Steklyashkin about whether there is life on the Moon or not.
During this dispute, the weightlessness device designed by Znayka (from a slide rule, a moon rock and a magnet) unexpectedly fails to function. Znayka becomes just a laughing stock in the presence of Steklyashkin and everyone else. In despair, he was ready to abandon his idea and quit doing science altogether.
But in the evening of the same day, when the full moon came, Znayka realized that the moonstone was effective only during this period. Having thrown away the zero-gravity device, he causes weightlessness again and therefore decides to rush with his idea. Together with Vintik and Shpuntik they build a rocket.
At the same time, Dunno, not knowing that the weightlessness device has started working again, steals it to test it on fish. As a result, he almost drowns the device in the river. For this, Znayka removes him from the flight to the moon, and then Dunno decides to hide in a rocket at night in order to fly secretly. Together with him, he takes Donut, who was not taken to the Moon because he is very heavy and allegedly cannot be lifted by a rocket. In the rocket they climb into bags of seeds (Dunno - into pumpkin ones, Donut - into watermelon ones) and plan to sleep until the morning.
When Dunno falls asleep, Donut, having changed his mind about flying, tries to get out of the rocket, but before exiting, frightened by a toad outside the rocket (she was also frightened to such an extent that she fell down), out of fear she falls into the rocket control cabin and accidentally launches it. As a result, he and Dunno fly to the moon, and none of the residents of Flower City notices this.
Waking up in space, Dunno first discovers that there is no one in the rocket except them. Then he encounters the Znayka-1 on-board computer and argues with it about who is in charge of the rocket. This leads to the fact that the computer ceases to control the flight, and the rocket that has already approached the Moon begins to fall on it. In fact, nothing terrible would have happened, since the rocket was controlled automatically.
After this, Donut admits to Dunno that he accidentally launched the rocket. At the last moment, Dunno manages to make peace with the computer, and the rocket lands on the moon. Dunno and Donut exit the rocket, and Dunno falls into the crater, which actually turns out to be a through passage through the outer surface of the Moon to the inner core. It is inhabited by the same short people as Dunno, there are monetary relations between them, and the plants correspond to the growth of the short people themselves.
After dinner at the restaurant, the waiter asks Dunno to pay the bill. However, he reports that he does not know what money is, as a result of which he ends up in prison. There he tells his fellow inmates about giant earth plants and their seeds brought to the moon in a rocket. This story attracts the attention of one of the prisoners, Migi. He gives Dunno a letter and asks, after his release, to give it to the arms dealer Julio, Miga’s friend.
After leaving prison, Dunno meets with Zvezdochka again. It turns out that she was fired for publishing an article about how the chemical plants of the local oligarch Spruts were polluting the air. Dunno and Zvezdochka go to Julio, who takes Miga from prison after paying a bribe for him. They decide to create the Giant Plants Joint Stock Company in order to, through the sale of its shares, get money to build an aircraft and take the seeds of giant plants from the surface of the Moon.
Then Miga and Julio organize a publicity campaign for the society on television. This society is of interest to the lunar rich (especially Mr. Spruts), most of whom are engaged in the production of artificial food products. They are afraid of competition from giant plants and are trying to prevent the delivery of seeds from the surface of the Moon. Sprouts' CEO, Krabs, bribes Miga and Julio with half a million ferthings to shut down the Giant Plant Society and disappear with the money.
Meanwhile, Donut leaves the rocket, where he had previously eaten all the food supplies, and also falls into the inner core of the Moon. He finds out that local residents do not eat table salt, and organizes a business for the extraction and sale of salt. As a result, Donut becomes a millionaire, and everyone calls him Mr. Ponch.
The discovery of a space suit that belonged to Donut makes Sprouts think about a massive alien invasion. To prevent this, Sprouts and other rich people collect three billion ferthings to destroy a rocket with seeds located on the surface of the Moon. At the same time, the owner of the tobacco factory, Scooperfield, refuses to participate in collecting money, and Sprouts instructs Krabs to deal with him.
At this time, Dunno and Zvezdochka are trying to find Miga and Julio, but they fail, and they are forced to spend the night on the street, under the bridge. Because of Dunno, who promised Kozlik to look after the fire (“I don’t sleep at all!”) and did not live up to his trust, the fire went out, and Zvezdochka caught a cold. She is in mortal danger. To call a doctor for Zvezdochka, Dunno tries to earn money, but he is driven away from everywhere. Finally, having found a job as a nanny for Roald and Mimi, Mrs. Lamprey’s crocodiles, he walks them in the park, and then performs on stage with the song “There Was a Grasshopper Sitting in the Grass.” For this, Dunno receives money from the audience and pays for the services of Dr. Syringe to treat Zvezdochka.
But immediately after this, due to Lamprey’s complaint (at the time he was hired, she categorically forbade him to mix with the homeless), Dunno and Zvezdochka are caught by the police, led by Inspector Meagle, and sent to the Island of Fools, where everyone is having fun. There, Star learns from her former boss, editor Grizzly, also exiled to the island (he tried to catch Star, but was captured by the police on suspicion of trying to rob Klops) that under the sea there is a special system (powered by attractions) that absorbs joy everyone who lives on this island. This joy serves as energy for Spruts' factories, and under the influence of the air polluted by the factories, the short ones turn into sheep and rams.
At this time, on Earth, Steklyashkin, through a telescope, discovers Znayka’s missing rocket on the Moon. Realizing that Dunno and Donut are there, Znayka and other shorties from Earth build a second rocket with more powerful engines (since they did not have moonstone to make a spare weightlessness device) and go to the Moon to save Dunno and Donut. Having reached its surface and transferred to the compact first rocket, they go inside the Moon, where, with the help of a zero-gravity device, they defeat the police sent to counter the predicted alien invasion.
Donut notices the rocket and comes to the astronauts himself. Together they fly after Dunno and Zvezdochka to the Island of Fools, where Dunno has almost turned into a ram, and evacuate all its inhabitants from the island, teleporting all the attractions. As a result, this contributes to the cessation of energy production for the Spruts factories connected to the island into a single network. They stop and stop smoking, the power grid is destroyed, and the Island of Fools goes under water. Having learned about this from the news on TV, Sprouts, in a rage, organizes a pogrom in his house.
Short earthlings distribute seeds of giant plants to the inhabitants of the Moon and return to Earth. Coming out of the rocket, Dunno rejoices at seeing the sun after a long time, after which he says that now they “can go on a trip somewhere again.” Chamomile points out to Dunno his flighty incorrigibility, to which he, climbing a sunflower, replies that if he is correctable, then they will all simply be bored with life.
Presentation version
There is a presentation version of the cartoon lasting one and a half hours, released on video cassettes in 1999, which uses fragments that were not included in the final version during editing. This version takes place after the trip to the Moon. Standing at the lectern in the hall where Znayka’s argument with Steklyashkin unfolded, Dunno retells to the viewer his version of the journey.
The plot of this version is very different from the main one, since first of all the creators tried to explain the unusual properties of the moonstone, which is actually a meteorite. Such stones were traditionally used by the lunar rich as a source of energy. One of these stones fell to Earth instead of the Moon and was used to obtain artificial weightlessness. Due to a shortage of stone, the Moon is facing an energy crisis.
Every day, Spruts monitors the stability of the power plant located under the Island of Fools. This is where such stones are used. Sprouts and Krabs are busy searching for Dunno. Krabs, wearing a special suit made in the shape of a cockchafer and allowing him to fly and be in space, tracked down the protagonist - he even visited Earth and encountered Dunno just at the moment when the latter found the stone.
Throughout the entire story, the lunar rich are trying to take away a valuable mineral from Dunno, and send him to the Island of Fools. The island does not have any of the attractions that were in the original version of the film. The presentation version has many inconsistencies and plot holes. In the opening credits the version itself is called a presentation version, and in the closing credits it is called a film version: most likely, there was an attempt by FAF Entertainment to re-edit all 12 episodes into a full-length cartoon that could be released in cinemas.
Characters
Main characters
- Dunno- the main character of the film. Sneaked into the rocket at night to fly with the others to the moon. Favorite phrases: “I am not responsible for myself!” and “I know you!”
- Znayka- a short scientist who discovered the moon rock, designed a weightlessness device and supervised the preparation of the lunar expedition. When Steklyashkin saw that the rocket was on the Moon and told the others about it, Znayka refused to participate, believing that Dunno and Ponchik themselves were to blame. Later, he apologizes to everyone and, together with Steklyashkin, leads the construction of a new rocket. In the 11th episode, together with Vintik, Shpuntik, Doctor Pilyulkin and Donchik, they went to the Island of Fools to save Dunno and Zvezdochka, and in the next episode they already found them. Favorite phrase: “So, so!”
- Star- Dunno’s friend and former journalist for Lunar Newspaper. In episode 5, she wrote an article in the newspaper about how Spruts chemical plants were causing damage, for which she was fired. After this, Zvezdochka protests and demands that the factories be closed. Fills the same role that a short man named Kozlik played in the book. In episode 12, it turned out that Zvezdochka fell in love with Dunno.
- Donut- Dunno's best friend, known for his insatiable appetite, who ends up on the Moon with Dunno. When they penetrated the rocket in episode 3, he changed his mind about flying and accidentally launched the rocket. After Dunno found himself in the Sublunary World, Donut returned to the rocket, where he ate a year's supply of food. In episode 8, it turns out that it took him (that is, Donut) 7 days, 11 hours, 38 minutes and 6 seconds. As a result, he exits the rocket and falls into the same crater as Dunno. In the Sublunary World, Donut organizes his business of extracting and selling salt, but completely forgets about searching for Dunno, although he only says that he will look for him. When in the 11th episode Znayka, Vintik, Shpuntik and Doctor Pilyulkin flew on a rocket into the Moon, Donut reunited with them. They all went to the Island of Fools to save Dunno and Zvezdochka, and in the 12th episode they already found them. Favorite phrase: “You can’t break your diet!”
- Pilyulkin- Doctor of the Flower City. He constantly threatens to treat everyone with castor oil and put mustard plasters on (this was not the case in the original book, because his image became more positive there, and in the first two books mustard plasters were not mentioned at all). Together with Znayka, Vintik and Shpuntik, he went inside the Moon on his own initiative. In the 11th episode, they all went to the Island of Fools to save Dunno and Zvezdochka, and in the next episode they already found them.
- cog And Shpuntik- mechanics who built the rocket under the leadership of Znayka. In episode 11, they went with him and Doctor Pilyulkin inside the Moon. When Donut reunited with them, they went to the Island of Fools to save Dunno and Zvezdochka, and in episode 12 they already found them.
- Steklyashkin- astronomer and scientific opponent of Znayka (later his friend and colleague). Claims that there is no life on the moon. In the 10th episode, he saw a rocket on the Moon through a telescope, and in the next episode, Znayka, before flying inside the Moon, leaves him (that is, Steklyashkin) as captain. Favorite phrase: “Yes, yes and yes again!”.
- Chamomile- baby from Flower City. Treats Dunno well and believes that he is telling the truth. She is in love with him, just like Zvezdochka.
- Front sight- Camomile's friend. He doesn’t believe that Dunno really found a stone that broke away from the Moon itself. I am sure that Dunno mixed something up or simply made it up.
- Sprouts- the main antagonist of the film, the richest inhabitant of the Moon, billionaire and chairman of the Big Bradlam (that is, the main syndicate of capitalists). Owner of factories for the production of synthetic food products, as well as “Lunnaya Gazeta” and the “Lun-TV” television channel. Its factories pollute the air. He does everything he can to prevent the spread of information about this. In addition, it is because of him that short people are sent to Fun Island to keep its factories running. As a result, the island went under water, the factories stopped, and this meant that it was ruined.
- Migl- Lunar Police Inspector and secondary antagonist. At the first appearance, he conducts a registration of offenses and a preliminary inquiry. In other episodes, he commands squads of police officers sent to raid and eliminate riots. Has flat humor. Based on biometric data, he mistakenly identified the arrested Dunno as the dangerous criminal Fly Agaric. In episode 5, Migl identified Zvezdochka, but she hit him on the head with a plywood poster mounted on a stick, as a result of which he began to pursue her and Dunno everywhere. In Episode 9, he caught them under a bridge and sent them to Wacky Island. When in the 11th episode Znayka and the others arrived in the Moon City, Inspector Migl and other police officers tried to fire at the rocket. But, being in a state of weightlessness, they flew away in an unknown direction.
- Miga- a petty swindler who met Dunno in prison. Stutters slightly. In episode 5, before Dunno’s release, he gives him a letter for Julio.
- Julio- a small entrepreneur, a friend of Miga and the owner of a store of miscellaneous goods (that is, a weapons store). He likes to use nylon stockings to strangle someone. He came up with the idea of creating a joint stock company of giant plants. As a result, together with Miga, he destroyed the Society of Giant Plants and ran away with the money.
- Krabs- Chief Manager of Spruts. He suffers from a runny nose and periodically sneezes heavily. Has connections in the criminal world and does not hesitate to use criminal methods. In episode 7, he bribed Miga and Julio for half a million ferthings, and in episode 9, he hung Scooperfield from a tree. In the 11th episode, they, together with Fly Agaric, robbed the Lunar Bank, where 3 billion ferthings collected from members of the Big Bredlam were brought to destroy the rocket.
- Grizzle- editor-in-chief of the Lunar Newspaper, the publication of which is financed by Spruts. By order of the latter, he fired Zvezdochka from the editorial office (he did this out of fear of being fired for a mistake). He was later detained by police on suspicion of trying to rob Klops. During the search, a ticket to Stupid Island was found on him, which he was going to give to Zvezdochka. As a result, Grizzle was sent to the aforementioned island. There he told (or rather, sang) to Star what Foolish Island was, and then was evacuated along with everyone else and received the seeds of giant plants.
- Scooperfield- Lunar oligarch and owner of a factory for the production of artificial tobacco, known for his pathological greed. He pretends to be deaf so that they don’t pay attention to him when they say something important, and he can find out everything he needs. Since Scoopfield's factory produces tobacco products, in episode 11 Spruts takes a cigar from a cigarette case, inside of which is a logo in the form of a profile of the owner of the factory, namely Scooperfield.
Minor characters
Flower City
- Grumpy- a grumpy little guy, always dissatisfied with everything. Silent's friend.
- Silent- a short man who is always silent, and Grumpy's constant companion.
- Toropyzhka- resident of Flower City. He is in a hurry all the time and does not sit still.
- Confused- short, prone to losing everything.
- Syrup- a short guy who loves syrup and other tasty drinks.
- Tube- artist. I flew with Znayka to the moon.
- String bag And Neboska- twin brothers. They became famous for the fact that they liked to do everything at random (at random). Favorite words: Avoska’s is “maybe,” and Neboska’s, accordingly, “I suppose.”
- Flower- poet. He composes poems when the heroes were looking for Dunno and Donut, and under the leadership of Steklyashkin they were building a second rocket.
- Ghusla- musician. Appears only at the very beginning of the 1st episode.
- Button
- Flower radio- wired radio of the Flower City. Loudspeakers are hung on street poles.
- Govorilkin and Bell- presenters of Flower Radio. The voices are the same as those of Znayka and the computer “Znayka-1”.
Sublunary world
- Fix- Klops's gardener. I caught Dunno eating a pear. When in the 7th episode Dunno, Zvezdochka, Miga and Julio arrived at night to pick up Dunno’s spacesuit, the last two (that is, Miga and Julio) were dressed as police officers to “arrest” Fix and get him out of the way, since he was guarding the entrance , armed with a gun.
- Klops- the owner of the garden where Dunno ended up. Pride is a very large pear that Dunno ate immediately after landing on the moon in episode 4. There, Klops poisoned Dunno with crocodiles. In episode 7, Dunno, Zvezdochka, Miga and Julio came to him for a spacesuit, but Klops fell into a trap that editor Grizzly had set before to catch Zvezdochka.
- The owner of a fun stall- dresses like a clown and lures passers-by to throw balls at the volunteer. The entertainment consisted of hitting a volunteer in the face with a ball, standing behind a curtain with a slot for the face, making it impossible to dodge. He pays the one who survives all the blows 3 fertingas. Favorite phrase: “ Simple/solved issue: Stop it, don't be angry! If you break your nose, you’ll get a prize!” Dunno meets him for the first time in episode 4 after he escaped from Klops's garden. When Dunno was looking for a job in Episode 9, he decided to become a volunteer. Angry that he was hit, he throws balls at the visitors of the cheerful booth and fights with the owner, destroying the building in the process.
- Waiter- I was serving Dunno when he came to the restaurant. Because he didn't pay for dinner, the waiter called the police. In episode 8, he also serves Donut, and in the next episode, Dunno tries to get a job in a restaurant, but breaks the dishes. Then the waiter kicks him out (perhaps he remembered his previous violation). It is impossible to say for sure whether he is the owner of the restaurant, since no others were seen, nor was the owner of the establishment. However, when Dunno came to hire a waiter, the latter was filling out some forms, so he probably still plays a leadership role.
