Transcript

Part 3 · The Fixed Flight

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Section three of The Fixed Flight by Maurice Renard. The slibrivox recording is in
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the public domain. Read by Ben Tucker, Part three. At first I
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thought that the darkness filled the cabin, and again I began to fall into
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a non comprehension of this expedition undertaken by blind prisoners. When my eyes were
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drawn to a pale spot of light above Ethel's seat. It was a kind
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of a large lamp shade, luminous in the interior. I will try and
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describe it. A large hemispherical funnel hung mouth downwards, its pipe disappearing straight
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up into the ceiling. This pipe could be lengthened at will, like a
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telescope. Ethel pulled down the funnel, which fitted over her head, and
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gave to her face a livid pallor. Then she made me sit down in
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her seat. To my amazement, I seemed as if by magic, to
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be transported outside. In reality, the surrounding scene was depicted on the interior
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of the funnel, the sky with the moon's crescent, the milky Way,
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the azure depths, the glittering stars, and the white track of its silvery
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hills. I looked behind me and I saw the outline of Philadelphia, surmounted
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by Pen's statue and crowned with that halo which floats over all large towns at
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night. There in the funnel was the Corbette's modest little home, where Randolph
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lay thinking of us on his bed of sickness. Oh, messrs, it
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was simply marvelous. This miniature world positively fascinated me. I can give you
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some idea of it if I liken it to the reversed image seen by photographers
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when they examined the ground glass to see how the landscape will come on the
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plate. But in this case the landscape was visible without inversion, in the
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form of a panorama, but with this difference that the onlookers seemed to be
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perched eight meters above the earth. That is to say, as you will
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have guessed, at the point where the chimney of this beautifully made periscope issue
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from the roof of our prison, that is how the steering was managed.
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I could have remained for a long while with my head under the marvelous lamp
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shade, if my sister had not regained her seat. Why what do you
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find so fascinating in this plain with lenses she grumbled. Every submarine in our
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navy has one nearly as good. Are we? Pointing in the right direction.
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Jim from the funnel issued a blue phosphorescent light. One after the other.
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Of the instruments could be distinctly discerned in the gloom. Jim was bending
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over a compass, he laughed. No longer. Yes, ma'am, he
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said, wee'z exactly on the line from east to west. Good, Archie,
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to your helm, keep it perfectly straight until further orders, as if
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you were coxing a rowing boat. Are you there, Archie, Yes?
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Are you there, Jim, yes, ma'am. Good, stand by,
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Let her go. The Negro pressed two petals at once. I heard two
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simultaneous clicks from under the apparatus in front and behind, and something fell heavily
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with a dull thud on the grass below. Then it seemed to me as
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if a sickening force telescoped me into myself, pressing my head into my breast,
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my breast into my legs, and my legs into the boards beneath them.
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In short, I experienced that nauseating feeling of being telescoped produced by the
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violent starting of a lift. But it lasted only as long as it takes
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me to describe it once more. There was nothing to betray the slightest displacement
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of our vehicle. HULLO, I exclaimed, What's that? Something shone under
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my feet. I bent down, and all at once, Oh Heavens,
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I shut my eyes. My hands clutched the steering gear under the paralyzing domination
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of vertigo. The floor of the cabin was made of glass, so transparent
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that it seemed as nothing. And through the gaping hole I saw Philadelphia sinking,
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sinking with the speed of a falling body. We were mounting. Ethel
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had taken no notice of my exclamation. She was watching a dial and calling
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aloud the figures. It registered three hundred, four hundred, six hundred one
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thousand. Jim checked that on the statoscope. One thousand, fifty one thousand,
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one hundred. That's right, isn't it? Yes, ma'am, throw
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out thirty kilograms of ballast. The man touched another pedal. Another click was
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heard, and I saw one of the shadows, which interposed between the abyss
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and ourselves, diminish in size and grow flabby. This time it was not
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a weight that fell on account of the risk of killing some tardy promenader.
