The Earth Turned Upside Down by Jules Verne;Ian Fells; & 9781780941196

Author:Jules Verne;Ian Fells; & 9781780941196 [Jules Verne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781780941196
Publisher: Bookwire GmbH
Published: 2023-01-24T00:00:00+00:00

IX

IN WHICH WE SENSE THE APPROACH OF A DEUS EX MACHINA MADE IN FRANCE

Those, then, would be the benefits of the modification to the Earth’s axis to be brought about by President Barbicane. Moreover, we know that this change would only imperceptibly affect the movement of our planet around the Sun. The Earth would continue to follow its immutable orbit through Space and the conditions of the solar year would not change at all.

When the likely consequences of shifting the axis were brought to the attention of the rest of the world, there was an extraordinary outcry. At first, this advanced engineering project was received with enthusiasm. The idea of having one constant, ongoing season, depending on one’s latitude – and that to be decided according to each customer’s preference – was extremely attractive. People were ecstatic at the thought that every mortal would soon enjoy the same eternal spring that Telemachus’ minstrel described as reigning on Calypso’s island, and that they would even be able to choose between a cool spring and a warm one. As for the position of the new axis to which the diurnal rotation would shift, that was a secret that neither President Barbicane, nor Captain Nicholl, nor J-T Maston seemed willing to share. Would they reveal it beforehand, or would people know it only after the completion of the project? This question was important enough to cause serious concerns.

One thought naturally concerned many and was much discussed in the newspapers. By what mechanical means would the shift be effected, since it clearly required the deployment of an immense force?

Indeed the Forum, an influential New York magazine, made the following apt remarks:

‘If the Earth did not already turn upon an axis, perhaps it would require some relatively weak blow to impel it into rotation around an arbitrarily chosen axis. But the Earth may be compared to an enormous gyroscope moving at a high speed, and the laws of nature demand that such a device will tend to continue turning at a constant rate on the same axis. Léon Foucault has physically demonstrated this in well-known experiments. It therefore appears very difficult, not to say impossible, to make the Earth deviate.’

A fair point. And that said, having considered what means the North Polar Exploitation Association could be thinking of, it was no less interesting to consider whether this force would be brought to bear gradually or suddenly. If the latter, would there not be frightening natural disasters along the planet’s surface, at the moment when the axial change occurred, thanks to Barbicane & Co.’s procedures?

There was plenty in this to worry the scholars of Old and New Worlds as much as it did the ordinary people. All in all, a blow is a blow, and it is never agreeable to experience a blow or even the recoil from one. It appeared that the organizers of this business had not given a thought to the disruption that their project might cause to our unfortunate planet, being blinded by its benefits.

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