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The Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfaal by Edgar Allan Poe · Audiobooks & Scary Stories

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  Speaker 1: I hope you enjoy this reading, which comes from a
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  Speaker 1: work in the public domain, The Unparalleled Adventures of one
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  Speaker 1: Hans fall Dot Edgar Allan Poe. By late accounts from Rotterdam,
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  Speaker 1: that city seems to be in a high state of
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  Speaker 1: philosophical excitement. Indeed, phenomena have there occurred of a nature
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  Speaker 1: so completely unexpected, so entirely novel, so utterly at variance
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  Speaker 1: with preconceived opinions, as to leave no doubt on my
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  Speaker 1: mind that long ere this all Europe is in an uproar,
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  Speaker 1: all physics in a ferment, all reason and astronomy together
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  Speaker 1: by the years. It appears that on the day of
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  Speaker 1: I am not positive about the date, a vast crowd
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  Speaker 1: of people, for purposes not specifically mentioned, were assembled in
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  Speaker 1: the great Square of the Exchange in the well conditioned
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  Speaker 1: city of Rotterdam. The day was warm, unusually so for
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  Speaker 1: the season. There was hardly a breath of air stirring,
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  Speaker 1: and the multitude were in no bad humor at being
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  Speaker 1: now and then besprinkled with friendly showers of momentary duration
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  Speaker 1: that fell from large work white masses of cloud, which
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  Speaker 1: checkered in a fitful manner. The Blue Vault of the firmament. Nevertheless,
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  Speaker 1: about noon, a slight but remarkable agitation became apparent in
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  Speaker 1: the assembly. The clattering of ten thousand tongues succeeded, and
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  Speaker 1: in an instant afterward, ten thousand faces were turned toward
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  Speaker 1: the heavens. Ten thousand pipes descended simultaneously from the corners
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  Speaker 1: of ten thousand mouths, and a shout which could be
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  Speaker 1: compared to nothing but the roaring of Niagara resounded long, loudly,
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  Speaker 1: and furiously through all the environs of Rotterdam. The origin
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  Speaker 1: of this hubbub soon became sufficiently evident. From behind, the
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  Speaker 1: huge bulk of one of those sharply defined masses of
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  Speaker 1: cloud already mentioned was seen slowly to emerge into an
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  Speaker 1: open area of blue space, a queer, heterogeneous but apparently
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  Speaker 1: solid substance, so oddly shaped, so whimsically put together as
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  Speaker 1: not to be in any manner comprehended, and never to
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  Speaker 1: be sufficiently admired by the host of sturdy burghers who
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  Speaker 1: stood open mouth below. What could it be, in the
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  Speaker 1: name of all the rows and devils in Rotterdam, What
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  Speaker 1: could it possibly portend? No one knew, No one could imagine,
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  Speaker 1: No one not even the Burgomaster Minare superbus born under
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  Speaker 1: Duck had the slightest clue by which to unravel the mystery.
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  Speaker 1: So as nothing more reasonable could be done, every one
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  Speaker 1: to a man replaced his pipe carefully in the corner
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  Speaker 1: of his mouth, and, cocking up his right eye towards
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  Speaker 1: the phenomenon, puffed, paused, waddled about, and grunted significantly, then
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  Speaker 1: waddled back, grunted, paused, and finally puffed again. In the meantime, however,
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  Speaker 1: lower and still lower toward the goodly city came the
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  Speaker 1: object of so much curiosity and the cause of so
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  Speaker 1: much smoke. In a very few minutes it arrived near
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  Speaker 1: enough to be accurately discerned. It appeared to be. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: it was undoubtedly a species of balloon. But surely no
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  Speaker 1: such balloon had ever been seen in Rotterdam before. For who,
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  Speaker 1: let me ask, ever heard of a balloon manufactured entirely
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  Speaker 1: of dirty newspapers, No man in Holland. Certainly. Yet here,
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  Speaker 1: under the very noses of the people, or rather at
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  Speaker 1: some distance above their noses, was the identical thing in
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  Speaker 1: question and composed. I have it on the best authority
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  Speaker 1: of the precise material which no one had ever before
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  Speaker 1: known to be used for a similar purpose. It was
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  Speaker 1: an egregious insult to the good sense of the burghers
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  Speaker 1: of Rotterdam. As to the shape of the phenomenon, it
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  Speaker 1: was even still more reprehensible, being little or nothing better
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  Speaker 1: than a huge fool's cap turned upside down. And this
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  Speaker 1: similitude was regarded as by no means lessened when upon
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  Speaker 1: nearer inspection there was perceived a large tassel depending from
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  Speaker 1: its apex, and around the upper rim or base of
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  Speaker 1: the cone, a circle of little instruments resembling sheep bells,
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  Speaker 1: which kept up a continual tinkling to the tune of
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  Speaker 1: Betty Martin. But still worse, suspended by blue ribbons, to
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  Speaker 1: the end of this fantastic machine, there hung by way
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  Speaker 1: of car an enormous drab beaver hat with a brim
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  Speaker 1: superlatively broad and a hemispherical crown, with a black band
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  Speaker 1: and a silver buckle. It is, however, somewhat remarkable that
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  Speaker 1: many citizens of Rotterdam swore to having seen the same
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  Speaker 1: hat repeatedly before, and indeed the whole assembly seemed to
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  Speaker 1: regard it with eyes of familiarity. While the rout gretteled Fall,
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  Speaker 1: upon sight of it, uttered an exclamation of joyful surprise,
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  Speaker 1: and declared it to be the identical hat of her
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  Speaker 1: good man himself. Now this was a circumstance, the more
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  Speaker 1: to be observed, as Fall with three companions had actually
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  Speaker 1: disappeared from Rotterdam about five years before in a very
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  Speaker 1: sudden and unaccountable manner, and up to the date of
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  Speaker 1: this narrative all attempts had failed of obtaining any intelligence
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  Speaker 1: concerning them whatsoever. To be sure, some bones which were
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  Speaker 1: thought to be human, mixed up with a quantity of
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  Speaker 1: odd looking rubbish, had been lately discovered in a retired
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  Speaker 1: situation to the east of Rotterdam, and some people went
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  Speaker 1: so far as to imagine that in this spot of
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  Speaker 1: foul murder had been committed, and that the sufferers were
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  Speaker 1: in all probability Han's Fall and his associates. But to
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  Speaker 1: return the balloon, for such no doubt it was had
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  Speaker 1: now descended to within a hundred feet of the earth,
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  Speaker 1: allowing the crowd below a sufficiently distinct view of the
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  Speaker 1: person of its occupant. This was, in truth a very
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  Speaker 1: droll little somebody. He could not have been more than
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  Speaker 1: two feet in height, but this altitude, little as it was,
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  Speaker 1: would have been sufficient to destroy his equilibrium and tilt
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  Speaker 1: him over the edge of his tiny car, but for
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  Speaker 1: the intervention of a circular rim reaching as high as
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  Speaker 1: the breast and rigged on to the cords of the balloon.
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  Speaker 1: The body of the little man was more than proportionately broad,
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  Speaker 1: giving to his entire figure a rotundity highly absurd. His feet,
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  Speaker 1: of course, could not be seen at all, although a
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  Speaker 1: horny substance of suspicious nature was occasionally protruded through a
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  Speaker 1: rent in the bottom of the car, or, to speak
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  Speaker 1: more properly, in the top of the hat. His hands
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  Speaker 1: were enormously large, His hair was extremely gray and collected
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  Speaker 1: into a cue behind. His nose was prodigiously long, crooked,
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  Speaker 1: and inflammatory, his eyes full, brilliant, and acute. His chin
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  Speaker 1: and cheeks, although wrinkled with age, were broad, puffy, and double.
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  Speaker 1: But of ears of any kind or character, there was
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  Speaker 1: not a semblance to be discovered upon any portion of
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  Speaker 1: his head. This odd little gentleman was dressed in a
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  Speaker 1: loose curtuit of sky blue satin, with tight breeches to match,
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  Speaker 1: fastened with silver buckles at the knees. His vest was
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  Speaker 1: of some bright yellow material. A white taffety cap was
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  Speaker 1: set jauntily on one side of his head, and to
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  Speaker 1: complete his equipment, a blood red silk handkerchief enveloped his
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  Speaker 1: throat and fell down in a dainty manner upon his
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  Speaker 1: bosom in a fantastic bouw knot of supereminent dimensions. Having descended,
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  Speaker 1: as I said before, to about one hundred feet from
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  Speaker 1: the surface of the earth, the little old gentleman was
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  Speaker 1: suddenly seized with a fit of trepidation, and appeared disinclined
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  Speaker 1: to make any nearer approach to terra firma. Throwing out
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  Speaker 1: therefore a quantity of sand from a canvas bag, which
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  Speaker 1: he lifted with great difficulty, he became stationary in an instant.
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  Speaker 1: He then proceeded in a hurried and agitated manner to
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  Speaker 1: extract from a side pocket in his curtute large Morocco
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  Speaker 1: pocket book. This he poised suspiciously in his hand, then
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  Speaker 1: eyed it with an air of extreme surprise, and was
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  Speaker 1: evidently astonished at its weight. He at length opened it, and,
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  Speaker 1: drawing there from a huge letter sealed with red sealing
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  Speaker 1: wax and tied carefully with red tape let it fall
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  Speaker 1: precisely at the feet of the Burgomaster superbus bawn under Duck.
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  Speaker 1: His excellency stooped to take it up, but the aeronaut,
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  Speaker 1: still greatly discomposed, and having apparently no farther business to
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  Speaker 1: detain him in Rotterdam, began at this moment to make
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  Speaker 1: busy preparations for departure, and it being necessary to discharge
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  Speaker 1: a portion of ballast to enable him to reascend. The
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  Speaker 1: half dozen bags, which he threw out, one after another,
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  Speaker 1: without taking the trouble to empty their contents, tumbled every
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  Speaker 1: one of them, most unfortunately, upon the back of the Burgomaster,
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  Speaker 1: and rolled him over and over no less than one
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  Speaker 1: and twenty times, in the face of every man in Rotterdam.
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  Speaker 1: It is not to be supposed, however, that the Great
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  Speaker 1: under Ducks suffered this impertinence on the part of the
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  Speaker 1: little old man to pass off with impunity. It is said,
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  Speaker 1: on the contrary, that during each and every one of
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  Speaker 1: his one and twenty circumvolutions, he emitted no less than
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  Speaker 1: one and twenty distinct and furious whiffs from his pipe,
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  Speaker 1: to which he held fast the whole time with all
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  Speaker 1: his might, and to which he intends holding fast until
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  Speaker 1: the day of his death. In the meantime, the balloon
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  Speaker 1: arose like a lark, and soaring far away above the city.
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  Speaker 1: At length drifted quietly behind a cloud similar to that
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  Speaker 1: from which it had so oddly emerged, and was thus
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  Speaker 1: lost forever to the wondering eyes of the good citizens
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  Speaker 1: of Rotterdamens was now directed to the letter, the descent
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  Speaker 1: of which and the consequences attending thereupon had proved so
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  Speaker 1: fatally subversive of both person and personal dignity to his excellency,
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  Speaker 1: the illustrious Burgomaster Manaire Superbus Vaughan under Duck. That functionary, however,
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  Speaker 1: had not failed during his circumjiratory movements to bestow a
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  Speaker 1: thought upon the important subject of securing the packet in question,
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  Speaker 1: which was seen upon inspection to have fallen into the
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  Speaker 1: most proper hands, being actually addressed to himself and Professor
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  Speaker 1: Rubadoub in their official capacities of President and Vice President
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  Speaker 1: of the Rotterdam College of Astronomy. It was accordingly opened
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  Speaker 1: by those dignitaries upon the spot, and found to contain
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  Speaker 1: the following extraordinary and indeed very serious communication to their excellencies.
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  Speaker 1: Vaughan under Duck and Rubbadub, President and Vice President of
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  Speaker 1: the State's College of Astronomers in the city of Rotterdam.
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  Speaker 1: Your excellencies may perhaps be able to remember an humble
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  Speaker 1: artisan by name Hans zi Fall and by occupation a
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  Speaker 1: mender of bellows, who with three others disappeared from Rotterdam
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  Speaker 1: about five years ago, in a manner which must have
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  Speaker 1: been considered by all parties at once sudden and extremely unaccountable.
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  Speaker 1: If however it so please your excellencies, I, the writer
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  Speaker 1: of this communication, am the identical Hans Fall himself. It
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  Speaker 1: is well known to most of my fellow citizens that
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  Speaker 1: for the period of forty years I continued to occupy
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  Speaker 1: the little square brick building at the head of the
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  Speaker 1: alley called Sauerkraut, in which I resided at the time
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  Speaker 1: of my disappearance. My ancestors have also resided therein time
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  Speaker 1: out of mind, they as well as myself, steadily following
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  Speaker 1: the respectable and indeed lucrative profession of mending of bellows.
