THE WATERY WONDERS of CAPTAIN NEMO 169 ULES VERNE’S 20,000 Source of Power

Home , Captain Nemo

ULES VERNE’S 20,000 source of power. In none of these Leagues under the Sea was technical situation did Verne J published in 1869. Since take advantage of knowledge then we have heard a great deal readily available to him at the

about the excellence of the sci- time. It is as if he sat in his chair ence, speculation and prediction and dashed off his concepts with- it contains. People seem to feel out bothering to get up and check that Verne’s sound scientific spec- facts that must have been in ulation makes the novel good books in the same room with him. science fiction, even though they He spun his yarn from the mate- may not care much for it as a rial in his head. And there you straight story. have a clue to the real value of But these days the waters are the novel. full of SCUBA divers. (The word Verne was a mighty story-tel- “SCUBA,” as most people are be- ler. His science was bad, his ginning to know, is made by tak- speculation absurd, and even his ing the first letter in each word of plot and his characters might be the phrase “Self-Contained Un- poor. No matter. Put them all to- derwater Breathing Apparatus.”) gether with the magic of Verne’s SCUBA divers carry their own air story-telling ability, and some- down into water as deep as three thing flames up. A story emerges

hundred feet in lakes, oceans, that sweeps incredulity before it. streams, rivers, bays, quarries and caves all over the world. There is TT is a very difficult thing to a rash of books on the subject, read this novel in a hostile and many SCUBA divers are frame of mind, looking for the THE WATEEY WONDEES fairly well-versed in the history of blunders, noting all the scientific man’s descent beneath the water. misinformation. For one thing, OF CAPTAIN NEMO When a SCUBA diver takes a Verne uses a nifty device for pre- critical look at 20,000 Leagues senting much of the so-called under the Sea, a new interpreta- scientific data in the novel. He By THEODORE L. THOMAS tion of the novel emerges. will have one of the characters, The novel isn’t at all what liter- say the narrator, Professor Aron- This isn't fiction. ary critics have said it is. nax, poised on the brink of some It concerns the legends all of us have heard about The diving gear and the diving exciting event, and then he will the uncanny predictions of J. Verne, Esq. scenes are technically pretty bad, ladle in the scientific nonsense. behind the times even for 1869. In this posture of the story, who Most of them are! The submarine Nautilus itself is stops to think about science? out of date for 1869, with the sole Verne can get away with almost exception that electricity is the anything, and he does.

THE WATERY WONDERS OF CAPTAIN NEMO 169 ULES VERNE’S 20,000 source of power. In none of these Leagues under the Sea was technical situation did Verne J published in 1869. Since take advantage of knowledge then we have heard a great deal readily available to him at the

THE WATERY WONDERS OF CAPTAIN NEMO 169 The power of Verne’s story- novel are those which describe the Nemo says, when he first de- the bottom of the sea, was obliged telling ability shows up in another activities of the characters as they scribes the diving apparatus to to shut my head, like that of a odd way. After reading the novel, roam on the bottom of the sea in Professor Aronnax, “It is to use diver, in a ball of copper.” This people remember things from it their SCUBA gear. Verne was not the Rouquayrol apparatus, in- was nothing new, either. The that are not there. The impres- concerned with many of the dan- vented by two of your own coun- closed-helmet diving dress had sion that the novel contains valid gers guarded against by modern trymen, which I have brought to been in steady use since its inven- scientific prediction seems to SCUBA divers, things like air em- perfection for my own use.” The tion by Augustus Siebe in 1840 grow as the years roll by. Re- bolism, nitrogen narcosis and the two “countrymen” are Rouquay- ... a diving dress so good that cently, a United States Patent bends. That’s all right. Diving was rol, a mining engineer, and Den- nothing more than refinements

