When the consequences of the change of axis were brought to the knowledge of the world, they caused extraordinary excitement. At first this problem of the higher mechanics received an enthusiastic welcome. The idea of having seasons of constant equality, and, according to the latitude3, “to suit consumers,” was very attractive. The crowd revelled4 in the thought that they could enjoy the perpetual spring which the bard5 of Telemachus accorded to the Island of Calypso, and that they could have the spring either fresh or mild. Where the new axis was to be seemed to be the secret of Barbicane, Nicholl, and J. T. Maston, which they were in no hurry to present to the public. Would they reveal it in advance, or would it be known after the experiment? It would be as well to say so, perhaps, as opinion began to show signs of anxiety in the matter.
One observation occurred naturally to the mind, and was at once commented on in the newspapers. By what mechanical means was the change to be produced, which evidently required the employment of an enormous force?
“If the Earth did not turn on its axis, it is probable that a relatively7 feeble shock would suffice to give a movement of rotation round an axis arbitrarily chosen; but the Earth is like an enormous gyroscope moving at high velocity8, and it is a natural law that such an apparatus9 has a tendency to turn round the same axis, as Foucault demonstrated in his well-known experiments. It will therefore be very difficult, if not impossible, to shift it.”
But after asking what would be the effort required by the engineers of the North Polar Practical Association, it was at least as interesting to know if the effort was to be suddenly or insensibly applied10. And if it was to be a sudden effort, would not the proceedings11 of Messrs. Barbicane & Co. produce some rather alarming catastrophes12 on the face of the earth?
Here was something to occupy the brains of the wise and foolish. A shock is a shock, and it is never agreeable to receive the blow or the counter-blow. There was a likelihood that the promoters of the enterprise had been so busy with the advantages the world was to possess that they had overlooked the destruction the operation would entail13. And with considerable cleverness the Major and his allies made the most of this, and began to agitate14 public opinion against the president of the Gun Club.
Although France had taken no part in the syndicating, and officially treated the matter with disdain15, yet there was in that country an individual who conceived the idea of setting out for Baltimore, to follow, for his own private satisfaction, the different phases of the enterprise.
He was a mining engineer of about five and thirty years of age. He had been the first on the list when admitted to the Polytechnic16 School, and he had been the first on the list when he left it, so that he must have been a mathematician17 of the first order, and probably superior to J. T. Maston, who, though he was a long way above the average, was only a calculator after all—that is to say, what Leverrier was compared to Newton or Laplace.
This engineer was a man of brains, and—though he was none the worse for that—somewhat of a humourist, and an original. In conversation with his intimates, even when he talked science, his language was more that of the slang of the streets than of the academical formulæ he employed when he wrote. He was a wonderful worker, being accustomed to sit for ten hours at a stretch before his table, writing pages on pages of algebra18 with as much ease as he would have written a letter.
This singular man was called Pierdeux (Alcide), and in his way of condensing it—as is the custom of his comrades—he generally signed himself ierd, or even I, without even dotting the i. He was so perfervid in his discussions that he had been named Sulphuric Alcide. Not only was he big, but he was tall. His friends affirmed that his height was exactly the five millionth part of a quarter of the meridian19, and they were not far out. Although his head was rather too small for his powerful bust20 and shoulders, yet he held it well, and piercing were the eyes that looked through his pince-nez. He was chiefly distinguished21 by one of those physiognomies in which gaiety and gravity intermingle, and his hair had been prematurely22 thinned by the abuse of algebraic signs under the light of the gas-lamps in the study.
He was one of the best fellows whose memory lingers 78at the school. Although his character was independent enough, he was always loyal to the requirements of Code X, which is law among the Polytechnicians in all that concerns comradeship and respect for the uniform. He was equally appreciated under the trees of the court of “Acas,” so named because there are no acacias, as in the “casers,” the dormitories, in which the arrangements of his box, and the order that reigned23 in his “coffin,” denoted an absolutely methodical mind.
