fifty-five
minutes past ten
`` According to your showing , Barbicane , we are already beyond the limits of the terrestrial atmosphere ? '' `` Without a doubt , Michel . Listen to me . It is fifty-five minutes past ten ; we have been gone about eight minutes ; and if our initiatory speed has not been checked by the friction , six seconds would be enough for us to pass through the forty miles of atmosphere which surrounds the globe . '' `` Just so , '' replied Nicholl ; `` but in what proportion do you estimate the diminution of speed by friction ? '' `` In the proportion of one-third , Nicholl . This diminution is considerable , but according to my calculations it is nothing less .