Office official received an inter- not sufficiently far advanced for ayrouze, a Navy officer. Their have been added to it to this very esting inquiry. Was it true that a these things to be of concern. It SCUBA gear was in use in 1865, day. Verne adds an innovation to patent examiner had rejected the wasn’t until the 1870s that the four years before Verne published the helmet in the novel. “In the patent application of an inventor Frenchman Paul Bert completed his novel. In the actual gear, an Rouquayrol apparatus such as of a new periscope because of the the 1660 work of the Englishman air hose ran from a compressor on we use, two india-rubber pipes periscope described by Jules Robert Boyle. Bert put out a book the surface down to a tank car- leave this box and join a sort of Verne in 20,000 Leagues under on diving physiology describing ried on the driver’s back. A second tent which holds the nose and the Sea? Well, the fact is that how nitrogen can bubble out of a hose ran from the tank to a mouth; one is to introduce fresh Verne is totally silent on the sub- diver’s blood when the diver mouthpiece through which the air, and the other to let out the ject of periscopes in the novel. comes up too fast. Bert was the diver breathed. Some kind of foul, and the tongue closes one The Nautilus had no periscope. man who pointed out the ways to valve on the tank fed the com- or the other according to the Another mis-remembered de- avoid the bends. The diver could pressed air to the mouthpiece at wants of the respirator.” scription concerns the storage bat- recompress in a chamber at the a pressure about equal to the Apparently Verne was not teries used aboard the Nautilus. surface in order to relieve the pressure of the water at that aware of the existence of check There are none. The only time pressure slowly and at will, or the depth. Once the diver’s tank was valves, so he requires that the Verne specifically mentions a bat- diver could come up slowly and charged, the diver could unplug diver use his tongue to control the tery is in connection with diving in stages. Both of these systems the hose that ran to the surface incoming and outgoing air. Yet dress; Captain Nemo says the bat- allowed the excess nitrogen in the and freely walk around a bit using check valves were in use in the tery makes electricity out of blood to be thrown off in the ex- the air in his tank. He could then Siebe diving helmet 29 years sodium instead of the usual bi- haled air. Verne could not pos- return to the hose and plug in earlier, in 1840. Verne simply did chromate of potash. The novel sibly know about such things, again for another charge of air. not bother to get out of his chair leaves readers with the impres- and the lack of discussion of such Apparently Verne had heard and check. On top of that, he for- sion that it is a storehouse of ad- diving dangers in the novel can- about the gear, although toward gets that his SCUBA gear has no vanced technology, and the im- not be held against him. the end of his life he insisted he check valves. On that first walk pression grows as the reader ages. had dreamed about it. For use in on the bottom of the sea, Profes- (It would be interesting to find HPHE SCUBA used by Captain the novel, he made some changes sor Aronnax, Captain Nemo, Con- out how many adults reread it Nemo and his crew has long in the gear without bothering to seil and one of the crew were out after having read it in their teens. been held up as a good example check the gear itself, or even to under the water for a total of ten

Libraries tend to carry it in the of Verne’s ability to forecast sci- think much about it. For one hours. Toward the end of that section for younger readers.) entifically. Even Verne himself in thing, Captain Nemo says, “I, in walk they all get sleepy and take Probably the best parts of the his later years forgot that Captain encountering great pressures at a little nap. Things have been

170 GALAXY THE WATERY WONDERS OF CAPTAIN NEMO 171 The power of Verne’s story- novel are those which describe the Nemo says, when he first de- the bottom of the sea, was obliged telling ability shows up in another activities of the characters as they scribes the diving apparatus to to shut my head, like that of a odd way. After reading the novel, roam on the bottom of the sea in Professor Aronnax, “It is to use diver, in a ball of copper.” This people remember things from it their SCUBA gear. Verne was not the Rouquayrol apparatus, in- was nothing new, either. The that are not there. The impres- concerned with many of the dan- vented by two of your own coun- closed-helmet diving dress had sion that the novel contains valid gers guarded against by modern trymen, which I have brought to been in steady use since its inven- scientific prediction seems to SCUBA divers, things like air em- perfection for my own use.” The tion by Augustus Siebe in 1840 grow as the years roll by. Re- bolism, nitrogen narcosis and the two “countrymen” are Rouquay- ... a diving dress so good that cently, a United States Patent bends. That’s all right. Diving was rol, a mining engineer, and Den- nothing more than refinements