- fly agaric- the famous bandit and raider with whom Inspector Migl confused Dunno. One-eyed, similar in appearance and hairstyle to Dunno. He hides under the mask of a beggar and feeds on alms. Armed with a machine gun and a blowpipe with nails. He robbed 33 banks, 147 stores and ate dinner 321 times without paying a cent. In the 11th episode, together with Krabs, he robbed a bank that contained 3 billion ferthings, collected by the rich to destroy the rocket. During the chase, he fired back at the police with a machine gun and, having spent all his ammunition, used a blowpipe with a nail, piercing the left front wheel of the police car.
- Handsome- an equally famous thief and fraudster. Fly Agaric's partner in his criminal affairs. He identified Dunno at the trial, but never recognized him as his boss. In the book, it was he who was the bandit for whom Migl mistook Dunno.
- Presenter of the channel "Lun-TV"- reports news on the main channel.
- Wrigl- judge in the Moon City. Wears a robe and cap. In episode 5, in court, Migl is having a conversation with him (that is, Wrigl).
- Organ Grinder- advertises the Island of Fools. Also, in episode 9, he ate a fish sandwich that was eaten by one of Mrs. Lamprey's crocodiles, namely Roald. After this, the organ grinder took part in a performance with Dunno, when he had already found a job, but wanted to raise money for the treatment of Zvezdochka as quickly as possible. In episode 12, I received the seeds of giant plants and watched the launch of a rocket.
- Operator of the Lun-TV channel- said the phrase: “Let the astronaut speak!”
- Doctor Syringe- unlike the book, he is thin and tall. Sometimes he is advertised on TV, and also does not miss the opportunity for self-promotion when Dunno was filmed for the news. In episode 9, he treated Zvezdochka. When in the 12th episode the earthlings distribute seeds to the lunatics, Pilyulkin communicates with him.
- Haps- owner of the hotel where Dunno in a spacesuit was filmed.
- Group "The Moon Brothers"(literally - “Moon Brothers”)- plays in a restaurant when Donut is eating there. After he told two patrons that he was sprinkling salt on his porridge, they asked the group "The Moon Brothers" what it is. One of its participants (double bassist) replies that this is the note.
- Donut Butler- in episode 8 he helps Donut get ready for bed, and in episode 11 he wakes him up.
- Toups, Dubs, Jading And Skryagins- other rich people united in Bredlam.
- Goat- like other homeless people, he lives under a bridge. Scolds Dunno when he didn’t keep an eye on the fire. Later, when Dunno and Zvezdochka are captured by the police and sent to the Island of Fools, Kozlik takes their suitcase. In episode 11, after the arrival of Znayka and the others, he gives them this suitcase (which actually belonged to Miga and Julio and contained at least half a million ferthings). In the next episode, I received the seeds of giant plants and watched the launch of a rocket.
- Lamprey- the owner of crocodiles (in the book, she, like Mr. Klops, is the owner of dogs). Unlike the book, she doesn't like being argued with, even when she isn't. Favorite phrase: “Don’t argue with me!” In episode 12, I received the seeds of giant plants and watched the rocket take off.
- Roald(in the book - Roland) And Mimi- Lady Lamprey’s tame crocodiles, whom Dunno looked after after the death of the Society of Giant Plants. We took part in a performance with Dunno (when he was collecting money for the treatment of Zvezdochka) and an organ grinder.
- Astronomer- at his conference he tells capitalists about the results of their graviton telescope. When in the 12th episode the earthlings distribute seeds to the lunatics, Znayka communicates with him.
- Special correspondent for the Lun-TV channel- reports from the bottom of the sea, watching how the power plant under the Fool's Island is destroyed, after which he involuntarily becomes acquainted with weightlessness, admitting that it is a miracle, and interviews Znayka and Zvezdochka.
On-board computers
- "Znayka-1"- the main general control computer in the rocket on which Dunno and Donut flew to the Moon. It was created by the mind and hands of Znayka. In episode 3, he argued with Dunno about who was more important, and in episode 8 he scolded Donut for eating too much.
- "Znayka-2"- the main general control computer in the new rocket. Criticized Dr. Pilyulkin.
The image of both computers is a loudspeaker flying in a state of weightlessness and demonstrating a semblance of facial expressions.
Creators
The roles were voiced
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Venera Rakhimova | Dunno (all episodes except 10th) |
| Kristina Orbakaite | Zvezdochka (4-9th and 11-12th series) |
| Svetlana Stepchenko | Donut (episodes 1-4, 8 and 11-12) Vintik (episodes 1-2 and 10-12) |
| Klara Rumyanova | Chamomile (episodes 1-3 and 10-12) Lamprey (episode 9) Chamomile (episodes 1-3 and 10-12) |
| Alexander Lenkov | Steklyashkin (2nd and 10-12th series) Haps (Episode 7) |
| Artyom Karapetyan | Spruts (episodes 5, 7-8 and 11-12) |
| Alexander Pozharov | Miga (episodes 4-9) one of the members of the group “The Moon Brothers” (episode 8) Miga (episodes 4-9) |
| Boris Shuvalov | Krabs (episodes 6-9 and 11) operator of the Lun-TV channel (7th episode) |
| Alexander Ryzhkov | Fix (4th and 7th series) 1st Prisoner (Episode 4) |
| Alexey Borzunov | Znayka (episodes 1-3 and 10-12) “Znayka-1” (3-4, 8 and 11 episodes) |
| Irina Byakova | Front sight (1-2 and 10-11 series) |
| Mikhail Kononov | Grizzle (episodes 5-7 and 12) Grizzle (episodes 5-7 and 12) |
| Valery Barinov | Migl (episodes 4-5, 7, 9 and 11) |
| Rudolf Pankov | Julio (episodes 6-9) Julio (episodes 6-9) |
| Yuri Sarantsev | Klops (4th and 7th series) 2nd Prisoner (Episode 4) |
| Yan Yanakiev | waiter (4th and 8-9th episodes) waiter (4th and 8-9th episodes) |
Uncredited
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Svetlana Harlap | Toropyzhka (episodes 2 and 10) Shpuntik (episodes 1-2 and 10-12) |
| Lyudmila Shuvalova | episode episode |
| Ekaterina Korabelnik | episode episode |
| Tatiana Rodionova | episode episode |
| Yuri Yurash | episode episode |
| Irina Gubanova | presenter of the Lun-TV channel (episodes 5, 7 and 12) |
| Igor Klimovich | Handsome (Episode 5) Dubs (Episode 8) Handsome (Episode 5) |
| Valery Tolkov | astronomer (episode 11) astronomer (episode 11) |
| Vyacheslav Baranov | Flower (Episode 10) owner of a cheerful booth (episode 9) |
| Vladimir Mikhitarov | short guy who looks like Donut (episode 5) Dr. Syringe (episodes 7 and 9) short guy who looks like Donut (episode 5) |
| Yuri Menshagin | 2nd restaurant visitor (Episode 8) |
| Alexander Voevodin | Kozlik (episodes 9 and 11) Kozlik (episodes 9 and 11) |
List of episodes
- The Mystery of the Moonstone
- Znayka's grandiose plan
- Dunno and Donut are flying to the moon
- First day on the moon
- Star
- "Dear friends
- Giant Plants Joint Stock Company
- Great Bradlam
- Dunno is looking for a job
- Where did the rocket go?
- Znayka is in a hurry to help
- Way home
Production
When creating, we used classic full animation technology (“The Little Humpbacked Horse” and “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”), which was not used for a long time in the 1990s due to high costs. At the same time, the large two-year gap between parts 1 and 2 was caused by the fact that the cartoon was created using rather outdated technology, when the outlines of the characters were manually transferred to sheets of celluloid, although in the animation of that time this was already done using automatic copying.
Venera Rakhimova voiced Dunno not only in this film, but also in Grigory Gladkov’s radio show “The Adventures of Dunno and His Friends” (1995).
For the period of filming, the FAF Entertainment studio rented premises in the film studio named after M. Gorky and immediately after the animation process was completed, it moved to Tsentrnauchfilm, where the cartoon was edited. Since rent at the Gorky film studio was very expensive, there was no money to transport animation materials, which is why almost all of the original celluloid was thrown away at that time.
Trial
Ultimately, Igor Nosov filed a lawsuit against the companies Egmont Russia LTD (which produced all printed products based on the cartoon) and Vremya AB (which produced children's sandbox molds called Dunno), but at the end of 2003, Per Gynt") - Mikhail Kononov
The opening title sequence, which was used in the VHS version before the start of the last 6 episodes, as well as in the television version of the film, features the melody of Johann Strauss "Perpetuum mobile".
Soundtrack
- Song Solveig (remix)
- Flower City Theme
- Baby Moon
- Weightlessness
- Wonderful Island
- Celebration of Znayka
- Steklyashkin telescope
- Duet of Dunno and Zvezdochka
- Dunno's Mischief
- Dance of the fish
- Donut Song
- Dunno's Dream
- Dunno and Chamomile
- Song about a grasshopper
- Luna City
- Cave of the Mountain King (remix)
- Dunno in prison
- Song of the Brave Rescuers
- Gun shop
- Episode 5 finale
- Grizzly Song
- Episode 7 medley
- Robbery
- Daisy's Song
- The collapse of Spruts
- Episode 9 finale
- Dunno on the Moon
How they made "Dunno on the Moon"
This TV documentary was filmed in 1999. It talks about how the animated series was filmed and how cartoons are made. There are two options: the first - made specifically for television, the second - published on DVD as an appendix to the film.
Chapter first
How Znayka defeated Professor Zvezdochkin
Two and a half years have passed since Dunno traveled to the Sunny City. Although for you and me this is not so much, but for little runts, two and a half years is a very long time. Having listened to the stories of Dunno, Knopochka and Pachkuli Pestrenky, many shorties also made a trip to the Sunny City, and when they returned, they decided to make some improvements at home. Flower City has changed since then so much that it is now unrecognizable. Many new, large and very beautiful houses appeared in it. According to the design of the architect Vertibutylkin, even two revolving buildings were built on Kolokolchikov Street. One is five-story, tower-type, with a spiral descent and a swimming pool around (by going down the spiral descent, one could dive straight into the water), the other is six-story, with swinging balconies, a parachute tower and a ferris wheel on the roof. A lot of cars, spiral vehicles, tube planes, aerohydromotos, tracked all-terrain vehicles and other various vehicles appeared on the streets.And that's not all, of course. Residents of the Sunny City learned that the short guys from the Flower City were engaged in construction, and came to their aid: they helped them build several so-called industrial enterprises. According to the design of the engineer Klyopka, a large clothing factory was built, which produced a wide variety of clothing, from rubber bras to winter fur coats made of synthetic fiber. Now no one had to slog with a needle to sew the most ordinary trousers or jacket. At the factory, everything was done for short machines. Finished products, as in Sunny City, were distributed to stores, and there everyone took what they needed. All the concerns of the factory workers boiled down to coming up with new styles of clothes and making sure that nothing was produced that the public did not like.
Everyone was very pleased. The only one who suffered in this case was Donut. When Donut saw that he could now buy any thing he might need from the store, he began to wonder why he needed all that pile of suits that had accumulated in his home. All these costumes were also out of fashion, and they could not be worn anyway. Choosing a darker night, Donut tied his old suits in a huge knot, secretly took them out of the house and drowned them in the Cucumber River, and instead of them he got himself new suits from the stores. It ended up that his room turned into some kind of warehouse for ready-made clothes. The suits were in his closet, on the closet, on the table, under the table, on bookshelves, hanging on the walls, on the backs of chairs and even under the ceiling, on strings.
Such an abundance of woolen products in the house infested moths, and to prevent them from gnawing the suits, Donut had to poison them daily with mothballs, from which there was such a strong smell in the room that the unusual little man was knocked off his feet. The donut itself smelled of this stupefying smell, but he got so used to it that he even stopped noticing it. For others, however, the smell was very noticeable. As soon as Donut came to visit someone, the owners immediately began to feel dizzy from stupor. The donut was immediately driven away and all the windows and doors were quickly opened wide to ventilate the room, otherwise you could faint or go crazy. For the same reason, Donut didn’t even have the opportunity to play with the shorties in the yard. As soon as he went out into the yard, everyone around them began to spit and, holding their noses with their hands, rushed to run away from him in different directions without looking back. Nobody wanted to hang out with him. Needless to say, this was terribly offensive for Donut, and he had to take all the costumes he didn’t need to the attic.
However, that was not the main thing. The main thing was that Znayka also visited the Sunny City. There he met the little scientists Fuchsia and Herring, who at that time were preparing their second flight to the Moon. Znayka also got involved in the work of building a space rocket and, when the rocket was ready, made an interplanetary journey with Fuchsia and Herring. Having arrived on the Moon, our brave travelers examined one of the small lunar craters in the area of the lunar Sea of Clarity, visited the cave that was located in the center of this crater, and made observations of changes in gravity. On the Moon, as is known, gravity is much less than on Earth, and therefore observations of changes in gravity are of great scientific importance. Having spent about four hours on the moon. Znayka and his companions were forced to quickly set off on the return journey, since their air supplies were running out. Everyone knows that there is no air on the Moon and, in order not to suffocate, you should always take a supply of air with you. In a condensed form, of course.
Returning to Flower City, Znayka talked a lot about his journey. His stories were of great interest to everyone, and especially to the astronomer Steklyashkin, who had observed the Moon more than once through a telescope. Using his telescope, Steklyashkin was able to see that the surface of the Moon was not flat, but mountainous, and many of the mountains on the Moon were not like those on Earth, but for some reason were round, or rather, ring-shaped. Scientists call these ring mountains lunar craters, or circuses. To understand what such a lunar circus, or crater, looks like, imagine a huge circular field, twenty, thirty, fifty, or even a hundred kilometers across, and imagine that this huge circular field is surrounded by an earthen rampart or mountain only two or three kilometers high , - and so you get a lunar circus, or a crater. There are thousands of such craters on the Moon. There are small ones - about two kilometers, but there are also gigantic ones - up to one hundred and forty kilometers in diameter.
Many scientists are interested in the question of how lunar craters were formed and where they came from. In Sunny City, all the astronomers even quarreled among themselves, trying to resolve this complex issue, and were divided into two halves. One half claims that the lunar craters came from volcanoes, the other half says that the lunar craters are traces of the fall of large meteorites. The first half of astronomers are therefore called followers of the volcanic theory or simply volcanists, and the second - followers of the meteorite theory or meteorites.
Znayka, however, did not agree with either the volcanic or meteorite theory. Even before traveling to the Moon, he created his own theory of the origin of lunar craters. Once, together with Steklyashkin, he observed the Moon through a telescope, and it struck him that the lunar surface was very similar to the surface of a well-baked pancake with its spongy holes. After that, Znayka often went to the kitchen and watched the pancakes being baked. He noticed that while the pancake is liquid, its surface is completely smooth, but as it heats up in the frying pan, bubbles of heated steam begin to appear on its surface. Having appeared on the surface of the pancake, the bubbles burst, as a result of which shallow holes are formed on the pancake, which remain when the dough is properly baked and loses its viscosity.
Znayka even wrote a book in which he wrote that the surface of the Moon was not always hard and cold as it is now. Once upon a time, the Moon was a fiery liquid, that is, heated to a molten state, a ball. Gradually, however, the surface of the Moon cooled and became no longer liquid, but viscous, like dough. It was still very hot from the inside, so hot gases burst to the surface in the form of huge bubbles. Having reached the surface of the Moon, these bubbles, of course, burst. But while the surface of the Moon was still quite liquid, the traces of the bursting bubbles were delayed and disappeared, leaving no trace, just as bubbles on water during rain leave no trace. But when the surface of the Moon cooled so much that it became thick like dough or like molten glass, traces of the bursting bubbles no longer disappeared, but remained in the form of rings protruding above the surface. Cooling more and more, these rings finally hardened. At first they were smooth, like frozen circles on the water, and then they gradually collapsed and eventually became like those lunar ring mountains, or craters, that everyone can observe through a telescope.
All astronomers - both volcanists and meteorologists - laughed at this Znayka theory.
Vulcanists said:
– Why was this pancake theory needed, if it is already clear that lunar craters are just volcanoes?
Znayka answered that a volcano is a very large mountain, at the top of which there is a relatively small crater, that is, a hole. If at least one lunar crater were the crater of a volcano, then the volcano itself would be almost the size of the entire Moon, but this is not observed at all.
Meteorites said:
– Of course, lunar craters are not volcanoes, but they are also not pancakes. Everyone knows that these are traces of meteorite impacts.
To this Znayka replied that meteorites could fall on the Moon not only vertically, but also at an angle, and in this case they would leave traces that were not round, but elongated, oblong or oval. Meanwhile, on the Moon, all craters are mostly round, not oval.
However, both volcanists and meteorites were so accustomed to their favorite theories that they did not even want to listen to Znayka and contemptuously called him a pancake maker. They said that it was generally ridiculous to even compare the Moon, which is a large cosmic body, with some unfortunate pancake made from sour dough.
However, Znayka himself abandoned his pancake theory after he personally visited the Moon and saw one of the lunar craters up close. He was able to see that the ring mountain was not a mountain at all, but the remains of a giant brick wall that had collapsed over time. Although the bricks in this wall had weathered and lost their original quadrangular shape, it was still possible to understand that these were bricks and not just pieces of ordinary rock. This was especially clearly visible in those places where the wall had collapsed relatively recently and individual bricks had not yet had time to crumble into dust.
