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Authors: Robur the Conqueror
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machinery, went from one
house to the other.
If the speed of the ship was great the two colleagues could only
estimate it imperfectly, for the "Albatross" had passed through the
cloud zone which the sun showed some four thousand feet below.
"I can hardly believe it," said Phil Evans.
"Don't believe it!" said Uncle Prudent. And going to the bow they
looked out towards the western horizon.
"Another town," said Phil Evans.
"Do you recognize it?"
"Yes! It seems to me to be Montreal."
"Montreal? But we only left Quebec two hours ago!"
"That proves that we must be going at a speed of seventy-five miles
an hour."
Such was the speed of the aeronef; and if the passengers were not
inconvenienced by it, it was because they were going with the wind.
In a calm such speed would have been difficult and the rate would
have sunk to that of an express. In a head-wind the speed would have
been unbearable.
Phil Evans was not mistaken. Below the "Albatross" appeared Montreal,
easily recognizable by the Victoria Bridge, a tubular bridge thrown
over the St. Lawrence like the railway viaduct over the Venice
lagoon. Soon they could distinguish the town's wide streets, its huge
shops, its palatial banks, its cathedral, recently built on the model
of St. Peter's at Rome, and then Mount Royal, which commands the city
and forms a magnificent park.
Luckily Phil Evans had visited the chief towns of Canada, and could
recognize them without asking Robur. After Montreal they passed
Ottawa, whose falls, seen from above, looked like a vast cauldron in
ebullition, throwing off masses of steam with grand effect.
"There is the Parliament House."
And he pointed out a sort of Nuremburg toy planted on a hill top.
This toy with its polychrome architecture resembled the House of
Parliament in London much as the Montreal cathedral resembles St.
Peter's at Rome. But that was of no consequence; there could be no
doubt it was Ottawa.
Soon the city faded off towards the horizon, and formed but a
luminous spot on the ground.
It was almost two hours before Robur appeared. His mate, Tom Turner,
accompanied him. He said only three words. These were transmitted to
the two assistant engineers in the fore and aft engine-houses. At a
sign the helmsman changed the-direction of the "Albatross" a couple
of points to the southwest; at the same time Uncle Prudent and Phil
Evans felt that a greater speed had been given to the propellers.
In fact, the speed had been doubled, and now surpassed anything that
had ever been attained by terrestrial Engines. Torpedo-boats do their
twenty-two knots an hour; railway trains do their sixty miles an
hour; the ice-boats on the frozen Hudson do their sixty-five miles an
hour; a machine built by the Patterson company, with a cogged wheel,
has done its eighty miles; and another locomotive between Trenton and
Jersey City has done its eighty-four.
But the "Albatross," at full speed, could do her hundred and twenty
miles an hour, or 176 feet per second. This speed is that of the
storm which tears up trees by the roots. It is the mean speed of the
carrier pigeon, and is only surpassed by the flight of the swallow
(220 feet per second) and that of the swift (274 feet per second).
In a word, as Robur had said, the "Albatross," by using the whole
force of her screws, could make the tour of the globe in two hundred
hours, or less than eight days.
Is it necessary to say so? The phenomenon whose appearance had so
much puzzled the people of both worlds was the aeronef of the
engineer. The trumpet which blared its startling fanfares through the
air was that of the mate, Tom Turner. The flag planted on the chief
monuments of Europe, Asia, America, was the flag of Robur the
Conqueror and his "Albatross."
And if up to then the engineer had taken many precautions against
being recognized, if by preference he traveled at night, clearing the
way with his electric lights, and during the day vanishing into the
zones above the clouds, he seemed now to
house to the other.
If the speed of the ship was great the two colleagues could only
estimate it imperfectly, for the "Albatross" had passed through the
cloud zone which the sun showed some four thousand feet below.
"I can hardly believe it," said Phil Evans.
"Don't believe it!" said Uncle Prudent. And going to the bow they
looked out towards the western horizon.
"Another town," said Phil Evans.
"Do you recognize it?"
"Yes! It seems to me to be Montreal."
"Montreal? But we only left Quebec two hours ago!"
"That proves that we must be going at a speed of seventy-five miles
an hour."
Such was the speed of the aeronef; and if the passengers were not
inconvenienced by it, it was because they were going with the wind.
In a calm such speed would have been difficult and the rate would
have sunk to that of an express. In a head-wind the speed would have
been unbearable.
Phil Evans was not mistaken. Below the "Albatross" appeared Montreal,
easily recognizable by the Victoria Bridge, a tubular bridge thrown
over the St. Lawrence like the railway viaduct over the Venice
lagoon. Soon they could distinguish the town's wide streets, its huge
shops, its palatial banks, its cathedral, recently built on the model
of St. Peter's at Rome, and then Mount Royal, which commands the city
and forms a magnificent park.
Luckily Phil Evans had visited the chief towns of Canada, and could
recognize them without asking Robur. After Montreal they passed
Ottawa, whose falls, seen from above, looked like a vast cauldron in
ebullition, throwing off masses of steam with grand effect.
"There is the Parliament House."
And he pointed out a sort of Nuremburg toy planted on a hill top.
This toy with its polychrome architecture resembled the House of
Parliament in London much as the Montreal cathedral resembles St.
Peter's at Rome. But that was of no consequence; there could be no
doubt it was Ottawa.
Soon the city faded off towards the horizon, and formed but a
luminous spot on the ground.
It was almost two hours before Robur appeared. His mate, Tom Turner,
accompanied him. He said only three words. These were transmitted to
the two assistant engineers in the fore and aft engine-houses. At a
sign the helmsman changed the-direction of the "Albatross" a couple
of points to the southwest; at the same time Uncle Prudent and Phil
Evans felt that a greater speed had been given to the propellers.
In fact, the speed had been doubled, and now surpassed anything that
had ever been attained by terrestrial Engines. Torpedo-boats do their
twenty-two knots an hour; railway trains do their sixty miles an
hour; the ice-boats on the frozen Hudson do their sixty-five miles an
hour; a machine built by the Patterson company, with a cogged wheel,
has done its eighty miles; and another locomotive between Trenton and
Jersey City has done its eighty-four.
But the "Albatross," at full speed, could do her hundred and twenty
miles an hour, or 176 feet per second. This speed is that of the
storm which tears up trees by the roots. It is the mean speed of the
carrier pigeon, and is only surpassed by the flight of the swallow
(220 feet per second) and that of the swift (274 feet per second).
In a word, as Robur had said, the "Albatross," by using the whole
force of her screws, could make the tour of the globe in two hundred
hours, or less than eight days.
Is it necessary to say so? The phenomenon whose appearance had so
much puzzled the people of both worlds was the aeronef of the
engineer. The trumpet which blared its startling fanfares through the
air was that of the mate, Tom Turner. The flag planted on the chief
monuments of Europe, Asia, America, was the flag of Robur the
Conqueror and his "Albatross."
And if up to then the engineer had taken many precautions against
being recognized, if by preference he traveled at night, clearing the
way with his electric lights, and during the day vanishing into the
zones above the clouds, he seemed now to
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