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  Speaker 1: For to speak the truth, until of late years that
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  Speaker 1: the heads of all the people have been set agog
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  Speaker 1: with politics. No better business than my own could an
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  Speaker 1: honest citizen of Rotterdam, either desire or deserve. Credit was good,
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  Speaker 1: employed was never wanting, and on all hands there was
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  Speaker 1: no lack of either money or good will. But as
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  Speaker 1: I was saying, we soon began to feel the effects
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  Speaker 1: of liberty and long speeches and radicalism and all that
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  Speaker 1: sort of thing. People who were formerly the very best
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  Speaker 1: customers in the world had now not a moment of
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  Speaker 1: time to think of us at all. They had so
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: they said as much as they could do to read
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  Speaker 1: about the revolutions and keep up with the march of
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  Speaker 1: intellect and the spirit of the age. If a fire
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  Speaker 1: wanted fanning, it could readily be fanned with a newspaper.
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  Speaker 1: And as the government grew weaker, I have no doubt
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  Speaker 1: that leather and iron acquired durability in proportion, For in
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  Speaker 1: a very short time there was not a pair of
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  Speaker 1: bellows in all Rotterdam that ever stood in need of
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  Speaker 1: a stitch or required the assistance of a hammer. This
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  Speaker 1: was a state of things not to be endured. I
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  Speaker 1: soon grew as poor as a rat, and having a
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  Speaker 1: wife and children to provide for my burdens at length
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  Speaker 1: became intolerable, and I spent hour after hour in reflecting
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  Speaker 1: upon the most convenient method of putting an end to
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  Speaker 1: my life. Dunns in the meantime left me little leisure
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  Speaker 1: for contemplation. My house was literally besieged from morning till night,
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  Speaker 1: so that I began to rave and foam and fret
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  Speaker 1: like a caged tiger against the bars of his enclosure.
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  Speaker 1: There were three fellows in particular, who worried me beyond endurance,
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  Speaker 1: keeping watch continually about my door and threatening me with
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  Speaker 1: the law. Upon these three I internally vowed the bitterest
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  Speaker 1: revenge if ever I should be so happy as to
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  Speaker 1: get them within my clutches. And I believed nothing in
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  Speaker 1: the world but the pleasure of this anticipation prevented me
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  Speaker 1: from putting my plan of suicide into immediate execution by
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  Speaker 1: blowing my brains out with a blunderbuss. I thought it best, however,
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  Speaker 1: to dissemble my wrath and to treat them with promises
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  Speaker 1: and fair words, until by some good turn of fate
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  Speaker 1: an opportunity of vengeance should be afforded me. One day,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: having given my creditors the slip, and feeling more than
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  Speaker 1: usually deject, I continued for a long time to wander
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: about the most obscure streets without object whatever, until at
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  Speaker 1: length I chanced to stumble against the corner of a
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  Speaker 1: bookseller stall. Seeing a chair close at hand for the
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  Speaker 1: use of customers, I threw myself doggedly into it, and,
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  Speaker 1: hardly knowing why, opened the pages of the first volume
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  Speaker 1: which came within my reach. It proved to be a
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  Speaker 1: small pamphlet treatise on speculative Astronomy, written either by Professor
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  Speaker 1: Enk of Berlin or by a Frenchman of somewhat similar name.
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  Speaker 1: I had some little tincture of information on matters of
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  Speaker 1: this nature, and soon became more and more absorbed in
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  Speaker 1: the contents of the book, reading it actually through twice
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  Speaker 1: before I awoke to a recollection of what was passing
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  Speaker 1: around me. By this time it began to grow dark,
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  Speaker 1: and I directed my steps toward home. But the treatise
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  Speaker 1: had made an indelible impression on my mind, and as
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: I soldered along the dusky streets, I revolved carefully over
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  Speaker 1: in my memory the wild and sometimes unintelligible reasonings of
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: the writer there, with some particular passages which affected my
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  Speaker 1: imagination in a powerful and extraordinary manner. The longer I
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  Speaker 1: meditated upon these, the more intense grew the interest which
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  Speaker 1: had been excited within me the limited nature of my
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  Speaker 1: education in general, and more especially my ignorance on subjects
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  Speaker 1: connected with natural philosophy, so far from rendering me diffident
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  Speaker 1: of my own ability to comprehend what I had read
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  Speaker 1: or inducing me to mistrust, the many vague notions which
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  Speaker 1: had arisen, in consequence, merely served as a farther stimulus
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  Speaker 1: to imagination. And I was vain enough, or perhaps reasonable enough,
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  Speaker 1: to doubt whether those crude ideas which arising in ill
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: regulated minds have all the appearance, may not often in
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  Speaker 1: effect possess all the force, the reality and other inherent
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: properties of instinct or intuition, Whether to proceed a step farther,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: profundity itself might not, in matters of a purely speculative nature,
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  Speaker 1: be detected as a legitimate source of falsity and error.
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  Speaker 1: In other words, I believed, and still do believe, that
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  Speaker 1: truth is frequently of its own essence, superficial, and that
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  Speaker 1: in many cases the depth flies more in the abysses
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  Speaker 1: where we seek her than in the actual situations wherein
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  Speaker 1: she may be found. Nature herself seemed to afford me
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  Speaker 1: corroboration of these ideas in the contemplation of the heavenly bodies.
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  Speaker 1: It struck me forcibly that I could not distinguish a
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  Speaker 1: star with nearly as much precision when I gazed on
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  Speaker 1: it with earnest, direct and undeviating attention as when I
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: suffered my eye only to glance in its vicinity alone.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: I was, not, of course, at that time, aware that
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: this apparent paradox was occasioned by the center of the
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: visual area being less susceptible of feeble impressions of light
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  Speaker 1: than the exterior portions of the retina. This knowledge, and
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: some of another kind, came afterwards, in the course of
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: an eventful five years, during which I have dropped the
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: prejudices of my former, humble situation in life and forgotten
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: the bellows mender in far different occupations. But at the
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: epoch of which I speak, the analogy which a casual
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: observation of a star offered to the conclusions I had
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  Speaker 1: already drawn struck me with the force of positive conformation,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: and I then finally made up my mind to the
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: course which I afterwards pursued. It was late when I
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: reached home, and I went immediately to bed. My mind, however,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: was too much occupied to sleep, and I lay the
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: whole night buried in meditation. Arising early in the morning,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: and contriving again to escape the vigilance of my creditors,
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: I repaired eagerly to the bookseller's stall and laid out
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: what little ready money I possessed in the purchase of
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: some volumes of mechanics and practical astronomy. Having arrived at
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: home safely with these, I devoted every spare moment to
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: their perusal, and soon made such proficiency in studies of
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: this nature as I thought sufficient for the execution of
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: my plan. In the intervals of this period, I made
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: every endeavor to conciliate the three creditors who had given
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: me so much annoyance. In this I finally succeeded, partly
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: by self telling enough of my household furniture to satisfy
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  Speaker 1: a moiety of their claim, and partly by a promise
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  Speaker 1: of paying the balance upon completion of a little project
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: which I told them I had in view, and for
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: assistance in which I solicited their services. By these means,
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: for they were ignorant men, I found little difficulty in
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  Speaker 1: gaining them over to my purpose matters being thus arranged,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: I contrived, by the aid of my wife, and with
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  Speaker 1: the greatest secrecy and caution, to dispose of what property
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: I had remaining, and to borrow in small sums, under
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: various pretenses, and without paying any attention to my future
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: means of repayment, no inconsiderable quantity of ready money. With
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: the means thus accruing, I proceeded to procure at intervals
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: cambric muslin very fine in pieces of twelve yards each, twine,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: a lot of the varnish of koutchuk, a large and
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: deep basket of wicker work made to order, and several
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: other articles necessary in the construction and equipment of a
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: balloon of extraordinary dimensions. This I directed my wife to
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: make up as soon as possible, and gave her all
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  Speaker 1: requisite information as to the particular method of proceeding. In
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: the meantime, I worked up the twine into a network
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: of sufficient dimensions, rigged it with a hoop and the
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: necessary cords. Bought a quadrant, a compass, a spy glass,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: a common barometer with some important modifications, and two astronomical
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: instruments not so generally known. I then took opportunities of
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: conveying by night to a retired situation east of Rotterdam,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: five iron bound casks to contain about fifty gallons each,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: and one of a larger size, six tined whare tubes
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  Speaker 1: three inches in diameter, properly shaped and ten feet in length,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: a quantity of a particular metallic substance or semi metal,
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: which I shall not name, and a dozen demijohns of
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: a very common acid. The gas to be formed from
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: these latter materials is a gas never yet generated by
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: any other person than myself, or at least never applied
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: to any similar purpose. The secret I would make no
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: difficulty in disclosing, but that it of right belongs to
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: a citizen of Nance in France, by whom it was
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: conditionally communicated to myself. The same individual submitted to me
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: without being at all aware of my intentions. A method
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: of constructing balloons from the membrane of a certain animal,
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: through which substance any escape of gas was nearly an impossibility.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: I found it, however, altogether too expensive, and was not
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: sure upon the whole whether cambric muslin with a coating
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: of gum kouchuk was not equally as good. I mentioned
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: this circumstance because I think it probable that hereafter the
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: individual in question may attempt a balloon ascension with the
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: novel gas and material I have spoken of, and I
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: do not wish to deprive him of the honor of
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: a very singular invention. On the spot which I intended
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: each of the smaller casks to occupy, respectively, during the
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: inflation of the balloon, I privately dug a whole two
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: feet deep the holes, forming in this manner a circle
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: twenty five feet in diameter. In the center of this
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: circle being the station designed for the large cask, I
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: also dug a whole three feet in depth. In each
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: of the five smaller holes. I deposited a canister containing
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: fifty pounds, and in the larger one a keg holding
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty pounds of cannon powder. These the
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: keg and canisters I connected in a proper manner with
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: covered trains, and having led into one of the canisters
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: the end of about four feet of slow match, I
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: covered up the hole and placed the cask over it,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: leaving the other end of the match protruding about an
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: inch and barely visible beyond the cask. I then filled
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: up the remaining holes and placed the barrels over them
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: in their destined situation. Besides the articles above enumerated, I
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: conveyed to the depot, and there secreted one of m.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: Grimm's improvements upon the apparatus for condensation of the atmospheric air.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: I found this machine, however, to require considerable alteration before
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: it could be adapted to the purposes to which I
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: intended making it applicable. But with severe labor and unremitting
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: perseverance I at length met with entire success in all
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: my preparations. My balloon was soon completed. It would contain
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: more than forty thousand cubic feet of gas, would take
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: me up easily, I calculated, with all my implements, and
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: if I managed rightly with one hundred and seventy five
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: pounds of ballast into the bargain, it had received three
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: coats of varnish. And I found the cambric muslin to
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: answer all the purposes of silk itself, quite as strong
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: and a good deal less expensive. Everything being now ready,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: I exacted from my wife an oath of secrecy in
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: relation to all my actions from the day of my
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: first visit to the bookseller's stall, and promising on my
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: part to return as soon as circumstances would permit. I
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: gave her what little money I had left and bade
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: her farewell. Indeed, I had no fear on her account.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: She was what people call a notable woman, and could
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: manage matters in the world without my assistance, I believe
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: to tell the truth. She always looked upon me as
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: an idle boy, a mere make weight, good for nothing
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: but building castles in the air, and was rather glad
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: to get rid of me. It was a dark night
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: when I bade her good bye, and, taking with me
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: as aids to camp the three creditors who had given
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: me so much trouble. We carried the balloon with the
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: car and accouterments by a roundabout way to the station
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: where the other articles were deposited. We there found them
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: all unmolested, and I proceeded immediately to business. It was
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: the first of April. The night, as I said before,
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: was dark. There was not a star to be seen,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: and a drizzling rain falling at intervals rendered us very uncomfortable.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: But my chief anxiety was concerning the balloon, which, in
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: spite of the varnish with which it was defended began
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: to grow rather heavy. With the moisture, the powder also
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: was liable to damage. I therefore kept my three duns
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: working with great diligence, pounding down I around the central
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: cask and stirring the acid in the others. They did
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: not cease, however, importuning me with questions as to what
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: I intended to do with all this apparatus, and expressed
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: much dissatisfaction at the terrible labor I made them undergo.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: They could not perceive, so they said, what good was
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: likely to result from their getting wet to the skin
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: merely to take a part in such horrible incantations. I
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: began to get uneasy and worked away with all my might,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: for I verily believed the idiots supposed that I had
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: entered into a compact with the devil, and that, in short,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: what I was now doing was nothing better than it
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: should be. I was therefore in great fear of their
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: leaving me altogether. I contrived, however, to pacify them by
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: promises of payment of all scores in full as soon
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: as I could bring the present business to a termination.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: To these speeches, they gave, of course, their own interpretation.