On reflection, Znayka realized that these walls could only have been made by some intelligent creatures, and when he returned from his trip, he published a book in which he wrote that once upon a time intelligent creatures, the so-called lunar shorties, lived on the Moon. sleepwalkers. In those days, there was air on the Moon, as there is now on Earth. Therefore, sleepwalkers lived on the surface of the Moon, just as we all live on the surface of our planet Earth. However, over time, there was less and less air on the Moon, which gradually flew into the surrounding world space. In order not to die without air, the lunatics surrounded their cities with thick brick walls, over which they erected huge glass domes. Air could no longer escape from under these domes, so it was possible to breathe and not be afraid of anything.
But the sleepwalkers knew that this could not continue forever, that over time the air around the Moon would completely dissipate, which is why the surface of the Moon, not protected by a significant layer of air, would be strongly heated by the sun’s rays and it would be impossible to exist on the Moon even under a glass cover. That is why sleepwalkers began to move inside the Moon and now live not on the outer side, but on its inner side, since in fact the Moon is empty inside, like a rubber ball, and you can live just as well on its inner surface as on the outer one .
This book by Znayka caused a lot of noise. All the shorties read it with enthusiasm. Many scientists praised this book for being interestingly written, but still expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that it was not scientifically substantiated. And a full member of the Academy of Astronomical Sciences, Professor Zvezdochkin, who also happened to read Znaykin’s book, was simply seething with indignation and said that this book was not a book at all, but some kind of, as he put it, damn nonsense. This Professor Zvezdochkin was not exactly some very angry person. No, he was a rather kind little fellow, but very, how shall I put it, demanding, irreconcilable. In any case, he valued accuracy and order most of all and could not tolerate any fantasies, that is, inventions.
Professor Zvezdochkin suggested that the Academy of Astronomical Sciences organize a discussion of Znaika’s book and disassemble it, as he put it, piece by piece, so that no one else would be discouraged from writing such books. The Academy agreed and sent an invitation to Znayka. Znayka arrived and the discussion took place. It began, as it should in such cases, with a report that Professor Zvezdochkin himself volunteered to give.
When all the short people invited to the discussion gathered in the spacious hall and sat down on chairs, Professor Zvezdochkin ascended to the podium, and the first thing they heard from him were the words:
– Dear friends, allow the meeting dedicated to the discussion of Znaika’s book to be considered open.
After this, Professor Zvezdochkin cleared his throat loudly, slowly wiped his nose with a handkerchief and began making a report. Having briefly outlined the contents of Znayka’s book and praising it for its lively, vivid presentation, the professor said that, in his opinion, Znayka made a mistake and mistook for bricks what in reality were not bricks, but some kind of layered rock. Well, since there were actually no bricks, the professor said, then there were, therefore, no short sleepwalkers. They could not have existed, because even if they had existed, they would not have been able to live on the inner surface of the Moon, since everyone has long known that all objects on the Moon, just like here on Earth, are attracted to the center of the planet, and if the Moon were actually empty inside, no one would still be able to stay on its inner surface: he would immediately be drawn to the center of the Moon, and he would dangle helplessly there in the void until he died of starvation.
After listening to all this, Znayka rose from his seat and said mockingly:
“You talk as if you’ve ever been in the center of the moon before!”
- Did you seem to be hanging out? – the professor snapped.
“I didn’t hang out,” Znayka objected, “but I flew in a rocket and observed objects in a state of weightlessness.”
– What else does the state of weightlessness have to do with it? - the professor muttered.
“Here’s what it has to do with it,” said Znayka. – Let it be known that during the flight in the rocket I had a bottle of water. When the state of weightlessness set in, the bottle floated freely in space, like every object that was not attached to the walls of the cabin. Everything was fine as long as the water completely filled the bottle. But when I drank half the water, strange things began to happen: the remaining water did not stay at the bottom of the bottle and did not collect in the center, but spread evenly along the walls, so that an air bubble formed inside the bottle. This means that the water was attracted not to the center of the bottle, but to its walls. This is understandable, since only masses of matter can attract each other, and emptiness cannot attract anything to itself.
- I hit the sky with my finger! – Zvezdochkin grumbled angrily. – Compared the bottle to the planet! Do you think this is scientific?
- Why not scientifically? – Znayka answered authoritatively. – When a bottle moves freely in interplanetary space, it is in a state of weightlessness and is in every way like a planet. Inside it, everything will happen in the same way as inside the planet, that is, inside the Moon, if, of course, the Moon is empty from the inside.
- Exactly! – Zvezdochkin picked up. - Just please explain to us why you got it into your head that the Moon is empty inside?
The listeners who came to listen to the report laughed, but Znayka was not embarrassed by this and said:
“You could easily get this into your head if you thought about it a little.” After all, if the Moon was at first fiery-liquid, then it began to cool not from the inside, but from the surface, since it is the surface of the Moon that comes into contact with the cold cosmic space. Thus, the surface of the Moon cooled and hardened first, as a result of which the Moon began to look like a huge spherical vessel, inside of which there continued to be - what?..
- Molten substance that has not yet cooled down! - one of the listeners shouted.
- Right! – Znayka picked up. – A molten substance that has not yet cooled down, that is, simply put, a liquid.
“You see, you say it yourself – liquid,” Zvezdochkin grinned. Where did the emptiness come from in the Moon if there was liquid there, you crazy thing?
“Well, it’s not at all difficult to guess,” Znayka answered calmly. – After all, the hot liquid, surrounded by the solid shell of the Moon, continued to cool, and as it cooled, it decreased in volume. You probably know that every substance, as it cools, decreases in volume?
“I suppose I know,” the professor muttered angrily.
“Then everything should be clear to you,” Znayka said joyfully. If the liquid substance decreased in volume, then inside the Moon an empty space would naturally form, like an air bubble in a bottle. This empty space became larger and larger, located in the central part of the Moon, since the remaining liquid mass was attracted to the solid shell of the Moon, just as the remaining water was attracted to the walls of a bottle when it was in a state of weightlessness. Over time, the liquid inside the Moon completely cooled and hardened, as if sticking to the solid walls of the planet, due to which an internal cavity formed in the Moon, which could gradually be filled with air or some other gas.
- Right! - someone shouted.
And now shouts were heard from all sides:
- Right! Right! Well done, Znayka! Hooray!
Everyone clapped their hands. Someone shouted:
- Down with Zvezdochkin! 
Now two short men grabbed Zvezdochkin - one by the collar, the other by the legs - and dragged him off the podium. Several short men picked Znayka up in their arms and dragged her to the podium.
- Let Znayka make a report! - they shouted around. - Down with Zvezdochkin!
- Dear friends! - said Znayka, finding himself on the podium. – I can’t give a report. I wasn't prepared.
– Tell us about the flight to the moon! - the short ones shouted.
– About the state of weightlessness! - someone shouted.
– About the Moon?.. About the state of weightlessness? – Znayka repeated in confusion. - Well, okay, let it be about the state of weightlessness. You probably know that a space rocket, in order to overcome the gravity of the Earth, must acquire a very high speed - eleven kilometers per second. While the rocket is gaining this speed, your body is experiencing large overloads. The weight of your body seems to increase several times, and you are forcefully pressed to the floor of the cabin. You cannot raise your arm, you cannot lift your leg, it seems to you that your whole body is filled with lead. It seems to you as if some terrible weight has fallen on your chest and is not allowing you to breathe. But as soon as the acceleration of the spacecraft stops and it begins its free flight in interplanetary space, the overload ends, and you stop experiencing gravity, that is, simply put, you lose weight.
– Tell me how you felt? What did you experience? - someone shouted.
– My first feeling when losing weight was as if the seat had been quietly removed from under me and I had nothing to sit on. It felt like I had lost something, but I couldn’t figure out what. I felt slightly dizzy, and it began to seem as if someone had deliberately turned me upside down. At the same time, I felt that everything inside me froze, grew cold, as if I were frightened, although there was no fright itself. After waiting a little and making sure that nothing bad had happened to me, that I was breathing as usual, and seeing everything around me, and thinking normally, I stopped paying attention to the freezing in my chest and abdomen, and this unpleasant feeling went away by itself. When I looked around and saw that all the objects in the cabin were in place, that the seat, as before, was under me, it no longer seemed to me that I was upside down, and the dizziness also went away...
- Tell me! Tell us more! - the short ones screamed in unison when they saw that Znayka had stopped.
Some even pounded their feet on the floor out of impatience.
“Well, then,” Znayka continued. – Having made sure that everything was in order, I wanted to lean my feet on the floor, but I did it so abruptly that I jumped up and hit my head on the ceiling of the cabin. I didn’t take into account, you see, that my body had lost weight and that now only a small effort was enough to jump to a terrible height. Since my body weighed nothing at all, I could hang freely in the middle of the cabin in any position without going down or going up, but for this I had to be careful and not make sudden movements. Objects that we had not secured before leaving for the flight also floated freely around me. Water did not pour out of the bottle even if the bottle was turned upside down, but if it was possible to shake the water out of the bottle, it collected into balls, which also floated freely in space until they were attracted to the walls of the cabin.
“Tell me, please,” asked one short man, “did you have water in the bottle or maybe some other drink?”
“The bottle contained plain water,” Znayka answered briefly. – What other drink could there be?
“Well, I don’t know,” the short man threw up his hands. “I thought it was citro or maybe kerosene.”
Everyone laughed. And another short one asked:
-Did you bring anything from the Moon?
– I brought a piece of the Moon itself.
Znayka took out a small bluish-gray pebble from his pocket and said:
– There are many different stones lying on the surface of the Moon, and very beautiful ones at that, but I did not want to take them, since they could turn out to be meteorites accidentally brought to the Moon from outer space. And I knocked this stone off the rock with a hammer when we descended into the lunar cave. Therefore, you can be quite sure that this stone is a piece of the real Moon.
A piece of the Moon passed through the hands. Everyone wanted to take a closer look at him. While the short ones looked at the stone, passing it from hand to hand. Znayka told how he, Fuchsia and Herring traveled on the Moon and what they saw there. Everyone really liked Znaykin’s story. Everyone was very pleased. Only Professor Zvezdochkin was not very pleased. As soon as Znayka finished his story and left the podium, Professor Zvezdochkin jumped onto the podium and said:
– Dear friends, we were all very interested in hearing about the Moon and everything else, and on behalf of all those present I offer my heartfelt gratitude to the famous Znayka for his interesting and informative speech. However... - said Zvezdochkin and raised his index finger upward with a stern look.
- Down! - one of the short guys shouted.
“However...” Professor Zvezdochkin repeated, raising his voice. “However, we have gathered here not at all to listen about the Moon, but to discuss Znaika’s book, and since we didn’t discuss the book, it means we didn’t accomplish what was planned, and since we didn’t accomplish what was planned, then it will still be necessary to carry it out, and if it is still necessary to carry it out, then it will still have to be carried out and subjected to consideration...
No one ever found out what Zvezdochkin wanted to examine. The noise was so loud that nothing could be understood. Only one word was heard from everywhere:
- Down! Two short men rushed to the podium again, one grabbed Zvezdochkin by the collar, the other by the legs, and dragged him straight out into the street. There they sat him down on the grass in the park and said:
- When you fly to the moon, you will speak on the podium, but for now, sit here on the grass. Zvezdochkin was so stunned by such unceremonious treatment that he could not utter a word. Then he gradually came to his senses and shouted:
- This mess! I will complain! I'll write to the newspaper! You will also recognize Professor Zvezdochkin! He shouted for a long time, waving his fists, but when he saw that all the short ones had gone home, he said:
– At this point I declare the meeting closed. After which he got up and also went home.
Chapter two
The Mystery of the Moonstone
The next day, a report appeared in the newspapers about the discussion of Znaika’s book. All residents of Sunny City have read this report. Everyone was interested in finding out whether the Moon is actually empty inside and whether it is true that short people live inside the Moon. The report outlined in detail everything that was said during the discussion, and even what was not said at all. In addition to the report, the newspapers published many feuilletons, that is, humorous articles that told about various funny adventures of the lunar shorties. All the pages of the newspapers were full of funny pictures. These pictures depicted the Moon, inside which short people walked upside down and clung to various objects with their hands so as not to be pulled to the center of the planet. One of the drawings depicted a short man, whose shoes and trousers were pulled off by the force of gravity, while the short man himself, left in only a shirt and hat, held tightly to a tree with his hands. Everyone's attention was attracted by a cartoon depicting Znayka, dangling helplessly in the center of the Moon. Znayka had such a confused expression on his face that no one could look at him without laughing.All this was published, of course, only for the amusement of the public, but one of the newspapers published a completely serious and scientifically substantiated article by Professor Zvezdochkin, who admitted that he was wrong in the dispute with Znayka, and asked for an apology for the harsh expressions he had made. In his article, Professor Zvezdochkin wrote that the presence of empty space inside the Moon does not contradict the laws of physics and may well occur, so Znayka is not as far from the truth as it might seem at first. At the same time, it is difficult to assume, the professor wrote, that this empty space is located in the center of the Moon, since the central part of the Moon is filled with solid matter, which was formed even before the lunar surface cooled and hardened, and therefore, before the beginning of empty space will form. The fact is that both now and in ancient times, the inner layers of the Moon experienced enormous pressure from the outer layers, which weigh many thousands and even millions of tons. As a result of such monstrous pressure, the substance inside the Moon could not, according to the laws of physics, be in a liquid state, but was in a solid form. This means that when the Moon was still fiery liquid, there was already a solid central core inside it, and when the internal cavity of the Moon began to form, it began to form not in the center, but around this central solid core, more precisely, between this central the core and relatively recently solidified surface of the Moon. Thus. The moon is not a hollow ball, like a rubber ball, as Znayka suggested, but a ball inside of which there is another ball, surrounded by a layer of air or some other gas. As for the presence of short people or some other living creatures on the Moon, this already belongs to the realm of pure fantasy, wrote Professor Zvezdochkin. There is no scientific evidence of the existence of shorties on the Moon. If what Znayka discovered on the lunar surface was in fact a brick wall made once by intelligent beings, then there is no evidence that these intelligent beings survived to the present time and chose the inner cavity of the Moon as their location. Science needs reliable facts, wrote Professor Zvezdochkin, and no idle fiction can replace them for us. As Znayka read Professor Zvezdochkin’s article, he was overcome by some acute feeling of shame, mixed with grief. What the professor wrote about the presence of a solid core inside the Moon was irrefutable. Everyone who is familiar with the basics of physics had to agree with this, and Znayka was perfectly familiar with the basics of physics.
- How did I not take into account such a simple thing? – Znayka was perplexed and was ready to tear his hair out of frustration. - Well, of course, there was a solid core inside the Moon, which means that empty space could only form around this core, and not in the center. Oh, I'm an ass! Oh I'm a horse! Oh, I'm an orangutan! You had to be so embarrassed! How could one not think of such nonsense! It's a shame! Having read the article to the end, Znayka began to walk from corner to corner around the room and constantly shook his head, as if he wanted to shake unpleasant thoughts out of it.
- “Idle fiction”! – he muttered with annoyance, remembering Professor Zvezdochkin’s article. - Now try to prove that there are no inventions here, if you didn’t even realize that there was a solid substance in the center of the Moon!.. Oh, shame!.. Tired of running around the room, Znayka quacked with chagrin, sat down with a flourish on a chair and went stunned looked at one point, then jumped up as if stung and began to rush around the room again.
- No, I will prove that these are not idle fictions! - he shouted. - There are shorties on the moon. It can't be that they didn't exist. Science is not just bare facts. Science is fiction... that is... ugh! What am I saying?.. Science is not science fiction, but science cannot exist without fiction. Fantasy helps us think. Bare facts alone don't mean anything. All facts must be comprehended! - Having said this, Znayka hit the table with his fist. - I'll prove! - he shouted. Then his gaze fell on a cartoon in the newspaper, where he was depicted in the center of the Moon with such an idiotic expression on his face that it was impossible to look calmly.
- Here you go! - he grumbled. - Try to prove it when there’s such a face here!
On the same day, Znayka left Sunny City. All the way he kept repeating to himself:
“I will never do science again.” Even if they start cutting me into pieces. No no! And there’s nothing to think about!
But, returning to the Flower City, Znayka gradually calmed down and began to dream again about scientific activity and new travels:
“It would be nice to build a large interplanetary ship, take a significant supply of food and air and organize a long expedition to the Moon. We must assume that in the outer shell of the Moon there are holes in the form of caves or craters of extinct volcanoes. Through these holes it will be possible to penetrate inside the Moon and see its central core. If this core exists, and it undoubtedly does, then the lunar shorts live on its surface. There is probably a sufficient amount of air preserved between the outer shell and the central core of the Moon, so living conditions on the surface of the core should be quite favorable for short people.”