170 GALAXY THE WATERY WONDERS OF CAPTAIN NEMO 171 per cent produces unconscious- able pressure” at all. In fact, the happening so fast and furiously the quantity of air as 100 liters; ness. suit is quite flexible, which Verne that both Verne and the reader this accounts for the odd preci- There are other interesting realizes in a vague sort of way. alike forget that Verne’s SCUBA sion of the equivalent in British details about the breathing Not understanding this principle gear demands that the tongue al- pints.) arrangements of Verne’s divers. of the balancing of pressures, he ternately pop into and out of the In ten hours, Verne’s divers Exhaled air goes back into the feels compelled to offer some ex- two breathing tubes, a good trick would each need 1760 pints of air. portable tank on the diver’s back planation of how a diver can exist when one is asleep. This converts into 0.71 cubic feet so it can be used again. But the under great water pressure in a of air at the specified 50 atmos- tank is stated to be maintained at flexible suit. So he talks about the fT'HEN there is the matter of air pheres, assuming air to be a per- a pressure of 50 atmospheres. We suit’s “resisting.” consumption. The modem fect gas, and is a nice convenient are not told how a human being In one scene Professor Aron- SCUBA diver exhausts each quantity to carry on one’s back. could possibly exhale into a nax is looking out the great win- breath into the water, except in It weighs about 2.59 pounds, and chamber maintained at such a dow in the saloon of the Nautilus. the rarely-used rebreather types it contains only about 0.54 high pressure. In any case, one The Nautilus is deep, and the of diving gear. Verne properly pounds of oxygen. Professor passage of air through human Professor sees a sunken ship sus- saw that air does not last very Aronnax also says about the air lungs reduces the oxygen content pended in mid-water. It had sunk long when you breathe it once they will breathe during the dive, to about 15 per cent, at which to a depth where its density and blow it out into the water, so “when it only contains fifteen per point Verne says, pretty cor- equaled the water density, and he said that his divers would cent of oxygen, it is no longer fit rectly, it is no longer fit to there it hung, according to Verne. breathe the same air over and to breathe.” This leaves a total of breathe. The good Professor says, “we over. Each diver would carry a 0.15 pounds of consumable oxy- often saw the hulls of ship- tank of air charged by “the gen for each man for a ten-hour "INTERNE frequently mentions wrecked vessels that were rotting pumps of the Nautilus” to a pres- period, about one-tenth the oxy- ’ water pressure throughout in the depths, and, deeper down, sure of “fifty atmospheres.” The gen needed by a 150-pound man the novel. If you look for it, it cannons, bullets, anchors, chains 71.2 cubic foot tank of a modern engaged in very mild exercise at becomes apparent that Verne has and a thousand other iron mate- SCUBA diver is charged to a atmospheric pressure. This man no clear idea of the effects of rials eaten up by rust.” What he pressure of 153 atmospheres, and would also generate 1.25 pounds water pressure on immersed ob- means is, heavier objects come to most of us run in a little more. of carbon dioxide in a ten-hour jects, or even how diving gear of rest suspended in water at depths Such a charge will last for 25 period, producing with the 1760 any kind works. The diving dress deeper than light objects. Verne minutes at a depth of 100 feet. pints of air an atmosphere con- for his divers is “made of india- believes that sinking objects all Verne needed to keep his divers taining about 48.3 per cent car- rubber without seam, and con- seek their own levels in the going for ten hours. bon dioxide. This would swiftly structed expressly to resist con- depths, each according to its dens- Early in the novel Professor kill him. siderable pressure. One would ity, and there they hover. Aronnax points out that a man If the 0.54 pounds of oxygen have thought it a suit of armor, As a matter of fact, water is “consumes, in one hour, the oxy- available in the tank were con- both supple and resisting.” incompressible for all practical gen contained in more than 176 verted to carbon dioxide, the Verne therefore does not know purposes; its density does not pints of air, and this air, charged diver’s atmosphere would still that the air pressure inside the change much in the oceans. At the (as then) with a nearly equal contain 20.8 per cent carbon suit balances the water pressure deepest parts of the oceans, at quantity of carbonic acid, be- dioxide, enough to kill quickly. A outside the suit, and that the suit depths of some 36,000 feet—al- comes unbreathable.” (The carbon dioxide concentration of does not have to resist “consider- most 1,100 atmospheres—the French version of the novel states 6 per cent causes distress, and 10

