Mr, Fogg had made it for Mudge ’s interest to reach omaha within the time agreed on, by the offer of a handsome reward

麦基很希望能按预定时间到达奥马哈,因为福克先生已经照样许了麦基一大笔奖金。

The snow had hardened, and Mudge was very confident of being able to transport Mr, Fogg in a few hours to omaha

现在风很好,西风刮得正紧,地上的雪已经结冰,只要几个钟头,麦基准能把福克送到奥马哈车站。

About noon Mudge perceived by certain landmarks that he was crossing the Platte River

中午十二时,麦基从一些地方认出了他们正在穿过结冰的普拉特河。

||1: Now he had to improve on the lever escapement, which had been invented in 1754 by the English horologist Thomas Mudge and used in most watches since. ||2: It worked by friction, as the teeth of the gears slid over the pallet; but this arrangement needed lubrication, and as the oil degraded the watch lost time. ||3: Mr Daniels became obsessed with the tick, tock of clocks (a sound that filled his various homes, together with silvery chimes), and how to get an impulse on both the tick and the tock that would not be affected by humidity, temperature, oil sludge or agitation. ||4: His solution, invented in 1976, was the co-axial escapement, an arrangement in which two wheels, placed one above the other, transmitted to the pallet a radial impulse that needed no lubrication and so (if wound) would never stop.

||1: 接着他要完善的是叉瓦式擒纵机构。叉瓦式擒纵机构1754年由英国制表师Thomas Mudge发明，从那以后就广泛运用于大部分表中。 ||2:它的表面指针由齿轮在托盘上滑动产生的摩擦带动。但是这一工作原理要求内部零件保持润滑，否则随着润滑度的磨损，报时会逐渐丧失准确性。||3:随着研究的深入，丹尼尔斯越来越对钟表发出的滴答声着迷，这声音和银铃般的报时钟声，在他的每一处宅邸里荡漾。他还痴迷于解决如何使表获得传动又不受湿度、温度、润滑度和震动影响的问题。||4:该问题的解决方案于1976年诞生，这便是同轴式擒纵机构。这一装置由叠置于托盘上的两个齿轮组成，两个齿轮会向托盘传递放射状的传动力而不需要任何的润滑，因此永远不会停止（如果“永远”可以实现的话）。

||1:That achievement earned him many honours for services to horology, but it was only the beginning of a long slog to get his idea accepted.||2:The world of clocks and watches was a closed one.||3:He knew it himself, because his boyhood watch studies from library books were a private realm only he could understand, and the 18th-century English masters—Mudge , Arnold, Earnshaw—the only real friends he had.||4:Watchmakers kept the secrets they learned in their lonely working hours.||5:Even later, when he had put himself in the millionaires’ bracket and had to move to the Isle of Man for tax reasons, his friends were in the motoring clubs where he shared his other passion, for vintage Bentleys and racing cars.||6:He had no watchmaker friends at all.

||1:这一成就作为他对钟表业的杰出贡献，为他赢得了诸多荣誉。但这只是他为普及自己的技术使用而踏上的荆棘之路的起点。||2:钟表业界是一个封闭的世界。||3:他通过自己的经历得出这一点，因为他童年时从图书馆的书籍上获得的钟表知识构成了一个只有他自己才能涉足的私人领域，而18世纪英国的制表大师Mudge, Arnold和Earnshaw是他仅有的真正的朋友。||4:制表师们都各自保留着他们在孤独工作时知悉的钟表的秘密。||5:即使后来，丹尼尔斯进入百万富翁的行列，为了避重税不得不搬到马恩岛（Isle of Man），他的朋友也仅限于摩托俱乐部内，这里有他能找到对老式宾利车和赛车的共同爱好者。||6:他的朋友里没有一个是制表师。