so as to sink, to 1,51377100 tons, instead of 1,507210. The increase will consequently only be 657100 tons.”
“Is that all?”
“Yes, and the calculation can be easily verified. I have supplementary reservoirs capable of holding 100 tons. So I can descend to a very considerable depth. When I wish to come up again to the surface, I have only to eject the water in all the reservoirs, and the Nautilus will float with one-tenth emerged.”
I could not object to these figures.
“I admit your calculations, captain,” I replied, “and it would be very bad taste to dispute them, since experience has proved them right every day. But I confess to a difficulty.”
“What is that?”
“When you are at a depth of 1,000 yards, the sides of the Nautilus support a pressure of 100 atmospheres. So then, at the time you employ your reservoirs for the purpose of rising to the surface, you must overcome by means of your pumps this pressure of 100 atmospheres which is 1,500 lbs. for a square inch. Such a power—”
“Electricity alone can give me,” interrupted Captain Nemo. “I repeat that the dynamic power of my engines is almost infinite. The pumps have enormous power. For instance, look at the columns of water thrown like a torrent upon the deck of the Abraham Lincoln. Besides, I do not fill my supplementary reservoirs, except to reach moderate depths. But when the fancy seizes me to visit the very bottom of the sea, or two or three leagues below the surface, I employ other more complicated but not less certain measures.”
