partition-breaks

Updated: May 8, 2025

On the movable disc, sunk down to the bottom by the smashing of the partition-breaks and the escape of the water, three bodies lay apparently lifeless. Barbicane, Nicholl, and Michel Ardan did they still breathe? or was the projectile nothing now but a metal coffin, bearing three corpses into space?

Jules Verne - From the Earth to the Moon; and, Round the Moon

Had the ingenuity of the constructors of the projectile obtained any happy result? Had the shock been deadened, thanks to the springs, the four plugs, the water-cushions, and the partition-breaks? Had they been able to subdue the frightful pressure of the initiatory speed of more than 11,000 yards, which was enough to traverse Paris or New York in a second?

Jules Verne - From the Earth to the Moon; and, Round the Moon

Now I can understand how, after thirteen minutes only, we met the second satellite, which gravitates round the earth at more than 2,000 leagues' distance." "And this explanation is the more probable," added Barbicane, "Because, in throwing off the water enclosed between its partition-breaks, the projectile found itself lightened of a considerable weight." "Just so," said Nicholl.

Jules Verne - From the Earth to the Moon; and, Round the Moon