Taking leave, then, of the two friends who had thus far assisted me, I entered the astronaut on the 1st August, about 4.30 P.M. After sealing up the entrance-window, and ascertaining carefully that everything was in order-a task which occupied me about an hour-I set the generator to work; and when I had ascertained that the apergion was full, and that the force was supplied at the required rate, I directed the whole at first into the main conductor.
"Across the Zodiac"
Percy Greg
I had calculated that while directing through the main bar a current of apergy sufficient to keep the astronaut at a fixed elevation, I could easily spare for the eastward conductor sufficient force to create in the space of one hour the impulse required, but that in the course of that hour the gradually increasing apergic force would drive me 500 miles westward.
"Across the Zodiac"
Percy Greg
She was moving, as seen from the astronaut, very slightly to the north, and more decidedly, though very slowly, to the eastward; the one motion due to my deliberately chosen direction in space, the other to the fact that as my orbit enlarged I was falling, though as yet slowly, behind her.
"Across the Zodiac"
Percy Greg