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[The Blog of Phileas Fogg: 1883 onwards] October 16th 1884

From: Harry Hayfield <harryhayfield~at~googlemail.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:29:59 -0700 (PDT)
To: jvf~at~gilead.org.il

After yet another meal of floating soup (I tell you if I see another
bowl of soup regardless of whether it is floating or not, I shall
personally throw a fit!), Passepartout brought the subject of what
would happen when we returned to Earth. I explained that as far as I
was concerned, when we got back to London I would contact the Secretary
of State for Defence and ask how long a report he would like. I would
then contact my Torchwood contact and ask the same question and then
reassure my local constituency that I had returned safely and was able
to retake my seat in Parliament as one of the two Liberal members for
St. Marylebone.

"A bit like me" said Mr. Barbicane, and then explained that he would do
the same in the United States and then run for Congress in November
1886. However, what Passepartout meant was what physical processes
would happen as we returned to Earth. "I've no idea" I replied and
looked to Mr. Barbicane for an answer.

"Neither do I" he said, "it never occured to me that we'd even get to
that question". So I had a little dig around in this box of tricks and
tried to figure it out for myself. After an hour I had com up with a
possible answer. I explained that the atmosphere around the Earth would
act as a sort of brake on our downward descent. However, because of the
speed we would be going at (just a little under 3,000mph) the braking
would be so quick that the bottom of the Columbiad would glow (as seen
by anyone on the Earth) and create a sort of trail.

"Ah" said Mr. Barbicane, "that reminds me" and he got up and positioned
himself by the lever that would adjust our position so that we entered
the atmosphere right side up. "Here we go" he said and pulled the
lever. This time we turned around without incident and are now facing
the right way in order to land smoothly in 48 hours or so time.

--
Posted By Harry Hayfield to The Blog of Phileas Fogg: 1883 onwards on
7/29/2009 11:28:00 PM

Received on Thu 30 Jul 2009 - 01:30:14 IDT

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