six o'clock A.M.
`` Since I am not to go , '' said the brave artillerist , `` I may at least live for a week in the projectile . '' It would have been hard to refuse him ; so they consented to his wish . A sufficient quantity of chlorate of potassium and of caustic potash was placed at his disposal , together with provisions for eight days . And having shaken hands with his friends , on the 12th of November , at six o'clock A.M. , after strictly informing them not to open his prison before the 20th , at six o'clock P.M. , he slid down the projectile , the plate of which was at once hermetically sealed . What did he do with himself during that week ? They could get no information . The thickness of the walls of the projectile prevented any sound reaching from the inside to the outside .