THE WATERY WONDERS OF CAPTAIN NEMO 173 172 GALAXY per cent produces unconscious- able pressure” at all. In fact, the happening so fast and furiously the quantity of air as 100 liters; ness. suit is quite flexible, which Verne that both Verne and the reader this accounts for the odd preci- There are other interesting realizes in a vague sort of way. alike forget that Verne’s SCUBA sion of the equivalent in British details about the breathing Not understanding this principle gear demands that the tongue al- pints.) arrangements of Verne’s divers. of the balancing of pressures, he ternately pop into and out of the In ten hours, Verne’s divers Exhaled air goes back into the feels compelled to offer some ex- two breathing tubes, a good trick would each need 1760 pints of air. portable tank on the diver’s back planation of how a diver can exist when one is asleep. This converts into 0.71 cubic feet so it can be used again. But the under great water pressure in a of air at the specified 50 atmos- tank is stated to be maintained at flexible suit. So he talks about the fT'HEN there is the matter of air pheres, assuming air to be a per- a pressure of 50 atmospheres. We suit’s “resisting.” consumption. The modem fect gas, and is a nice convenient are not told how a human being In one scene Professor Aron- SCUBA diver exhausts each quantity to carry on one’s back. could possibly exhale into a nax is looking out the great win- breath into the water, except in It weighs about 2.59 pounds, and chamber maintained at such a dow in the saloon of the Nautilus. the rarely-used rebreather types it contains only about 0.54 high pressure. In any case, one The Nautilus is deep, and the of diving gear. Verne properly pounds of oxygen. Professor passage of air through human Professor sees a sunken ship sus- saw that air does not last very Aronnax also says about the air lungs reduces the oxygen content pended in mid-water. It had sunk long when you breathe it once they will breathe during the dive, to about 15 per cent, at which to a depth where its density and blow it out into the water, so “when it only contains fifteen per point Verne says, pretty cor- equaled the water density, and he said that his divers would cent of oxygen, it is no longer fit rectly, it is no longer fit to there it hung, according to Verne. breathe the same air over and to breathe.” This leaves a total of breathe. The good Professor says, “we over. Each diver would carry a 0.15 pounds of consumable oxy- often saw the hulls of ship- tank of air charged by “the gen for each man for a ten-hour "INTERNE frequently mentions wrecked vessels that were rotting pumps of the Nautilus” to a pres- period, about one-tenth the oxy- ’ water pressure throughout in the depths, and, deeper down, sure of “fifty atmospheres.” The gen needed by a 150-pound man the novel. If you look for it, it cannons, bullets, anchors, chains 71.2 cubic foot tank of a modern engaged in very mild exercise at becomes apparent that Verne has and a thousand other iron mate- SCUBA diver is charged to a atmospheric pressure. This man no clear idea of the effects of rials eaten up by rust.” What he pressure of 153 atmospheres, and would also generate 1.25 pounds water pressure on immersed ob- means is, heavier objects come to most of us run in a little more. of carbon dioxide in a ten-hour jects, or even how diving gear of rest suspended in water at depths Such a charge will last for 25 period, producing with the 1760 any kind works. The diving dress deeper than light objects. Verne minutes at a depth of 100 feet. pints of air an atmosphere con- for his divers is “made of india- believes that sinking objects all Verne needed to keep his divers taining about 48.3 per cent car- rubber without seam, and con- seek their own levels in the going for ten hours. bon dioxide. This would swiftly structed expressly to resist con- depths, each according to its dens- Early in the novel Professor kill him. siderable pressure. One would ity, and there they hover. Aronnax points out that a man If the 0.54 pounds of oxygen have thought it a suit of armor, As a matter of fact, water is “consumes, in one hour, the oxy- available in the tank were con- both supple and resisting.” incompressible for all practical gen contained in more than 176 verted to carbon dioxide, the Verne therefore does not know purposes; its density does not pints of air, and this air, charged diver’s atmosphere would still that the air pressure inside the change much in the oceans. At the (as then) with a nearly equal contain 20.8 per cent carbon suit balances the water pressure deepest parts of the oceans, at quantity of carbonic acid, be- dioxide, enough to kill quickly. A outside the suit, and that the suit depths of some 36,000 feet—al- comes unbreathable.” (The carbon dioxide concentration of does not have to resist “consider- most 1,100 atmospheres—the French version of the novel states 6 per cent causes distress, and 10