This is how Znayka dreamed, and he was about to start preparing for a new trip to the Moon, but suddenly he remembered everything that happened and said:
- No! You have to be firm! Since I decided not to do science, it means I have to do it. Let someone else fly to the Moon, let someone else find shorties on the Moon, and then everyone will say: “Znayka was right. He is a very smart little guy and foresaw something that no one had foreseen before him. And we were wrong! We didn't believe him. We laughed at him. They wrote all sorts of mocking articles about him and drew cartoons.” And then everyone will feel ashamed. And Professor Zvezdochkin will be ashamed. And then everyone will come to me and say: “Forgive us, dear Znaechka! We were wrong." And I will say: “Nothing, brothers, I’m not angry. I forgive you. Although I was very offended when everyone laughed at me, I am not vindictive. I'm good! After all, what is most important to Znayka? For Znayka, the most important thing is the truth. And if the truth has triumphed, then everything is in order, and no one should be angry with anyone.”
This is how Znayka reasoned. Having thought it over thoroughly, he decided to forget about the Moon and never think about it again. This decision turned out to be not so easy for Znayka. The fact is that he still had a piece of the Moon, that is, the moonstone that he knocked off the rock with a hammer when he descended with Fuchsia and Herring into the lunar cave. This moonstone, or lunite, as Znayka called it, lay in his room on the windowsill and constantly caught his eye. Looking at the moon, Znayka immediately remembered the Moon and everything that happened, and again became upset.
One day, waking up at night, Znayka looked at the lunite, and it seemed to him that the stone in the darkness was glowing with some soft bluish light. Surprised by this unusual phenomenon, Znayka got out of bed and went to the window to examine the moonstone up close. Then he noticed that there was a full, bright moon in the sky. The rays from the moon fell directly into the window and illuminated the stone so that it seemed as if it was glowing by itself. After admiring this beautiful sight, Znayka calmed down and went to bed.
Another time (it happened in the evening) Znayka sat for a long time reading a book, and when he finally decided to go to bed, it was already late at night. Having undressed and turned off the electricity, Znayka climbed into bed. By chance his gaze fell on Lunit. And again it seemed to Znayka that the stone was glowing by itself, and this time even somehow especially brightly. Knowing that all this was just the effect of moonlight, Znayka did not pay attention to the stone and was about to fall asleep, when he suddenly remembered that there was a new moon that night, that is, simply put, there could not be any moon in the sky. Getting out of bed and looking out the window, Znayka became convinced that the night was indeed dark and moonless. In the coal-black sky, only stars sparkled, but there was no moon. Despite this, the moonstone lying on the windowsill glowed so that it was not only visible, but also illuminated part of the window sill around it.
Znayka took the lunite in his hand, and his hand was illuminated with a weak, flickering light, as if pouring from a stone. The more Znayka looked at the stone, the brighter it seemed to him to glow. And it already seemed to Znayka that the room was not as dark as it was at the beginning. And he could already see in the darkness a table, and chairs, and a bookshelf. Znayka took a book from the shelf, opened it and put a moonstone on it. The stone illuminated the page so that individual letters and words could be read around it.
Znayka realized that the moonstone gave off some kind of radiant energy. He immediately wanted to run to tell the little ones about his discovery, but he remembered that they had all been asleep for a long time, and did not want to wake them up.
The next day Znayka said to the short ones:
- Come to me this evening, brothers. I'll show you a very interesting thing.
- What kind of thing? – everyone became interested.
- Come and see.
Everyone, of course, was very interested to find out what kind of thing Znayka would show. Toropyzhka was so nervous from impatience that he couldn’t even eat anything at lunch. Finally, he could not stand it, went to Znayka and pestered him with such force that Znayka was forced to reveal his secret. Thus, the short ones knew everything in advance, but this only increased their curiosity. Everyone wanted to see with their own eyes how the stone glows in the dark.
As soon as the sun disappeared behind the horizon, everyone was already in Znayka’s room.
“You came early,” Znayka said to the short ones. – The stone cannot glow now, because it is still too light. It will glow when it is completely dark.
“Nothing, we’ll wait,” answered Syrup. - We have nowhere to rush.
“Well, wait,” Znayka agreed. – In the meantime, so that you don’t get bored, I’ll tell you about this interesting phenomenon. 
He placed a moonstone on the table in front of the short people seated around him and began to talk about how there are substances in nature that acquire the ability to glow in the dark after being exposed to rays of light. This glow is called luminescence. Some substances acquire the ability to emit visible rays of light even when exposed to invisible ultraviolet, infrared or cosmic rays.
“We can assume that the moonstone is made of such a substance,” said Znayka.
To keep the shorties busy with something else. Znayka explained to them his theory that the Moon is such a big ball, inside of which there is another ball, and on this inner ball live lunar shorties, or sleepwalkers.
While Znayka was telling his friends all this useful information, darkness gradually thickened in the room. The short ones stared with all their might at the moonstone that lay in front of them, but did not notice any glow. Toropyzhka, who was the most disorganized, kept twitching with impatience and could not sit still.
- Why doesn’t it glow? Well, when will it glow? – he repeated every now and then.
- Wait a little. It’s still very light,” Znayka reassured him.
Finally, the darkness came such that neither the stone nor even the table on which it lay was visible. And Znayka kept repeating:
– Wait a little, it’s still very light.
- Indeed, brothers, it’s so bright that you can even paint pictures! – Tube supported Znayka.
Someone laughed quietly. In the darkness it was impossible to tell who it was.
– All this is some kind of nonsense! - said Toropyzhka. – In my opinion, the stone will not glow.
“Why should it glow if it’s already light,” said Vintik.
Someone laughed again. Louder this time. It seems it was Dunno. He was the funniest.
- You, Toropyzhka, are always in a hurry to get somewhere. You want everything as quickly as possible, said Syrup.
- Don’t you want to? - Toropyzhka grumbled angrily.
- Where should I rush? - Syrup answered. - Is it bad here? It's warm, light, and the flies don't bite.
At this point all the shorties couldn’t stand it and laughed loudly. Everyone liked Syrupchik’s saying about flies so much that they began to repeat it in different ways.
Finally Guslya said:
- What kind of flies are there! All the flies have been sleeping for a long time!
- Right! – Doctor Pilyulkin picked up. - The flies are sleeping, and it’s time for us to sleep! The show is over!
“Don’t be angry, brothers, it’s just some kind of mistake,” Znayka justified himself. – Yesterday the stone glowed, so I give you my word of honor!
- Well, don’t worry about it! Tomorrow we will come again,” Shpuntik said.
“Of course, we’ll come: it’s light and warm here, and the flies don’t bite,” someone said.
Everyone, laughing and pushing and stepping on each other's heels in the dark, began to get out of the room. Znayka deliberately did not turn on the electricity, as he was ashamed to look the little ones in the eyes. As soon as everyone had left, he threw himself onto the bed, buried his face in the pillow and clasped his head in his hands.
- That’s what I need, a fool! – he muttered in despair. – I couldn’t keep my mouth shut – now pay up! Not only did he disgrace himself in Sunny City, now everyone here will laugh too!..
Znayka was ready to beat himself up out of frustration, but, realizing that it was already late, he decided not to disturb the daily routine and, having undressed, went to bed. At night, however, he woke up and, accidentally looking at the table, discovered that the stone was glowing. Wrapping himself in a blanket and putting his feet in slippers, Znayka walked up to the table and, taking the stone in his hands, began to look at it. The stone glowed with a pure blue light. It seemed to consist entirely of a thousand flashing, flickering dots. Gradually its glow became brighter. It was no longer blue, as at first, but of some incomprehensible color: either pink or green. Having reached its greatest brightness, the glow gradually faded, and the stone stopped glowing.
Without saying a word, Znayka put the stone on the windowsill and went to bed in deep thought.
Since then, he has often observed the glow of the moonstone. Sometimes it came later, sometimes earlier. Sometimes the stone glowed for a long time, all night, sometimes it didn’t glow at all. No matter how hard Znayka tried, he could not discern any pattern in the glow of the stone. It was never possible to say in advance whether a stone would glow at night or not. Therefore, Znayka decided to keep quiet and not say anything to anyone yet.
In order to better study the properties of the moonstone, Znayka decided to subject it to chemical analysis. However, even here we encountered insurmountable difficulties. Moonstone did not want to combine with any other chemical substance: it did not want to dissolve in water, alcohol, sulfuric or nitric acid. Even a mixture of strong nitric and hydrochloric acids, in which even gold dissolves, had no effect on the moonstone. What could a chemist say about a substance that does not combine with any other substance? Unless this substance is some noble metal like gold or platinum. However, moonstone was not a metal, therefore it could not be either gold or platinum. 
Having lost hope of dissolving the moonstone, Znayka tried to decompose it into its component parts by heating in a crucible, but the moonstone did not decompose from heating. Znayka tried to burn it in the flame, but also to no avail. The moonstone, as they say, did not burn in fire and did not sink in water... However, this is not true... The moonstone sank in water, but the trouble was that it did not always do this. In some cases, the moonstone sank, as a piece of sugar or salt usually sinks in water, while in other cases it floated on the surface of the water, like a cork or a dry tree. This meant that the weight of the moonstone, for some incomprehensible reason, changed, and from a substance that was heavier than water, it turned into a substance lighter than water. This was some completely new, hitherto unknown property of a solid substance. No mineral on earth had such amazing properties.
Carrying out your observations. Znayka noticed that usually the temperature of the moonstone was two to three degrees higher than the temperature of surrounding objects. This meant that, along with radiant energy, the moonstone also released thermal energy. However, such an increase in temperature was again not always observed. This meant that the release of thermal energy did not occur constantly, but with some interruptions. Sometimes the temperature of the moon rock was several degrees lower than the ambient temperature. What this meant was simply impossible to understand.
All these strange things puzzled Znayka and eventually tired of him. Unable to explain all these oddities, Znayka stopped studying the properties of the stone and, as they say, gave up on it. The moonstone lay in his room on the windowsill, like some kind of useless thing, and was slowly becoming covered with dust.
Chapter Three
Bottom up
Subsequently, events occurred that made Znayka completely forget about the moonstone for some time. What happened was so amazing and unusual that it is difficult to describe. Znayka, to put it simply, had no time to think about some stone, in which he, moreover, did not see any use.The day on which all this happened began as usual, except that Znayka, upon waking up, did not get up immediately, but, contrary to his rules, allowed himself to lie in bed for a while. At first he was simply too lazy to get up, and then it began to seem as if he was either in pain or dizzy. For a while he didn't know whether his head hurt because he was lying in bed, or whether he was lying in bed because he had a headache. Znayka, however, had his own way of dealing with headaches, namely, not paying any more attention and doing everything as if there was no pain. Having decided to resort to this method, Znayka cheerfully jumped out of bed and began to do morning exercises. After doing a series of gymnastic exercises and washing his face with cold water, Znayka felt that he no longer had pain or dizziness.
Znayka’s mood improved, and since there was time left before breakfast, he decided to clean the room: he swept the floor in the room, wiped the closets in which he kept various chemicals in jars and a collection of insects with a damp cloth, and most importantly, put them on shelves books that had accumulated on his desk, on the nightstand near his bed, and even on the windowsill. This should have been done a long time ago, but Znayka somehow didn’t have enough time.
While removing books from the windowsill, Znayka decided to also remove the moonstone lying there. Having opened the cabinet in which he kept a collection of minerals, Znayka put the moonstone on the bottom shelf, since there was not a single free place on the upper shelves. To do this, Znayka had to bend down, and after bending down, he again felt slightly dizzy.
- Here you go! - Znayka said to himself. - My head is spinning again! Maybe I'm actually sick? I’ll have to tell Pilyulkin to give him some powders.
Along with the dizziness, Znayka had a strange sensation of hanging upside down, that is, for a moment it seemed to him as if he was upside down. Having looked around and made sure that he was not upside down at all, Znayka closed the closet door and was about to straighten up, but just at that time something seemed to push him from below and throw him up to the ceiling. Having hit his head on the ceiling, Znayka fell to the floor and, feeling as if he had been picked up by the wind and was being carried somewhere, he grabbed the chair with his hand. This, however, did not help him stay in place. The next moment he was already in the air again, and with a chair in his hands. Having flown into the corner of the room, Znayka hit his back against the wall, bounced off it like a ball, and flew to the opposite wall. Along the way, he caught the chair on the chandelier and broke the lamp. Znayka crashed his head into a bookshelf, causing books to fly in different directions. Seeing that the chair was of no use, Znayka threw it away from him. As a result, the chair flew down and, hitting the floor, jumped up like a rubber one, while Znayka himself flew to the ceiling and, bouncing off it, flew down. On the way, he collided with a chair flying towards him and was hit with the back of the chair right on the bridge of his nose. The blow was so strong that Znayka went crazy with pain and stopped fluttering in the air for a while.
Having gradually come to his senses, Znayka became convinced that he was hanging in some awkward position in the middle of the room, between the floor and the ceiling. Not far from him, a chair hung upside down, the chandelier hung in some unnatural state: not vertically, as always happens, but obliquely, as if some unknown force was attracting it to the wall; There were books floating around all over the room. It seemed strange to Znayka that both the chair and the books did not fall to the floor, but seemed to be suspended in the air. All this was similar to the state of weightlessness that Znayka observed in the cabin of a spaceship during his trip to the Moon.
- Strange! - Znayka muttered. - Very strange!
Trying not to make sudden movements, he tried to raise his hand. He was surprised that this did not require any effort. The hand rose as if by itself. She was light as a feather. Znayka raised his other hand. And this hand seemed to weigh nothing. It was as if something was pushing her from below. Now that his excitement had subsided somewhat, Znayka felt some unusual lightness throughout his body. It seemed to him that all he had to do was wave his hands and he would begin to flutter around the room, like a moth or some other winged insect.
“What happened to me? – Znayka thought in confusion. “One of two things: either I’m in a state of weightlessness, or I’m asleep and I’m dreaming all this.”
He began to goggle his eyes with all his might, trying to wake up, but, making sure that he was still awake, he finally became despondent and shouted in a plaintive voice:
- Brothers, save me!
Because no one came to help. Znayka decided to quickly get out of the room and see what the other shorty’s friends were doing.
Starting to carefully make swimming movements with his arms and legs, Znayka began to slowly move through the air and gradually swam to the door. There he grabbed the ceiling with his hands and began to push the door with all his might with his feet. It would seem that opening a door is a simple matter, but in a state of weightlessness it is not as easy as it seems. Znayka had to spend a lot of effort before the door was open.
Having finally got out of the room and finding himself on the stairs (or rather, above the stairs), Znayka began to think about how he could get down. Everyone can easily guess that to go down in the usual way, that is, by going down the steps. Znayka could not now, since the force of gravity was no longer pulling him down and, no matter how much he moved his legs, it would not lead to anything.
In the end, Znayka came up with a good way. Reaching the railing, he began to descend, clinging to the railing with his hands. It probably looked very funny from the outside, because Znayka’s legs were dangling in the air like a mosquito’s, and as he sank lower and lower, his legs lifted higher and higher and he turned upside down more and more.
Having descended from the stairs in such an original way, Znayka found himself in the corridor in front of the door to the dining room. Some muffled screams could be heard from behind the door. Znayka listened and realized that the short people in the dining room were alarmed by something. After several unsuccessful attempts, Znayka opened the door and found himself in the dining room. What he saw left him amazed. The short people gathered in the dining room did not sit, as always, at the table, but floated in various positions through the air. Chairs, benches, bowls, plates, and spoons floated around them. A large aluminum pan filled with semolina porridge floated nearby.
Seeing Znayka, the short ones made an incredible noise.
- Znaechka, dear, help! - Rasteryaika screamed. – I don’t understand what’s happening to me!
- Listen, Znayka, for some reason we are all flying! - Doctor Pilyulkin shouted.
- And my legs are gone! I can't walk! - Syrup squealed.
- And my legs went crazy! Everyone's legs were gone! And the walls are shaking! - Grumpy shouted.
- Quiet, brothers! - Znayka shouted in response. – I myself can’t understand anything. In my opinion, we are in a state of weightlessness. We have lost weight. I experienced the same feeling when I was flying to the moon in a rocket.
“But we’re not flying anywhere,” said Tube.
– Someone must have come up with such pampering on purpose! - Toropyzhka shouted.
- Someone was playing a joke on us! – Rasteryaika picked up.
- Well, what kind of jokes are these! - Donut squealed. – Stop it now! I'm dizzy! Why are the walls shaking? Why did everything turn upside down?
“Everything is in place,” Znayka answered Donut. “You yourself turned upside down, and that’s why it seems to you that everything around you is upside down.”
- Well, let me be turned back right now, otherwise I’m not responsible for myself! – Donut continued to shout.
- Calm! - said Znayka. – First we need to find out why we lost weight.
And Dunno said:
– If we have lost weight, then we need to find it, and that’s the end of it. What else is there to find out?
“And you, fool, keep quiet if you can’t offer anything useful,” Shpuntik said with irritation.
- Don’t call me a fool, otherwise I’ll hit you with my fist!
With these words, Dunno waved his fist and gave Shpuntik such a strong slap on the head that Shpuntik spun like a top and flew across the room.
Dunno also could not stay in place and, flying in the opposite direction, hit his head on a pan of porridge. From the shock, liquid semolina porridge splashed right into the face of Donut, who was nearby.
