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Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Chapter 11. ALL BY ELECTRICITY
"Sir," said Captain Nemo, showing me the instruments hanging on the walls of his room.
"Here are the tools I need to navigate the Nautilus."
"Here, as in the drawing-room, I always have them in front of me."
"They show me my position and my exact direction in the middle of the ocean."
"Some of them you already know, like the thermometer, which gives the inside temperature of the Nautilus."
"The barometer shows the weight of the air and tells us when the weather will change."
"The hygrometer measures how dry the atmosphere is."
"The storm-glass shows when a storm is coming because its contents break apart."
"The compass guides my course."
"The sextant shows the latitude by the height of the sun."
"The chronometers help me calculate the longitude."
"And I use the day and night glasses to examine the horizon when the Nautilus rises to the surface of the waves."
"These are the usual nautical instruments,"
I replied, "and I know how to use them."
"But others, no doubt, are for the special needs of the Nautilus, this dial with the moving needle is a manometer, isn't it"?
"It's actually a manometer. But it connects with the water, whose outside pressure it measures, so it also tells us our depth."
"And these other instruments, which I can't guess the use of?"
"Here, Professor, I should give you some explanations. Will you be kind enough to listen to me?"
He was silent for a few moments, then he said,
"There's a powerful agent, obedient, fast, and easy."
"It fits every use and rules everything on board my vessel."
"Everything is done by means of it."
"It lights the ship, warms it, and is the soul of my mechanical equipment."
"This agent is electricity."
"Electricity?" I cried in surprise.
"Yes, sir."
"Nevertheless, Captain, you have an extremely high speed, which doesn't match the power of electricity."
"Until now, its dynamic force has been limited and has only been able to produce a small amount of power."
"Professor," said Captain Nemo.
"My electricity isn't like everyone else's."
"You know what sea-water is made of."
"In a thousand grams, there's 96.5 percent water and about 2.67 percent sodium chloride."
"Then, in smaller amounts, there are chlorides of magnesium and potassium, bromide of magnesium, sulphate of magnesia, and sulphate and carbonate of lime."
"So you see, sodium chloride makes up a large part of it."
"It's this sodium that I take from sea-water, and I use it to make my ingredients."
"I owe everything to the ocean."
"It produces electricity, and electricity gives heat, light, motion, and, in a word, life to the Nautilus."
"But not the air you breathe?"
"Oh! I could make the air I need, but it's not necessary, because I go up to the surface of the water whenever I want."
"However, if electricity doesn't give me air to breathe, it at least works the powerful pumps that are stored in large tanks."
"These pumps let me stay in the depths of the sea as long as I want, and electricity gives a steady continuous light the sun does not."
"I have divided this electric clock into twenty-four hours, like the Italian clocks, so for me there is neither night nor day, sun nor moon."
"There's only that artificial light I take to the bottom of the sea, look! Right now it's ten o'clock in the morning".
"Exactly."
"Another use of electricity," he said.
"This dial in front of us shows Nautilus's speed, an electric wire links it to the propeller, and we're now moving at fifteen miles an hour".
"It's marvelous! And I see, Captain, you were right to use this agent that takes the place of wind, water, and steam."
"We haven't finished, Mr. Aronnax," said Captain Nemo, standing up.
"If you'll follow me, we'll look at the back part of the Nautilus."
Really, I already knew the front part of this submarine boat.
Here's the exact layout, starting from the ship's front, the dining-room, five yards long, separated from the library by a watertight wall.
The library, five yards long, the large drawing-room, ten yards long, separated from the Captain's room by a second watertight wall.
The Captain's room, five yards long, My room, two and a half yards.
And finally, an air tank, seven and a half yards, which extended to the front.
Total length, thirty-five yards, or one hundred and five feet.
The walls had doors that closed tightly with rubber seals, and they kept the Nautilus safe in case of a leak.
I followed Captain Nemo through the middle of the ship and arrived at the center of the boat.
There was a kind of well that opened between two walls.
An iron ladder, fastened with an iron hook to the wall, led to the top.
I asked the Captain what the ladder was for.
"It leads to the small boat," he said.
"What! You have a boat?" I exclaimed in surprise.
"Of course. An excellent vessel, light and unsinkable, that serves either as a fishing boat or a pleasure boat."
"But then, when you want to get in it, you have to come to the surface of the water?"
"Not at all."
"This boat is attached to the top part of the Nautilus's hull, and it sits in a space made for it."
"It has a deck, is completely watertight, and is held together by strong bolts."
"This ladder leads to a manhole in the hull of the Nautilus, which matches a similar hole in the side of the boat."
"Through this double opening, I get into the small vessel."
"They close the one on the Nautilus."
"I close the other by screwing it tight."
"I undo the bolts, and the little boat goes up to the surface of the sea very quickly."
"Then I open the panel on the bridge, which was carefully shut until then."
"I put up the mast, raise the sail, take the oars, and I'm off."
"But how do you get back on board?"
"I don't come back, Mr. Aronnax. The Nautilus comes to me."
"By your orders?"
"By my orders. An electric wire connects us. I send a signal to it, and that's enough."
"Really," I said, astonished at these wonders, "nothing could be simpler."
After passing by the cage of the staircase that led to the platform, I saw a cabin six feet long.
In it, Conseil and Ned Land, delighted with their meal, were eating it eagerly.
Then a door opened into a kitchen nine feet long, located between the large storage rooms.
There, electricity, better than gas itself, did all the cooking.
The currents under the furnaces gave out heat to the platinum sponges, which was kept steady and spread evenly.
They also heated a distilling machine, which, by evaporation, gave excellent drinkable water.
Near this kitchen was a bathroom, comfortably furnished, with hot and cold water taps.
Next to the kitchen was the crew's sleeping area, sixteen feet long, but the door was shut.
And I couldn't see how it was managed, which might have given me an idea of how many men worked on board the Nautilus.
At the back was a fourth wall that separated this area from the engine room.
A door opened, and I found myself in the compartment where Captain Nemo, certainly a very high-level engineer, had arranged his locomotive machinery.
This engine room, brightly lit, was at least sixty-five feet long, it was divided into two parts.
The first contained the materials for producing electricity, and the second had the machinery that connected it to the propeller.
I examined it with great interest, to understand the machinery of the Nautilus.
"You see," said the Captain.
"I use Bunsen's devices, not Ruhmkorff's."
"Those wouldn't have been powerful enough."
"Bunsen's are fewer in number, but strong and large, which experience proves to be the best."
"The electricity produced goes forward, where it works, by very large electromagnets, on a system of levers and gears that pass the movement to the axle of the propeller."
"This propeller, which is nineteen feet in diameter and has a thread of twenty-three feet, makes about a hundred and twenty turns per second."
"And then you get?"
"A speed of fifty miles an hour."
"I saw the Nautilus move in front of the Abraham Lincoln, and I have my own ideas about its speed."
"But this isn't enough."
"We need to see where we go."
"We need to be able to steer it to the right, to the left, up, and down."
"How do you reach the great depths, where you find increasing resistance, which is measured in hundreds of atmospheres?"
"How do you return to the surface of the ocean?"
"And how do you stay at the right depth?"
"Am I asking too much?"
"Not at all, Professor," replied the Captain, with some hesitation.
"Since you may never leave this submarine boat."
"Come into the saloon."
"It's our usual study room, and there you'll learn everything you want to know about the Nautilus."