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Fancying no doubt that at all events I should come
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: into possession of vast quantities of ready mine, and provided
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: I paid them all I owed, and a trifle more
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: in consideration of their services, I dare say they cared
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: very little what became of either my soul or my carcass.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: In about four hours and a half I found the
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: balloon sufficiently inflated. I attached the car therefore, and put
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: all my implements in it, not forgetting the condensing apparatus,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: a copious supply of water, and a large quantity of provisions,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: such as Pemmican, in which much nutriment is contained in
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: comparatively little bulk. I also secured in the car a
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: pair of pigeons and a cat. It was now nearly daybreak,
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: and I thought it high time to take my departure.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: Dropping a lighted cigar on the ground, as if by accident,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: I took the opportunity in stooping to pick it up,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: of igniting privately the piece of slow match, whose end,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: as I said before, protruded a very little beyond the
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: lower rim of one of the smaller casks. This maneuver
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: was totally unperceived on the part of the three duns,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: and jumping in to the car, I immediately cut the
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: single cord which held me to the earth, and was
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: pleased to find that I shot upward, carrying with all
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: ease one hundred and seventy five pounds of leaden ballast,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: and able to have carried up as many more scarcely, however,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: had I attained the height of fifty yards, When roaring
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: and rumbling up after me in the most horrible and
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: tumultuous manner, came so dense a hurricane of fire and
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: smoke and sulfur, and legs and arms, and gravel and
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: burning wood and blazing metal, that my very heart sunk
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: within me, and I fell down in the bottom of
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: the car, trembling with unmitigated terror. Indeed, I now perceived
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: that I had entirely overdone the business, and that the
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: main consequences of the shock were yet to be experienced. Accordingly,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: in less than a second, I felt all the blood
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: in my body rushing to my temples, and immediately thereupon
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: a concussion which I shall never forget, burst abruptly through
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: the night, and seemed to rip the very firmament asunder when,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: when I afterward had time for reflection, I did not
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: fail to attribute the extreme violence of the explosion as
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: regarded myself, to its proper cause, my situation directly above
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: it and in the line of its greatest power. But
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: at the time I thought only of preserving my life.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: The balloon at first collapsed, then furiously expanded, then whirled
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: round and round with horrible velocity, and, finally, reeling and
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: staggering like a drunken man, hurled me with great force
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: over the rim of the car, and left me dangling
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: at a terrific height, with my head downward and my
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: face outwards by a piece of slender cord about three
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: feet in length, which hung accidentally through a crevice near
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the bottom of the wicker work, and in which, as
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: I fell, my left foot became most providentially entangled. It
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: is impossible, utterly impossible, to form any adequate idea of
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: the horror of my situation. I gasped convulsively for breath.
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: A shudder resembling a fit of the ag you agitated
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: every nerve and muscle of my frame. I felt my
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: eyes starting from their sockets. A horrible nausea overwhelmed me,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: and at length I fainted away. How long I remained
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: in this state, it is impossible to say. It must, however,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: have been no inconsiderable time, for when I partially recovered
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: the sense of existence, I found the day breaking the
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: balloon at a prodigious height over a wilderness of ocean,
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: and not a trace of land to be discovered, far
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: and wide within the limits of the vast horizon. My sensations, however,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: upon thus recovering, were by no means so rife with
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: agony as might have been anticipated. Indeed, there was much
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: of incipient madness in the calm survey which I began
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: to take of my situation. I drew up to my
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: eyes each of my hands, one after the other, and
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: wondered what occurrence could have given rise to the swelling
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: of the veins and the horrible blackness of the finger nails.
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: I afterward carefully examined my head, shaking it repeatedly and
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: feeling it with minute attention, until I succeeded in satisfying
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: myself that it was not, as I had more than
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: half suspected, larger than my balloon. Then, in a knowing manner,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: I felt in both my breeches pockets and missing there
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: from a set of tablets and a toothpick case. Endeavored
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: to account for their disappearance, and not being able to
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: do so, felt inexpressibly chagrined. It now occurred to me
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: that I suffered great uneasiness in the joint of my
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: left ankle, and a dim consciousness of my situation began
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: to glimmer through my mind. But strange to say, I
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: was neither astonished nor horror stricken. If I felt any
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: emotion at all, it was a kind of chuckling satisfaction
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: at the cleverness I was about to display in extricating
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: myself from this dilemma. And I never for a moment
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: looked upon my ultimate safety as a question susceptible of doubt.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: For a few minutes, I remained wrapped in the profoundest meditation.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: I have a distinct recollection of, frequently compressing my lips,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: putting my forefinger to the side of my nose, and
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: making use of of other gesticulations and grimaces common to
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: men who, at ease in their arm chairs, meditate upon
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: matters of intricacy or importance. Having, as I thought, sufficiently
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: collected my ideas, I now with great caution and deliberation,
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: put my hands behind my back and unfastened the large
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: iron buckle which belonged to the waistband of my inexpressibles.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: This buckle had three teeth, which, being somewhat rusty, turned
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: with great difficulty on their axis. I brought them, however,
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: after some trouble, at right angles to the body of
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: the buckle, and was glad to find them remain firm
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: in that position. Holding the instrument thus obtained within my teeth,
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: I now proceeded to untie the knot of my cravat.
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: I had to rest several times before I could accomplish
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: this maneuver, but it was at length accomplished to one
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: end of the cravat. I then made fast the buckle,
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: and the other end I tied for greater security, tightly
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: around my wrist. Drawing now my body upwards with a
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: prodigious exertion of muscular force, I succeeded at the very
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: first trial in throwing the buckle over the car and
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: entangling it as I had anticipated in the circular rim
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: of the wicker work. My body was now inclined towards
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: the side of the car at an angle of about
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: forty five degrees. But it must not be understood that
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: I was therefore only forty five degrees below the perpendicular,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: so far from it I still lay nearly level with
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: the plane of the horizon. For the change of situation
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: which I had acquired had forced the bottom of the
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: car considerably outwards from my position, which was accordingly one
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: of the most imminent and deadly peril. It should be remembered, however,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: that when I fell, in the first instance, from the car,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: if I had fallen with my face turned toward the
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: balloon instead of turned outwardly from it, as it actually was,
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: or if in the second place, the cord by which
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: I was suspended had chanced to hang over the upper
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: edge instead of through a crevice near the bottom of
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: the car, I say it may be readily conceived that
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: in either of these supposed cases I should have been
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: unable to accomplish even as much as I had now accomplished,
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: and the wonderful adventures of Hans's fall would have been
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: utterly lost to posterity. I had therefore every reason to
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: be grateful, although in point of fact I was still
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: too stupid to be anything at all, and hung for
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: perhaps a quarter of an hour, in that extraordinary manner,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: without making the slightest farther exertion whatsoever, and in a
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: singularly tranquil state of idiotic enjoyment. But this feeling did
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: not fail to die rapidly away, and thereunto succeeded horror
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: and dismay, and a chilling sense of utter helplessness and ruin.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: In fact, the blood so long accumulating in the vessels
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: of my head and throat, and which had hitherto buoid
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: up my spirits with madness and delirium, had now begun
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: to retire within their proper channels. And the distinctness which
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: was thus added to my perception of the danger merely
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: served to deprive me of the self possession and courage
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: to encounter it. But this weakness was, luckily for me,
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: of no very long duration. In good time came to
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: my rescue the spirit of despair, and with frantic cries
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: and struggles I jerked my way bodily upwards till at length,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: clutching with a vice like grip the long desired rim,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: I writhed my person over it, and fell headlong and
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: shuddering within the car. It was not until some time
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: afterward that I recovered myself sufficiently to attend to the
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: ordinary cares of the balloon. I then, however, examined it
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: with attention, and found it, to my great relief, uninjured.
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: My implements were all safe, and fortunately I had lost
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: neither ballast nor provisions. Indeed, I had so well secured
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: them in their places, that such an accident was entirely
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: out of the question. Looking at my watch, I found
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: at six o'clock I was still rapidly ascending, and my
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: barometer gave a present altitude of three and three quarter miles.
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: Immediately beneath me in the ocean lay as small all
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: black object, slightly oblong in shape, seemingly about the size,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: and in every way bearing a great resemblance to one
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: of those childish toys called a domino. Bringing my telescope
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: to bear upon it, I plainly discerned it to be
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: a British ninety four gun ship, close hauled and pitching
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: heavily in the sea, with her head to the W
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: s W. Besides this ship, I saw nothing but the
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: ocean and the sky, and the sun which had long arisen.
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: It is now high time that I should explain to
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: your excellencies the object of my perilous voyage. Your excellencies
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: will bear in mind that distressed circumstances in Rotterdam had
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: at length driven me to the resolution of committing suicide.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: It was not, however, that to life itself I had
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: any positive disgust, but that I was harassed beyond endurance
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: by the adventitious miseries attending my situation. In this state
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: of mind, wishing to live yet wearied with life, the
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: treatise at the stall of the bookseller opened a resource
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: to my imagination. I then finally made up my mind.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: I determined to depart yet live, to leave the world
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: yet continue to exist. In short to drop enigmas, I resolved,
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: let what would ensue to force a passage if I
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: could to the moon now? Lest I should be supposed
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: more of a madman than I actually am, I will detail,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: as well as I am able, the considerations which led
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: me to believe that an achievement of this nature, although
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: without doubt difficult and incontestably full of danger, was not
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: absolutely to a bold spirit beyond the confines of the possible.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: The moon's actual distance from the Earth was the first
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: thing to be attended to. Now, the mean or average
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: interval between the centers of the two planets is fifty
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: nine point nine six fourty three of the Earth's equatorial radii,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: or only about two hundred thirty seven thousand miles. I
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: say the mean or average interval, but it must be
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: borne in mind that the form of the Moon's orbit
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: being an ellipse of eccentricity amounting to no less than
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: zero point zero five four eight four of the major
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: semi axis of the ellipse itself, and the Earth's center
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: being situated in its focus, if I could, in any
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: manner contrived to meet the Moon as it were in
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: its perigy, the above mentioned distance would be materially diminished.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: But to say nothing at present of this possibility, it
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: was very certain that at all events, from the two
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: hundred thirty seven thousand miles I would have to deduct
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: the radius of the Earth, say four thousand, and the
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: radius of the Moon say one thousand and eighty, in
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: all five thousand and eighty, leaving an actual interval to
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: be traversed under average circumstances of two hundred and thirty
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: one thousand, nine hundred and twenty miles. Now, this, I reflected,
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: was no very extraordinary distance. Traveling on land has been
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: repeatedly accomplished at the rate of thirty miles per hour,
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: and indeed a much greater speed may be anticipated. But
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: even at this velocity it would take me no more
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: than three hundred twenty two days to reach the surface
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: of the Moon. There were, however, many particulars inducing me
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: to believe that my average rate of traveling might possibly
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: very much exceed that of thirty miles per hour. And
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: as these considerations did not fail to make a deep
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: impression upon my mind, I will mention them more fully hereafter.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: The next point to be regarded was a matter of
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: far greater importance. From indications afforded by the barometer, we
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: find that in ascensions from the surface of the Earth,
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: we have, at the height of one thousand feet left
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: below us about one thirtieth of the entire mass of
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: atmospheric air. That at ten thousand, six hundred we have
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: ascended through nearly one third, and that at eighteen thousand,
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: which is not far from the elevation of Cotopaxi, we
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: have surmounted one half the material, or at all events,
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: one half the ponderable body of air incumbent upon our globe.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: It is also calculated that at an altitude not exceeding
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: the hundredth part of the Earth's diameter, that is, not
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: exceeding eighty miles or faction would be so excessive that
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: animal life could, in no manner be sustained. And moreover,
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: that the most delicate means we possess of ascertaining the
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: presence of the atmosphere would be inadequate to assure us
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: of its existence. But I did not fail to perceive
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: that these latter calculations are founded altogether on our experimental
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: knowledge of the properties of air and the mechanical laws
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: regulating its dilation and compression in what may be called,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: comparatively speaking, the immediate vicinity of the Earth itself. And
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: at the same time, it is taken for granted that
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: animal life is and must be essentially incapable of modification
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: at any given unattainable distance from the surface. Now all
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: such reasoning and from such data, must of course be
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: simply analogical. The greatest height ever reached by man was
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: that of twenty five thousand feet, attained in the aeronautic
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: expedition of Messrs galisac and by it this is a
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: moderate altitude, even when compared with the eighty miles in question.