- Brothers, what is this?.. For what?.. This is a disgrace! - Donut shouted, smearing semolina porridge over his face and spitting in all directions.
Trying to avoid a collision with the spitting Donut and the lumps of semolina porridge floating through the air, the short ones began to make sudden movements with their arms and legs, as a result of which they began to fly around the room in all directions, colliding with each other and causing various damage to each other.
- Quiet, brothers! Calm! - Znayka strained, being pushed from all sides. - Try not to move, brothers, otherwise I don’t know what will happen! In a state of weightlessness, you should not make too sudden movements. Do you hear what I'm telling you? Calm down!!!
Angry, Znayka slammed his fist on the table he was near at that moment. From such a sudden movement, Znayka himself turned over in the air and hit the back of his head quite hard on the corner of the table.
- Well, I told you so! - he shouted, scratching the bruised area with his hand.
The short ones eventually understood what was required of them, and, ceasing to make aimless movements, froze in the air: some above, under the ceiling, some below, not far from the floor, some upside down, some upside down, some horizontally, some inclined , that is, obliquely, position.
Seeing that everyone had finally calmed down, Znayka said:
– Listen to me carefully. Now I will give you a lecture on weightlessness... You all know that every object is attracted to the earth, and we feel this attraction as gravity, or as weight. Thanks to gravity, or weight, we can move freely on the ground, since our legs, under the weight of our body, are pressed against the ground and gain traction with it. If the weight disappears, like now, then there will be no grip and we will not be able to move in the usual way, that is, we will not be able to walk on the ground or on the floor. What to do in this case?
- Yes, yes, what should I do? - the short men responded from all sides.
“We need to adapt to the new conditions that have created,” Znayka answered. – And for this, you all need to learn the third law of mechanics, which is especially clearly manifested in conditions of weightlessness. What does this law say? This law states that every action causes an equal and opposite reaction. For example: if I, being in a state of weightlessness, raise my arms up, then my whole body will immediately fall down. Look...
Znayka resolutely raised both hands up, and his whole body began to smoothly fall down.
“If I put my hands down,” he said, “then my whole body will begin to rise up.”
Before reaching the floor, Znayka quickly lowered his hands down, as a result of which he smoothly flew upward.
- Now look! - Znayka shouted, stopping at the ceiling. If I move my hand to the side - for example, to the right - then my whole body will begin to rotate in the opposite direction, that is, to the left.
Vigorously throwing his right hand to the side, Znayka went into a rotational motion and turned upside down.
- Do you see? - he shouted. “Now I’m upside down, and the whole room seems upside down to me.” What do I need to do to turn back? To do this, just wave your hand to the side.
Znayka waved his left hand to the side and, again going into a rotational movement, turned back upside down.
– You see that by performing simple movements with your hands, you can give your body any position in space. Now listen to what is required of us first. First of all, those of you who are upside down need to turn upside down.
– And those who are upside down need to turn upside down? - Dunno asked.
“But this is just not necessary,” answered Znayka. – Everyone should be upside down, because this position is familiar to every normal short person. Secondly, everyone needs to go down and try to stay close to the floor, since for every normal short person it is natural to be on the floor, and not to loom near the ceiling. I hope this is clear?
Everyone began to make smooth movements with their hands, trying to take a vertical position and lower themselves down. This did not immediately succeed for everyone, since, having assumed a vertical position and lowered itself, the short one pushed off the floor with his feet and soared back up to the ceiling.
“Stay close to the walls, brothers,” Znayka advised the short ones, “and when you go down, grab with your hands something stationary: a window sill, a door handle, a steam heating pipe.”
This advice turned out to be very useful. A little time passed, and all the shorties were located below, except for Donut, who continued to clumsily somersault through the air. Everyone vied with each other to give him advice on how to go down, but it was of no use.
“Well, nothing,” said Znayka. - Let him practice. Over time, everything will work out well for him. And you and I will rest a little and try to get used to the state of weightlessness.
- Of course! You'll get used to it! – Grumpy grumbled, frowning.
“You can get used to everything,” Znayka answered calmly. – The main thing is not to pay attention to weightlessness. If someone feels like they are falling down or turning upside down, and such sensations happen in a state of weightlessness, then you need to quickly look around. You will see that you are in the room and not falling anywhere, and you will stop worrying. Who has questions?
“One question really worries me,” said Dunno. “Are we going to have breakfast today, or are all breakfasts and lunches completely canceled due to zero gravity?”
“Breakfasts and lunches are not canceled at all,” Znayka answered. – Now the kitchen staff will prepare breakfast, and in the meantime we will get down to work. First of all, it is necessary to secure all moving objects so that they do not fly through the air. Tables, chairs, cabinets and other furniture must be nailed to the floor; Ropes should be stretched throughout all rooms and corridors, as for drying clothes. We will hold on to the ropes with our hands, and it will be easier for us to move. Everyone except Donut immediately got to work: some stretched ropes around the rooms, some nailed furniture to the floor. It was not an easy task. Try to hammer a nail into a wall, when with each blow with a hammer the counterforce throws you in the opposite direction and you fly without seeing the light and not knowing what you will hit your head on. Now everything had to be done in a new way. In order to hammer one nail, at least three short nails were required. One held the nail, the other hit the nail with a hammer, and the third held the one who hit the nail so that the counterforce did not throw him back. It was especially difficult for those on duty in the kitchen. It’s good that Vintik and Shpuntik were on duty that day. These were two very inventive minds. Once in the kitchen, they immediately began to use their brains, as they say, and come up with various improvements.
“In order to work normally, you need to stand firmly on your feet,” said Vintik. – Try, for example, kneading dough, chopping cabbage, cutting bread or turning a meat grinder while your body dangles in the air without any support.
“We can’t stand firmly because our feet don’t have grip on the floor,” said Shpuntik.
“Since there is no clutch, we need to make sure there is one,” Vintik answered. If we nail our shoes to the floor, then the grip will be quite sufficient.
– Very witty idea! – Shpuntik approved. The friends immediately took off their shoes and nailed them to the floor.
“You see,” said Vintik, putting his feet into his boots, “now we stand firmly on our feet, and our body does not fly anywhere at the slightest push.” Our hands are free and we can do whatever we want.
“It would be nice to nail chairs next to the boots so that you can work while sitting,” Shpuntik suggested.
- Brilliant idea! – Vintik was delighted. The friends quickly nailed two chairs to the floor. Now that their feet had some grip on the floor, hammering nails became easy.
“Look how wonderful it turned out,” said Shpuntik, sitting down on a chair. “Would I be able to sit on the chair if my shoes weren’t nailed down?” I could only sit if I held onto the chair with my hands, but then I wouldn't be able to do anything. Now my hands are free and I can do whatever I want. I can write and read while sitting at the table, and if I get tired of sitting, I can get up and work while standing. Saying this, Shpuntik sat on a chair and stood up from it, demonstrating all the conveniences of the new method.
Vintik pulled one foot out of his shoe and said:
– For reliable grip on the floor, one foot is enough. By taking my other foot out of the shoe, I can take a step forward, a step back, or a side step. Taking a step to the side, I can freely reach the stove; By taking a step back, I can still work at my desk. My maneuverability is thus increased.
- Amazing idea! - Shpuntik exclaimed, jumping up from his chair. Look: if I take a step to the right, I can reach the closet with my hand, and if I take a step to the left, I can reach the water tap. Thus, without losing stability, you and I can move almost throughout the entire kitchen. That's what technical savvy means!
At this time, Znayka looked into the kitchen.
- Well, how is it with you, will breakfast be ready soon?
– Breakfast is not ready yet, but a stunning invention is ready.
Vintik and Shpuntik began vying with each other to tell Znayka about their improvements.
“Okay,” said Znayka. – We use your invention, but breakfast still needs to be prepared. Everyone wants to eat.
“Now everything will be ready,” said Vintik and Shpuntik.
Znayka left, or rather, floated away from the kitchen, and Vintik and Shpuntik set about preparing breakfast. This turned out to be not as easy as they initially thought. Firstly, neither cereals, nor flour, nor sugar, nor noodles wanted to spill out of the bags; if they got enough sleep, they didn’t get where they needed to go, but scattered in the air and floated around, getting into their mouths, noses, and eyes, which caused Vintik and Shpuntik a lot of trouble. Secondly, the water from the tap did not want to get into the pan. Flowing out of the tap under pressure, it hit the bottom of the pan and splashed out. Here it gathered into large and small balls that floated in the air and also got into Vintik and Shpuntik’s mouths, noses, eyes, and even behind the collar, which was also not so pleasant. To top it all off, the fire in the stove did not want to burn. After all, in order for the flame to burn, a continuous flow of fresh oxygen is necessary. When a flame burns, it heats the air around it. Heated air is lighter than cold air and therefore rises, and in its place fresh air rich in oxygen flows to the flame from different sides. But in zero-gravity conditions, both cold and heated air weighs nothing at all. Therefore, heated air does not become lighter than cold air and does not rise upward. As soon as all the oxygen around the flame is consumed by combustion, the flame will go out, and nothing can be done about it! Realizing what the problem was, our friends decided to cook breakfast on an electric stove.
“It would be even better if we don’t cook anything, but just boil the tea,” Shpuntik suggested. – It’s still easier to put water in a kettle.
- A brilliant idea! – Vintik approved. Acting as carefully as possible, the friends filled the kettle with water, placed it on the electric stove and tied it tightly with a rope to the table so that it would not float away. At first everything went well, but after a few minutes Vintik and Shpuntik saw water begin to bubble out of the spout of the kettle, as if someone was pushing it out from the inside. Shpuntik quickly plugged the spout of the kettle with his finger, but the water immediately began to bubble out from under the lid. This bubble grew larger and larger, finally came off the lid and, shaking as if it were made of liquid jelly, floated through the air. Vintik quickly opened the lid and looked into the teapot. The kettle was empty.
- That's the story! - Shpuntik muttered. The friends filled the kettle again and placed it on the hot stove. A minute later, water began to come out of the kettle again. Here Znayka appeared again:
- Well, will you be there soon? The shorties are hungry!
- We have some kind of miracle here! – Shpuntik said confusedly. - A bubble is coming out of the teapot.
“A bubble popping up is not a miracle,” Znayka answered. He approached the teapot and looked sternly at the bubble blowing out of the teapot's spout. Then he said “hm” and tried to plug his nose with his finger. Seeing that the bubble began to crawl out from under the lid, Znayka again said “hm” and tried to press the lid more tightly to the kettle. Making sure that this did not lead to anything, Znayka said “hm” for the third time and thought for a moment, after which he said:
– There is no miracle here, but a completely understandable scientific phenomenon. You all know that water is heated by stirring. The lower layers of water in the kettle, when heated over a fire or on an electric stove, become lighter and float upward, and cold water from the upper layers falls in their place. In the kettle there is, how can I put it, a water cycle. But such a cycle occurs when water has weight. If the weight is not like it is now, then the lower layers of water, when heated, will not become lighter and will not rise upward, but will remain below and will heat up until they turn into steam. This steam, expanding from heating, will begin to lift the cold water above it, causing it to bubble out of the kettle. What follows from this?
- Well, what should we do? – Shpuntik spread his hands. “It probably follows from this that the bubble will come off the teapot and float through the air until it smears on someone’s back.”
“It follows from this,” Znayka said sternly, “that it is necessary to boil water in conditions of weightlessness in a hermetic vessel, that is, in a vessel whose lid closes tightly and does not let in either water or steam.”
– In our workshop we have a boiler with a hermetic lid. “I’ll bring it now,” said Vintik.
- Come on, bring it, quickly, please. You can’t break your diet,” Znayka said as he walked away.
Vintik freed himself from the shoes nailed to the floor, pushed off the table with his foot and flew out of the kitchen at the speed of a bumblebee. In order to get into the workshop, he had to go out into the yard. Flying out of the kitchen, he began to make his way along the corridor, pushing off with his hands and feet from the walls and from everything that could meet on the way. Finally he reached the exit door and tried to open it. The door, however, was closed tightly, and Vintik's attempts were not successful for a long time: when Vintik pushed the door forward, the reactive force imperceptibly threw him back, and he had to expend a lot of effort to get to the door again.
Convinced that he would achieve nothing this way, Vintik decided to resort to another method. Bent over, he rested his hands on the door handle and his feet on the floor at some distance from the door. Feeling that his feet had acquired sufficient grip on the floor. The screw tried to straighten up like a spring and leaned against the door with all its might. Suddenly the door swung open. The cog flew out of it, like a torpedo fired from a torpedo tube, and rushed through the air. Rising higher and higher, he flew over the gazebo, which stood at the end of the yard, and disappeared behind the fence.
Nobody saw this.
Chapter Four
Unexpected discovery
Left alone in the kitchen, Shpuntik said to himself:- While Vintik is looking for the boiler, I will have time to rest a little.
He sat comfortably on a chair, crossed his legs and began to rest. However, this was only said so, because only Shpuntik’s body was resting, while his active mind did not stop working for a minute. Shpuntik's lively, nimble eyes kept turning in different directions. Every object that caught Shpuntik's eye inspired him with some witty thought. Glancing at Vintik’s shoes nailed to the floor, Shpuntik thought:
“It’s a pity that you have to leave the kitchen barefoot. Don’t tear your shoes off the floor every time. But if you nail the galoshes to the floor, the boots can remain on your feet. I came to the kitchen, put my feet in my galoshes and if I worked, the grip would be sufficient. Brilliant idea!
For some time, Shpuntik enjoyed the brilliant idea that came to him. Then he said:
– But galoshes can be used more rationally. We have sixteen shorties in our house, each with a pair of galoshes; in total, that means thirty-two galoshes. If you nail all these galoshes along the rooms and corridors, each at a step distance, then you can comfortably walk through the rooms: put your foot in one galosh - take a step, put your foot in the other - another step... An exceptionally brilliant idea!
Shpuntik wanted to run to tell about his new invention, but immediately forgot about it, as new thoughts were already creeping into his head.
“Now that the state of weightlessness has arrived, everything will not be the same as before,” he continued to reason. – Let’s take, for example, the most ordinary chair. You can sit on such a chair only by nailing your shoes to the floor. This is not witty! There will be new chairs with stirrups in the future. You will need to sit astride them. Sit down on a chair, put your feet in the stirrups and work calmly - you won’t fly away anywhere. A brutally brilliant idea! In addition, the chairs should be swivel...
Thoughts were boiling in Shpuntik’s head. His eyes sparkled excitedly, and a happy smile wandered across his face.
At this time, Znayka appeared in the kitchen again.
- What is this happening? – he shouted with irritation. -Where is breakfast?
– What kind of breakfast? – Shpuntik asked, waking up from his dreams.
- Look at him! – Znayka shouted indignantly. “I even forgot that I need to cook breakfast!” Where is Vintik?
- A cog?.. He went for this... for the hermetic boiler.
- So it’s been an hour since he went to get the boiler! Is it really that difficult to bring a cauldron?
“Now I’ll go find him,” Shpuntik said and began to make his way to the exit.
Znayka, however, found it suspicious that Vintik hesitated so much. Seeing that Shpuntik had almost reached the exit door, he shouted in fear:
- Wait! Don't you dare go out into the yard!
- Why? – Shpuntik asked.
- Beware, they tell you! – Znayka shouted angrily. “Now we need to act with extreme caution.” After all, we are in a state of weightlessness. It is unknown where you will be taken as soon as you find yourself in the open air. The slightest push and you will fly straight into outer space.
Znayka got to the door, grabbed the door handle with his hands and, leaning out into the yard, began to call:
- Cog! Cog!
The screw did not respond.
– Was Vintik really carried away into outer space? – Shpuntik asked in fear.
Dunno, who at that time looked out into the corridor, heard Shpuntik’s words.
- Here you go! The cog was carried away into outer space! - Dunno muttered and immediately began shouting at the top of his lungs:
- Brothers, trouble! The cog was carried away into outer space!
Everyone was alarmed and rushed to the exit.
- Back! - Znayka shouted. - Don't come to the door! Is it dangerous!
- Where is Vintik? What about Vintik? – the short ones asked worriedly.
“Nothing is known yet,” Znayka answered. “It is known that he went to the workshop and did not return from there.”
“Someone needs to go to the workshop, maybe he’s still there,” said Tube.
“You’ll go here when you’re in a state of weightlessness,” said Grumpy.
“Well, bring a longer rope here,” Znayka gave the order.
The order was immediately carried out. Znayka tied one end of the rope around his belt, tied the other end to the doorknob and said sternly:
- Make sure no one dares to leave the house. It's enough for us that Vintik is missing!
Having given his body an inclined position, Znayka forcefully pushed off the threshold with his feet and flew in the direction of the workshop, which was located not far from the house. He slightly miscalculated the push and rose higher than necessary. Flying over the workshop, he grabbed the weather vane with his hand, which showed the direction of the wind. This delayed the flight. Having gone down the drainpipe, Znayka opened the door and entered the workshop. The short ones watched his actions with tension. A minute later, Znayka looked out of the workshop.
- He is not here! - he shouted. - Yes, it looks like it wasn’t. Now I'll look in the gazebo.
