CHAPTER VIII.
THE NEUTRAL POINT.
What had taken place? Whence proceeded this strange intoxication whoseconsequences might have proved so disastrous? A little forgetfulness onArdan's part had done the whole mischief, but fortunately M'Nicholl wasable to remedy it in time.
After a regular fainting spell several minutes long, the Captain was thefirst man to return to consciousness and the full recovery of hisintellectual faculties. His first feelings were far from pleasant. Hisstomach gnawed him as if he had not eaten for a week, though he hadtaken breakfast only a few hours before; his eyes were dim, his brainthrobbing, and his limbs shaking. In short, he presented every symptomusually seen in a man dying of starvation. Picking himself up with muchcare and difficulty, he roared out to Ardan for something to eat. Seeingthat the Frenchman was unable or unwilling to respond, he concluded tohelp himself, by beginning first of all to prepare a little tea. To dothis, fire was necessary; so, to light his lamp, he struck a match.
But what was his surprise at seeing the sulphur tip of the match blazingwith a light so bright and dazzling that his eyes could hardly bear it!Touching it to the gas burner, a stream of light flashed forth equal inits intensity to the flame of an electric lamp. Then he understood itall in an instant. The dazzling glare, his maddened brain, his gnawingstomach--all were now clear as the noon-day Sun.
"The oxygen!" he cried, and, suddenly stooping down and examining thetap of the air apparatus, he saw that it had been only half turned off.Consequently the air was gradually getting more and more impregnatedwith this powerful gas, colorless, odorless, tasteless, infinitelyprecious, but, unless when strongly diluted with nitrogen, capable ofproducing fatal disorders in the human system. Ardan, startled byM'Nicholl's question about the means of returning from the Moon, hadturned the cock only half off.
The Captain instantly stopped the escape of the oxygen, but not onemoment too soon. It had completely saturated the atmosphere. A fewminutes more and it would have killed the travellers, not like carbonicacid, by smothering them, but by burning them up, as a strong draughtburns up the coals in a stove.
"THE OXYGEN!" HE CRIED.]
It took nearly an hour for the air to become pure enough to allow thelungs their natural play. Slowly and by degrees, the travellersrecovered from their intoxication; they had actually to sleep off thefumes of the oxygen as a drunkard has to sleep off the effects of hisbrandy. When Ardan learned that he was responsible for the wholetrouble, do you think the information disconcerted him? Not a bit of it.On the contrary, he was rather proud of having done somethingstartling, to break the monotony of the journey; and to put a littlelife, as he said, into old Barbican and the grim Captain, so as to get alittle fun out of such grave philosophers.
After laughing heartily at the comical figure cut by his two friendscapering like crazy students at the _Closerie des Lilas_, he went onmoralizing on the incident:
"For my part, I'm not a bit sorry for having partaken of this fuddlinggas. It gives me an idea, dear boys. Would it not be worth someenterprising fellow's while to establish a sanatorium provided withoxygen chambers, where people of a debilitated state of health couldenjoy a few hours of intensely active existence! There's money in it, asyou Americans say. Just suppose balls or parties given in halls wherethe air would be provided with an extra supply of this enrapturing gas!Or, theatres where the atmosphere would be maintained in a highlyoxygenated condition. What passion, what fire in the actors! Whatenthusiasm in the spectators! And, carrying the idea a little further,if, instead of an assembly or an audience, we should oxygenize towns,cities, a whole country--what activity would be infused into the wholepeople! What new life would electrify a stagnant community! Out of anold used-up nation we could perhaps make a bran-new one, and, for mypart, I know more than one state in old Europe where this oxygenexperiment might be attended with a decided advantage, or where, at allevents, it could do no harm!"
The Frenchman spoke so glibly and gesticulated so earnestly thatM'Nicholl once more gravely examined the stop-cock; but Barbican dampedhis enthusiasm by a single observation.
"Friend Michael," said he, "your new and interesting idea we shalldiscuss at a more favorable opportunity. At present we want to knowwhere all these cocks and hens have come from."
"These cocks and hens?"
"Yes."