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: And I could not help thinking that the subject admitted
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: room for doubt and great latitude for speculation. But in
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: point of fact, an ascension being made to any given altitude,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: the ponderable quantity of air surmounted in any farther ascension
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: is by no means in proportion to the additional height ascended,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: as may be plainly seen from what has been stated before,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: but in a ratio constantly decreasing. It is therefore evident
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: that ascend, as high as we may, we cannot literally speaking,
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: arrive at a limit beyond which no atmosphere is to
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: be found. It must exist, I argued, although it may
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: exist in a state of infinite rarefaction. On the other hand,
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: I was aware that arguments have not been wanting to
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: prove the existence of a real and definite limit to
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: the atmosphere beyond which there is absolutely no air whatsoever,
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: but a circumstance which has been left out of view
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: by those who contend for such a limit. Seemed to me,
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: although no positive refutation of their creed, still a point
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: worthy very serious investigation on comparing the intervals between the
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: successive arrivals of Aanke's comet at its perihelion. After giving
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: credit in the most exact manner for all the disturbances
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: due to the attractions of the planets, it appears that
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: the periods are gradually diminishing. That is to say, the
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: major axis of the comet's ellipse is growing shorter in
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: a slow but perfectly regular decrease. Now this is precisely
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: what ought to be the case if we suppose a
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: resistance experienced from the comet from an extremely rare ethereal
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: medium pervading the regions of its orbit. For it is
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: evident that such a medium must, in retarding the comet's velocity,
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: increase its centripetal by weakening its centrifugal force. In other words,
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: the Sun's attraction would be constantly attaining greater power, and
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: the comet would be drawn nearer at every revolution. Indeed,
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: there is no other way of accounting for the variation
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: in question. But again, the real diameter of the same
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: comet's nebulosity is observed to contract rapidly as it approaches
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: the Sun and dilate with equal rapidity in its departure
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: towards its Aphelian was I not justifiable in supposing with
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: m vows that this apparent condensation of volume has its
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: origin in the compression of the same ethereal medium I
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: have spoken of before, and which is only denser in
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: proportion to its solar vicinity, the lenticular shaped phenomenon, also
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: called the zodiacal light, was a matter worthy of attention.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: This radiance, so apparent in the tropics, and which cannot
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: be mistaken for any meteoric luster, extends from the horizon
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: obliquely upward and follows generally the direction of the Sun's equator.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: It appeared to me evidently in the nature of a
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: rare atmosphere extending from the Sun outward beyond the orbit
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: of Venus at least, and I believed indefinitely farther asterisk too. Indeed,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: this medium I could not suppose confined to the path
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: of the comet's ellipse or to the immediate neighborhood of
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: the Sun. It was easy, on the contrary, to imagine
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: it pervading the entire regions of our planetary system, condensed
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: into what we call atmosphere. At the planets themselves, and
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: perhaps at some of them modified by considerations so to speak,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: purely geological. Having adopted this view of the subject, I
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: had little further hesitation. Granting that on my passage I
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: should meet with atmosphere essentially the same as at the
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: surface of the Earth, I conceived that, by means of
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: the very ingenious apparatus of m. Grimm, I should readily
• 41:24
  Speaker 1: be enabled to condense it in sufficient quantity for the
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: purposes of respiration. This would remove the chief obstacle in
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: a journey to the Moon. I had indeed spent some
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: money in great labor in adapting the apparatus to the
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: object intended, and confidently looked forward to its successful application
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: if I could manage to complete the voyage within any
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: reasonable period. This brings me back to the rate at
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: which it might be possible to travel. It is true
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: that balloons, in the first stage of their ascensions from
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: the Earth are known to rise with a velocity comparatively moderate. Now,
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: the power of our elevation lies altogether in the superior
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: lightness of the gas in the balloon compared with the
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: atmospheric air, and at first sight, it does not appear
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: probable that as the balloon acquires altitude and consequently arrives
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: successively in atmospheric strata of densities rapidly diminishing. I say,
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: it does not appear at all reasonable that in this
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: its progress upwards the original velocity should be accelerated. On
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: the other hand, I was not aware that in any
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: recorded ascension a diminution was apparent in the absolute rate
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: of assent, although such should have been the case if
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: on account of nothing else, on account of the escape
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: of gas through balloons ill constructed and varnished with no
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: better material than the ordinary varnish. It seemed therefore that
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: the effect of such escape was only sufficient to counterbalance
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: the effect of some accelerating power. I now considered that
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: provided in my passage I found the medium I had imagined,
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: and provided that it should prove to be actually and
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: essentially what we denominate atmospheric air, it could make comparatively
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: little difference at what extreme state of rarefaction I should
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: discover it, that is to say, in regard to my
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: power of ascending, for the gas in the balloon would
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: not only be itself subject to rarefaction partially similar in
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: proportion to the occurrence of which I could suffer an
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: escape of so much as would be requisite to prevent explosion,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: but being what it was, would at all events continue
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: specifically lighter than any compound whatever of mere nitrogen and oxygen.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: In the meantime, the force of gravitation would be constantly
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: diminishing in proportion to the squares of the distances, and thus,
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: with a velocity prodigiously accelerating, I should at length arrive
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: in those distant regions where the force of the Earth's
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: attraction would be superseded by that of the Moon. In
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: accordance with these ideas, I did not think it worth
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: while to encumber myself with more provisions than would be
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: sufficient for a period of forty days. There was, still, however,
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: another difficulty, which occasioned me some little disquaireude. It has
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: been observed that in balloon ascensions to any considerable height,
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: besides the pain attending respiration, great uneasiness is experienced about
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: the head and body, often accompanied with bleeding at the
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: nose and other symptoms of an alarming kind, and growing
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: more and more inconvenient in proportion to the altitude attained.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: Asterisk three. This was a reflection of a nature somewhat startling.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: Was it not probable that these symptoms would increase indefinitely,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: or at least until terminated by death itself, I finally
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: thought not. Their origin was to be looked for in
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: the progressive removal of the customary atmospheric pressure upon the
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: surface of the body and consequent distension of the superficial
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: blood vessels, not in any positive disorganization of the animal system,
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: as in the case of difficulty in breathing, where the
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: atmospheric density is chemically insufficient for the due renovation of
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: blood in a ventricle of the heart, unless for default
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: of this renovation. I could see no reason therefore, why
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: life could not be sustained, even in a vacuum. For
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: the expansion and compression of chest commonly called breathing, is
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: action purely muscular, and the cause not the effect of respiration.
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: In a word, I conceived that as the body should
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: become habituated to the want of atmospheric pressure, the sensations
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: of pain would gradually diminish, and to endure them while
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: they continued, I relied with confidence upon the iron hardihood
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: of my constitution. Thus, may it please your excellencies, I
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: have detailed some, though by no means all the considerations
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: which led me to form the project of a lunar voyage.
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: I shall now proceed to lay before you the result
• 45:40
  Speaker 1: of an attempt so apparently audacious in conception, and at
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: all events, so utterly unparalleled in the annals of mankind.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: Having attained the altitude before mentioned, that is to say,
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: three miles and three quarters, I threw out from the
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: car a quantity of feathers, and found that I still
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: ascended with sufficient rapidity. There was therefore no necessity for
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: discharging any ballast. I was glad of this, for I
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: wished to retain with me as much weight as I
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: could carry. For reasons which will be explained in the sequel,
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: I as yet suffered no bodily inconvenience, breathing with great freedom,
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: and feeling no pain whatever in the head. The cat
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: was lying very demurely upon my coat, which I had
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: taken off, and eyeing the pigeons with an air of nonchalance.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: These latter, being tied by the leg to prevent their escape,
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: were busily employed in picking up some grains of rice
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: scattered for them in the bottom of the car. At
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: twenty minutes past six o'clock, the barometer showed an elevation
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: of twenty six thousand, four hundred feet or five miles.
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: To a fraction, the prospect seemed unbounded. Indeed, it is
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: very easily calculated by means of spherical geometry. What a
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: great extent of the Earth's area I beheld The convex
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: surface of any segment of a sphere is to the
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: entire surface of the sphere itself, as the verst sign
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: of the segment to the diameter of the sphere. Now,
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: in my case, the verst sign, that is to say,
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: the thickness of the segment beneath me, was about equal
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: to my elevation, or the elevation of the point of
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: sight above the surface. As five miles then to eight
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: thousand would express the proportion of the Earth's area seen
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: by me. In other words, I beheld as much as
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: a sixteen hundredth part of the whole surface of the globe.
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: The sea appeared unruffled as a mirror, although by means
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: of the spy glass I could perceive it to be
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: in a state of violent agitation. The ship was no
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: longer visible, having drifted away, apparently to the eastward. I
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: now began to experience, at intervals severe pain in the head,
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: especially about the ears. Still, however, breathing with tolerable freedom,
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: the cat and pigeon seemed to suffer no inconvenience whatsoever.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: At twenty minutes before seven, the balloon entered a law
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: a series of dense cloud which put me to great
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: trouble by damaging my condensing apparatus and wetting me to
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: the skin. This was, to be sure, a singular reconter,
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: for I had not believed it possible that a cloud
• 48:12
  Speaker 1: of this nature could be sustained at so great an elevation.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: I thought it best, however, to throw out two five
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: pound pieces of ballast, reserving still a weight of one
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty five pounds. Upon so doing, I soon
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: rose above the difficulty, and perceived immediately that I had
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: obtained a great increase in my rate of assent. In
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: a few seconds after my leaving the cloud, a flash
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: of vivid lightning shot from one end of it to
• 48:39
  Speaker 1: the other, and caused it to kindle up throughout its
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: vast extent, like a mass of ignited and glowing charcoal. This,
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: it must be remembered, was in the broad light of day.
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: No fancy may picture the sublimity which might have been
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: exhibited by a similar phenomenon taking place amid the darkness
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: of the night. Hell itself might have been found a
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: fitting image. Even as it was. My hair stood on
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: end while I gazed afar down within the yawning abysses,
• 49:06
  Speaker 1: letting imagination descend as it were, and stalk about in
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: the strange vaulted halls, and ruddy gulfs and red, ghastly
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: chasms of the hideous and unfathomable fire. I had indeed
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: made a narrow escape had the balloon remained a very
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: short while longer within the cloud, that is to say,
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: had not the inconvenience of getting wet determined me to
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: discharge the ballast inevitable ruin would have been the consequence.
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: Such perils, although little considered, are perhaps the greatest which
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: must be encountered in balloons. I had, by this time, however,
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: attained too great an elevation to be any longer uneasy
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: on this head. I was now rising rapidly, and by
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: seven o'clock the barometer indicated an altitude of no less
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: than nine miles and a half. I began to find
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: great difficulty in drawing my breath. My head, too was
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: excessively painful, and having felt for some time a moisture
• 50:02
  Speaker 1: about my cheeks, I at length discovered it to be blood,
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: which was oozing quite fast from the drums of my years.
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: My eyes also gave me great uneasiness. Upon passing the
• 50:14
  Speaker 1: hand over them. They seemed to have protruded from their
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: sockets in no inconsiderable degree, and all objects in the car,
• 50:20
  Speaker 1: and even the balloon itself appeared distorted to my vision.
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: These symptoms were more than I had expected, and occasioned
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: me some alarm. At this juncture, very imprudently and without consideration,
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: I threw out from the car three five pound pieces
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: of ballast. The accelerated rate of ascent thus obtained carried
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: me too rapidly and without sufficient gradation, into a highly
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: rarefied stratum of the atmosphere, and the result had nearly
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: proved fatal to my expedition and to myself. I was
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: suddenly seized with a spasm which lasted for more than
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: five minutes, and even when this, in a measure ceased,
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: I could catch my breath only at long interval, and
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: in a gasping manner, bleeding all the while copiously at
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: the nose and ears, and even slightly at the eyes.
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: The pigeons appeared distressed in the extreme and struggled to escape,
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: while the cat mewed piteously and with her tongue hanging
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: out of her mouth, staggered to and fro in the car,
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: as if under the influence of poison. I now too
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: late discovered the great rashness of which I had been
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: guilty in discharging the ballast, and my agitation was excessive.
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: I anticipated nothing less than death, and death in a
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: few minutes. The physical suffering I underwent contributed also to
• 51:35
  Speaker 1: render me nearly incapable of making any exertion for the
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: preservation of my life. I had indeed little power of
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: reflection left, and the violence of the pain in my
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: head seemed to be greatly on the increase. Thus I
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: found that my senses would shortly give way altogether, and
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: I had already clutched one of the valve ropes with
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: the view of attempting a descent. When the recollection of
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: the trick, I had played the three creditors and the
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: possible consequences to myself should I return operated to deter
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: me for the moment, I laid down in the bottom
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: of the car and endeavored to collect my faculties. In
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: this I so far succeeded as to determine upon the
• 52:13
  Speaker 1: experiment of losing blood. Having no lancet, however, I was
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: constrained to perform the operation in the best manner. I
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: was able, and finally succeeded in opening a vein in
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: my right arm with the blade of my pen knife.
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: The blood had hardly commenced flowing when I experienced a
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: sensible relief, and by the time I had lost about
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: half a moderate basin full, most of the worst symptoms
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: had abandoned me entirely. I nevertheless did not think it
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: expedient to attempt getting on my feet immediately, But having
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: tied up my arm as well as I could, I
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: lay still for about a quarter of an hour. At
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: the end of this time I arose and found myself
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: freer from absolute pain of any kind than I had
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: been during the last hour and a quarter of my ascension.
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: The difficulty of breathing, however, was diminished in a very
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: slight degree, and I found that it would soon be
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: positively necessary to make use of my condenser. In the meantime,
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: looking toward the cat, who was again snugly stowed away
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: upon my coat, I discovered, to my infinite surprise that
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: she had taken the opportunity of my indisposition to bring
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: into light a litter of three little kittens. This was
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: an addition to the number of passengers on my part,
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: altogether unexpected, but I was pleased at the occurrence. It
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: would afford me a chance of bringing to a kind
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: of test the truth of a surmise which, more than
• 53:30
  Speaker 1: anything else, had influenced me in attempting this ascension. I
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: had imagined that the habitual endurance of the atmospheric pressure
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: at the surface of the Earth was the cause, or
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: nearly so, of the pain attending animal existence at a
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: distance above the surface. Should the kittens be found to
• 53:47
  Speaker 1: suffer uneasiness in an equal degree with their mother, I
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: must consider my theory and fault, But a failure to
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: do so I should look upon as a strong confirmation
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: of my idea. By eight o'clock I had actually attained
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: an elevation of seventeen miles above the surface of the Earth.
