It
could hardly be doubted that powerful rockets, fastened on the outside
to the bottom of the Projectile, could, when discharged, considerably
retard the velocity of the fall by their sturdy recoil. They could burn
in a vacuum by means of oxygen furnished by themselves, as powder burns
in the chamber of a gun, or as the volcanoes of the Moon continue their
action regardless of the absence of a lunar atmosphere.
Barbican had therefore provided himself with rockets enclosed in strong
steel gun barrels, grooved on the outside so that they could be screwed
into corresponding holes already made with much care in the bottom of
the Projectile. They were just long enough, when flush with the floor
inside, to project outside by about six inches. They were twenty in
number, and formed two concentric circles around the dead light. Small
holes in the disc gave admission to the wires by which each of the
rockets was to be discharged externally by electricity. The whole effect
was therefore to be confined to the outside. The mixtures having been
already carefully deposited in each barrel, nothing further need be done
than to take away the metallic plugs which had been screwed into the
bottom of the Projectile, and replace them by the rockets, every one of
which was found to fit its grooved chamber with rigid exactness.
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