Ardan threw a glance of comical bewilderment on half a dozen or so ofsplendid barn-yard fowls that were now beginning to recover from theeffects of the oxygen. For an instant he could not utter a word; then,shrugging his shoulders, he muttered in a low voice:
"Catastrophe prematurely exploded!"
"What are you going to do with these chickens?" persisted Barbican.
"Acclimatize them in the Moon, by Jove! what else?" was the ready reply.
"Why conceal them then?"
"A hoax, a poor hoax, dear President, which proves a miserable failure!I intended to let them loose on the Lunar Continent at the firstfavorable opportunity. I often had a good laugh to myself, thinking ofyour astonishment and the Captain's at seeing a lot of American poultryscratching for worms on a Lunar dunghill!"
"Ah! wag, jester, incorrigible _farceur_!" cried Barbican with a smile;"you want no nitrous oxide to put a bee in your bonnet! He is always asbad as you and I were for a short time, M'Nicholl, under the laughinggas! He's never had a sensible moment in his life!"
"I can't say the same of you," replied Ardan; "you had at least onesensible moment in all your lives, and that was about an hour ago!"
Their incessant chattering did not prevent the friends from at oncerepairing the disorder of the interior of the Projectile. Cocks and henswere put back in their cages. But while doing so, the friends wereastonished to find that the birds, though good sized creatures, and nowpretty fat and plump, hardly felt heavier in their hands than if theyhad been so many sparrows. This drew their interested attention to a newphenomenon.
From the moment they had left the Earth, their own weight, and that ofthe Projectile and the objects therein contained, had been undergoing aprogressive diminution. They might never be able to ascertain this factwith regard to the Projectile, but the moment was now rapidlyapproaching when the loss of weight would become perfectly sensible,both regarding themselves and the tools and instruments surroundingthem. Of course, it is quite clear, that this decrease could not beindicated by an ordinary scales, as the weight to balance the objectwould have lost precisely as much as the object itself. But a springbalance, for instance, in which the tension of the coil is independentof attraction, would have readily given the exact equivalent of theloss.
Attraction or weight, according to Newton's well known law, acting indirect proportion to the mass of the attracting body and in inverseproportion to the square of the distance, this consequence clearlyfollows: Had the Earth been alone in space, or had the other heavenlybodies been suddenly annihilated, the further from the Earth theProjectile would be, the less weight it would have. However, it wouldnever _entirely_ lose its weight, as the terrestrial attraction wouldhave always made itself felt at no matter what distance. But as theEarth is not the only celestial body possessing attraction, it isevident that there may be a point in space where the respectiveattractions may be entirely annihilated by mutual counteraction. Of thisphenomenon the present instance was a case in point. In a short time,the Projectile and its contents would for a few moments be absolutelyand completely deprived of all weight whatsoever.
The path described by the Projectile was evidently a line from the Earthto the Moon averaging somewhat less than 240,000 miles in length.According as the distance between the Projectile and the Earth wasincreasing, the terrestrial attraction was diminishing in the ratio ofthe square of the distance, and the lunar attraction was augmenting inthe same proportion.
As before observed, the point was not now far off where, the twoattractions counteracting each other, the bullet would actually weighnothing at all. If the masses of the Earth and the Moon had been equal,this should
evidently be found half way between the two bodies. But bymaking allowance for the difference of the respective masses, it waseasy to calculate that this point would be situated at the 9/10 of thetotal distance, or, in round numbers, at something less than 216,000miles from the Earth.
At this point, a body that possessed no energy or principle of movementwithin itself, would remain forever, relatively motionless, suspendedlike Mahomet's coffin, being equally attracted by the two orbs andnothing impelling it in one direction rather than in the other.
Now the Projectile at this moment was nearing this point; if it reachedit, what would be the consequence?
To this question three answers presented themselves, all possible underthe circumstances, but very different in their results.
1. Suppose the Projectile to possess velocity enough to pass the neutralpoint. In such case, it would undoubtedly proceed onward to the Moon,being drawn thither by Lunar attraction.
2. Suppose it lacked the requisite velocity for reaching the neutralpoint. In such a case it would just as certainly fall back to the Earth,in obedience to the law of Terrestrial attraction.