In one leap, Znayka reached the gazebo and looked inside. There was no screw there either.
“Perhaps it’s best to climb onto the roof of the house and look around.” You can always see better from above. Come on, pull me on the rope to the house! - Znayka shouted.
The short ones began to pull the rope and pulled Znayka back to the house. Znayka instantly climbed up the drainpipe onto the roof and was about to look around, but an unexpected gust of wind blew him off the roof and carried him to the side. This did not frighten Znayka, since he knew that the short ones could pull him back on the rope at any moment.
“That’s even better,” Znayka said to himself. – Flying above the earth as if in a helicopter, I will see everything around much more carefully.
He, however, failed to see anything, because the next moment something happened that no one expected. Before reaching the fence, Znayka suddenly began to fall rapidly, as if some force suddenly pulled him down. Having splashed down on the ground, he stretched out to his full height and did not even have time to realize what had happened. Feeling a terrible heaviness throughout his body, he barely rose to his feet and looked around.
He was surprised that he was standing firmly on his feet again.
- That's the thing! I think I've gained weight back! - Znayka muttered.
He tried to raise his hand, then the other, tried to take a step, then another... His arms and legs obeyed with difficulty, as if they were filled with lead.
“Perhaps the feeling of great heaviness is the result of a rapid transition from a state of weightlessness to weight?” – thought Znayka.
Seeing that the short men were looking at him in fear from the door of the house, he shouted:
- Brothers, look! There is no state of weightlessness here!
- What is there? - someone asked.
– There is a state of weightiness here. I am still affected by gravity. Look, I'm standing... I'm walking... I'm jumping!..
Znayka took a few steps and tried to jump. True, his jump did not work out: Znayka could not lift his feet off the ground.
Just at this time, someone’s plaintive moan was heard behind the fence. Znayka listened, and it seemed to him that someone was calling him for help. Without thinking twice, Znayka ran up to the fence and wanted to climb it, but he failed. The gravity still affected him with terrible force. Hearing clearly that someone was calling for help behind the fence. Znayka broke a board in the fence and looked through the gap that had formed. Not far from the fence, he saw Vintik lying on the ground. Vintik saw him too.
- Znaechka, dear, help, I think I broke my leg! - Vintik shouted.
- How did you get here? – Znayka asked, running up to him.
- I, you know, wanted to open the door, but the door opened, and as soon as I flew, you know...
- Why didn’t you respond? I'm calling you here, calling you!
- But I didn’t hear anything. He probably lost consciousness.
Znayka grabbed Vintik under the arms, threw him on his back and dragged him through the gap to the house. Having taken a few steps, Znayka felt that the weight seemed to have decreased, and having taken another step, he unexpectedly took off from the ground and soared into the air together with Vintik.
“What a miracle! Are you in a state of weightlessness again? – thought Znayka.
He was confused at first, but then he remembered that he was tied to a rope and shouted:
- Brothers, bring us quickly to your place!
Seeing that Znayka and Vintik were soaring higher and higher, the short ones grabbed the end of the rope and dragged Znayka to the house. Znayka held Vintik tightly by the collar so that he would not slip out of his hands. Not even a minute had passed before they were inside the room. Everyone wanted to quickly look at Vintik, but Doctor Pilyulkin said:
- Well, disperse, that is, fly away from here, everyone! And put the patient to bed right now, I need to examine him.
The short men dragged Vintik along the corridor.
- Oh, brothers, quietly! - Vintik prayed. - My legs hurt!
Finally they dragged him into the room, put him to bed and tied him to the bed with a rope. Pilyulkin began to examine him. For a long time he tapped his fingers on the patient’s legs, arms, chest, and even on the head, listening to the sound that came out. Then he said:
– You’ll have to lie down, dear friend, uh... mmm... in bed... But don’t be scared, there’s nothing terrible. You've just lost your legs, in a way.
- How is it that, in some way, you lost your legs? – asked Vintik.
- Well, mmm... I hit my legs hard, which means that’s what happened... mmm... some stretching of the veins and... mmmm... some shaking in the joints... Mmm-yes ! After a while, the pain in your joints will subside, and you will be able to, in some way, walk again... if, of course, you need to.
– Why, if necessary? – Vintik became frightened and wary.
- Well, because if there is a state of weightlessness, then we won’t need to walk at all. We will, in a way, fly.
“Okay,” Vintik answered. – Couldn’t I have something, in some way, to eat? I haven't eaten anything since morning.
- Listen, how is your breakfast? - Pilyulkin asked Shpuntik.
“Due to the state of weightlessness, breakfast is not ready yet,” Shpuntik reported. - But, since Znayka found a place where there is no state of weightlessness, we will make our way there and quickly cook breakfast over the fire.
“You, my dear, that’s what,” said Doctor Pilyulkin. “There’s no need to cook breakfast, because now it’s time for lunch.” It’s better to prepare dinner right away, and in the meantime I’ll give the patient some bread and jam.
Pilyulkin went to get bread and jam, and Shpuntik, tied with a rope, made his way to the end of the yard. Feeling that he had gained weight again, he tied the end of the rope to the fence and shouted to the little guys:
- Come on, bring firewood, and matches, and pots, and a kettle, and a frying pan, and bring food!
The short boys, holding on to a rope stretched across the yard, began to carry Shpuntik everything he might need to prepare dinner. Everyone worked very actively, as everyone was very hungry. The only people not working were the sick Cog and Donut, who was still hanging from the ceiling in the dining room. Znayka said that Donut apparently lost orientation in space and was unable to adapt to the state of weightlessness. In fact, Donut perfectly adapted to weightlessness, but since he was extremely cunning, he decided to hide it. While all the shorties were working, he slowly flew around the room and devoured semolina porridge, which fell out of the pan and floated around in clumps. In a short period of time, he single-handedly ate a whole pan of porridge, so that not a trace of it remained.
“Now I’m full, and I don’t need anything else!” - Donut said with pleasure. “And let the rest work if they like it.”
While the little ones were cooking their lunch, Znayka tied himself to a rope and made observations of gravity in the yard. It turned out that the state of weightlessness was observed around the house only at a distance of twenty thirty steps. It was, as Znayka called it, a zero-gravity zone. Behind it began, as Znayka called it, a zone of gravity, or a zone of weight. Having made one's way through the zero-gravity zone with the help of a rope, one could penetrate into the weighted zone and, leaving the gate, without any fear, set off in any direction along the street.
Having established these scientific facts. Znayka told Pilyulkin:
– Now we need to find out whether the state of weightlessness is observed only here or whether it exists in other parts of the city. Now take a walk around the city and find out if any of the residents felt any signs of weightlessness, if anyone felt dizzy, or if anyone experienced the sensation of hanging upside down. All this information will help us figure out the reasons for this mysterious phenomenon. I don’t think we should tell anyone yet that we have weightlessness. As soon as word gets out in the city, everyone will rush to us, and then it’s hard to say what might happen. It’s good that everything turned out well with Vintik, in general, and I, I must say, only miraculously didn’t break my legs. We must be extremely careful with this still insufficiently studied natural phenomenon.
While Pilyulkin was walking around the city, the short ones prepared lunch and began to dine right there, in the open air. This was especially pleasant, since air always improves appetite. Of course, first of all they fed the sick Vintik. This was not easy to do, since he had to be fed in a state of weightlessness. For the patient, Shpuntik came up with the idea of cooking a special hospital puree soup. But the most ingenious thing was that Shpuntik came up with the idea of pouring this soup into a teapot, which was usually used for brewing tea. The kettle was tightly closed with a lid on top, so the soup did not splash out when it fell into a state of weightlessness. The patient could only put the spout of the teapot in his mouth and slowly suck the soup. Nutrition, therefore, occurred quickly and, moreover, without loss.
Shpuntik came up with the idea to make the porridge for Vintik not very liquid, but not very thick either. This porridge stuck well to the plate, thanks to which it could be freely moved from place to place, as well as taken with a spoon, without fear that it would slide off the plate and begin to float in space. For the third course there was cranberry jelly, which was also served to Vintik in a teapot.
Having fed Vintik, the short ones fed Donut in exactly the same way, who, as already mentioned, lost not only weight, but along with it the remnants of his conscience, without, however, losing his appetite.
Soon Pilyulkin returned from his rounds and reported to Znayka that the state of weightlessness was not observed anywhere else in the city. Life for the short ones, he said, goes on as usual. No one observed any mysterious phenomena or experienced any painful sensations.
The facts reported by Pilyulkin made Znayka think. It seemed strange to him that the zero-gravity zone was limited to their yard.
“There must be some reason for this. But what is it? - Znayka puzzled.
Having ordered the short ones to behave more carefully, Znayka went to his room to rest after dinner and think in silence. Out of habit, he wanted to lie down on the couch, but remembered that in a state of weightlessness this can only be done by tying himself to the couch with a rope, which is very troublesome and unnecessary. Stretching out at full length over the couch and giving his body a strictly horizontal position, so that the whole room would appear to him in its usual form and nothing would distract him from his thoughts, Znayka began to think.
“It’s strange that the zero-gravity zone is like a circle, in the center of which our house is,” Znayka said to himself. – We are thus placed, as it were, in the center of weightlessness. Maybe right here, where I am now, or somewhere very close there is this center? Isn't the cause of weightlessness in the center?
For a moment it seemed to Znayka that he was getting closer to solving the problem, but suddenly his thought took a leap to the side.
– How did the state of weightlessness come about? How did it all start? Let’s remember,” Znayka said, as if he was talking to invisible interlocutors. – It started in the morning. At first everything was as usual... I cleaned the room, then I put the moonstone in the closet, then... then... What happened then? Then the state of weightlessness just came!
Znayka's thoughts began to work feverishly.
“Perhaps the mystery of weightlessness is connected with the moonstone?” – a question seemed to flash in his head.
“Well, such an assumption is quite acceptable,” Znayka answered mentally. – After all, what is a moonstone? Nobody knows what he is. It is known that this substance has some strange properties... Perhaps among its properties there is also the property of destroying weight... But I have had the moonstone for a long time. Why has this property not manifested itself until now?.. Perhaps it did not manifest itself because the moonstone was not where it is now. Could it be that a moonstone's ability to destroy weight depends on its location?
Znayka was a little breathless. He felt that he had mastered a very important thought, and he strained all his mental faculties to keep this thought in his head.
“If so...” he said, trying to drive away all the other thoughts that besieged him. – If weightlessness depends on the location of the stone, then it should disappear as soon as we remove the stone from the cabinet.
Feeling like I'm on the verge of a great discovery. Znayka even trembled with excitement.
“Well,” he muttered, “let’s do the experiment!”
Pushing off slightly from the wall and making swimming movements with his arms and legs, he began to make his way to the cabinet in which a collection of minerals was kept.
“Come on, let’s do the experiment, let’s do the experiment...” he repeated, as if afraid to forget what exactly he was going to do.
Due to his excitement, his movements were, however, not very precisely calculated, so before he got where he needed to go, he made an entire trip around the world around the room. Having finally reached the closet, he grabbed the door with his hands and hung in front of it in a horizontal position with his legs dangling in the air.
- Well, let's do the experiment! – he said decisively.
And now another thought flashed through his head:
“What if nothing comes of this experience? What if weightlessness doesn’t disappear?
This thought affected Znayka like an icy shower. Some kind of chill ran down his back, his heart began to beat strongly in his chest, and, no longer realizing what he was doing, Znayka opened the closet and took a moonstone from the bottom shelf.
What happened next clearly showed that all of Znayka’s scientific assumptions were correct. As soon as the moonstone was in his hands, Znayka felt a strong push in his back. Having fallen to the floor, he painfully bruised his knees and stretched out on his stomach, as if pressed by something from above. At that same second, a roar was heard. It was everywhere that objects that had previously floated in a state of weightlessness fell onto the floor. The house shook as if during an earthquake. Znayka closed his eyes in fear. He felt like the ceiling was about to collapse on him. When he finally opened his eyes, he saw that the room had an ordinary appearance, except for the books randomly scattered around.
Rising to his feet and feeling that the usual feeling of heaviness had returned to him, Znayka looked at the moonstone he was holding in his hands.
- So that’s the reason! – he exclaimed joyfully. – But why does weightlessness appear only when the moonstone is in the locker? Perhaps the state of weightlessness results from the fact that the energy released by lunite interacts with some substance contained in the collection of minerals. But how do you find out what this substance is?
Znayka wrinkled his forehead and thought deeply again. At first, some completely formless thoughts swirled in his head. Every thought is like a cloud or a big blurry spot on the wall, looking at which you can’t figure out what it looks like. And suddenly his brain was illuminated by a completely clear, definite thought:
“We need to take out from the cabinet one by one all the minerals stored there. As soon as the substance with which lunite interacts is removed, weightlessness will disappear, and we will know what kind of substance it is.”
Having put the moonstone in the locker and feeling that weightlessness had appeared again, Znayka began to take out the minerals lying in the locker and see if gravity would appear. First, he took out the minerals that were on the bottom shelf. There were rock crystal, feldspar, mica, brown iron ore, copper pyrite, and sulfur. Next came pyrite, chalcopyrite, zinc blende, lead luster and others. Having taken out the stones from the lower compartment, Znayka began to work on those lying in the upper one. Finally, all the stones were taken out, but the state of weightlessness did not disappear. Znayka was terribly disappointed and, as they say, lost heart. He was about to close the cabinet door, but at that time he saw on the bottom shelf, in the very corner, another pebble, which he had not noticed before. It was a piece of magnetic iron ore. Having already lost hope of the success of his experiment, Znayka reached out and took out a magnetic iron ore from the cabinet. At that same second, he felt gravity pull him down, and he stretched out on the floor again.
“This means that weightlessness appears due to the interaction of magnetic energy and the energy of the moonstone,” said Znayka.
Rising from the floor, he took out a sliding calculating ruler from the desk drawer. He attached a lunite to one end of this ruler and a magnetic piece of iron ore to the other and began to carefully move both ends. When the moonstone approached the magnetic iron ore at the same distance at which it was in the locker, a state of weightlessness appeared again.
“As we see...” said Znayka, as if he was giving a lecture to invisible listeners. – As we see, the state of weightlessness appears when the moon rock and the magnetic iron ore are at a certain distance. This distance can be called critical. As soon as the distance between both minerals becomes greater than the critical one, weightlessness will disappear and gravity will act on us again.
As if to prove his words, Znayka moved the ends of the ruler to the sides and at the same moment felt how the force of gravity pulled him down. His knees buckled and he slammed down onto the floor. Znayka, however, was not embarrassed by this. On the contrary, he smiled solemnly and said:
- Here it is, a zero-gravity device! Now weightlessness is in our hands, and we will command it!
Chapter Five
Znayka's grandiose plan
For some time Znayka sat on the floor, immersed in thoughts about what enormous significance the discovery of weightlessness would have for science. Thoughts were swarming around in his head, pushing each other, so that the result was some kind of chaos and nothing could be clearly understood. Finally, Znayka was possessed by a single thought, which crowded out all the others.“I have to go tell the little guys about my new discovery and show them the weightlessness device,” he thought.
Rising from the floor, he opened the door and at the same moment heard screams coming from below. Forgetting about his discovery, Znayka rushed down the stairs. The first thing he saw was the short men surrounding Donut on all sides. Donut himself sat on a chair and held his nose with his hands, and Doctor Pilyulkin approached him with bandages and a jar of iodine in his hands.
- Don't come near! - Donut squealed and tried to kick Pilyulkin with his legs. - Don't come near! That's the whole story for you!
“But I have to bandage your nose,” answered Doctor Pilyulkin.
- What about him? – Znayka asked the short one.
“I pressed my nose to the table,” said Toropyzhka.
- How did you get your nose pressed to the table?
- Well, you know, he was dangling in the air all the time, and when the weightlessness disappeared, he collapsed and slammed his nose on the table. It’s good that it’s not on the floor, Toropyzhka explained.
- Maybe you are influencing him, Znayka? - said Doctor Pilyulkin. “I can’t deal with him for half an hour!”
Seeing that Donut continued to squeal and kick, Znayka said sternly:
- Well, calm down now!
Noticing that Znayka had intervened in the matter, Donut immediately fell silent. Pilyulkin quickly stopped the bleeding and put a very neat ball-shaped bandage on Donut’s nose and said:
- You see how well it turned out.
- Fine, fine! – Donut grumbled angrily.
He climbed down from the chair and began to feel the bandage with his hands. Pilyulkin slapped his hands and said:
“The bandage was put on you so that your nose retains its shape, but if you start to grab the bandage with your hands, you’ll end up with a nose instead of something you won’t understand!”
“Well, I’ll just find out who set this all up for me!” - Donut threatened. I'll show him!
Hearing these threats. Znayka realized that before doing his experiment, he had to warn the short ones so that no injuries would happen. Feeling guilty before Donut, Znayka decided not to tell anyone about his discovery for now, but to tell him later, when this incident is gradually forgotten.
Having made sure that weightlessness had disappeared and would not appear again, Dunno went for a walk around the city and told everyone he met about what had happened. However, no one believed his stories, since everyone knew that Dunno was a master of making things up. Dunno was terribly angry when he met such distrust from the shorties. Then he told his friend Gunka about the state of weightlessness. And Gunka said:
“You probably had a state of stupidity, and not a state of weightlessness.”