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But there was an arrangement controlling the emptying of bags of sand or leather bottles
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filled with water. What object had the corbettes and shutting themselves off so systematically
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from all direct communication with the exterior. I would have given much to know,
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but it was not the mo to interview my sister. Like one hypnotized,
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she bent over the dial of the barometer, enumerting one thousand, four
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hundred fifty one thousand, four hundred fifty seven fifteen hundred meters at last,
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Ah, fifteen forty five, that's too much. She seized a pendent chain
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and hung on to it. Now This resulted in a gurgling of gas escaping
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from a valve, and what I will call the attic up above us,
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and the needle of the barometer worked itself back to the figure fifteen hundred.
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We have arrived, proclaimed Ethel, then, looking at the clock above the
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negro's head. Five minutes too good. We will start punctually at midnight.
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We will start what did she mean? With a dull interrogative eye, I
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gazed on the back of her neck and her boyishly cut hair. I was
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so puzzled that her curly locks seemed to shape themselves into a vague mocking face.
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Upon my word, I said, at length, unable to contain myself
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any longer, upon my word, what shall start? You say? Have
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we not started already? No? What do you want? Then? What
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do you want to do? Ethel? Go round the world, mister inquisitive?
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What what? Oh? You were making fun of me? Round the
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round the world in one single day? Is? She trimmed, Jim.
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The horror of an ascension with a mad woman disguised as an aeronaut dimmed my
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gaze, and it was through a mist of fear that I saw the infernal
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Zulu, busied with the spirit balance he had found. The engine's nose was
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dipping imperceptibly. A little ballast thrown out in front allowed it to regain the
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absolute horizontal, but this made it rise about twenty meters. Ethel declared that,
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after all, it was of no importance. The compass consulted confirmed her
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opinion, and she smiled and murmured, excellent, heading full west, and
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as toel struck in the clock's tones, my sister gave the order start the
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engine, Jim, make contact. Jim pressed a big button immediately behind the
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partition at our backs. With a low and yet powerful purring, the invisible
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engine woke to life. It hummed louder and louder, and as it became
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stronger, a wind seemed to blow round us, freshen and grow into a
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storm wind, then into a veritable tempest. A gale shrieked by the whole
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length of the aeroplane. It became a smoon, and then a cataclysmal typhoon,
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and then something far worse unknown to men until now. Streams of wind
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keen as endless javelins rushed through the chinks of the doors. Notwithstanding their close
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fit, an army of vipers could not have hissed louder. They made a
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little tornado rage in the cabin itself. Nevertheless, the noise increased regularly on
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the surface of the machine, and above all against the sharp cut prow,
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where one would have said that silk was being torn under the push of the
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motor. Our sealed shelter shook more and more, and on touching the vibrating
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wall, I discovered that it was less cold than might have been expected.
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Indeed, the temperature rose perceptibly. The thermometer was running up without intermission,
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and before long I could have believed myself in an extraordinary stove heated from without
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on went to proof that our vessel was moving with incredible velocity. Ethel's madness
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ceased to be a matter of heartrending certitude to me. Moreover, my plucky
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sister showed no surprise, having certainly foreseen all the incidents of this vertigenous Proceeding
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at her command, Jim cocked the doors and stopped the drafts with tow driven
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in with a chisel. While this was doing, Ethel was examining a long
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graduated scale, whereon a pointer moved forward continuously, and she enumerated more figures
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five hundred, six hundred, one thousand, twelve hundred, one thousand,
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two hundred fifty. Must explain that the figure one thousand, two hundred fifty
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was proclaimed with an air of triumph, and at that very instant the pointer
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stopped on the scale, and the column of mercury in the thermometer's tube,
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while the noise of the motor and the whistling of our passage remained constant.