THE WATERY WONDERS OF CAPTAIN NEMO 173 172 GALAXY pressure increases the ry, Joule, Ohm, Davy, Coulomb, enormous poses he has learned something seem to be talking about batteries only by some six per cent. Faraday, Watt and others was density about how the Nautilus operates. here. Ruhmkorff invented an in- false idea of the effect of completed years before 1869. An Verne’s This isn’t true. We learn, “This duction coil in 1851. depth on the density of water American inventor, Thomas Dav- the engine room, clearly lighted, did Anyhow, this is all we find out in the novel every so enport, patented the first electric shows up not measure less than sixty-five about the mechanism that drives one point Professor motor. He ran a railroad car with often. At feet in length. It was divided into this most famous of submarines. notes that the trans-At- it in 1839. So the use of electri- Aronnax two parts; the first contained the It isn’t much. Yet, thinking back cable rests on the bottom city aboard the Nautilus did not lantic materials for producing electri- to the description after the lapse exercise of the in deep water “without anchor- call for the ima- city, and the second the machin- of a few years, it seems rosily age”. Whenever the Nautilus is to gination. ery that connected it with the complete. an unusually deep dive, make screw.” Then Captain Nemo tells Nautilus was named “the screw set to work at its maxi- ERNE’S r us, “I use Bunsen’s contributions, VV/ HEN the tour is over, Cap- speed” in order to drive the V after Robert Fulton’s Nautil- mum not Ruhmkorff’s. Bunsen’s are tain Nemo and Professor Nautilus down into that “dense” us, built in 1800 in France, and fewer in number, but strong and Aronnax sit down in the saloon Once down, all the Nau- it was more than named after it. water. large, which experience proves to while the captain describes more tilus has to do to reach the surface Fulton’s Nautilus had an observa- be best. The electricity produced details of the Nautilus’s construc- again is to shut off its screw and tion dome protruding from the passes forward, where it works by tion. Most of these involve dimen- tip its vanes upwards. It shoots to upper deck, just like the one on electro-magnets of great size, on sions of the ship. It is here that the surface, squeezed up like a Verne’s Nautilus 69 years later. a system of levers and cogwheels we learn the secret of the enor- toothpaste from a tooth- In 1855 a German named Wil- slug of that transmit the movement to mous strength of the Nautilus’s paste tube. In describing the helm Bauer launched a subma- the axle of the screw.” And we hull, a strength that allows the of any animals living in rine fifty-seven feet long. It was strength never again hear anything about vessel to dive to depths of several water strata miles beneath the named the Sea Devil, and it car- the front part of the room where miles once it gets up enough surface, Professor Aronnax says, ried a crew of thirteen. It was the electricity is produced. In power. The hull is double. “In- requires incalculable strength built to dive to 150 feet, and it “it fact, the only feature we learn deed, owing to this cellular ar- to keep one’s self in these strata had an oxygen-regenerating sys- about the back room is that the rangement it resists like a block, and resist their pressure.” Scien- tem, an observation dome at the system of levers and cogwheels as if it were solid. Its side cannot that a tists knew better in those days. bow, and an air lock so turns the screw a hundred and yield; it coheres spontaneously, The Nautilus itself, as a sub- diver could enter and leave under twenty revolutions in a second, and not by the closeness of its marine, does not represent any- water. All this was fourteen years which gives the Nautilus a speed rivets; and the homogeneity of its thing new in the submarine' art, before Verne’s Nautilus. Once a of fifty miles per hour—as you construction, due to the perfect with the exception of the idea of day it was necessary for Verne’s might well imagine. This “Bunsen union of the materials, enables it electricity for power. Cap- Nautilus to surface to replenish using and Ruhmkorff” business seems to defy the roughest seas.” So, says that he extracts her air. She carried pressure tanks tain Nemo to be thrown in for the distinction for those reasons, the double hull from sea water and makes for air storage, but no air-regen- sodium gained from the use of a couple accounts for the great strength of electricity out of it. Everything erating system. of shining scientific names. Bun- the Nautilus . . . apparently on the Captain aboard is run by electricity. But Early in the novel sen, among many other things, in- theory that if one shell is good, this speculation is not signi- Nemo takes Professor Aronnax even vented an electric cell that used two must be better. since the work of men like on a tour of the Nautilus. At the ficant, plates of gas coke instead of plati- Captain Nemo continues to Ampere, Cavendish, Hen- end of this tour the reader sup- Volta, num, but Captain Nemo does not give figures, physical dimensions GALAXY 174 THE WATERY WONDERS