For such words, Dunno gave Gunka a good blow. And Gunka, so as not to remain in debt, answered Dunno in the same way. The result was another fight, from which Gunka emerged victorious.
- So tell the truth after this! - Dunno grumbled, returning home. - And why does this always happen: if you invent some nonsense, everyone will believe you, but if you try to tell even the purest truth, they will hit you in the neck, and that’s the end of it!
Dunno's stories, however, gave rise to various disputes and rumors among the residents of the Flower City. Some said that weightlessness could not exist, because something that never existed could not exist; others said that there could be weightlessness, because it always happens that at first something does not happen, and then it appears; still others said that weightlessness could have existed, but it might not have existed, but if it actually didn’t exist, then in fact there was something else, because it couldn’t be that there was nothing at all: after all It always happens that there is no smoke without fire.
Some of the most curious residents went to Znayka’s house and, seeing Donut with a bandaged nose in the yard, asked:
- Listen, Donut, is it true that you had weightlessness?
- Here it is, your weightlessness, on my nose! – Donut answered angrily.
The shorties laughed and went home. After such an answer, no one anymore believed the talk about weightlessness. In the evening, having gathered for tea, Znayka and his friends remembered what had happened that day. Everyone talked about their feelings and what they thought when the state of weightlessness appeared. And here’s what’s curious: everyone was sorry that weightlessness ended so quickly. Still, it was a very interesting adventure. Znayka was tempted to tell him that he had revealed the secret of weightlessness, but as soon as he looked at Donut’s bandaged nose, the desire to tell him disappeared by itself.
That night Znayka could not fall asleep for a long time: he kept thinking about what benefits a state of weightlessness could bring.
“Weightlessness is a huge force if you know how to approach it,” he reflected. – Using zero gravity, you can lift and transfer enormous weights. You can literally move mountains and turn them upside down. You can build a big rocket and fly it into space. After all, now, in order to accelerate a rocket to the required speed, you have to take a huge supply of fuel; if the rocket weighs nothing, then very little fuel will be needed, and instead of fuel reserves, you can take more passengers and more food for them. That’s when it will be possible to make a long expedition to the Moon, penetrate into its depths and, perhaps, even get acquainted with the lunar runts.”
Daydreaming, Znayka did not notice how he fell into sleep. And in his dream he dreamed of a space rocket, and the Moon, and lunar shorties, and many other interesting things.
And the next morning Znayka disappeared. He didn’t show up for breakfast, and when the short ones came to his room, they saw a note on the table with only three words: “To Sunny City,” and the signature: “Knowledgeable.” After reading the note, the shorties immediately realized that Znayka had left for Sunny City.
Znayka, as everyone knew well, was an unexpected little man. If any decision came to his mind, he never postponed its implementation. So it is this time. Waking up before dawn, when everyone was still sleeping, and deciding to go to Sunny City, he did not want to wake anyone up, but wrote a note and slowly left the house. Someone else in his place would have left a more detailed note, well, at least wrote: “I left for Sunny City,” and not just “To Sunny City,” but Znayka knew that the more words, the more confusion, and besides, he was I am sure that the words “To the Sunny City” could not mean anything other than that he left for the Sunny City.
About two months later a telegram came from Znayka: “Vintik, Shpuntik Sunny City.” Vintik and Shpuntik understood perfectly well what was required of them, and, instantly getting ready, they also left.
For some time there was no news from them, so the residents of the Flower City decided that they, together with Znayka, had completely moved to the Sunny City and would not return back.
Soon the shorties noticed that construction had begun in the neighborhood of the Flower City, not far from Cucumber Hill. Trucks loaded with building blocks made of lightweight foam plastic drove up here every now and then. Several short men in blue overalls assembled small, cozy one-story houses from these blocks. 
Toropyzhka was the first to run to find out what kind of construction this was. Other residents ran after him. To their surprise, they saw Vintik and Shpuntik among the short ones working.
- Hey, what are you doing? What will happen here? - Toropyzhka shouted.
“Space town,” answered Vintik.
– What is the Space City for?
“Znayka will come, he’ll tell you everything.”
And Dunno said with offense:
– Well, we couldn’t make the Space City ourselves?
Dunno looked as if all his life he had been doing nothing but building space towns.
“Don’t worry, there’s enough work for everyone,” Vintik told him. – Firstly, you need to plant flowers around the houses to make it beautiful; secondly, from the power plant to the Space City it is necessary to build an electrical line so that there is electricity; thirdly, it is necessary to make a road, pave the streets, install a water supply system, decorate the premises... You never know what else! 
Residents of the Flower City immediately got to work. Some worked to build roads, some installed poles for power lines, some planted flowers. Many found work in interior decoration of houses. Tube took charge of all the painting work: he composed paints, indicated what colors to paint the walls and roofs of houses.
Soon, a round concrete platform was made in the center of the Space City, on which they began to install the space rocket. Parts for this rocket were manufactured in the Solar City and delivered to the Space City on special tracked cargo trucks, which were distinguished by their very smooth running, so that the rocket parts could not be damaged or deformed during transportation. A special walking tower crane was brought for assembly. With the help of this crane, parts of the rocket were removed from the cargo carriers and put into place. The height of the rocket, however, was so great that its upper parts were no longer installed with the help of a tower crane, but with the help of a helicopter, which lifted the parts to the required height. The assembly of the rocket was carried out under the supervision of Fuchsia and Herring, who came to the Space City specifically for this purpose and settled in it. 
A few days later, the rocket assembly was completed. She stood in the middle of Space City, towering above the houses, like a huge cigar or like an upright airship. To protect against the harmful effects of air, water vapor and other gases, the outer shell of the rocket was made of heavy-duty stainless steel. Under this steel shell there was a second shell, made of a special, so-called cosmic plastic, the purpose of which was to protect the inside of the ship from the harmful effects of cosmic rays and radioactive radiation. Finally, inside the ship there was a third, thermally insulating shell made of thermoplastic, which helped maintain the required temperature inside the ship.
To propel the rocket and control it, there were three jet engines. The main, largest engine, which imparted forward motion to the rocket, was located in the tail section. The nozzle of this engine was directed vertically downwards. When the engine was running, heated gases burst out of the nozzle downward, due to which the counterforce, or, as it is otherwise called, the reactive force, pushed the rocket upward. 
At the top of the rocket, in the rotating head, a rotation motor was installed. The nozzle of this engine was mounted horizontally and could be rotated in any direction. If, for example, it was necessary to turn the rocket to the west, the engine nozzle would turn to the east. In this case, the heated gases escaped in an easterly direction, while the rocket itself was deflected to the west.
In the same head part of the rocket, a third, so-called braking engine was installed, the nozzle of which was directed vertically upward. When the braking engine was turned on, hot gases were thrown forward from the nozzle, due to which the reactive force could slow down the forward motion of the rocket and even stop it completely.
Inside, the rocket was divided into twelve cabins. Each cabin accommodated four travelers. Therefore, a total of forty-eight short people could go on a space voyage. A salon was installed in the central part of the rocket. In this salon, space travelers could gather to relax, discuss some issues, and also eat.
The rest of the space inside the rocket was used to construct so-called compartments. There was a food compartment here, designed to store food supplies. There was a chemical compartment that housed equipment to clean the air from accumulated carbon dioxide and enrich it with oxygen. There was a battery compartment in which batteries were installed that supplied electricity to electric motors, fans, refrigerators, as well as heating and lighting devices.
In the upper, most protected part of the rocket there was a control cabin, which housed the zero-gravity device invented by Znayka and the electronic control machine. This machine worked according to a pre-planned program and independently guided the ship along a given route, changing its speed and direction as necessary and landing in a given area of the Moon.
Next to the control cabin there was a so-called push-button cabin, on the door of which there was an inscription: “Entry prohibited.” There was only one small table in this booth, with a single button in the middle of it. By pressing this button, the spacecraft commander turned on the electronic control machine, and then the machine itself turned on the weightlessness device and all other instruments and did everything necessary for the correct flight of the spacecraft.
At the top of the rocket there was also an astronomical cabin equipped with a telescope, radar and other instruments for determining the location of the spacecraft in interplanetary space, a photo-cinema cabin equipped with photographic and film cameras for photographing the Moon, an analytical cabin in which it was possible to carry out chemical analyzes of minerals found on Moon. At the rear of the rocket there was a large warehouse in which a significant supply of seeds of various useful plants was stored: cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, turnips, watermelons, melons, cherries, plums, strawberries, raspberries, wheat, rye, buckwheat - everything that was suitable for shorties for food. Znayka decided to give these seeds to the lunatics, if, of course, the lunatics were discovered on the Moon and if they themselves did not have such plants.
In addition to cabins, cabins, compartments, a warehouse, and a salon, the rocket had many other utility rooms. The rocket was like a multi-story building, equipped with everything that could be needed for a normal life, and even an elevator that could take you to any floor.
When the rocket was completely assembled, anyone could get acquainted with its internal structure. As soon as there were forty-eight people willing, they were allowed inside the ship. There they could sit in the salon, lie on the bunks in the cabins, and look into all the corners. After inspection, each visitor had to put on a space suit. Without this, he could not exit the rocket. The exit from the rocket was equipped with a special photocell, which did not allow the door to be opened if the short man was not wearing a spacesuit.
Fuchsia and Herring were always in the rocket. They introduced visitors to the internal structure of the rocket, answered all questions and observed the operation of instruments that purified the air, ventilated the room, maintained the desired temperature, and so on. Dunno, who also managed to get into the rocket, asked Fuchsia and Herring about everything in great detail, and when he got out of the rocket, he waited for the next forty-eight people to come in and went with them again. During the day he visited the rocket several times. Fuchsia and Herring already recognized him and greeted him with smiles. But they didn't drive him away. Herring said that there is no need to drive anyone away: if someone wants to properly study the structure of the rocket, then this can only be useful.
Soon, next to the Space City, a large white building appeared in the form of a huge round porcelain bowl turned upside down. Above its entrance was written in large, beautiful letters: “Zero Gravity Pavilion.” Now everyone could see from their own experience that talk about weightlessness is not idle fiction, but the real truth. Everyone who entered the pavilion instantly lost weight and began to flounder helplessly in the air.
In the center of the pavilion there was a small cabin made of transparent plastic. This cabin housed a zero-gravity device. Znayka, who by this time had already returned to Flower City, strictly forbade anyone to enter the cabin and touch the device. Now this device was not just a ruler, but was enclosed in a dark blue oblong case made of durable fireproof and waterproof plastic. The approach of the magnet and the moon rock was carried out automatically in the device, that is, by pressing a button. Every morning, Znayka personally came to the pavilion and turned on the device, and in the evening he came again, carefully checked whether anyone was left in the pavilion, whether any short person was hanging from the ceiling in a state of weightlessness, and then turned off the device.
Some readers may not believe that the energy released by a moon rock and a small magnet could be so great that it defeated the force of gravity. However, after thinking carefully, these doubting readers themselves will understand that there is nothing surprising here. After all, the energy reserves inside matter are very large and truly inexhaustible. Now everyone familiar with physics knows that the energy reserve stored in a piece of matter the size of a penny can replace the energy obtained from burning tens of thousands of tons of coal or some other flammable substance. No one would have believed this either in those days when intra-atomic energy had not yet been discovered, but in our time this no longer surprises anyone.
It must also be said that the energy of the moonstone did not destroy weight at all, but only in a limited space, and it did not even destroy weight, but only shifted the so-called gravitational field to the sides. If gravity was not felt at all in the zero-gravity zone, then a so-called enhanced gravity belt was installed around this zone. This was felt by everyone who came close to the zero-gravity pavilion. Thus, there was nothing surprising in Znayka’s discovery. Everything in it was scientifically substantiated, which, of course, did not at all detract from the significance of this discovery.
Needless to say, the zero-gravity pavilion aroused great interest among the residents of the Flower City. Several days passed, and in the whole city it was impossible to find a short man who had not visited the pavilion at least once. Many even managed to visit several times, and as for Dunno, he did not leave the pavilion for whole days and felt like a fish in water.
One morning Dunno got up early and climbed into the pavilion so that no one could see. There he took a zero-gravity device and went with it to the river. For some reason, he wanted to see what the fish would do in the river when they found themselves in a state of weightlessness. It is unknown why such a thought entered his head. Maybe he began to think about fish, because he himself, like a fish, swam around the pavilion all day in a state of weightlessness.
Finding himself on the river bank, Dunno turned on the weightlessness device and began to look into the water. At the very first moment he noticed that weightlessness had a very strange effect on the behavior of the fish. Some of them sank tail down and twirled like ballerinas; others sank head down and also spun; still others floated upside down. However, after some time, many of them got used to the state of weightlessness and began to frolic in the water, as usual. But then one of the fish, trying to catch a fly hovering above the water, jumped out of the river and tumbled helplessly in the air. Now the force of gravity no longer pulled it down, and the fish, no matter how much it wanted, could not return to the river. Following the first, a second fish splashed out of the water. Not even five minutes had passed before fish, frogs, newts, swimming beetles and other aquatic life began to dance above the surface of the river, glistening in the sun.
While Dunno was conducting his “experiments” on the river, Znayka came to the pavilion to turn on the weightlessness device. Seeing that the device had disappeared from the cabin, Znayka was terribly scared.
-Where is the device? - he shouted worriedly. -Who took the device? Put it back now! 
But none of the short guys could tell him where the device was. Only Vintik and Shpuntik, who worked nearby, said that they saw Dunno early in the morning, who for some reason entered the pavilion, and then left towards the river. Having learned this, Znayka ran to the river at full speed. The rest of the short men rushed after him. Having run up Cucumber Hill, Znayka saw Dunno below, who was hovering above the river in a state of weightlessness.
- Here he is, Dunno! Here he is! - shouted the short ones running after Znayka.
Dunno heard screams. Turning around, he saw the enraged Znayka and the rest of the shorties who were running straight towards him. Frightened, he wanted to run away from them, but only fluttered helplessly in the air. Realizing that it was impossible to run in a state of weightlessness, he quickly pressed the button on the device and turned off the weightlessness. Having gained weight, he instantly flew down and splashed into the water with a bang. Water splashed in all directions.
- Save him! Save! He has a zero-gravity device! – Znayka screamed heart-rendingly and, running up to the river, threw himself into the water.
The short ones, without undressing, jumped into the water and swam to the middle of the river, where Dunno floundered helplessly. He had already begun to blow bubbles when Znayka arrived in time. Grabbing Dunno by the collar, Znayka dragged him to the shore. Then other short men swam up and began to help Znayka. Doctor Pilyulkin was already running to the river with his first aid kit. Seeing that the short men had dragged Dunno ashore, he shouted:
- Take off his shirt! Now I’ll give him artificial respiration!
Seeing Doctor Pilyulkin with his traveling first aid kit, Dunno jumped up and wanted to ask the question, but then Znayka grabbed his hair and shouted:
-Where is the zero-gravity device? Where did you put the device? You drowned the device, your donkey's head!
- Let me go! - Dunno squealed and began to kick his legs.
- Oh, so you’re still fighting! – Znayka wheezed. – You drowned the device and you’re still fighting! So I'll show you how to heat appliances!
And he pulled Dunno by the hair with such force that tears appeared in his eyes. In response, Dunno hit Znayka in the chest with his fist. Znayka’s breath was taken away, and he let go of Dunno’s hair from his hands. Feeling free, Dunno swooped down on the offender like a rooster, and they began to fight. The short ones rushed to separate them. Some held the hands of Znayka, and others held Dunno. Znayka struggled to get out of his hands, trying to kick Dunno, and shouted:
- How can we fly to the moon without an instrument now? Now everything is gone! Let me in, I’ll show him how to drown appliances in the river! 
Dunno also broke free from his hands and shouted:
- Come on, let me in! I'll give him the device!
He finally managed to free himself from the shorties, but Toropyzhka managed to grab him by the collar. Dunno rushed with such terrible force that he slipped out of his shirt, and then everyone saw how the weightlessness device, which had previously been lying in Dunno’s bosom, fell to the ground.
- Here it is, a zero-gravity device! - Doctor Pilyulkin shouted.
- Why didn’t you say that you had the device? – asked Toropyzhka.
- How could I tell when you flew at me like a crow? As soon as I saw that I was falling into the water, I immediately hid the device in my bosom, almost drowned because of it, and instead of saying thank you, they fought!
Znayka picked up the device from the ground and, angrily flashing his eyes at Dunno, said:
– You won’t fly to the moon for this!
“Well, fly yourself,” answered Dunno. – I really need your Moon!
- Talking to you only means losing your own dignity! - said Znayka and, without saying another word, left.
- Just think, what a great deal! - Dunno shouted after him. - Well, kiss your Moon! I can live without the moon!
The full version of the work was withdrawn at the request of the copyright holder (www.strelbooks.com).
This part of the work is posted for informational purposes.
