"Hans Phaall" - читать интересную книгу автора (Poe Edgar Allan)

atmospheric density is chemically insufficient for the due
renovation of blood in a ventricle of the heart. Unless for default of
this renovation, I could see no reason, therefore, why life could
not be sustained even in a vacuum; for the expansion and compression
of chest, commonly called breathing, is action purely muscular, and
the cause, not the effect, of respiration. In a word, I conceived
that, as the body should become habituated to the want of
atmospheric pressure, the sensations of pain would gradually
diminish- and to endure them while they continued, I relied with
confidence upon the iron hardihood of my constitution.

*Since the original publication of Hans Phaall, I find that Mr.
Green, of Nassau balloon notoriety, and other late aeronauts, deny the
assertions of Humboldt, in this respect, and speak of a decreasing
inconvenience,- precisely in accordance with the theory here urged in
a mere spirit of banter.

Thus, may it please your Excellencies, I have detailed some,
though by no means all, the considerations which led me to form the
project of a lunar voyage. I shall now proceed to lay before you the
result of an attempt so apparently audacious in conception, and, at
all events, so utterly unparalleled in the annals of mankind.
Having attained the altitude before mentioned, that is to say
three miles and three-quarters, I threw out from the car a quantity of
feathers, and found that I still ascended with sufficient rapidity;
there was, therefore, no necessity for discharging any ballast. I
was glad of this, for I wished to retain with me as much weight as I
could carry, for reasons which will be explained in the sequel. I as
yet suffered no bodily inconvenience, breathing with great freedom,
and feeling no pain whatever in the head. The cat was lying very
demurely upon my coat, which I had taken off, and eyeing the pigeons
with an air of nonchalance. These latter being tied by the leg, to
prevent their escape, were busily employed in picking up some grains
of rice scattered for them in the bottom of the car.
At twenty minutes past six o'clock, the barometer showed an
elevation of 26,400 feet, or five miles to a fraction. The prospect
seemed unbounded. Indeed, it is very easily calculated by means of
spherical geometry, what a great extent of the earth's area I
beheld. The convex surface of any segment of a sphere is, to the
entire surface of the sphere itself, as the versed sine of the segment
to the diameter of the sphere. Now, in my case, the versed sine- that
is to say, the thickness of the segment beneath me- was about equal
to my elevation, or the elevation of the point of sight above the
surface. "As five miles, then, to eight thousand," would express the
proportion of the earth's area seen by me. In other words, I beheld as
much as a sixteen-hundredth part of the whole surface of the globe.
The sea appeared unruffled as a mirror, although, by means of the
spy-glass, I could perceive it to be in a state of violent
agitation. The ship was no longer visible, having drifted away,
apparently to the eastward. I now began to experience, at intervals,