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[The Blog of Phileas Fogg: 1883 onwards] October 4th 1884 (Launch Day)

From: Harry Hayfield <harryhayfield~at~googlemail.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:40:57 -0700 (PDT)
To: jvf~at~gilead.org.il

10.00am (T -7 hours and 22 minutes until launch)

It was back to the classroom for the last time as the engineers made
the last preparations for the launch this afternoon and Professor Smith
introduced us to a new concept, namely gravity. Now, you might be
justified in thinking "Now, come on, I'm not university grade but even
I know what gravity is!" but that wasn't the type of gravity Professor
Smith had in mind and to demonstrate it he asked if Passepartout
fancied a chance to show his strength by doing some pressups. Never one
to refuse, Passepartout rattled off 25 in no time at all.

Then Professor Smith put a board on his back and stood on it and asked
Passepartout to carry on until he felt that he couldn't do anymore and
whilst he did that he explained the principle. "Now, as we know when
you throw something up in the air, gravity tries it's best to bring it
back down and that's precisely what it will be trying to do when the
Columbiad launches, however because you will be going so fast it will
fight a losing battle but my word what a battle it will put it. Come on
Mr. Passepartout, put some effort into it. Now, by my calculations
which are usually spot on, by the time you break free of the
gravitional pull of the Earth, there's a good chance that you will feel
about 3 maybe 4 times heavier than you are really. Mr. Passepartout,
I'm counting on you. Now, it might feel very uncomfortable at the time
but I think you all being fairly sturdy fellows you should be able to
manage!" By this time, Passepartout was huffing and puffing and turning
quite red in the face. "Monsieur" he gasped, "Can I stop? It feels like
I am carrying an elephant on my back!".

"And that's the phrase that pays!" beamed Professor Smith as he jumped
off the board and helped Passepartout to his feet. "The battle that
gravity will eventually lose will be akin to having an elephant on your
back. To which I say Good luck gentlemen and I'll see you in a week or
so!"

2.22pm (T -3 hours and counting)

As you can imagine it takes quite some time to load some 1.6 million
pounds of explosive into a hole (yes, I thought that they were over
doing it as well, but Professor Smith was most adamant) we were
introduced to a crowd of people from the world's press. Naturally
enough I was very modest and Passepartout the same, but oh dear, Mr.
Barbicane really did let the side down on numerous occasions. At one
point when asked about the science of the mission he replied: "Science?
All I care is that I am spending the next week with an Englishman and a
Frenchman" which caused me to let out an audible groan

4.15pm (T -67 minutes and counting)

I hugged the Princess and told her not to worry. Professor Smith, I
assured her, seemed a very clever person, all of the equipment had been
checked, double checked and triple checked and if anything did go
wrong, my will had instructed that 7 Saville Row be left to her and
William and that she was to marry within 6 months provided William gave
his consent. This brought up the question of where precisely William
was. It turned out that earlier in the day he'd been invited to a
school in Tampa to explain (in simple terms) what we were up to and
that he had missed the train back but assured me in a telegram that he
would be watching the eclipse and keeping an eye out for us. With that
Passepartout tapped me on the shoulder, I kissed the Princess, doffed
my hat and went to join the frenzy that was gathered around the hole

5.20pm (T -120 seconds and counting)

So here we all are, and may I say how very compact and bijou it is. In
about 110 seconds Mr. Maston will signal that the time to launch has
arrived giving the cue to a Mr. Murchison to press the button that
would electrically charge the explosive underneath us and at the same
time a telegraph signal would be sent to Long's Peak in Missouri that
we had launched and they would then try their best to follow us. Sorry,
Mr. Barbicane? Oh yes, my box of tricks is all ready and waiting and
might I suggest an old friend to count us down to the launch, eh,
Passepartout?









Three, Two, One, and away we go!

Oooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, my word. Professor Smith wasn't joking.
Gravity has just thrown us all to the floor and oooh, my goodness, I'm
finding it impossible to stand up again. Even Passepartout is
struggling to get on his feet. Mr. Barbicane, are you all right? He's
out cold. What's my box of tricks saying? Gravity is now twice as large
as on Earth? That might explain why (puffs) it's getting harder to
breath. (Pants) Arghhhhh!

Monsieur (pants) Fogg? Are you (pants) all right? I....

Scanning for evidence of life signs. Three detected. All have blacked
out, breathing laboured, pulses acclerated. Reading 3.7 times Earth
Gravity. Speed: 17,276mph. Escape Velocity Achieved.

--
Posted By Harry Hayfield to The Blog of Phileas Fogg: 1883 onwards on
7/16/2009 08:33:00 PM

Received on Thu 16 Jul 2009 - 22:41:08 IDT

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