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: Thus it seemed to me evident that my rate of
• 54:05
  Speaker 1: ascent was not only on the increase, but that the
• 54:08
  Speaker 1: progression would have been apparent in a slight degree even
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: had I not discharged the ballast, which I did. The
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: pains in my head and ears returned at intervals with violence,
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: and I still continued to bleed occasionally at the nose,
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: but upon the whole I suffered much less than might
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: have been expected. I breathed, however, at every moment, with
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: more and more difficulty, and each inhalation was attended with
• 54:31
  Speaker 1: a troublesome spasmodic action of the chest. I now unpacked
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: the condensing apparatus and got it ready for immediate use.
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: The view of the Earth at this period of my
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: ascension was beautiful. Indeed, to the westward, the northward, and
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: the southward, as far as I could see, lay a
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: boundless sheet of apparently unruffled ocean, which every moment gained
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: a deeper and a deeper tint of blue, and began
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: already to assume a slight appearance of convexity. At a
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: vast distance to the eastward, although perfectly discernible, extended the
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: islands of Great Britain, the entire Atlantic coasts of France,
• 55:07
  Speaker 1: and Spain, with a small portion of the northern part
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: of the continent of Africa. Of individual edifices, not a
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: trace could be discovered, and the proudest cities of mankind
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: had utterly faded away from the face of the earth.
• 55:20
  Speaker 1: From the rock of Gibraltar now dwindled into a dim speck,
• 55:24
  Speaker 1: the dark Mediterranean Sea, dotted with shining islands, as the
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: heaven is dotted with stars, spread itself out to the
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: eastward as far as my vision extended, until its entire
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: mass of water seemed at length to tumble headlong over
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: the abyss of the horizon, and I found myself listening
• 55:40
  Speaker 1: on tiptoe for the echoes of the mighty Cataract overhead.
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: The sky was of a jetty black, and the stars
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: were brilliantly visible. The pigeons, about this time, seeming to
• 55:51
  Speaker 1: undergo much suffering, I determined upon giving them their liberty.
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: I first untied one of them, a beautiful gray moteled pigeon,
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: and placed him upon the rim of the wicker work.
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: He appeared extremely uneasy, looking anxiously around him, fluttering his
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: wings and making a loud, cooing noise, but could not
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: be persuaded to trust himself from off the car. I
• 56:13
  Speaker 1: took him up at last, and threw him to about
• 56:15
  Speaker 1: half a dozen yards from the balloon. He made, however,
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: no attempt to descend as I had expected, but struggled
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: with great vehemence to get back, uttering at the same
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: time very shrill and piercing cries. He at length succeeded
• 56:29
  Speaker 1: in regaining his former station on the rim, but had
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: hardly done so when his head dropped upon his breast
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: and he fell dead within the car. The other one
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: did not prove so unfortunate to prevent his following the
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: example of his companion and accomplishing a return. I threw
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: him downward with all my force, and was pleased to
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: find him continue his descent with great velocity, making use
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: of his wings with ease and in a perfectly natural manner.
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: In a very short time he was out of sight,
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: and I have no doubt he reached home safety. Puss,
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: who seemed in a great measure recovered from her illness,
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: now made a hearty meal of the dead bird, and
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: then went to sleep with much apparent satisfaction. Her kittens
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: were quite lively, and so far evinced not the slightest
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: sign of any uneasiness whatever. At a quarter past eight,
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: being no longer able to draw breath without the most
• 57:20
  Speaker 1: intolerable pain, I proceeded forthwith to adjust around the car
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: the apparatus belonging to the condenser. This apparatus will require
• 57:29
  Speaker 1: some little explanation, and your excellencies will please to bear
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: in mind that my object in the first place was
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: to surround myself and cat entirely with a barricade against
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: the highly rarefied atmosphere in which I was existing, with
• 57:41
  Speaker 1: the intention of introducing within this barricade, by means of
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: my condenser, a quantity of this same atmosphere sufficiently condensed
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: for the purposes of respiration. With this object in view,
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: I had prepared a very strong, perfectly air tight, but
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: flexible gummelastic bag. In this bag, which was of sufficient dimensions,
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: the entire car was in a manner placed. That is
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: to say it, the bag was drawn over the whole
• 58:08
  Speaker 1: bottom of the car, up its sides, and so on
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: along the outside of the ropes to the upper rim
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: or hoop, where the network is attached. Having pulled the
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: bag up in this way and formed a complete enclosure
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: on all sides and at bottom, it was now necessary
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: to fasten up its top or mouth, by passing its
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: material over the hoop of the network, in other words,
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: between the network and the hoop. But if the net
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: work were separated from the hoop to admit this passage,
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: what was to sustain the car in the meantime. Now
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: the network was not permanently fastened to the hoop, but
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: attached by a series of running loops or nooses. I
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: therefore undid only a few of these loops at one time,
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: leaving the car suspended by the remainder. Having thus inserted
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: a portion of the cloth forming the upper part of
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: the bag, I refastened the loops not to the hoop,
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: for that would have been impossible since the cloth now intervened,
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: but to a series of large buttons affixed to the
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: cloth itself about three feet below the mouth of the bag,
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: the intervals between the buttons having been made to correspond
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: to the intervals between the loops. This done, a few
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: more of the loops were unfastened from the rim, A
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: farther portion of the cloth introduced, and the disengaged loops
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: then connected with their proper buttons. In this way, it
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: was possible to insert the whole upper part of the
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: bag between the network and the hoop. It is evident
• 59:30
  Speaker 1: that the hoop would now drop down within the car,
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: while the whole weight of the car itself with all
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: its contents, would be held up merely by the strength
• 59:38
  Speaker 1: of the buttons. This at first sight would seem an
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: inadequate dependence, but it was by no means so, for
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: the buttons were not only very strong in themselves, but
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: so close together that a very slight portion of the
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: whole weight was supported by any one of them. Indeed,
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: had the car and contents been three times heavier than
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: they were, I should not have been at all uneasy.
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: I now raised up the hoop again within the covering
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: of gum elastic, and propped it at nearly its former
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: height by means of three light poles prepared for the occasion.
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: This was done, of course, to keep the bag distended
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: at the top and to preserve the lower part of
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: the net work in its proper situation. All that now
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: remained was to fasten up the mouth of the enclosure,
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: and this was readily accomplished by gathering the folds of
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: the material together and twisting them up very tightly on
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: the inside. By means of a kind of stationary tournique.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: In the sides of the covering thus adjusted round the
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: car had been inserted three circular panes of thick but
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: clear glass, through which I could see without difficulty around
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: me in every horizontal direction. In that portion of the
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: cloth forming the bottom was likewise a fourth window of
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: the same kind, and corresponding with a small aperture in
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: the floor of the car itself. This enabled me to
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: see perpendicularly down, But having found it impossible to place
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: any similar contrivance overhead, on account of the peculiar manner
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: of closing up the opening there and the consequent wrinkles
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: in the cloth, I could expect to see no objects
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: situated directly in my zenith. This, of course, was a
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: matter of little consequence, for had I even been able
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: to place a window at top, the balloon itself would
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: have prevented my making any use of it. About a
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: foot below one of the side windows was a circular
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: opening eight inches in diameter and fitted with a brass
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: rim adapted in its inner edge to the windings of
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: a screw. In this rim was screwed the large tube
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 1: of the condenser. The body of the machine, being, of
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 1: course within the chamber of gum elastic. Through this tube,
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: a quantity of the rare atmosphere circumjacent being drawn by
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: means of a vacuum created in the body of the machine,
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: was thence discharged in a state of condensation to mingle
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 1: with the thin air already in the chamber. This operation,
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 1: being repeated several times at length, filled the chamber with
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: atmosphere proper for all the purposes of respiration, but in
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: so confined a space it would in a short time
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: necessarily become foul and unfit for use from frequent contact
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: with the lungs. It was then ejected by a small
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: valve at the bottom of the car, the dense air
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: readily sinking into the thinner atmosphere below. To avoid the
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: inconvenience of making a total vacuum at any moment within
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: the chamber, this purification was never accomplished all at once,
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: but in a gradual manner, the valve being opened only
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: for a few seconds, then closed again until one or
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: two strokes from the pump of the condenser had supplied
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: the place of the atmosphere ejected. For the sake of experiment,
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: I had put the cat and kittens in a small basket,
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 1: and suspended it outside the car to a button at
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: the bottom, close by the valve, through which I could
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 1: feed them at any moment when necessary. I did this
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: at some little risk, and before closing the mouth of
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: the chamber, by reaching under the car with one of
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: the poles before mentioned, to which a hook had been attached.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: By the time I had fully completed these arrangements and
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: filled the chamber as explained it wanted only ten minutes
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: of nine o'clock. During the whole period of my being
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: thus employed, I endured the most terrible distress from difficulty
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: of respiration, and bitterly did I repent the negligence, or
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: rather foolhardiness, of which I had been guilty of putting
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 1: off to the last moment a matter of so much importance.
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: But having at length accomplished it, I soon began to
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: reap the benefit of my invention. Once again I breathed
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: with perfect freedom and ease, And indeed, why should I not?
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: I was also agreeably surprised to find myself, in a
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: great measure relieved from the violent pains which had hitherto
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: tormented me. A slight headache accompanied with a sensation of
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 1: fullness or distension about the wrists, the ankles, and the throat,
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: was nearly all of which I had now to complain.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: Thus it seemed evident that a greater part of the
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 1: uneasiness attending the removal of atmospheric pressure had actually worn off,
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: as I had expected, and that much of the pain
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: endured for the last two hours should have been attributed
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: altogether to the effects of a deficient respiration. At twenty
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: minutes before nine o'clock, that is to say, a short
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: time prior to my closing up the mouth of the chamber,
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: the mercury attained its limit or ran down in the barometer, which,
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: as I mentioned before, was one of an extended construction.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: It then indicated an altitude on my part of one
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: hundred and thirty two thousand feet or five and twenty miles,
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 1: and I consequently surveyed at that time and extent of
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: the Earth's area amounting to no less than the three
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: hundred and twentieth part of its entire superficies. At nine
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: o'clock I had again lost sight of land to the eastward,
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: but not before I became aware that the balloon was
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: drifting rapidly to the N n W. The convexity of
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: the ocean beneath me was very evident. Indeed, although my
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: view was often interrupted by the masses of cloud which
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 1: floated to and fro, I observed now that even the
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: lightest vapors never rose to more than ten miles above
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: the level of the sea. At half past nine, I
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: tried the expir of throwing out a handful of feathers
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: through the valve. They did not float as I had expected,
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: but dropped down perpendicularly like a bullet and mass, and
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: with the greatest velocity, being out of sight in a
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: very few seconds. I did not at first know what
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: to make of this extraordinary phenomenon, not being able to
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: believe that my rate of ascent had of a sudden
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: met with so prodigious an acceleration. But it soon occurred
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: to me that the atmosphere was now far too rare
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: to sustain even the feathers, that they actually fell as
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: they appeared to do, with great rapidity, and that I
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: had been surprised by the united velocities of their descent
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: and my own elevation. By ten o'clock I found that
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 1: I had very little to occupy. My immediate attention. Affairs
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: went swimmingly, and I believed the balloon to be going upward,
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: with a speed increasing momently. Although I had no longer
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: any means of ascertaining the progression of the increase, I
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 1: suffered no pain or uneasiness of any kind, and enjoyed
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: better spirits than I had at any period since my
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: departure from Rotterdam, busying myself now in examining the state
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: of my various apparatus, and now in regenerating the atmosphere
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 1: within the chamber. This latter point I determined to attend
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: to at regular intervals of forty minutes, more on account
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: of the preservation of my health than from so frequent
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: a renovation, being absolutely necessary. In the meanwhile, I could
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 1: not help making anticipations. Fancy reveled in the wild and
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: dreamy regions of the moon. Imagination, feeling herself for once unshackled,
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: roamed that will among the ever changing wonders of a
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 1: shadowy and unstable land. Now there were hoary and time
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: honored forests, and craggy precipices, and waterfalls tumbling with a
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: loud noise into abysses without a bottom. Then I came
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: suddenly into still noonday solitudes, where no wind of heaven
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: ever intruded, and where vast meadows of poppies and slender,
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 1: lily looking flowers spread themselves out a weary distance, all
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 1: silent and motionless forever. Then again I journeyed far down
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: away into another country, where it was all one dim
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: and vague lake, with a boundary line of clouds. And
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: out of this melancholy water arose a forest of tall
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: eastern trees, like a wilderness of dreams. And I have
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: in mind that the shadows of the trees which fell
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: upon the lake remained not on the surface where they fell,
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: but sunk slowly and steadily down and commingled with the waves,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: while from the trunks of the trees other shadows were
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: continually coming out and taking the place of their brothers
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: thus entombed. This, then, I said, thoughtfully, is the very
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 1: reason why the waters of this lake grow blacker with age,
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: and more melancholy as the hours run on. But fancies
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: such as these were not the sole possessors of my brain.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: Horrors of a nature most stern and most appalling, would
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: too frequently obtrude themselves upon my mind and shake the
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: innermost depths of my soul with the bare supposition of
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: their possibility. Yet I would not suffer my thoughts for
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: any length of time to dwell upon these latter speculations,
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: rightly judging the real and palpable dangers of the voyage
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: sufficient for my undivided attention. At five o'clock p m.