3. Suppose it to be animated by just sufficient velocity to reach theneutral point, but not to pass it. In that case, the Projectile wouldremain forever in the same spot, perfectly motionless as far as regardsthe Earth and the Moon, though of course following them both in theirannual orbits round the Sun.
Such was now the state of things, which Barbican tried to explain to hisfriends, who, it need hardly be said, listened to his remarks with themost intense interest. How were they to know, they asked him, theprecise instant at which the Projectile would reach the neutral point?That would be an easy matter, he assured them. It would be at the verymoment when both themselves and all the other objects contained in theProjectile would be completely free from every operation of the law ofgravity; in other words, when everything would cease to have weight.
This gradual diminution of the action of gravity, the travellers hadbeen for some time noticing, but they had not yet witnessed its totalcessation. But that very morning, about an hour before noon, as theCaptain was making some little experiment in Chemistry, he happened byaccident to overturn a glass full of water. What was his surprise atseeing that neither the glass nor the water fell to the floor! Bothremained suspended in the air almost completely motionless.
"The prettiest experiment I ever saw!" cried Ardan; "let us have more ofit!"
And seizing the bottles, the arms, and the other objects in theProjectile, he arranged them around each other in the air with someregard to symmetry and proportion. The different articles, keepingstrictly each in its own place, formed a very attractive group wonderfulto behold. Diana, placed in the apex of the pyramid, would remind you ofthose marvellous suspensions in the air performed by Houdin, Herman, anda few other first class wizards. Only being kept in her place withoutbeing hampered by invisible strings, the animal rather seemed to enjoythe exhibition, though in all probability she was hardly conscious ofany thing unusual in her appearance.
Our travellers had been fully prepared for such a phenomenon, yet itstruck them with as much surprise as if they had never uttered ascientific reason to account for it. They saw that, no longer subject tothe ordinary laws of nature, they were now entering the realms of themarvellous. They felt that their bodies were absolutely without weight.Their arms, fully extended, no longer sought their sides. Their headsoscillated unsteadily on their shoulders. Their feet no longer rested onthe floor. In their efforts to hold themselves straight, they lookedlike drunken men trying to maintain the perpendicular. We have all readstories of some men deprived of the power of reflecting light and ofothers who could not cast a shadow. But here reality, no fantasticstory, showed you men who, through the counteraction of attractiveforces, could tell no difference between light substances and heavysubstances, and who absolutely had no weight whatever themselves!
"Let us take graceful attitudes!" cried Ardan, "and imagine we areplaying _tableaux_! Let us, for instance, form a grand historical groupof the three great goddesses of the nineteenth century. Barbican willrepresent Minerva or _Science_; the Captain, Bellona or _War_; while I,as Madre Natura, the newly born goddess of _Progress_, floatinggracefully over you both, extend my hands so, fondly patronizing theone, but grandly ordering off the other, to the regions of eternalnight! More on your toe, Captain! Your right foot a little higher! Lookat Barbican's admirable pose! Now then, prepare to receive orders for anew tableau! Form group _a la Jardin Mabille!_ Presto! Change!"
In an instant, our travellers, changing attitudes, formed the new groupwith tolerable success. Even Barbican, who had been to Paris in hisyouth, yielding for a moment to the humor of the thing, acted the _naifAnglais_ to the life. The Captain was frisky enough to remind you of amiddle-aged Frenchman from the provinces, on a hasty visit to thecapital for a few days' fun. Ardan was in raptures.
"Oh! if Raphael could only see us!" he exclaimed in a kind of ecstasy."He would paint such a picture as would throw all his other masterpiecesin the shade!"
"Knock spots out of the best of them by fifty per cent!" cried theCaptain, gesticulating well enough _a l'etudiant_, but rather mixing hismetaphors.
A GROUP _A LA JARDIN MABILLE_.]
"He should be pretty quick in getting through the job," observedBarbican, the first as usual to recover tranquillity. "As soon as theProjectile will have passed the neutral point--in half an hour atlongest--lunar attraction will draw us to the Moon."
