less than on the earth."

  "The moon?"

  "Yes, the moon, on whose surface objects weigh six times lessthan on the earth, a phenomenon easy to prove."

  "And we shall feel it?" asked Michel.

  "Evidently, as two hundred pounds will only weigh thirty poundson the surface of the moon."

  "And our muscular strength will not diminish?"

  "Not at all; instead of jumping one yard high, you will riseeighteen feet high."

  "But we shall be regular Herculeses in the moon!" exclaimed Michel.

  "Yes," replied Nicholl; "for if the height of the Selenites isin proportion to the density of their globe, they will bescarcely a foot high."

  "Lilliputians!" ejaculated Michel; "I shall play the partof Gulliver. We are going to realize the fable of the giants.This is the advantage of leaving one's own planet andover-running the solar world."

  "One moment, Michel," answered Barbicane; "if you wish to playthe part of Gulliver, only visit the inferior planets, such asMercury, Venus, or Mars, whose density is a little less thanthat of the earth; but do not venture into the great planets,Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune; for there the order will bechanged, and you will become Lilliputian."

  "And in the sun?"

  "In the sun, if its density is thirteen hundred and twenty-fourthousand times greater, and the attraction is twenty-seven timesgreater than on the surface of our globe, keeping everything inproportion, the inhabitants ought to be at least two hundredfeet high."

  "By Jove!" exclaimed Michel; "I should be nothing more than apigmy, a shrimp!"

  "Gulliver with the giants," said Nicholl.

  "Just so," replied Barbicane.

  "And it would not be quite useless to carry some pieces ofartillery to defend oneself."

  "Good," replied Nicholl; "your projectiles would have no effecton the sun; they would fall back upon the earth after some minutes."

  "That is a strong remark."

  "It is certain," replied Barbicane; "the attraction is so greaton this enormous orb, that an object weighing 70,000 pounds onthe earth would weigh but 1,920 pounds on the surface of the sun.If you were to fall upon it you would weigh-- let me see-- about5,000 pounds, a weight which you would never be able to raise again."

  "The devil!" said Michel; "one would want a portable crane.However, we will be satisfied with the moon for the present;there at least we shall cut a great figure. We will see aboutthe sun by and by."