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: Being engaged in regenerating the atmosphere within the chamber, I
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: took that opportunity of observing the cat and kittens through
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 1: the valve. The cat herself appeared to suffer again very much,
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: and I had no hesitation in attributing her uneasiness chiefly
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: to a difficulty in breathing. But my experiment with the
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: kittens had resulted very strangely. I had expected, of course,
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: to see them betray a sense of pain, although in
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: a less degree than their mother, and this would have
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: been sufficient to confirm my opinion concerning the habitual endurance
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 1: of atmospheric pressure. But I was not prepared to find them,
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: upon close examination, evidently enjoying a high degree of health,
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: breathing with the greatest ease and perfect regularity, and evincing
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: not the slightest sign of any uneasiness whatever. I could
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: only account for all this by extending my theory and
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 1: supposing that the highly rarefied atmosphere around might perhaps not be,
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: as I had taken for granted, chemically insufficient for the
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: purposes of life, and that a person born in such
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 1: a medium might possibly be unaware of any inconvenience attending
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: its inhalation, while upon removal to the denser straight and
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: near the earth, he might endure tortures of a similar
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: nature to those I had so lately experienced. It has
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: since been to me a matter of deep regret that
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: an awkward accident at this time occasioned me the loss
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: of my little family of cats, and deprived me of
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: the insight into this matter which a continued experiment might
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: have afforded. In passing my hand through the valve with
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: a cup of water for the old puss, the sleeves
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 1: of my shirt became entangled in the loop which sustained
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: the basket, and thus in a moment loosened it from
• 1:09:43
  Speaker 1: the bottom. Had the whole actually vanished into air, it
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: could not have shot from my sight in a more
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: abrupt and instantaneous manner. Positively, there could not have intervened
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: the tenth part of a second between the disengagement of
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 1: the basket and its absolute and total disappearance, with all
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 1: that contained my good wishes followed it to the earth,
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: but of course I had no hope that either cat
• 1:10:06
  Speaker 1: or kittens would ever live to tell the tale of
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: their misfortune. At six o'clock I perceived a great portion
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: of the Earth's visible area to the eastward involved in
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: thick shadow, which continued to advance with great rapidity, until
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: at five minutes before seven, the whole surface in view
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: was enveloped in the darkness of night. It was not, however,
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: until long after this time, that the rays of the
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 1: setting sun ceased to illumine the balloon, And this circumstance,
• 1:10:32
  Speaker 1: although of course fully anticipated, did not fail to give
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: me an infinite deal of pleasure. It was evident that
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: in the morning I should behold the rising luminary, many
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 1: hours at least before the citizens of Rotterdam, in spite
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: of their situation so much farther to the eastward, and thus,
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: day after day, in proportion to the height ascended, would
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 1: I enjoy the light of the sun for a longer
• 1:10:54
  Speaker 1: and a longer period. I now determined to keep a
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 1: journal of my passage, reckoning the day from one to
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: twenty four hours continuously without taking into consideration the intervals
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: of darkness. At ten o'clock, feeling sleepy, I determined to
• 1:11:09
  Speaker 1: lie down for the rest of the night. But here
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 1: a difficulty presented itself, which, obvious as it may appear,
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: had escaped my attention up to the very moment of
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: which I am now speaking. If I went to sleep,
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 1: as I proposed, how could the atmosphere in the chamber
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: be regenerated in the interim To breathe it for more
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: than an hour at the farthest would be a matter
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: of impossibility. Or if even this term could be extended
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: to an hour and a quarter, the most ruinous consequences
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: might ensue. The consideration of this dilemma gave me no
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: little disquietude, and it will hardly be believed that, after
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: the dangers I had undergone, I should look upon this
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: business in so serious a light as to give up
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: all hope of accomplishing my ultimate design and finally make
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: up my mind to the necessity of a descent. But
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: this hesitation was only momentary. I reflected that man is
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: the various slave of custom, and that many points in
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: the routine of his existence are deemed essentially important, which
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: are only so at all by his having rendered them habitual.
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: It was very certain that I could not do without sleep,
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: but I might easily bring myself to feel no inconvenience
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: from being awakened at intervals of an hour during the
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: whole period of my repose. It would require but five
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: minutes at most to regenerate the atmosphere in the fullest manner,
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: and the only real difficulty was to contrive a method
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: of arousing myself at the proper moment for so doing.
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: But this was a question which I am willing to
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: confess occasioned me no little trouble in its solution. To
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: be sure, I had heard of the student who, to
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: prevent his falling asleep over his books, held in one
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: hand a ball of copper, the din of whose descent
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: into a basin of the same metal on the floor
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: beside his chair served effectually to startle him up if
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: at any moment he should be overcome with drowsiness. My
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: own case, however, was very different, indeed, and left me
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: no room for any similar idea, For I did not
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: wish to keep awake, but to be aroused from slumber
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: at regular intervals of time. I at length hit upon
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: the following expedient, which simple as it may seem, was
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: hailed by me at the moment of discovery as an
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: invention fully equal to that of the telescope, the steam engine,
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: or the art of printing itself. It is necessary to
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: premise that the balloon, at the elevation now attained, continued
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: its course upward with an even and undeviating ascent, and
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: the car consequently followed with a steadiness so perfect that
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: it would have been impossible to detect in it the
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: slightest vacillation. Whatever, this circumstance favored me greatly in the
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 1: project I now determined to adopt. My supply of water
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: had been put on board in kegs containing five gallons each,
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 1: and ranged very securely around the interior of the car.
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: I unfastened one of these, and, taking two ropes, tied
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 1: them tightly across the rim of the wicker work from
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: one side to the other, placing them about a foot
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: apart in parallel, so as to form a kind of
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: shelf upon which I placed the keg and steadied it
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 1: in a horizontal position about eight inches immediately below these ropes,
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: and four feet from the bottom of the car, I
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 1: fastened another shelf, but made of thin plank, being the
• 1:14:13
  Speaker 1: only similar piece of wood I had. Upon this ladder shelf,
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: and exactly beneath one of the rims of the keg,
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: a small earthen pitcher was deposited. I now bored a
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: hole in the end of the keg over the pitcher,
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 1: and fitted in a plug of soft wood cut in
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: a tapering or conical shape. This plug I pushed in
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: or pulled out as might happen, until after a few
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: experiments it arrived at that exact degree of tightness at
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: which the water oozing from the hole and falling into
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: the pitcher below would fill the ladder to the brim
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: in the period of sixty minutes. This, of course, was
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 1: a matter briefly and easily ascertained by noticing the proportion
• 1:14:52
  Speaker 1: of the pitcher filled in any given time. Having arranged
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 1: all this, the rest of the plan is obvious. My
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: bed it was so contrived upon the floor of the
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: car as to bring my head in lying down immediately
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: below the mouth of the pitcher. It was evident that
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 1: at the expiration of an hour, the pitcher, getting full,
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: would be forced to run over, and to run over
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: at the mouth, which was somewhat lower than the rim.
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: It was also evident that the water, thus falling from
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: a height of more than four feet, could not do
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 1: otherwise than fall upon my face, and that the sure
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: consequences would be to waken me up instantaneously, even from
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: the soundest slumber in the world. It was fully eleven
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: by the time I had completed these arrangements, and I
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: immediately betook myself to bed with full confidence in the
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: efficiency of my invention. Nor in this matter was I disappointed.
• 1:15:45
  Speaker 1: Punctually every sixty minutes was I aroused by my trusty chronometer.
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: When having emptied the pitcher into the bung hole of
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: the keg and performed the duties of the condenser, I
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: retired again to bed. These regular interruptions to my slumber
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: caused me ease even less discomfort than I had anticipated.
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: And when I finally arose for the day, it was
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: seven o'clock and the sun had attained many degrees above
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: the line of my horizon. April three d I found
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 1: the balloon at an immense height, indeed, and the Earth's
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: apparent convexity increased in a material degree. Below me in
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: the ocean lay a cluster of black specks, which undoubtedly
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: were islands. Far away. To the northward, I perceived a thin,
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 1: white and exceedingly brilliant line or streak on the edge
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: of the horizon, and I had no hesitation in supposing
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: it to be the southern disc of the ices of
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: the Polar Sea. My curiosity was greatly excited, for I
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 1: had hopes of passing on much farther to the north,
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 1: and might possibly at some period find myself placed directly
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: above the pole itself. I now lamented that my great
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: elevation would in this case prevent my taking as accurate
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: a survey as I could wish. Much, however, might be ascertained.
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: Nothing else of an extraordinary nature occurred during the day.
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: My apparatus all continued in good order, and the balloon
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 1: still ascended without any perceptible vacillation. The cold was intense
• 1:17:12
  Speaker 1: and obliged me to wrap up closely in an overcoat.
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: When darkness came over the earth, I betook myself to bed,
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: although it was for many hours afterward broad daylight all
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 1: around my immediate situation. The water clock was punctual in
• 1:17:26
  Speaker 1: its duty, and I slept until next morning soundly, with
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: the exception of the periodical interruption. April fourth arose in
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: good health and spirits, and was astonished at the singular
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: change which had taken place in the appearance of the sea.
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: It had lost in a great measure the deep tint
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: of blue it had hitherto worn, being now of a
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: grayish white and of a luster dazzling to the eye.
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 1: The islands were no longer visible. Whether they had passed
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 1: down the horizon to the southeast, or whether my increasing
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: elevation had left them out of sight, it is impossible
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: to I was inclined, however, to the latter opinion. The
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: rim of ice to the northward was growing more and
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: more apparent cold by no means so intense. Nothing of
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 1: importance occurred, and I passed the day in reading, having
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 1: taken care to supply myself with books. April fifth beheld
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: the singular phenomenon of the sun rising, while nearly the
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: whole visible surface of the Earth continued to be involved
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: in darkness. In time, however, the light spread itself over all,
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: and I again saw the line of ice to the
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 1: northward It was now very distinct and appeared of a
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: much darker hue than the waters of the ocean. I
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: was evidently approaching it, and with great rapidity fancied I
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 1: could again distinguish a strip of land to the eastward,
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: and one also to the westward, but could not be
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: certain whether moderate nothing of any consequence happened during the day.
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: Went early to bed April sixth, was surprised at finding
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: the rim of ice at a very moderate distance, and
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: an immense field of the same material stretching away off
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: to the horizon in the north. It was evident that
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: if the balloon held its present course, it would soon
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: arrive above the frozen ocean, and I had now little
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 1: doubt of ultimately seeing the pole. During the whole of
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: the day, I continued to near the ice. Toward night,
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 1: the limits of my horizon very suddenly and materially increased,
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: owing undoubtedly to the Earth's form being that of an
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: oblate spheroid, and my arriving above the flattened regions in
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: the vicinity of the Arctic Circle. When darkness at length
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: overtook me, I went to bed in great anxiety, fearing
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: to pass over the object of so much curiosity when
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: I should have no opportunity of observing it. April seventh
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: arose early, and to my great joy, at length beheld
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: what there could be no hesitation in supposing the Northern
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: Pole itself. It was there, beyond a doubt, and immediately
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: beneath my feet. But alas I had now ascended to
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: so vast a distance, that nothing could with accuracy be discerned. Indeed,
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: to judge from the progression of the numbers indicating my
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: various altitudes, respectively at different periods between six a m.
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: On the second of April and twenty minutes before nine
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: a m. Of the same day, at which time the
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: barometer ran down, it might be fairly inferred that the
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 1: balloon had, now, at four o'clock in the morning of
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: April the seventh, reached a height of not less certainly
• 1:20:29
  Speaker 1: than seven thousand, two hundred and fifty four miles above
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: the surface of the sea. This elevation may appear immense,
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: but the estimate upon which it is calculated gave a
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: result in all probability far inferior to the truth. At
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: all events, I undoubtedly beheld the whole of the Earth's
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: major diameter. The entire northern hemisphere lay beneath me like
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: a chart orthographically projected, and the great circle of the
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: Equator itself formed the boundary line of my horizon. Your
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: excellencies may, however, readily imagine that the con find regions
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: hitherto unexplored within the limits of the Arctic Circle, although
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: situated directly beneath me, and therefore seen without any appearance
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: of being foreshortened, were still in themselves comparatively too diminutive
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: and at too great a distance from the point of
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: sight to admit of any very accurate examination. Nevertheless, what
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: could be seen was of a nature singular and exciting
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: northwardly from that huge rim before mentioned, and which, with
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: slight qualification, may be called the limit of human discovery.