OF CAPTAIN NEMO 175 pressure increases the ry, Joule, Ohm, Davy, Coulomb, enormous poses he has learned something seem to be talking about batteries only by some six per cent. Faraday, Watt and others was density about how the Nautilus operates. here. Ruhmkorff invented an in- false idea of the effect of completed years before 1869. An Verne’s This isn’t true. We learn, “This duction coil in 1851. depth on the density of water American inventor, Thomas Dav- the engine room, clearly lighted, did Anyhow, this is all we find out in the novel every so enport, patented the first electric shows up not measure less than sixty-five about the mechanism that drives one point Professor motor. He ran a railroad car with often. At feet in length. It was divided into this most famous of submarines. notes that the trans-At- it in 1839. So the use of electri- Aronnax two parts; the first contained the It isn’t much. Yet, thinking back cable rests on the bottom city aboard the Nautilus did not lantic materials for producing electri- to the description after the lapse exercise of the in deep water “without anchor- call for the ima- city, and the second the machin- of a few years, it seems rosily age”. Whenever the Nautilus is to gination. ery that connected it with the complete. an unusually deep dive, make screw.” Then Captain Nemo tells Nautilus was named “the screw set to work at its maxi- ERNE’S r us, “I use Bunsen’s contributions, VV/ HEN the tour is over, Cap- speed” in order to drive the V after Robert Fulton’s Nautil- mum not Ruhmkorff’s. Bunsen’s are tain Nemo and Professor Nautilus down into that “dense” us, built in 1800 in France, and fewer in number, but strong and Aronnax sit down in the saloon Once down, all the Nau- it was more than named after it. water. large, which experience proves to while the captain describes more tilus has to do to reach the surface Fulton’s Nautilus had an observa- be best. The electricity produced details of the Nautilus’s construc- again is to shut off its screw and tion dome protruding from the passes forward, where it works by tion. Most of these involve dimen- tip its vanes upwards. It shoots to upper deck, just like the one on electro-magnets of great size, on sions of the ship. It is here that the surface, squeezed up like a Verne’s Nautilus 69 years later. a system of levers and cogwheels we learn the secret of the enor- toothpaste from a tooth- In 1855 a German named Wil- slug of that transmit the movement to mous strength of the Nautilus’s paste tube. In describing the helm Bauer launched a subma- the axle of the screw.” And we hull, a strength that allows the of any animals living in rine fifty-seven feet long. It was strength never again hear anything about vessel to dive to depths of several water strata miles beneath the named the Sea Devil, and it car- the front part of the room where miles once it gets up enough surface, Professor Aronnax says, ried a crew of thirteen. It was the electricity is produced. In power. The hull is double. “In- requires incalculable strength built to dive to 150 feet, and it “it fact, the only feature we learn deed, owing to this cellular ar- to keep one’s self in these strata had an oxygen-regenerating sys- about the back room is that the rangement it resists like a block, and resist their pressure.” Scien- tem, an observation dome at the system of levers and cogwheels as if it were solid. Its side cannot that a tists knew better in those days. bow, and an air lock so turns the screw a hundred and yield; it coheres spontaneously, The Nautilus itself, as a sub- diver could enter and leave under twenty revolutions in a second, and not by the closeness of its marine, does not represent any- water. All this was fourteen years which gives the Nautilus a speed rivets; and the homogeneity of its thing new in the submarine' art, before Verne’s Nautilus. Once a of fifty miles per hour—as you construction, due to the perfect with the exception of the idea of day it was necessary for Verne’s might well imagine. This “Bunsen union of the materials, enables it electricity for power. Cap- Nautilus to surface to replenish using and Ruhmkorff” business seems to defy the roughest seas.” So, says that he extracts her air. She carried pressure tanks tain Nemo to be thrown in for the distinction for those reasons, the double hull from sea water and makes for air storage, but no air-regen- sodium gained from the use of a couple accounts for the great strength of electricity out of it. Everything erating system. of shining scientific names. Bun- the Nautilus . . . apparently on the Captain aboard is run by electricity. But Early in the novel sen, among many other things, in- theory that if one shell is good, this speculation is not signi- Nemo takes Professor Aronnax even vented an electric cell that used two must be better. since the work of men like on a tour of the Nautilus. At the ficant, plates of gas coke instead of plati- Captain Nemo continues to Ampere, Cavendish, Hen- end of this tour the reader sup- Volta, num, but Captain Nemo does not give figures, physical dimensions GALAXY 174 THE WATERY WONDERS OF CAPTAIN NEMO 175 —

