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Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Anyone still out there?
Title: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Anyone still out
there?
For myself, submarines are one of the last things on my mind
these days. Here in central Minnesota, we've just gotten our first
sticking snow of the season. There's a skin of ice on my goldfish
pond. I've gone to catch-up reading of this list once or twice a
week.
Nifty coincidence -- Mike (I think it was Mike) mentioned
somebody working out the size of Verne's Nautilus. I just happened to
be reading this morning a review of this Miller/Walter translation (
http://www.troynovant.com/Stoddard/Verne/20000-Leagues-Under-Sea.html)
and thinking I should buy that, since the only version I've ever read
was a Doubleday book club edition from my childhood (doesn't say who
translated).
Anyway, this review mentions that the newer version includes more
tech stuff that was cut out of many translations...
previous versions omitted over 20% of the French text,
including important passages of technical detail, such as Captain
Nemo's account of the batteries used on the Nautilus (Bunsen
batteries, a type of wet primary cell actually used at the time, but
operating at higher voltage due to the replacement of zinc with sodium
in one electrode) and Professor Arronax's questions to Nemo about the
thermodynamics of his power source.
...and I sure didn't remember about the retractable conning
towers, but maybe that's just because I haven't read it
recently.
At 14:44 -0700 10/17/02, Doc wrote:
No, but I've become quite proficient at
turning a tractor into a submudsible.
Hey, cool. My dad is an expert at doing that. (Like when he
decided to drive out into the slough and bale the cattails) I've done
it myself a couple times, and am destined to do so again I'm sure. I
think those of us who engage in this sport should start taking photos
of our stuck machines, and have an annual contest. (Deepest, most
picturesque, longest left in the ground, most other machines involved
in unsticking it...)