Chapter 7 Chapter Seven: Uncle Prudden and Phil.Evans remains unconvinced

The president of the Welton Society was astonished, and his companions were astonished.But neither of the two of them wanted to let this obviously natural surprise show. The footman, Fricoland, made no secret of his fear of being carried through the air by such a machine, and he did not try to hide it at all. All the while, the lifting propellers were spinning rapidly above their heads.Although the speed is already very fast, if the Albatross wants to fly to a higher area, the speed can be increased to three times the current speed. As for the propulsion propellers, they turned relatively slowly, only pushing the aircraft forward at a speed of 20 kilometers per hour.

The two passengers on the Albatross leaned over the platform and saw a long, winding strip of water, much like an ordinary stream.The creek snakes its way through a lagoon that shimmers in undulating terrain and is filled with slanting sunlight.The creek is actually a big river, and one of the largest in the country.On the left bank of the river, there is a continuous mountain range. Can you tell us where this is?said Uncle Pruden in a voice trembling with anger. I have no need to tell you, replied Robier. Can you tell us where this is going?Phil.Evans also said. across the sky. for how long?

As long as it takes. This is traveling the world, right?Phil.Evans asked sarcastically. Not only that, Robier replied. What if we don't want to make the trip?Uncle Prudang asked. You must agree! This is a foretaste of the future relationship between the master and his guests on board the Albatross (let's say: his captives).But it seems that he wants to give them a little time to recover their strength, appreciate the amazing flying machine they are traveling in space, and maybe praise the inventor of this machine, so He pretended to be pacing back and forth from one end of the platform to the other end of the platform, so that they could look at the mechanical equipment and configuration on the aircraft at will, or enjoy overlooking the ups and downs of the scenery unfolding below them.

Uncle Prudang, Phil.If I'm not mistaken, Evans said, we're now over central Canada.The river to the northwest is the Lawrence River.The city behind us is Quebec City. It is indeed the old town of Champlain, where the tin roofs shone like mirrors in the sun.So the Albatross had flown to forty-six degrees north latitude, which was why the dawn was so early and the dawn so unusually long. Yes, Phil.That amphitheater city, said Evans, and look at that hill with the castle on it, and the Straits of Gibraltar in North America!There are English and French cathedrals!There, with the Union Jack on the cupola, is the Customs House!

Phil.Before Evans finished speaking, this important town in Canada was gradually drifting away.The aircraft began to enter the stratus cloud area, and the view overlooking the earth was also blocked. Seeing that the attention of the chairman and secretary of the Welton Society turned to the external structure of the Albatross, Robier came over and asked: Well, gentlemen, by now you must believe that machines heavier than air can fly? It's hard to deny an obvious fact.However, Uncle Prudang and Phil.Evans didn't answer. You don't talk?The engineer added that he must be too hungry to speak!However, since I am responsible for taking you to heaven, please believe that I will not entertain you with this kind of atmosphere that is not very nutritious.Your first lunch is already waiting for you.

Uncle Prudden and Phil.Evans was feeling hungry, and now was not the time for politeness.A meal, no obligation, and when Robbier lowered them back to the ground, they would still have complete freedom of movement with him. The two were led to a small dining room in the aft cabin of the deck, where a clean table of meals was already set.This trip, they will dine here alone.The dishes are all kinds of canned food.Among them is something like a steamed bun, which is half of flour and half of minced meat, and some fat is mixed in it to enhance the taste.When this stuff is boiled with water, it becomes a very tasty soup.In addition, there are some fried slices of ham and brewed tea.

Fricoland has not been forgotten either.At the front of the deck he also gets a thick soup made of this steamed bun.He must be very hungry, otherwise he would not be able to eat if he was given food: he was so frightened that his upper and lower jaws were shaking, and he couldn't control it at all. What if the spaceship breaks down!What if the spaceship breaks down!The hapless Negro went on and on. This terrifies him.think about it!If you fall from a height of 1,500 meters, don't you want to turn people into meat paste! An hour later, Uncle Prudden and Phil.Evans was on the platform again.Robier was not there.In the glass cabin at the rear, the helmsman stared at the compass, calmly and strictly following the route specified by the engineer.

Everyone else is probably eating lunch in the cabin.Only one mechanic's assistant, who was in charge of the machine, went from one cabin to another, patrolling back and forth. The Albatross had flown out of the cloud zone, and the earth reappeared 1,500 meters below them.Although they know that the flying speed of the aircraft is very fast, the two colleagues can only make some rough guesses about how fast it is. It's unbelievable!Phil.Evans said. Let's not believe it.Uncle Prudang replied. They went to the front and looked towards the western horizon. Ah!Another city!Phil.Evans said.

