Thus, then, the preparations for the experiment and the precise details of its execution constituted the real source of interest.
In the meantime the purely scientific attraction of the enterprise was all at once heightened by an incident.
It is known what numerous legions of admirers and friends the Barbicane project had called round its author.

But, notwithstanding the number and importance of the majority, it was not destined to be unanimous.

One man, one out of all the United States, protested against the Gun Club.
He attacked it violently on every occasion, and--for human nature is thus constituted--Barbicane was more sensitive to this one man's opposition than to the applause of all the others.
Nevertheless he well knew the motive of this antipathy, from whence came this solitary enmity, why it was personal and of ancient date; lastly, in what rivalry it had taken root.
The president of the Gun Club had never seen this persevering enemy.
Happily, for the meeting of the two men would certainly have had disastrous consequences.

This rival was a _savant_ like Barbicane, a proud, enterprising, determined, and violent character, a pure Yankee.
His name was Captain Nicholl.

He lived in Philadelphia.
No one is ignorant of the curious struggle which went on during the Federal war between the projectile and ironclad vessels, the former destined to pierce the latter, the latter determined not to be pierced.
Thence came a radical transformation in the navies of the two continents.