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[3] 1@ Fahrenheit.
"Well!" observed Michel, "we cannot reasonably complain of the monotony of our
journey! What variety we have had, at least in temperature. Now we are
blinded with light and saturated with
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173
heat, like the Indians of the Pampas! now plunged into profound darkness, amid
the cold, like the Esquimaux of the north pole.
No, indeed! we have no right to complain; nature does wonders in our honor."
"But," asked Nicholl, "what is the temperature outside?"
"Exactly that of the planetary space," replied Barbicane.
"Then," continued Michel Ardan, "would not this be the time to make the
experiment which we dared not attempt when we were drowned in the sun's rays?
"It is now or never," replied Barbicane, "for we are in a good position to
verify the temperature of space, and see if Fourier or Pouillet's calculations
are exact."
"In any case it is cold," said Michel. "See! the steam of the interior is
condensing on the glasses of the scuttles. If the fall continues, the vapor
of our breath will fall in snow around us."
"Let us prepare a thermometer," said Barbicane.
We may imagine that an ordinary thermometer would afford no result under the
circumstances in which this instrument was to be exposed. The mercury would
have been frozen in its ball, as below 42@ Fahrenheit below zero it is no
longer liquid.
But Barbicane had furnished himself with a spirit thermometer on Wafferdin's
system, which gives the minima of excessively low temperatures.
Before beginning the experiment, this instrument was compared with an ordinary
one, and then Barbicane prepared to use it.
"How shall we set about it?" asked Nicholl.
"Nothing is easier," replied Michel Ardan, who was never at a loss.
"We open the scuttle rapidly; throw out the instrument; it follows the
projectile with exemplary docility; and a quarter of an hour after, draw it
in."
"With the hand?" asked Barbicane.
"With the hand," replied Michel.
"Well, then, my friend, do not expose yourself," answered
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Barbicane, "for the hand that you draw in again will be nothing but a stump
frozen and deformed by the frightful cold."
"Really!"
"You will feel as if you had had a terrible burn, like that of iron at a white
heat; for whether the heat leaves our bodies briskly or enters briskly, it is
exactly the same thing.
Besides, I am not at all certain that the objects we have thrown out are still
following us."
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174
"Why not?" asked Nicholl.
"Because, if we are passing through an atmosphere of the slightest density,
these objects will be retarded. Again, the darkness prevents our seeing if
they still float around us.
But in order not to expose ourselves to the loss of our thermometer, we will
fasten it, and we can then more easily pull it back again."
Barbicane's advice was followed. Through the scuttle rapidly opened, Nicholl
threw out the instrument, which was held by a short cord, so that it might be
more easily drawn up. The scuttle had not been opened more than a second, but
that second had sufficed to let in a most intense cold.
"The devil!" exclaimed Michel Ardan, "it is cold enough to freeze a white
bear."
Barbicane waited until half an hour had elapsed, which was more than time
enough to allow the instrument to fall to the level of the surrounding
temperature. Then it was rapidly pulled in.
Barbicane calculated the quantity of spirits of wine overflowed into the
little vial soldered to the lower part of the instrument, and said:
"A hundred and forty degrees Centigrade [4] below zero!"
[4] 218 degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
M. Pouillet was right and Fourier wrong. That was the undoubted temperature
of the starry space. Such is, perhaps, that of the lunar continents, when the
orb of night has lost by radiation all the heat which fifteen days of sun have
poured into her.
CHAPTER XV
HYPERBOLA OR PARABOLA
We may, perhaps, be astonished to find Barbicane and his companions so little
occupied with the future reserved for them in their metal prison which was
bearing them through the infinity of space. Instead of asking where they were
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going, they passed their time making experiments, as if they had been quietly
installed in their own study.
We might answer that men so strong-minded were above such anxieties-- that
they did not trouble themselves about such trifles-- and that they had
something else to do than to occupy their minds with the future.
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175
The truth was that they were not masters of their projectile;
they could neither check its course, nor alter its direction.
A sailor can change the head of his ship as he pleases; an aeronaut can give a
vertical motion to his balloon. They, on the contrary, had no power over
their vehicle. Every maneuver was forbidden. Hence the inclination to let
things alone, or as the sailors say, "let her run."
Where did they find themselves at this moment, at eight o'clock in the morning
of the day called upon the earth the 6th of December?
Very certainly in the neighborhood of the moon, and even near enough for her
to look to them like an enormous black screen upon the firmament. As to the
distance which separated them, it was impossible to estimate it. The
projectile, held by some unaccountable force, had been within four miles of
grazing the satellite's north pole.
But since entering the cone of shadow these last two hours, had the distance
increased or diminished? Every point of mark was wanting by which to estimate
both the direction and the speed of the projectile.
Perhaps it was rapidly leaving the disc, so that it would soon quit the pure
shadow. Perhaps, again, on the other hand, it might be nearing it so much
that in a short time it might strike some high point on the invisible
hemisphere, which would doubtlessly have ended the journey much to the
detriment of the travelers.
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