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: In these regions, one unbroken or nearly unbroken sheet of
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: ice continues to extend in the first few degrees of
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: this its progress, its surface is very sensibly flattened, farther on,
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: depressed into a plane, and finally becoming not a little concave.
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: It terminates at the pole itself, in a circular center
• 1:21:51
  Speaker 1: sharply defined, whose apparent diameter subtended at the balloon and
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: angle of about sixty five seconds, and whose dusky hue,
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: varying in intention, city was at all times darker than
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: any other spot upon the visible hemisphere, and occasionally deepened
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: into the most absolute and impenetrable blackness. Farther than this
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: little could be ascertained. By twelve o'clock the circular center
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: had materially decreased in circumference, and by seven p m.
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: I lost sight of it entirely, the balloon passing over
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: the western limb of the ice and floating away rapidly
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: in the direction of the equator. April eighth found a
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: sensible diminution in the Earth's apparent diameter, besides a material
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 1: alteration in its general color and appearance. The whole visible
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: area partook in different degrees of a tint of pale yellow,
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: and in some portions had acquired a brilliancy, even painful
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: to the eye. My view downward was also considerably impeded
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: by the dense atmosphere in the vicinity of the surface,
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: being loaded with clouds, between whose masses I could only
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: now and then obtain a glimpse of the Earth itself.
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 1: This difficulty of direct vision had troubled me more or
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: less for the last forty eight hours. But my present
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 1: enormous elevation brought closer together, as it were, the floating
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: bodies of vapor, and the inconvenience became, of course more
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: and more palpable in proportion to my ascent. Nevertheless, I
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 1: could easily perceive that the balloon now hovered above the
• 1:23:17
  Speaker 1: range of great Lakes in the continent of North America,
• 1:23:20
  Speaker 1: and was holding a course due south which would bring
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 1: me to the tropics. This circumstance did not fail to
• 1:23:27
  Speaker 1: give me the most heartful satisfaction, and I hailed it
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: as a happy omen of ultimate success. Indeed, the direction
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: I had hitherto taken had filled me with uneasiness, for
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: it was evident that had I continued it much longer,
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: there would have been no possibility of my arriving at
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: the Moon at all, whose orbit is inclined to the ecliptic.
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 1: At only the small angle of five degrees eight minutes
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: forty eight April ninth to day, the Earth's diameter was
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: greatly diminished, and the color of the surface assumed hourly
• 1:23:56
  Speaker 1: a deeper tint of yellow. The balloon kept steadily on
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 1: her course to the southward and arrived at nine p m.
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: Over the northern edge of the Mexican Gulf. April tenth.
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: I was suddenly aroused from slumber about five o'clock this
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: morning by a loud, crackling and terrific sound for which
• 1:24:15
  Speaker 1: I could in no manner account It was a very
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 1: brief duration, but while it last, it resembled nothing in
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: the world of which I had any previous experience. It
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: is needless to say that I became excessively alarmed, having
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: in the first instance attributed the noise to the bursting
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 1: of the balloon. I examined all my apparatus, however, with
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: great attention, and could discover nothing out of order. Spent
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: a great part of the day in meditating upon an
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: occurrence so extraordinary, but could find no means whatever of
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: accounting for it. Went to bed dissatisfied and in a
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: state of great anxiety and agitation. April eleventh found a
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 1: startling diminution in the apparent diameter of the Earth, and
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: a considerable increase now observable for the first time in
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 1: that of the moon itself, which wanted only a few
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: days of being full. It now required long and excessive
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: labor to condense within the chamber sufficient atmospheric air for
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 1: the sustenance of life. April twelfth, a singular alteration took
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: place in regard to the direction of the balloon, and,
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: although fully anticipated, afforded me the most unequivocal delight. Having
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 1: reached in its former course about the twentieth parallel of
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: southern latitude, it turned off suddenly at an acute angle
• 1:25:33
  Speaker 1: to the eastward, and thus proceeded throughout the day, keeping nearly,
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: if not altogether, in the exact plane of the lunar lips.
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 1: What was worthy of remark, a very perceptible vacillation in
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 1: the car was a consequence of this change of route,
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: a vacillation which prevailed in a more or less degree
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: for a period of many hours. April thirteenth was again
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 1: very much alarmed by a repetition of the loud, crackling
• 1:25:58
  Speaker 1: noise which terrified me. On the tenth thought long upon
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: the subject, but was unable to form any satisfactory conclusion.
• 1:26:06
  Speaker 1: Great decrease in the Earth's apparent diameter, which now subtended
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 1: from the balloon an angle of very little more than
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: twenty five degrees, the moon could not be seen at all,
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: being nearly in my zenith. I still continued in the
• 1:26:20
  Speaker 1: plane of the ellipse, but made little progress to the eastward.
• 1:26:24
  Speaker 1: April fourteenth, extremely rapid decrease in the diameter of the
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: Earth Today, I became strongly impressed with the idea that
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: the balloon was now actually running up the line of
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 1: apsides to the point of perigy, in other words, holding
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: the direct course which would bring it immediately to the Moon.
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: In that part of its orbit the nearest to the Earth.
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: The Moon itself was directly overhead, and consequently hidden from
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 1: my view great and long continued labor necessary for the
• 1:26:51
  Speaker 1: condensation of the atmosphere. April fifteenth, not even the outlines
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 1: of continents and seas could now be traced upon the Earth. When,
• 1:27:00
  Speaker 1: with anything approaching distinctness, about twelve o'clock, I became aware
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: for the third time of that appalling sound which had
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: so astonished me before. It now, however, continued for some
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: moments and gathered intensity as it continued at length. While
• 1:27:17
  Speaker 1: stupefied and terror stricken, I stood in expectation of I
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: knew not what hideous destruction. The car vibrated with excessive violence,
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: and a gigantic and flaming mass of some material which
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: I could not distinguish, came with a voice of a
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: thousand thunders, roaring and booming by the balloon. When my
• 1:27:34
  Speaker 1: fears and astonishment had in some degree subsided, I had
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 1: little difficulty in supposing it to be some mighty volcanic
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 1: fragment ejected from that world to which I was so
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: rapidly approaching, and in all probability one of that singular
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: class of substances occasionally picked up on the earth and
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: termed meteoric stones for want of a better appellation. April
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: sixteenth to day, looking upward as well as I could
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 1: through each of the side windows, alternately, I beheld, to
• 1:28:03
  Speaker 1: my great delight, a very small portion of the Moon's disk,
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: protruding as it were, on all sides beyond the huge
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: circumference of the balloon. My agitation was extreme, for I
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: had now little doubt of soon reaching the end of
• 1:28:16
  Speaker 1: my perilous voyage. Indeed, the labour now required by the
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: condenser had increased to a most oppressive degree, and allowed
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: me scarcely any respite from exertion. Sleep was a matter
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: nearly out of the question. I became quite ill, and
• 1:28:31
  Speaker 1: my frame trembled with exhaustion. It was impossible that human
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 1: nature could endure this state of intense suffering much longer.
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: During the now brief interval of darkness, a meteoric stone
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: again passed in my vicinity, and the frequency of these
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: phenomena began to occasion me much apprehension. April seventeenth, this
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 1: morning proved an epoch in my voyage. It will be
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: remembered that on the thirteenth the earth subtended an angular
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 1: breadth of twenty five degrees. On the fourteenth this had
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 1: greatly diminished. On the fifteenth a still more remarkable decrease
• 1:29:06
  Speaker 1: was observable, and on retiring on the night of the sixteenth,
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: I had noticed an angle of no more than about
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: seven degrees and fifteen minutes. What therefore must have been
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: my amazement on awakening from a brief and disturbed slumber
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: on the morning of this day, the seventeenth, at finding
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: the surface beneath me so suddenly and wonderfully augmented in
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 1: volume as to subtend no less than thirty nine degrees
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 1: in apparent angular diameter, I was thunderstruck. No words can
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: give any adequate idea of the extreme, the absolute horror
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: and astonishment with which I was seized, possessed, and altogether overwhelmed.
• 1:29:46
  Speaker 1: My knees tottered beneath me, my teeth chattered, my hair
• 1:29:49
  Speaker 1: started up on end. The balloon then had actually burst.
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 1: These were the first tumultuous ideas that hurried through my mind.
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: The balloon had positively burst. I was falling, falling with
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: the most impetuous, the most unparalleled velocity. To judge by
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: the immense distance already so quickly passed over, it could
• 1:30:09
  Speaker 1: not be more than ten minutes at the farthest before
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: I should meet the surface of the Earth and be
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 1: hurled into annihilation. But at length reflection came to my relief.
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 1: I paused, I considered, and I began to doubt. The
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 1: matter was impossible. I could not in any reason have
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 1: so rapidly come down. Besides, although I was evidently approaching
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 1: the surface below me, it was with a speed by
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: no means commensurate with the velocity I had at first
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: so horribly conceived. This consideration served to calm the perturbation
• 1:30:43
  Speaker 1: of my mind, and I finally succeeded in regarding the
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: phenomenon in its proper point of view. In fact, amazement
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 1: must have fairly deprived me of my senses when I
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 1: could not see the vast difference in appearance between the
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 1: surface below me and the surface of my mother Earth.
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: The latter was indeed over my head and completely hidden
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 1: by the balloon, while the moon, the Moon itself, in
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 1: all its glory, lay beneath me and at my feet.
• 1:31:10
  Speaker 1: The stupor and surprise produced in my mind by this
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: extraordinary change in the posture of affairs was perhaps, after all,
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: that part of the adventure least susceptible of explanation, for
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: the buliversimon in itself was not only natural and inevitable,
• 1:31:24
  Speaker 1: but had been long actually anticipated as a circumstance to
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: be expected whenever I should arrive at that exact point
• 1:31:30
  Speaker 1: of my voyage where the attraction of the planet should
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 1: be superseded by the attraction of the satellite, or more precisely,
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: where the gravitation of the balloon toward the Earth should
• 1:31:40
  Speaker 1: be less powerful than its gravitation toward the Moon. To
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: be sure, I arose from a sound slumber, with all
• 1:31:46
  Speaker 1: my senses in confusion, to the contemplation of a very
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: startling phenomenon, and one which, although expected, was not expected
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 1: at the moment. The revolution itself must of course have
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: taken place in an easy and graduate manner, And it
• 1:32:01
  Speaker 1: is by no means clear that had I even been
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: awake at the time of the occurrence, I should have
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 1: been made aware of it by any internal evidence of
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: an inversion, that is to say, by any inconvenience or disarrangement,
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: either about my person or about my apparatus. It is
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: almost needless to say that, upon coming to a due
• 1:32:19
  Speaker 1: sense of my situation, and emerging from the terror which
• 1:32:22
  Speaker 1: had absorbed every faculty of my soul, my attention was,
• 1:32:26
  Speaker 1: in the first place wholly directed to the contemplation of
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: the general physical appearance of the Moon. It lay beneath
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 1: me like a chart, and although I judged it to
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 1: be still at no inconsiderable distance, the indentures of its
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 1: surface were defined to my vision with a most striking
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: and altogether unaccountable distinctness. The entire absence of ocean or sea,
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: and indeed of any lake or river or body of
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: water whatsoever, struck me at first glance as the most
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: extraordinary feature in its geological condition. Yet strange to say,
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: I beheld vast lets regions of a character decidedly alluvial,
• 1:33:02
  Speaker 1: although by far the greater portion of the hemisphere in
• 1:33:05
  Speaker 1: sight was covered with innumerable volcanic mountains, conical in shape
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 1: and having more the appearance of artificial than of natural protuberance.
• 1:33:13
  Speaker 1: The highest among them does not exceed three and three
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: quarter miles in perpendicular elevation. But a map of the
• 1:33:19
  Speaker 1: volcanic districts of the Campy Flaggri I would afford to
• 1:33:22
  Speaker 1: your excellencies a better idea of their general surface than
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: any unworthy description I might think proper to attempt. The
• 1:33:29
  Speaker 1: greater part of them were in a state of evident eruption,
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 1: and gave me fearfully to understand their fury and their
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: power by the repeated thunders of the miscalled meteoric stones,
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: which now rushed upward by the balloon with a frequency
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: more and more appalling. April eighteenth to day, I found
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: an enormous increase in the Moon's apparent bulk, and the
• 1:33:48
  Speaker 1: evidently accelerated velocity of my descent began to fill me
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: with alarm. It will be remembered that, in the earliest
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: stage of my speculations upon the possibility of a passage
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 1: to the Moon, the existence in its vicinity of an
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: atmosphere dense in proportion to the bulk of the planet
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 1: had entered largely into my calculations. This too in spite
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: of many theories to the contrary, and it may be added,
• 1:34:13
  Speaker 1: in spite of a general disbelief in the existence of
• 1:34:16
  Speaker 1: any lunar atmosphere at all. But in addition to what
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: I have already urged in regard to Aenkee's comet and
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 1: the zodiacal light, I have been strengthened in my opinion
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: by certain observations of mister Schroeder of Lilienthal. He observed
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: the moon when two days and a half old, in
• 1:34:32
  Speaker 1: the evening, soon after sunset, before the dark part was visible,
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: and continued to watch it until it became visible. The
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 1: two cusps appeared, tapering in a very sharp, faint prolongation,
• 1:34:43
  Speaker 1: each exhibiting its farthest extremity, faintly illuminated by the solar rays,
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 1: before any part of the dark hemisphere was visible. Soon afterward,
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: the whole dark limb became illuminated. This prolongation of the
• 1:34:56
  Speaker 1: cusps beyond the semicircle I thought must have arisen, for
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: from the refraction of the suns raised by the Moon's atmosphere.
