Page:Clement Fezandié - Through the Earth.djvu/213

Rh pendulum, as a pendulum could not swing if deprived of its weight. In order to have a clock that would correctly keep the time in the novel conditions in which it was to be placed, the doctor had it arranged to be worked by a spiral spring, his clock being, in reality, nothing but a huge watch, the parts finished with the highest accuracy in order to insure its perfect working. When our hero looked up, the hands pointed to ten minutes past eleven.

"Ten minutes past eleven!" exclaimed William. "Is it possible that it is only ten minutes since I started? Why, I've passed through so many curious experiences that the minutes seem like hours. Nevertheless, I ought very soon to be at the center of the earth. They taught us at school that a body falls sixteen feet the first second, forty-eight feet the next, eighty feet the third, and so on, falling thirty-two feet more each second. The distance to the center of the earth is about four thousand miles; so, as I have a pencil in my pocket, I can easily make the calculation. Let me see; why, it will only take me a little over nineteen minutes to finish the first half of my journey. In nine minutes more I ought to be at the very center of the earth."