Двадцать тысяч лье под водой / Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

You’re familiar with some of them, such as the thermometer, which gives the temperature inside the Nautilus; the barometer, which measures the heaviness of the outside air and forecasts changes in the weather; the humidistat, which indicates the degree of dryness in the atmosphere; the storm glass, which foretells the arrival of tempests; the compass, which steers my course; the sextant, which takes the sun’s altitude and tells me my latitude; chronometers, which allow me to calculate my longitude; and finally, spyglasses for both day and night, enabling me to scrutinize every point of the horizon once the Nautilus has risen to the surface of the waves.

“These are the normal navigational instruments,” I replied, “and I’m familiar with their uses. But no doubt these others are unique. That one—isn’t it a pressure gauge[25 - a pressure gauge – манометр]?”

“It is indeed a pressure gauge. It’s placed in contact with the water, and it gives me the depth at which my submersible is sitting.

“And these?”

“They’re thermometric sounding lines[26 - thermometric sounding lines – термометрические зонды] that report water temperatures in the different strata.”

“And these other instruments, whose functions I can’t even guess?”

“Here, professor, I need to give you some background information,” Captain Nemo said. He fell silent for some moments, then he said:

“There’s a powerful, obedient, swift, and effortless force which reigns supreme aboard my vessel.

“Electricity!” I exclaimed in some surprise.

“Yes, sir.”

“But, captain, you have a tremendous speed of movement! How do you replace this marvelous force, since you no longer stay in contact with the shore?”

“At the bottom of the sea there exist much zinc, iron, silver, and gold, and I use the sea itself for the source of my electricity.

“The sea itself?”

“Yes, professor. You’re familiar with the composition of salt water. In 1,000 grams one finds 96.5% water and about 2.66% sodium chloride[27 - sodium chloride – хлористый натрий], and so on. It’s this sodium that I extract from salt water and with which I compose my electric cells.”

“Sodium?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Captain, I fully understand the excellence of sodium.