That the head of Alcide Pierdeux was a little too small for his body we admit, but that it was filled to the meninges will be believed. Above all things, he was a mathematician like all his comrades are, or have been, but he only used his mathematics in application to experimental science, whose chief attraction to him was that it had much to do with industry. Herein he recognized the inferior side of his nature. No one is perfect. His strong point was the study of those sciences which, notwithstanding their immense progress, have, and always will have, secrets for their followers24.
Alcide was still a bachelor. He was still “equal to one,” as he phrased it, although he had no objection to become “the half of two.” His friends had had ideas of marrying him to a very charming girl at Martigues. But, unfortunately, she had a father, who responded to the first overtures25 in the following “martigalade:”—
“No, your Alcide is too clever! He talks to my poor girl in a way that is unintelligible26 to her!”
And hence Alcide resolved to take a year’s holiday, and thought he could not employ his time better than in following the North Polar Practical Association in its peculiar27 undertaking28.
As soon as he arrived at Baltimore he began to think over the matter seriously. That the Earth would become Jovian by the change of its axis mattered very little to him. But by what means it was to be brought about excited his curiosity, and not without reason.
In his picturesque29 language he said to himself,—
“Evidently Barbicane is going to give our ball a terrible knock; but what sort of a knock? Everything depends on that! I suppose he is going to play for ‘side,’ as if with a cue at a billiard-ball; but if he hits us ‘square’ he may jolt30 us out of our orbit, and then the years will dance to a pretty tune31. They are going to shift the old axis for a new one, probably above it, but I do not see where they are to get their taking-off place from, or how they are to manage the knock. If there was no rotation, a mere32 flip33 would suffice, but they can’t put down that diurnal34 spin. That is the canisdentum.”
He meant “the rub,” but that was his way of expressing himself.
“Whatever they do,” he continued, “there will be no end of a row before it is over.”
Try all he could, the engineer could not discover Barbicane’s plan, which for one reason was much to be regretted, as if it had been known to him he would at once have made the calculations he needed.
But all at present was a mystery. And so it happened that on the 29th of December Alcide Pierdeux, “Ingénieur au Corps35 National des Mines de France,” was hurrying with lengthy36 strides through the crowded streets of Baltimore.
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1
axis
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| n.轴，轴线，中心线；坐标轴，基准线 | |
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rotation
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| n.旋转；循环，轮流 | |
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3
latitude
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| n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区 | |
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revelled
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| v.作乐( revel的过去式和过去分词 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉 | |
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bard
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| n.吟游诗人 | |
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forum
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| n.论坛，讨论会 | |
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relatively
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| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
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8
velocity
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| n.速度，速率 | |
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9
apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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10
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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catastrophes
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| n.灾祸( catastrophe的名词复数 )；灾难；不幸事件；困难 | |
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entail
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| vt.使承担，使成为必要，需要 | |
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agitate
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| vi.(for,against)煽动，鼓动；vt.搅动 | |
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disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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polytechnic
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| adj.各种工艺的，综合技术的；n.工艺(专科)学校；理工(专科)学校 | |
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17
mathematician
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| n.数学家 | |
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algebra
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| n.代数学 | |
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meridian
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| adj.子午线的；全盛期的 | |
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bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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21
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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prematurely
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| adv.过早地，贸然地 | |
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reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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24
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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25
overtures
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| n.主动的表示，提议；（向某人做出的）友好表示、姿态或提议( overture的名词复数 )；（歌剧、芭蕾舞、音乐剧等的）序曲，前奏曲 | |
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unintelligible
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| adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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30
jolt
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| v.（使）摇动，（使）震动，（使）颠簸 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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32
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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33
flip
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| vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的 | |
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34
diurnal
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| adj.白天的，每日的 | |
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35
corps
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| n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组 | |
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36
lengthy
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| adj.漫长的，冗长的 | |
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