twenty minutes past ten
Nicholl 's chronometer marked twenty minutes past ten P.M. when the three travelers were finally enclosed in their projectile . This chronometer was set within the tenth of a second by that of Murchison the engineer . Barbicane consulted it . `` My friends , '' said he , `` it is twenty minutes past ten . At forty - seven minutes past ten Murchison will launch the electric spark on the wire which communicates with the charge of the Columbiad . At that precise moment we shall leave our spheroid . Thus we still have twenty-seven minutes to remain on the earth . ''