"We shall have to crawl on the ceiling then like flies," said Ardan.
"Not at all," said the Captain; "the Projectile, having its centre ofgravity very low, will turn upside down by degrees."
"Upside down!" cried Ardan. "That will be a nice mess! everythinghiggledy-piggledy!"
"No danger, friend Michael," said M'Nicholl; "there shall be no disorderwhatever; nothing will quit its place; the movement of the Projectilewill be effected by such slow degrees as to be imperceptible."
"Yes," added Barbican, "as soon as we shall have passed the neutralpoint, the base of the Projectile, its heaviest part, will swing aroundgradually until it faces the Moon. Before this phenomenon, however, cantake place, we must of course cross the line."
"Cross the line!" cried the Frenchman; "then let us imitate the sailorswhen they do the same thing in the Atlantic Ocean! Splice the mainbrace!"
A slight effort carried him sailing over to the side of the Projectile.Opening a cupboard and taking out a bottle and a few glasses, he placedthem on a tray. Then setting the tray itself in the air as on a table infront of his companions, he filled the glasses, passed them around, and,in a lively speech interrupted with many a joyous hurrah, congratulatedhis companions on their glorious achievement in being the first thatever crossed the lunar line.
This counteracting influence of the attractions lasted nearly an hour.By that time the travellers could keep themselves on the floor withoutmuch effort. Barbican also made his companions remark that the conicalpoint of the Projectile diverged a little from the direct line to theMoon, while by an inverse movement, as they could notice through thewindow of the floor, the base was gradually turning away from the Earth.The Lunar attraction was evidently getting the better of theTerrestrial. The fall towards the Moon, though still almost insensible,was certainly beginning.
It could not be more than the eightieth part of an inch in the firstsecond. But by degrees, as the attractive force would increase, the fallwould be more decided, and the Projectile, overbalanced by its base, andpresenting its cone to the Earth, would descend with acceleratedvelocity to the Lunar surface. The object of their daring attempt wouldthen be successfully attained. No further obstacle, therefore, beinglikely to stand in the way of the complete success of the enterprise,the Captain and the Frenchman cordially shook hands with Barbican, allkept congratulating each other on their good fortune as long as thebottle lasted.
They could not talk enough about the wonderful phenomenon latelywitnessed; the chief point
, the neutralization of the law of gravity,particularly, supplied them with an inexhaustible subject. TheFrenchman, as usual, as enthusiastic in his fancy, as he was fanciful inhis enthusiasm, got off some characteristic remarks.
"What a fine thing it would be, my boys," he exclaimed, "if on Earth wecould be so fortunate as we have been here, and get rid of that weightthat keeps us down like lead, that rivets us to it like an adamantinechain! Then should we prisoners become free! Adieu forever to allweariness of arms or feet! At present, in order to fly over the surfaceof the Earth by the simple exertion of our muscles or even to sustainourselves in the air, we require a muscular force fifty times greaterthan we possess; but if attraction did not exist, the simplest act ofthe will, our slightest whim even, would be sufficient to transport usto whatever part of space we wished to visit."
"Ardan, you had better invent something to kill attraction," observedM'Nicholl drily; "you can do it if you try. Jackson and Morton havekilled pain by sulphuric ether. Suppose you try your hand onattraction!"
"It would be worth a trial!" cried Ardan, so full of his subject as notto notice the Captain's jeering tone; "attraction once destroyed, thereis an end forever to all loads, packs and burdens! How the poor omnibushorses would rejoice! Adieu forever to all cranes, derricks, capstans,jack-screws, and even hotel-elevators! We could dispense with allladders, door steps, and even stair-cases!"
"And with all houses too," interrupted Barbican; "or, at least, we_should_ dispense with them because we could not have them. If there wasno weight, you could neither make a wall of bricks nor cover your housewith a roof. Even your hat would not stay on your head. The cars wouldnot stay on the railway nor the boats on the water. What do I say? Wecould not have any water. Even the Ocean would leave its bed and floataway into space. Nay, the atmosphere itself would leave us, beingdetained in its place by terrestrial attraction and by nothing else."