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One thousand, two hundred and fifty, repeated my sister. So we have
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attained to it, and after a glance at the clock, followed by a
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brief mental calculation. My sister signed towards the terrestrial globe. Jim, she
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said, at twelve o'clock three minutes and forty five seconds, you must put
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the point of the needle at Thorndale. Thorndale, you know we shall pass
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by there at that time. Jim awaited the moment and turned the globe in
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his hand so that the curved needle, which met its curvature, had its
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point above Thorndale. The moment arrived, he pressed a button, and the
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sphere, worked doubtless by the mechanism of the clock, began to turn slowly
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on itself from left to right. As for me, I had hardly got
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over a breath snatching surprise. Ethel I exclaimed, it can't be possible already,
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what can't be at Thorndale. No, indeed, she answered, busy
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with various small maneuvers, Thorndale's behind us. At present we have passed in
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the railway between Valley and Suska. Look at the needle on the globe,
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and look at that. Also. Ethel showed me the graduated scale, whose
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indicator was permanently fixed at the figure twelve hundred fifty that continued, My sister
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is a speedometer, a kind of patent log. It indicates a rate of
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more than twenty and three forth kilometers a minute, which is as nearly as
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possible twelve hundred fifty per hour. By Jove, we are moving at no,
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my dear boy, we are not moving. Upon my word, we
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are not moving. It is the air which slips by us. Our bark
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is motionless in a flying atmosphere. And that is why Archie I have christened
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her the aerofix. Oh yes, wait a little now, I am at
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your service. Only this tap to turn off. There, I am ready
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for you. And now I'll let some light into your mind and into this
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cabin. And my sister turned up the electric light, whose intensity put out
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the moon and stars on the ground of the periscope. Is it the air
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that moves? I resumed in a favor of curiosity. Look here, my
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dear boy. Philistine as you are, have you never thought how ridiculous men
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are in the way they travel, ridiculous to move themselves as they do with
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great expenditure of steam, petrol or electricity on a moving globe. When it
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is enough to remain stationary above it, for every point on the parallel to
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defile under your eyes one after another. But the possibility of landing there the
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deuce that, nevertheless is the idea we have put into action, Randolph and
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I. Our aerofix is the proof of it. The air flies by us,
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and the earth beneath us. From their point of view, we are
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motionless. The laws of gravitation to which our balloon remains subjected hold it always
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at the same distance from the center of the Earth. But it possesses a
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motor which frees it from the drag of the globe revolving on itself. It
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is in that sense that it does not move, for our ancient planet continues
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to carry it on its journey round the Sun, and the Sun carries it
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on its own journey across space, and its sidereal revolutions. Only the Earth
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turning from west to east on its axial revolution. We have all the appearance
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of making a tour of the world from east to west in twenty four hours,
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or to be more exact, in twenty three hours fifty six minutes four
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seconds, just like the Sun. But I hazarded. After scrawling some calculations
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on a scrap of paper. I remember that the Earth is forty thousand kilometers
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round. This being the case, as it takes twenty four hours to pivot
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on its axis, it ought to pass by under the machine at the rate
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of one thousand, six hundred and sixty six odd kilometers an hour, not
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so bad for a clerk in a cable factory. The man of figures begins
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to show in you. But my dear stupid brother, it is at the
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equator that you'll find a girth of forty thousand kilometers. And at the equator
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alone, if we had ascended at Keto, for example, the speedometer would
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register one million, six hundred sixty six thousand, six hundred sixty six.
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But as Philadelphia, whence the aero fix ascended is on the fortieth parallel north,
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which measures but thirty thousand kilometers, as it is nearer the pole.