quantities” as an end in itself. marks that show a and properties of materials, which twenty inches, undergoing a pres- lack of infor- Such a remark could only be mation on a particular subject again seem to impart something sure of six atmospheres.” But this made by a man with no mathe- information, that is, which scientific. Here there occurs the depth of 316 feet produces a total could matical background whatsoever. have been obtained remark, “steel plates, whose dens- pressure of 10.6 atmospheres. easily enough Verne trained as a lawyer, and by asking or looking. One mile ity is from .7 to .8 that of water.” In this instance Verne thinks then for awhile he thought about visibility One translation has “.07 to .08 every 53 feet of depth produces under water. Good natu- going into the banking business. ral light at 150 fathoms. that of water.” A non-technical an additional atmosphere of 7,000 Any knowledge of science he had fathom reader might see nothing wrong, water pressure, while previously depth of water in the must have rubbed off on him, and Indian Ocean. It goes on and on. and even a technical reader might he thought every 10 feet did so. very thinly at that. It is time to emphasize slip over the grossly understated Yet in the opening pages of the again that Verne is a great story-teller density of steel. Verne doesn’t novel Professor Aronnax explains 1W/E have been talking about despite his scientific and specula- really mean it, either; he is not to Ned Land, “the pressure of the ” Verne’s physical science. tive nonsense. The novel is giving us a science-fiction descrip- atmosphere is represented by the There is good reason to suspect sprinkled with arresting tion of lighter-than-water steel. weight of a column of water thoughts. that his biological science is just Professor Aronnax wonders if In these paragraphs he also states thirty-two feet high.” This is just as bad. It doesn’t have the right some day there will cities the weight and dimension of the about right; Verne has the correct be at flavor. The crew of the Nautilus the bottom of the oceans, cities outer shell, so it is pretty easy to datum, but he doesn’t bother to throw out a net, say in the Indian that rise to the surface once a day calculate the density of his steel use it later. Ocean, and haul it back loaded. to replenish their air for ourselves. The book frequently reports as the Nau- Professor Aronnax looks in the tilus does. Later on, in a conversa- It works out to be the normal popular fallacy as if it were scien- net and says something like, “I tion between Captain and heavy steel we are used to, and tific fact. For instance, Professor Nemo .” saw in the net . . and there will Professor Aronnax, they discuss not the light stuff he says it is. Aronnax muses that the huge follow a listing of While discussing the strength mass of wooden material, includ- the sea crea- the possibility of excavating the tures in the net, anywhere portion of the of of the hull, Captain Nemo men- ing wrecked ships, floating in the from bottom the Red one paragraph to three the tions that at a depth of 1,000 feet central point of the Sargasso Sea pages Sea where Pharaoh’s army long. It is as if Verne pulled perished of water, the walls of the Nautilus “will become petrified by the to- while pursuing Moses ward him a text on marine and the Israelites; bear a pressure of 100 atmos- action of the water, and will then biol- such an exca- ogy, turned to the listing vation pheres. But, as every SCUBA form inexhaustable coal mines.” “Flora ought to “bring to light a and Fauna of the Indian diver knows, water pressure in- A clue as to why such nonsense Ocean.” large number of arms and instru- This sort of thing goes on fre- ments of Egyptian origin.” creases an additional atmosphere should be in the novel can be What quently in various bodies of a lovely concept! for every 33 feet of depth, not found about halfway through. water. Verne has his man look in a novel, Leagues every 10 feet. So at 1,000 feet of Professor Aronnax knocks on the As 20,000 Un- the net and rattle off what der the Sea is water the pressure on the hull of door of Captain Nemo’s room. He he a good story. But sees there. Sometimes, as a varia- there is not a single bit of valid the Nautilus would be a total of is invited in. He enters and “found tion, Professor Aronnax stands at speculation in it; 31.3 atmospheres, not 100. This Captain Nemo deep in algebraic none of its pre- the window while the Nautilus dictions same sort of mistake occurs dur- calculations of x and other quan- has come true. The pur- cruises beneath the surface, and ported science in it is ing that first walk on the bottom tities.” Now, nobody with even a not semi- calls off the contents of the of the ocean. Professor Aronnax smattering of mathematics would sea science or even pseudo-science. It they are passing through. is non-science. tells us, “We were at a depth of a put it that way. People don’t sit All through the novel occur — THEODORE L. THOMAS hundred and five yards and around calculating “x and other re- THE 176 GALAXY WATERY WONDERS OF CAPTAIN NEMO 177 —