Can you recognize it? able!I feel a lot like Montreal. Montreal?But we are only two hours away from Quebec at most! This shows that the flying speed of this aircraft is at least twenty-five leagues per hour. The speed of the Albatross is indeed so high.Passengers felt no discomfort because they were flying downwind.Flying this speed in calm weather would make them feel very uncomfortable, because it is almost equivalent to the speed of an express train.It would be even more unbearable to fly under headwind conditions. Phil.Evans was not wrong.What appears below the Albatross is Montreal, easily recognized by the Victoria Bridge.Like the viaducted railway bridge over the Lagoon in Venice, this is a tubular bridge over the St. Lawrence River.Then they recognized Montreal's wide avenues, its huge shops, its bank buildings, and its recently completed cathedral, modeled after St. Peter's in Rome.Later, they also recognized the Royal Peak, which overlooks the city and is now a beautiful park.

Fortunately Phil.Evans had visited the major cities of Canada, and he could recognize some of them without asking Robier.After Montreal, around 1:30 in the afternoon, they came over Ottawa again.Looking down from above, the waterfalls are like a pot of boiling water, rolling and overflowing, which is magnificent. That's the Houses of Parliament.Phil.Evans said. He pointed to what looked like a Nuremberg toy on top of the hill.This colorful toy-like structure is like the Houses of Parliament in London, just as Montreal's cathedral is like St. Peter's in Rome.But that doesn't matter, it's Ottawa, that's an irrefutable fact.