"Too true, Mr. President," replied Ardan after a pause. "It's a fact. Iacknowledge the corn, as Marston says. But how you positive fellows doknock holes into our pretty little creations of fancy!"
"Don't feel so bad about it, Ardan;" observed M'Nicholl; "though theremay be no orb from which gravity is excluded altogether, we shall soonland in one, where it is much less powerful than on the Earth."
"You mean the Moon!"
"Yes, the Moon. Her mass being 1/89 of the Earth's, her attractive powershould be in the same proportion; that is, a boy 10 years old, whoseweight on Earth is about 90 lbs., would weigh on the Moon only about 1pound, if nothing else were to be taken into consideration. But whenstanding on the surface of the Moon, he is relatively 4 times nearer tothe centre than when he is standing on the surface of the Earth. Hisweight, therefore, having to be increased by the square of the distance,must be sixteen times greater. Now 16 times 1/89 being less than 1/5, itis clear that my weight of 150 pounds will be cut down to nearly 30 assoon as we reach the Moon's surface."
"And mine?" asked Ardan.
"Yours will hardly reach 25 pounds, I should think," was the reply.
"Shall my muscular strength diminish in the same proportion?" was thenext question.
"On the contrary, it will be relatively so much the more increased thatyou can take a stride 15 feet in width as easily as you can now take oneof ordinary length."
"We shall be all Samsons, then, in the Moon!" cried Ardan.
"Especially," replied M'Nicholl, "if the stature of the Selenites is inproportion to the mass of their globe."
"If so, what should be their height?"
"A tall man would hardly be twelve inches in his boots!"
"They must be veritable Lilliputians then!" cried Ardan; "and we are allto be Gullivers! The old myth of the Giants realized! Perhaps the Titansthat played such famous parts in the prehistoric period of our Earth,were adventurers like ourselves, casually arrived from some greatplanet!"
"Not from such planets as _Mercury_, _Venus_ or _Mars_ anyhow, friendMichael," observed Barbican. "But the inhabitants of _Jupiter_,_Saturn_, _Uranus,_ or _Neptune_, if they bear the same proportion totheir planet that we do ours, must certainly be regular Brobdignagians."
"Let us keep severely away from all planets of the latter class then,"said Ardan. "I never liked to play the part of Lilliputian myself. Buthow about the Sun, Barbican? I always had a hankering after the Sun!"
"The Sun's volume is about 1-1/3 million times greater than that of theEarth, but his density being only about 1/4, the attraction on hissurface is hardly 30 times greater than that of our globe. Still, everyproportion observed, the inhabitants of the Sun can't be much less than150 or 160 feet in height."
"_Mille tonnerres!_" cried Ardan, "I should be there like Ulysses amongthe Cyclops! I'll tell you what it is, Barbican; if we ever decide ongoing to the Sun, we must provide ourselves before hand with a few ofyour Rodman's Columbiads to frighten off the Solarians!"
"Your Columbiads would not do great execution there," observedM'Nicholl; "your bullet would be hardly out of the barrel when it woulddrop to the surface like a heavy stone pushed off the wall of a house."
"Oh! I like that!" laughed the incredulous Ardan.
"A little calculation, however, shows the Captain's remark to beperfectly just," said Barbican. "Rodman's ordinary 15 inch Columbiadrequires a charge of 100 pounds of mammoth powder to throw a ball of500 pounds weight. What could such a charge do with a ball weighing 30times as much or 15,000 pounds? Reflect on the enormous weighteverything must have on the surface of the Sun! Your hat, for instance,would weigh 20 or 30 pounds. Your cigar nearly a pound. In short, yourown weight on the Sun's surface would be so great, more than two tons,that if you ever fell you should never be able to pick yourself upagain!"
"Yes," added the Captain, "and whenever you wanted to eat or drink youshould rig up a set of powerful machinery to hoist the eatables anddrinkables into your mouth."
"Enough of the Sun to-day, boys!" cried Ardan, shrugging his shoulders;"I don't contemplate going there at present. Let us be satisfied withthe Moon! There, at least, we shall be of some account!"