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

diameter, properly shaped, and ten feet in length; a quantity of a
particular metallic substance, or semi-metal, which I shall not
name, and a dozen demijohns of a very common acid. The gas to be
formed from these latter materials is a gas never yet generated by any
other person than myself- or at least never applied to any similar
purpose. The secret I would make no difficulty in disclosing, but that
it of right belongs to a citizen of Nantz, in France, by whom it was
conditionally communicated to myself. The same individual submitted to
me, without being at all aware of my intentions, a method of
constructing balloons from the membrane of a certain animal, through
which substance any escape of gas was nearly an impossibility. I found
it, however, altogether too expensive, and was not sure, upon the
whole, whether cambric muslin with a coating of gum caoutchouc, was
not equally as good. I mention this circumstance, because I think it
probable that hereafter the individual in question may attempt a
balloon ascension with the novel gas and material I have spoken of,
and I do not wish to deprive him of the honor of a very singular
invention.
On the spot which I intended each of the smaller casks to occupy
respectively during the inflation of the balloon, I privately dug a
hole two feet deep; the holes forming in this manner a circle
twenty-five feet in diameter. In the centre of this circle, being
the station designed for the large cask, I also dug a hole three
feet in depth. In each of the five smaller holes, I deposited a
canister containing fifty pounds, and in the larger one a keg
holding one hundred and fifty pounds, of cannon powder. These- the
keg and canisters- I connected in a proper manner with covered
trains; and having let into one of the canisters the end of about four
feet of slow match, I covered up the hole, and placed the cask over
it, leaving the other end of the match protruding about an inch, and
barely visible beyond the cask. I then filled up the remaining
holes, and placed the barrels over them in their destined situation.
Besides the articles above enumerated, I conveyed to the depot,
and there secreted, one of M. Grimm's improvements upon the
apparatus for condensation of the atmospheric air. I found this
machine, however, to require considerable alteration before it could
be adapted to the purposes to which I intended making it applicable.
But, with severe labor and unremitting perseverance, I at length met
with entire success in all my preparations. My balloon was soon
completed. It would contain more than forty thousand cubic feet of
gas; would take me up easily, I calculated, with all my implements,
and, if I managed rightly, with one hundred and seventy-five pounds of
ballast into the bargain. It had received three coats of varnish,
and I found the cambric muslin to answer all the purposes of silk
itself, quite as strong and a good deal less expensive.
Everything being now ready, I exacted from my wife an oath of
secrecy in relation to all my actions from the day of my first visit
to the bookseller's stall; and promising, on my part, to return as
soon as circumstances would permit, I gave her what little money I had
left, and bade her farewell. Indeed I had no fear on her account.