Before long, Ottawa began to shrink on the horizon again, and soon became a bright spot on the land. It was almost two o'clock when Robier reappeared.Foreman Tom.Turner accompanied him.Robier spoke only three words to him, which he passed on to his two assistants in the forward and stern cabins.The helmsman, having received the instructions, changed the course of the Albatross, heading two degrees to the southwest.At the same time, Uncle Prudang and Phil.Evans found that the propulsion propellers of the craft were also spinning faster than before. In fact, the speed of the vehicle can be doubled, which can exceed the speed of the fastest powered machine on the earth. Everyone can think about it!A torpedo can reach a speed of twenty-two knots, or forty kilometers an hour; a train on the English and French railways can reach a speed of one hundred kilometers an hour; A cogwheel power car was built with a speed of 130 kilometers an hour on the Lake Erie line; a power car between Trenton and Jersey City at a speed of 137 kilometers an hour. And if the propeller propeller of the Albatross reaches the maximum power, it can fly at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour, which is close to 50 meters per second. This speed is equivalent to the speed of a hurricane that can uproot a large tree, equivalent to 194 hours per hour in the storm that hit Cahors (Note: a small city in the south of France.) on September 21, 1881. The speed of the kilometer gale is comparable to the flying speed of a homing pigeon. Only swallows (which can fly 67 meters per second) and swifts (which can fly 89 meters per second) can fly faster than it. That is, as Robier said, if the Albatross had used its propellers to their full potential, it could circle the globe in two hundred hours, or eight days. The length of the railway on the earth at that time was 450,000 kilometers, which was equivalent to the length of eleven circles around the earth along the equator. But, no matter how long it is, what does it have to do with flying machines?The whole atmosphere is its support! Now, do I need to say more?The strange phenomenon that has baffled publics in both the New and Old Worlds is the flying machine of Engineer Robier; the trumpet that resounds through the sky is Tom Foreman.Turner's trumpet; and those flags that soar on important buildings in Europe, Asia, and America are those of Robier the Conqueror and his Albatross. In the past, in order not to be recognized by others, engineers took some cautious measures: try to sail at night as much as possible, and occasionally use side lights to illuminate the road; in the daytime, they disappear above the clouds.Now, he seemed to no longer want to keep his success a secret.What had he come to Philadelphia to appear in the chamber of the Weldon Institution, if not to make public his astonishing invention, to convince the most unconvinced by the fact itself? We now know how he was received, and now we shall see how he will take revenge on the President and Secretary of the Weldon Society. Robier approached the two colleagues.Both pretended not to be surprised by what they saw and experienced involuntarily.Obviously, the two Anglo-Saxon brains still have such deep-rooted stubbornness. Robier did not allow himself the slightest sign of awareness.Although their conversation had been interrupted for more than two hours, he seemed to continue a conversation that had never been interrupted, saying: Gentlemen, you must be wondering, can this machine, which is so good at flying in the air, stand up to higher speeds?If it can't chew space, it doesn't deserve to conquer space.I had hoped that the atmosphere would be a solid fulcrum, and it is.I understood that to fight the wind, you have to be stronger than the wind, and I did it.I don't need any sails to propel me, nor oars or wheels, nor railroad tracks to make me go faster.Atmosphere is enough.The atmosphere around me is like the water around a submarine, and the rotation of my thrusters in the air is the same as the rotation of a steamship's propeller in the water.This is how I solved the flying problem.This is something that balloons or other lighter-than-air devices could never do. The two colleagues said nothing.The engineer didn't care, he just smiled slightly, and then asked: You may be wondering, does the Albatross have the same ability to move vertically in addition to this ability to move horizontally?In other words, can it compete with airships when it reaches the upper atmosphere?Well, I don't want to persuade you to use the forward number to compete with it. The two colleagues shrugged.This was perhaps where they were trying to outwit the engineer; Robier made a gesture, and the advancing propeller stopped immediately.Under the action of inertia, the Albatross continued to fly forward for more than a thousand meters, and then stopped motionless. Robier made another gesture, and the rotation of the propeller was increased immediately, and the sound of the blades was like a siren being tested.The roar is basically equivalent to raising an octave, but its intensity has become smaller because of the thinner air.The aircraft is like a screaming skylark, soaring straight into the sky. Owner!Owner!Don't let it fall apart!cried Fricoland again and again. Robier only smiled contemptuously.In just a few minutes, the Albatross reached an altitude of 2,700 meters, and their field of vision suddenly expanded to a distance of 70 miles.Then, they rose to an altitude of 4,000 meters, as evidenced by the drop of the barometer to 480 millimeters. After the test was over, the Albatross landed again.The upper atmospheric pressure is low, the oxygen content in the air is low, and the oxygen in the blood will also decrease accordingly.Some balloonists have had accidents for this reason.Robbier saw no need to take the risk. So the Albatross dropped to its usual altitude again.The thrusters turned again, taking them southwest at a faster speed. Gentlemen, if this is the question you were thinking just now, you can now answer it yourself.said the engineer. Then, he leaned on the railing and looked down, immersed in reverie. When he raised his head again, the chairman and secretary of the Weldon Society had already stood in front of him. Engineer Robier, Uncle Prudang can no longer hold back his anger. We have never thought about the problem you think we are thinking about.We would like to ask you a question, however, and would like you to answer it. Speak. What right do you have to surprise us at Fairmont Park in Philadelphia?What right have you to shut us up in your cabin?What right has we to be hijacked onto this craft against our will? Then what power do you have?Messrs. balloonists, asked Robier, what right do you have to insult, heckle, threaten me in your academy?In that kind of situation, I was able to come out alive, and I was surprised. A rhetorical question is not the same as an answer, Phil.Evans said, let me ask you again, what power do you have? You want to know? Speaking! Well!This is the power of the strong! What an audacity! That's what it is! Then how long will you last, citizen engineer, Uncle Prudang finally can't bear it anymore, how long will you have to exercise this power? Why, gentlemen, replied Robier sarcastically, can you ask me such a question, when you have only to glance down to enjoy a view that is unparalleled in the world? At this time, the Albatross just came to the sky above Lake Ontario, and its shadow was clearly reflected on the calm lake.It had just flown over the region Cooper had so poetically sung.Now I am flying along the southern shore of this endless group of lakes, towards the famous river that falls all the way and brings the water of Lake Erie here. In an instant, a majestic, storm-like roar spread all the way to the aircraft.The air was visibly cooler, as if someone had sprinkled a mist of moisture into the atmosphere. Below, a horseshoe-shaped water curtain flew down.Under the refraction of sunlight, the water mist forms thousands of rainbows, reflecting this huge crystal flow, which is very spectacular. In front of the waterfall is a small bridge, which tightly connects the two banks together like a taut thread.A little further downriver, three miles away, was a suspension bridge on which a train was coming from Canada to the United States. Nicaragua Falls!Phil.Evans cried. When Uncle Prudang was trying his best not to appreciate these wonders, he cried out. A minute later, the Albatross crossed the river that separates the United States from British colonial Canada and came over the vast northern territory of the United States.