depends upon the pressure of the atmosphere alone,
and that this pressure was in nowise affected by the
absence of gravity. My atmosphere being somewhat
denser than that of the Earth, the boiling-point was
not 100 deg., but 101 deg. Cent. The temperature
of the interior of the vessel, taken at a point equidistant
from the stove and from the walls, was about 5 deg.
C.; unpleasantly cool, but still, with the help of
a greatcoat, not inconveniently so. I found it
absolutely impossible to measure by means of the thermometers
I had placed outside the windows the cold of space;
but that it falls far short of the extreme supposed
by some writers, I confidently believe. It is,
however, cold enough to freeze mercury, and to reduce
every other substance employed as a test of atmospheric
or laboratory temperatures to a solidity which admits
of no further contraction. I had filled one outside
thermometer with spirit, but this was broken before
I looked at it; and in another, whose bulb unfortunately
was blackened, and which was filled with carbonic
acid gas, an apparent vacuum had been created.
Was it that the gas had been frozen, and had sunk
into the lower part of the bulb, where it would, of
course, be invisible? When I had completed my
meal and smoked the very small cigar which alone a
prudent consideration for the state of the atmosphere
would allow me, the chronometer showed 10 A.M.
It was not surprising that by this time weight had
become almost non-existent. My twelve stone had
dwindled to the weight of a small fowl, and hooking
my little finger into the loop of a string hung from
a peg fixed near the top of the stern wall, I found
myself able thus to support my weight without any
sense of fatigue for a quarter of an hour or more;
in fact, I felt during that time absolutely no sense
of muscular weariness. This state of things entailed
only one inconvenience. Nothing had any stability;
so that the slightest push or jerk would upset everything
that was not fixed. However, I had so far anticipated
this that nothing of any material consequence was
unfixed, and except that a touch with my spoon upset
the egg-cup and egg on which I was about to breakfast,
and that this, falling against a breakfast cup full
of coffee, overturned that, I was not incommoded.
I managed to save the greater part of the beverage,
since, the atmospheric pressure being the same though
the weight was so changed, lead, and still more china
or liquid, fell in the Astronaut as slowly as feathers
in the immediate vicinity of the Earth. Still
it was a novel experience to find myself able to lean
in any direction, and rest in almost any posture,
with but the slightest support for the body’s
centre of gravity; and further to find on experiment
that it was possible to remain for a couple of hours
with my heels above my head, in the favourite position
of a Yankee’s lower limbs, without any perceptible
congestion of blood or confusion of brain.