• 1:35:04
  Speaker 1: I computed also the height of the atmosphere which could
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: refract light enough into its dark hemisphere to produce a
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: twilight more luminous than the light reflected from the Earth
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: when the Moon is about thirty two degrees from the
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 1: new to be one thousand, three hundred and fifty six
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: paris feet. In this view, I supposed the greatest height
• 1:35:21
  Speaker 1: capable of refracting the solar ray to be five thousand,
• 1:35:24
  Speaker 1: three hundred seventy six feet. My ideas on this topic
• 1:35:29
  Speaker 1: had also received confirmation by a passage in the eighty
• 1:35:32
  Speaker 1: second volume of the Philosophical Transactions, in which it is
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: stated that at an occultation of Jupiter's satellites, the third disappeared,
• 1:35:39
  Speaker 1: after having been about one or two of time indistinct,
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: and the fourth became indiscernible near the limb asterisk four
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: upon the resistance, or more properly, upon the support of
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: an atmosphere existing in the state of density imagined, I had,
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: of course entirely depended for the safety of my ultimate descent.
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 1: Should I, then after proved to have been mistaken, I had,
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: in consequence nothing better to expect as a finale to
• 1:36:05
  Speaker 1: my adventure than being dashed into atoms against the rugged
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: surface of the satellite. And indeed I had now every
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 1: reason to be terrified. My distance from the Moon was
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 1: comparatively trifling, while the labor required by the condenser was
• 1:36:20
  Speaker 1: diminished not at all, and I could discover no indication
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: whatever of a decreasing rarity in the air. April nineteenth
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 1: this morning, to my great joy, about nine o'clock, the
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 1: surface of the Moon being frightfully near, and my apprehensions
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: excited to the utmost, the pump of my condenser at
• 1:36:38
  Speaker 1: length gave evident tokens of an alteration in the atmosphere.
• 1:36:42
  Speaker 1: By ten I had reason to believe its density considerably increased.
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: By eleven, very little labor was necessary at the apparatus,
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: and at twelve o'clock, with some hesitation, I ventured to
• 1:36:54
  Speaker 1: unscrew the tourniquet. When finding no inconvenience from having done so,
• 1:36:58
  Speaker 1: I finally threw open the gum elastic chamber and unrigged
• 1:37:02
  Speaker 1: it from around the car. As might have been expected,
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: Spasms and violent headache were the immediate consequences of an
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: experiment so precipitate and full of danger. But these and
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: other difficulties attending respiration as they were, by no means
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 1: so great as to put me in peril of my life.
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 1: I determined to endure as I best could, in consideration
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: of my leaving them behind me momently in my approach
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: to the denser straight and near the Moon. This approach, however,
• 1:37:29
  Speaker 1: was still impetuous in the extreme, and it soon became
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: alarmingly certain that although I had probably not been deceived
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 1: in the expectation of an atmosphere dense in proportion to
• 1:37:38
  Speaker 1: the mass of the satellite, still I had been wrong
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: in supposing this density, even at the surface, at all
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: adequate to the support of the great weight contained in
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: the car of my balloon. Yet this should have been
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: the case, and in an equal degree as at the
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 1: surface of the Earth, the actual gravity of bodies that
• 1:37:55
  Speaker 1: either planet supposed in the ratio of the atmospheric condensation.
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 1: That it was not the case. However, my precipitous downfall
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: gave testimony enough why it was not so can only
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: be explained by a reference to those possible geological disturbances
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 1: to which I have formerly alluded. At all events, I
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: was now close upon the planet and coming down with
• 1:38:16
  Speaker 1: the most terrible impetuosity. I lost not a moment accordingly
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: in throwing overboard, first my ballast, then my water kegs,
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 1: then my condensing apparatus and gum elastic chamber, and finally
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: every article within the car. But it was all to
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: no purpose. I still fell with horrible rapidity, and was
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: now not more than half a mile from the surface.
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: As a last resource, therefore, having got rid of my coat,
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: hat and boots, I cut loose from the balloon the
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: car itself, which was of no inconsiderable weight, and thus
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 1: clinging with both hands to the net work, I had
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: barely time to observe that the whole country, as far
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 1: as the eye could reach, was thickly interspersed with diminutive habitations.
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: Ere I tumbled headlong into the very heart of a
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: fantastical looking city, and into the middle of a vast
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 1: crowd of ugly little people, who none of them uttered
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 1: a single syllable or gave themselves the least trouble to
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: render me assistance, but stood like a parcel of idiots,
• 1:39:15
  Speaker 1: grinning in a ludicrous manner and eyeing me in my balloon,
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: ascant with their arms set Akimbo, I turned from them
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 1: in contempt, and, gazing upward at the Earth so lately
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: left and left perhaps forever, beheld it like a huge,
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: dull copper shield, about two degrees in diameter, fixed immovably
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 1: in the heaven's overhead, and tipped on one of its
• 1:39:37
  Speaker 1: edges with a crescent border of the most brilliant gold.
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 1: No traces of land or water could be discovered, and
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: the whole was clouded with variable spots and belted with
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 1: tropical and equatorial zones. Thus, may it please your excellencies,
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: after a series of great anxieties, unheard of dangers and
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: unparalleled escapes, I had at length, on the nineteenth day
• 1:40:00
  Speaker 1: of my departure from Rotterdam, arrived in safety at the
• 1:40:03
  Speaker 1: conclusion of a voyage undoubtedly the most extraordinary and the
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: most momentous ever accomplished, undertaken or conceived by any denison
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: of Earth. But my adventures yet remained to be related.
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: And indeed your excellencies may well imagine that after a
• 1:40:19
  Speaker 1: residence of five years upon a planet not only deeply
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: interesting in its own peculiar character, but rendered doubly so
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 1: by its intimate connection in capacity of satellite with the
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: world inhabited by man. I may have intelligence for the
• 1:40:33
  Speaker 1: private ear of the state's College of astronomers, of far
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 1: more importance than the details, however wonderful of the mere
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: voyage which so happily concluded. This is in fact the case.
• 1:40:45
  Speaker 1: I have much, very much, which it would give me
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 1: the greatest pleasure to communicate. I have much to say
• 1:40:51
  Speaker 1: of the climate of the planet, of its wonderful alternations
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: of heat and cold, of unmitigated and burning sunshine for
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: one fortnight, and more than or frigidity for the next,
• 1:41:01
  Speaker 1: of a constant transfer of moisture by distillation, like that
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: in vacuo from the point beneath the sun to the
• 1:41:07
  Speaker 1: point the farthest from it, of a variable zone of
• 1:41:10
  Speaker 1: running water. Of the people themselves, of their manners, customs,
• 1:41:15
  Speaker 1: and political institutions, of their peculiar physical construction, of their ugliness,
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: of their want of ears, those useless appendages in an
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 1: atmosphere so peculiarly modified, of their consequent ignorance, of the
• 1:41:27
  Speaker 1: use and properties of speech, of their substitute for speech.
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: In a singular method of intercommunication, of the incomprehensible connection
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: between each particular individual and the moon with some particular
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 1: individual on the Earth, a connection analogous with and depending
• 1:41:42
  Speaker 1: upon that of the orbs of the planet and the satellites,
• 1:41:46
  Speaker 1: and by means of which the lives and destinies of
• 1:41:49
  Speaker 1: the inhabitants of the one are interwoven with the lives
• 1:41:51
  Speaker 1: and destinies of the inhabitants of the other. And above all,
• 1:41:54
  Speaker 1: if it so please Your excellencies, above all of those
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: dark and hideous mysteries which lie in the outer regions
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 1: of the Moon, regions which, owing to the almost miraculous
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: accordance of the satellite's rotation on its own axis with
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: its sideial revolution about the Earth, have never yet been turned,
• 1:42:11
  Speaker 1: and by God's mercy, never shall be turned to the
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 1: scrutiny of the telescopes of man. All this and more
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: much more, would I most willingly detail, but to be brief,
• 1:42:23
  Speaker 1: I must have my reward. I am pining for a
• 1:42:27
  Speaker 1: return to my family and to my home, and as
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 1: the price of any farther communication on my part, in
• 1:42:32
  Speaker 1: consideration of the light which I have it in my
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 1: power to throw upon many very important branches of physical
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: and metaphysical science, I must solicit, through the influence of
• 1:42:41
  Speaker 1: your honorable body, a pardon for the crime of which
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: I have been guilty in the death of the creditors
• 1:42:47
  Speaker 1: upon my departure from Rotterdam. This, then, is the object
• 1:42:51
  Speaker 1: of the present paper. Its bearer, an inhabitant of the Moon,
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: whom I have prevailed upon and properly instructed to be
• 1:42:59
  Speaker 1: my messenger to the Earth Earth, will await your Excellency's
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: pleasure and return to me with the pardon in question,
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: if it can, in any manner be obtained. I had
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 1: the honor to be et cetera, your Excellency's very humble servant,
• 1:43:12
  Speaker 1: Hans Fall. Upon finishing the perusal of this very extraordinary document,
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: Professor rub A dub it is said, dropped his pipe
• 1:43:21
  Speaker 1: upon the ground in the extremity of his surprise, and
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: Minaer superbus Vaughan under duck, having taken off his spectacles,
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 1: wiped them and deposited them in his pocket, so far
• 1:43:30
  Speaker 1: forgot both himself and his dignity as to turn round
• 1:43:34
  Speaker 1: three times upon his heel in the quintessence of astonishment
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 1: and admiration. There was no doubt about the matter. The
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 1: pardon should be obtained, so at least swore with a
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 1: round oath Professor rub A dub and so finally thought
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 1: the illustrious Vaughan under duck, as he took the arm
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: of his brother in science, and without saying a word,
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: began to make the best of his way home to
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 1: deliberate upon the measures to be adopted. Having read each
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: the door, however, of the Bergamaster's dwelling, the professor ventured
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: to suggest that, as the messenger had thought proper to disappear,
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 1: no doubt frightened to death by the savage appearance of
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: the Burghers of Rotterdam, the pardon would be of little use,
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: as no one but a man of the moon would
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 1: undertake a voyage to so vast a distance to the
• 1:44:19
  Speaker 1: truth of this observation, the Bergamaster assented, and the matter
• 1:44:23
  Speaker 1: was therefore at an end. Not so, however, rumors and speculations.
• 1:44:29
  Speaker 1: The letter having been published, gave rise to a variety
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 1: of gossip and opinion. Some of the overwise even made
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 1: themselves ridiculous by decrying the whole business as nothing better
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: than a hoax. But hoax with these sort of people is,
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: I believe, a general term for all matters above their comprehension.
• 1:44:49
  Speaker 1: For my part, I cannot conceive upon what data they
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: have founded such an accusation. Let us see what they
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: say in primus, that certain wags in Rotterdam have certain
• 1:45:00
  Speaker 1: especial antipathies to certain bergomasters and astronomers. Don't understand it all. Secondly,
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 1: that an odd little dwarf and bottle conjure, both of
• 1:45:11
  Speaker 1: whose ears for some misdemeanor have been cut off close
• 1:45:14
  Speaker 1: to his head, has been missing for several days from
• 1:45:17
  Speaker 1: the neighboring city of Brugess. Well, what of that? Thirdly,
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: that the newspapers which were stuck all over the little
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 1: balloon were newspapers of Holland, and therefore could not have
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: been made in the moon. They were dirty papers, very
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 1: dirty and glok. The printer would take his Bible oath
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 1: to their having been printed in Rotterdam. He was mistaken,
• 1:45:39
  Speaker 1: undoubtedly mistaken. Fourthly, that Hans Fall himself, the drunken villain,
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: and the three very idle gentlemen styled his creditors, were
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: all seen no longer than two or three days ago
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 1: in a tippling house in the suburbs, having just returned
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 1: with money in their pockets from a trip beyond the sea.
• 1:45:59
  Speaker 1: Don't believe it, don't believe a word of it. Lastly,
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: that it is an opinion very generally received, or which
• 1:46:06
  Speaker 1: ought to be generally received, that the College of Astronomers
• 1:46:09
  Speaker 1: in the city of Rotterdam, as well as other colleges
• 1:46:12
  Speaker 1: in all other parts of the world, not to mention,
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 1: colleges and astronomers in general, are to say the least
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 1: of the matter, not a whit better, nor greater, nor
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 1: wiser than they ought to be