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So the globe only revolves at one thousand, two hundred and fifty kilometers per
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hour. And what was you have said? If the ascension had taken place
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from one of the poles, which remains stationary as docks every point of the
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axis, we should then have the same place under our feet all the time,
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and the scene would be a circle of icebergs revolving around the center of
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the pole, like the disk of a gramophone. Above all observe. The
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higher the balloon rises on the bosom of the mass of air drawn into the
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terrestrial race elevation which enlarges a little the circle we seem to describe. The
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greater is the speed of the fluid which surrounds it, because the latter is
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getting farther away from the center of rotation. This peculiarity would augment the effort
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which has to be made to remain stationary against a stronger current. If this
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vapor which one finds an ascending did not become more rarefied as the speak grows
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greater, the more furiously the wind buffets us, the less body it has,
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so the ram pierces it with the same ease. The two phenomena counterbalancing
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each other, but while remain stationary at fifteen hundred meters, because the highest
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peak on the fortieth parallel does not quite reach this altitude, and we don't
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want a collision with the rocky mountains, do we? So we follow this
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fortieth parallel strictly. Strictly, Maybe one day our machine will be able to
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direct its fixity by the gravitational attraction of the su stars, or perhaps by
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the assistance of the Earth's progression and its orbit. It would then be a
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question of attaining immobility by proper relation with the Sun, so as to accomplish
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an oblique trajectory round the Earth, at least to appear to journey in this
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wise. But we are far from that at present to day. We must
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follow our chosen parallel like a rail. The rudder is merely an accessory design
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to put the aviator in the right direction at the start, and to combat
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any dangerous winds during the descent. Nolan's volins, we are globe trotters,
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my dear boy, Look at the compass. Its needle will not fall off
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one point in twenty four hours, except for the declination. The north is
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always on our right, so I stammered, dazed and overcome. So we
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shall be in Philadelphia again tomorrow, having covered all the fortieth parallel. Is
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that the circuit you spoke of? That is so? Now look at the
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clockwork globe. It is at once an indication of our sixth yessive positions and
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an epitome of the whole thing. The point of the immovable needle represents the
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aerofix. Every twenty four hours the same places pass under it. Tomorrow Philadelphia
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will make its appearance, but we shall be a little late because of the
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time lost in taking up our station and in recatching the drag of the earth.
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These two maneuvers demand a very gradual progression. And if, when in
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station I suddenly stopped the motor, which by the way, is impossible,
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the aerial stream would immediately seize upon our stern and our forward bulkheads would be
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smashed in upon us with the force of a shell. I felt beads of
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sweat pearling my brow, and the palms of my hands were wet. And
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found the heat, I grumbled, And this infernal whistling. You are speaking
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at the top of your voice, and yet I can scarcely hear you.
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Yes, it is all caused by the friction of the air. Don't you
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find it stifling? She uncovered some small apertures pierced in the doors given on
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the outer air by means of pipes bent aft in the direction of the wind.
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These ventilators were exceedingly well thought out, and a delicious freshness soon made
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itself fell. My sister continued, what trouble we had to find a remedy
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against the excessive heat. Ralph invented a heat proof coating which the hall is
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painted a non conducting layer. I was just about to give expression to some
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judicious reflections on the subject of air and on the contradictory qualities it manifests of
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chilling bodies moving at great rate, and heating those moving at a prodigious rate.
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When my sister put out the light again, once the dizziness induced by
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the darkness was dissipated, I saw ethel capped with the periscope, livid under
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its milk white light. There's serene highnesses, the rocky mountains, she proclaimed,
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Look at them, Archie. The magic funnel was blue with the reflection
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in the sky. Clouds wandered across it. The more distant seemed to mount
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in leisurely fashion. The near passed like flakes of light. Others which we
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passed right through, hid the view from me. For the wink of an
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eye emerging from the horizon, I mean to say, from the edge of
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the lamp shade, a dark patch mounted rapidly towards the stars. It was
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queerly indented white lights played on its jagged edges, and I saw it was
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the redoubtable chain of mountains, which was coming on full steam ahead under the
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full moon. The swathed glaciers trailed, their opalescent forms like comets tails,
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and a flying whiteness lit up our transparent floor. Their curves swelled beneath us,
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their great peaks sprang at us. It was a flock of mountains and
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a panic. They all sank away. The summits dipping re entered the zone
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of the invisible in the sky, free of clouds, once more filled the
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periscope with its magnificence. End of Part three.