We recommend that you read the full version at the link: https://www.litres.ru/nikolay-nosov/neznayka-na-lune-6/
Nikolai Nikolaevich Nosov
Dunno on the Moon
Chapter first
How Znayka defeated Professor Zvezdochkin
Two and a half years have passed since Dunno traveled to the Sunny City. Although for you and me this is not so much, but for little runts, two and a half years is a very long time. Having listened to the stories of Dunno, Knopochka and Pachkuli Pestrenky, many shorties also made a trip to the Sunny City, and when they returned, they decided to make some improvements at home. Flower City has changed since then so much that it is now unrecognizable. Many new, large and very beautiful houses appeared in it. According to the design of the architect Vertibutylkin, even two revolving buildings were built on Kolokolchikov Street. One is five-story, tower-type, with a spiral descent and a swimming pool around (by going down the spiral descent, one could dive straight into the water), the other is six-story, with swinging balconies, a parachute tower and a ferris wheel on the roof. A lot of cars, spiral vehicles, tube planes, aerohydromotos, tracked all-terrain vehicles and other various vehicles appeared on the streets.
And that's not all, of course. Residents of the Sunny City learned that the short guys from the Flower City were engaged in construction, and came to their aid: they helped them build several so-called industrial enterprises. According to the design of the engineer Klyopka, a large clothing factory was built, which produced a wide variety of clothing, from rubber bras to winter fur coats made of synthetic fiber. Now no one had to slog with a needle to sew the most ordinary trousers or jacket. At the factory, everything was done for short machines. Finished products, as in Sunny City, were distributed to stores, and there everyone took what they needed. All the concerns of the factory workers boiled down to coming up with new styles of clothes and making sure that nothing was produced that the public did not like.
Everyone was very pleased. The only one who suffered in this case was Donut. When Donut saw that he could now buy any thing he might need from the store, he began to wonder why he needed all that pile of suits that had accumulated in his home. All these costumes were also out of fashion, and they could not be worn anyway. Choosing a darker night, Donut tied his old suits in a huge knot, secretly took them out of the house and drowned them in the Cucumber River, and instead of them he got himself new suits from the stores. It ended up that his room turned into some kind of warehouse for ready-made clothes. The suits were in his closet, on the closet, on the table, under the table, on bookshelves, hanging on the walls, on the backs of chairs and even under the ceiling, on strings.
Such an abundance of woolen products in the house infested moths, and to prevent them from gnawing the suits, Donut had to poison them daily with mothballs, from which there was such a strong smell in the room that the unusual little man was knocked off his feet. The donut itself smelled of this stupefying smell, but he got so used to it that he even stopped noticing it. For others, however, the smell was very noticeable. As soon as Donut came to visit someone, the owners immediately began to feel dizzy from stupor. The donut was immediately driven away and all the windows and doors were quickly opened wide to ventilate the room, otherwise you could faint or go crazy. For the same reason, Donut didn’t even have the opportunity to play with the shorties in the yard. As soon as he went out into the yard, everyone around them began to spit and, holding their noses with their hands, rushed to run away from him in different directions without looking back. Nobody wanted to hang out with him. Needless to say, this was terribly offensive for Donut, and he had to take all the costumes he didn’t need to the attic.
However, that was not the main thing. The main thing was that Znayka also visited the Sunny City. There he met the little scientists Fuchsia and Herring, who at that time were preparing their second flight to the Moon. Znayka also got involved in the work of building a space rocket and, when the rocket was ready, made an interplanetary journey with Fuchsia and Herring. Having arrived on the Moon, our brave travelers examined one of the small lunar craters in the area of the lunar Sea of Clarity, visited the cave that was located in the center of this crater, and made observations of changes in gravity. On the Moon, as is known, gravity is much less than on Earth, and therefore observations of changes in gravity are of great scientific importance. Having spent about four hours on the moon. Znayka and his companions were forced to quickly set off on the return journey, since their air supplies were running out. Everyone knows that there is no air on the Moon and, in order not to suffocate, you should always take a supply of air with you. In a condensed form, of course.
Returning to Flower City, Znayka talked a lot about his journey. His stories were of great interest to everyone, and especially to the astronomer Steklyashkin, who had observed the Moon more than once through a telescope. Using his telescope, Steklyashkin was able to see that the surface of the Moon was not flat, but mountainous, and many of the mountains on the Moon were not like those on Earth, but for some reason were round, or rather, ring-shaped. Scientists call these ring mountains lunar craters, or circuses. To understand what such a lunar circus, or crater, looks like, imagine a huge circular field, twenty, thirty, fifty, or even a hundred kilometers across, and imagine that this huge circular field is surrounded by an earthen rampart or mountain only two or three kilometers high , - so you get a lunar circus, or a crater. There are thousands of such craters on the Moon. There are small ones - about two kilometers, but there are also gigantic ones - up to one hundred and forty kilometers in diameter.
Many scientists are interested in the question of how lunar craters were formed and where they came from. In Sunny City, all the astronomers even quarreled among themselves, trying to resolve this complex issue, and were divided into two halves. One half claims that the lunar craters came from volcanoes, the other half says that the lunar craters are traces of the fall of large meteorites. The first half of astronomers are therefore called followers of the volcanic theory or simply volcanists, and the second - followers of the meteorite theory or meteorites.
Znayka, however, did not agree with either the volcanic or meteorite theory. Even before traveling to the Moon, he created his own theory of the origin of lunar craters. Once, together with Steklyashkin, he observed the Moon through a telescope, and it struck him that the lunar surface was very similar to the surface of a well-baked pancake with its spongy holes. After that, Znayka often went to the kitchen and watched the pancakes being baked. He noticed that while the pancake is liquid, its surface is completely smooth, but as it heats up in the frying pan, bubbles of heated steam begin to appear on its surface. Having appeared on the surface of the pancake, the bubbles burst, as a result of which shallow holes are formed on the pancake, which remain when the dough is properly baked and loses its viscosity.
Znayka even wrote a book in which he wrote that the surface of the Moon was not always hard and cold as it is now. Once upon a time, the Moon was a fiery liquid, that is, heated to a molten state, a ball. Gradually, however, the surface of the Moon cooled and became no longer liquid, but viscous, like dough. It was still very hot from the inside, so hot gases burst to the surface in the form of huge bubbles. Having reached the surface of the Moon, these bubbles, of course, burst. But while the surface of the Moon was still quite liquid, the traces of the bursting bubbles were delayed and disappeared, leaving no trace, just as bubbles on water during rain leave no trace. But
Two and a half years have passed since Dunno traveled to the Sunny City. Although for you and me this is not so much, but for little runts, two and a half years is a very long time. Having listened to the stories of Dunno, Knopochka and Pachkuli Pestrenky, many shorties also made a trip to the Sunny City, and when they returned, they decided to make some improvements at home. Flower City has changed since then so much that it is now unrecognizable. Many new, large and very beautiful houses appeared in it. According to the design of the architect Vertibutylkin, even two revolving buildings were built on Kolokolchikov Street. One is five-story, tower-type, with a spiral descent and a swimming pool around (by going down the spiral descent, one could dive straight into the water), the other is six-story, with swinging balconies, a parachute tower and a ferris wheel on the roof. A lot of cars, spiral vehicles, tube planes, aerohydromotos, tracked all-terrain vehicles and other various vehicles appeared on the streets.
And that's not all, of course. Residents of the Sunny City learned that the short guys from the Flower City were engaged in construction, and came to their aid: they helped them build several so-called industrial enterprises. According to the design of the engineer Klyopka, a large clothing factory was built, which produced a wide variety of clothing, from rubber bras to winter fur coats made of synthetic fiber. Now no one had to slog with a needle to sew the most ordinary trousers or jacket. At the factory, everything was done for short machines. Finished products, as in Sunny City, were distributed to stores, and there everyone took what they needed. All the concerns of the factory workers boiled down to coming up with new styles of clothes and making sure that nothing was produced that the public did not like.
Everyone was very pleased. The only one who suffered in this case was Donut. When Donut saw that he could now buy any thing he might need from the store, he began to wonder why he needed all that pile of suits that had accumulated in his home. All these costumes were also out of fashion, and they could not be worn anyway. Choosing a darker night, Donut tied his old suits in a huge knot, secretly took them out of the house and drowned them in the Cucumber River, and instead of them he got himself new suits from the stores. It ended up that his room turned into some kind of warehouse for ready-made clothes. The suits were in his closet, on the closet, on the table, under the table, on bookshelves, hanging on the walls, on the backs of chairs and even under the ceiling, on strings.
Such an abundance of woolen products in the house infested moths, and to prevent them from gnawing the suits, Donut had to poison them daily with mothballs, from which there was such a strong smell in the room that the unusual little man was knocked off his feet. The donut itself smelled of this stupefying smell, but he got so used to it that he even stopped noticing it. For others, however, the smell was very noticeable. As soon as Donut came to visit someone, the owners immediately began to feel dizzy from stupor. The donut was immediately driven away and all the windows and doors were quickly opened wide to ventilate the room, otherwise you could faint or go crazy. For the same reason, Donut didn’t even have the opportunity to play with the shorties in the yard. As soon as he went out into the yard, everyone around them began to spit and, holding their noses with their hands, rushed to run away from him in different directions without looking back. Nobody wanted to hang out with him. Needless to say, this was terribly offensive for Donut, and he had to take all the costumes he didn’t need to the attic.
However, that was not the main thing. The main thing was that Znayka also visited the Sunny City. There he met the little scientists Fuchsia and Herring, who at that time were preparing their second flight to the Moon. Znayka also got involved in the work of building a space rocket and, when the rocket was ready, made an interplanetary journey with Fuchsia and Herring. Having arrived on the Moon, our brave travelers examined one of the small lunar craters in the area of the lunar Sea of Clarity, visited the cave that was located in the center of this crater, and made observations of changes in gravity. On the Moon, as is known, gravity is much less than on Earth, and therefore observations of changes in gravity are of great scientific importance. Having spent about four hours on the moon. Znayka and his companions were forced to quickly set off on the return journey, since their air supplies were running out. Everyone knows that there is no air on the Moon and, in order not to suffocate, you should always take a supply of air with you. In a condensed form, of course.
Returning to Flower City, Znayka talked a lot about his journey. His stories were of great interest to everyone, and especially to the astronomer Steklyashkin, who had observed the Moon more than once through a telescope. Using his telescope, Steklyashkin was able to see that the surface of the Moon was not flat, but mountainous, and many of the mountains on the Moon were not like those on Earth, but for some reason were round, or rather, ring-shaped. Scientists call these ring mountains lunar craters, or circuses. To understand what such a lunar circus, or crater, looks like, imagine a huge circular field, twenty, thirty, fifty, or even a hundred kilometers across, and imagine that this huge circular field is surrounded by an earthen rampart or mountain only two or three kilometers high , - and so you get a lunar circus, or a crater. There are thousands of such craters on the Moon. There are small ones - about two kilometers, but there are also gigantic ones - up to one hundred and forty kilometers in diameter.
Many scientists are interested in the question of how lunar craters were formed and where they came from. In Sunny City, all the astronomers even quarreled among themselves, trying to resolve this complex issue, and were divided into two halves. One half claims that the lunar craters came from volcanoes, the other half says that the lunar craters are traces of the fall of large meteorites. The first half of astronomers are therefore called followers of the volcanic theory or simply volcanists, and the second - followers of the meteorite theory or meteorites.
Znayka, however, did not agree with either the volcanic or meteorite theory. Even before traveling to the Moon, he created his own theory of the origin of lunar craters. Once, together with Steklyashkin, he observed the Moon through a telescope, and it struck him that the lunar surface was very similar to the surface of a well-baked pancake with its spongy holes. After that, Znayka often went to the kitchen and watched the pancakes being baked. He noticed that while the pancake is liquid, its surface is completely smooth, but as it heats up in the frying pan, bubbles of heated steam begin to appear on its surface. Having appeared on the surface of the pancake, the bubbles burst, as a result of which shallow holes are formed on the pancake, which remain when the dough is properly baked and loses its viscosity.
Znayka even wrote a book in which he wrote that the surface of the Moon was not always hard and cold as it is now. Once upon a time, the Moon was a fiery liquid, that is, heated to a molten state, a ball. Gradually, however, the surface of the Moon cooled and became no longer liquid, but viscous, like dough. It was still very hot from the inside, so hot gases burst to the surface in the form of huge bubbles. Having reached the surface of the Moon, these bubbles, of course, burst. But while the surface of the Moon was still quite liquid, the traces of the bursting bubbles were delayed and disappeared, leaving no trace, just as bubbles on water during rain leave no trace. But when the surface of the Moon cooled so much that it became thick like dough or like molten glass, traces of the bursting bubbles no longer disappeared, but remained in the form of rings protruding above the surface. Cooling more and more, these rings finally hardened. At first they were smooth, like frozen circles on the water, and then they gradually collapsed and eventually became like those lunar ring mountains, or craters, that everyone can observe through a telescope.
Two and a half years have passed since Dunno traveled to the Sunny City. Although for you and me this is not so much, but for little runts, two and a half years is a very long time. Having listened to the stories of Dunno, Knopochka and Pachkuli Pestrenky, many shorties also made a trip to the Sunny City, and when they returned, they decided to make some improvements at home. Flower City has changed since then so much that it is now unrecognizable. Many new, large and very beautiful houses appeared in it. According to the design of the architect Vertibutylkin, even two revolving buildings were built on Kolokolchikov Street. One is five-story, tower-type, with a spiral descent and a swimming pool around (by going down the spiral descent, one could dive straight into the water), the other is six-story, with swinging balconies, a parachute tower and a ferris wheel on the roof. A lot of cars, spiral vehicles, tube planes, aerohydromotos, tracked all-terrain vehicles and other various vehicles appeared on the streets.
And that's not all, of course. Residents of the Sunny City learned that the short guys from the Flower City were engaged in construction, and came to their aid: they helped them build several so-called industrial enterprises. According to the design of the engineer Klyopka, a large clothing factory was built, which produced a wide variety of clothing, from rubber bras to winter fur coats made of synthetic fiber. Now no one had to slog with a needle to sew the most ordinary trousers or jacket. At the factory, everything was done for short machines. Finished products, as in Sunny City, were distributed to stores, and there everyone took what they needed. All the concerns of the factory workers boiled down to coming up with new styles of clothes and making sure that nothing was produced that the public did not like.
Everyone was very pleased. The only one who suffered in this case was Donut. When Donut saw that he could now buy any thing he might need from the store, he began to wonder why he needed all that pile of suits that had accumulated in his home. All these costumes were also out of fashion, and they could not be worn anyway. Choosing a darker night, Donut tied his old suits in a huge knot, secretly took them out of the house and drowned them in the Cucumber River, and instead of them he got himself new suits from the stores. It ended up that his room turned into some kind of warehouse for ready-made clothes. The suits were in his closet, on the closet, on the table, under the table, on bookshelves, hanging on the walls, on the backs of chairs and even under the ceiling, on strings.
Such an abundance of woolen products in the house infested moths, and to prevent them from gnawing the suits, Donut had to poison them daily with mothballs, from which there was such a strong smell in the room that the unusual little man was knocked off his feet. The donut itself smelled of this stupefying smell, but he got so used to it that he even stopped noticing it. For others, however, the smell was very noticeable. As soon as Donut came to visit someone, the owners immediately began to feel dizzy from stupor. The donut was immediately driven away and all the windows and doors were quickly opened wide to ventilate the room, otherwise you could faint or go crazy. For the same reason, Donut didn’t even have the opportunity to play with the shorties in the yard. As soon as he went out into the yard, everyone around them began to spit and, holding their noses with their hands, rushed to run away from him in different directions without looking back. Nobody wanted to hang out with him. Needless to say, this was terribly offensive for Donut, and he had to take all the costumes he didn’t need to the attic.
However, that was not the main thing. The main thing was that Znayka also visited the Sunny City. There he met the little scientists Fuchsia and Herring, who at that time were preparing their second flight to the Moon. Znayka also got involved in the work of building a space rocket and, when the rocket was ready, made an interplanetary journey with Fuchsia and Herring. Having arrived on the Moon, our brave travelers examined one of the small lunar craters in the area of the lunar Sea of Clarity, visited the cave that was located in the center of this crater, and made observations of changes in gravity. On the Moon, as is known, gravity is much less than on Earth, and therefore observations of changes in gravity are of great scientific importance. Having spent about four hours on the moon. Znayka and his companions were forced to quickly set off on the return journey, since their air supplies were running out. Everyone knows that there is no air on the Moon and, in order not to suffocate, you should always take a supply of air with you. In a condensed form, of course.
Returning to Flower City, Znayka talked a lot about his journey. His stories were of great interest to everyone, and especially to the astronomer Steklyashkin, who had observed the Moon more than once through a telescope. Using his telescope, Steklyashkin was able to see that the surface of the Moon was not flat, but mountainous, and many of the mountains on the Moon were not like those on Earth, but for some reason were round, or rather, ring-shaped. Scientists call these ring mountains lunar craters, or circuses. To understand what such a lunar circus, or crater, looks like, imagine a huge circular field, twenty, thirty, fifty, or even a hundred kilometers across, and imagine that this huge circular field is surrounded by an earthen rampart or mountain only two or three kilometers high , - and so you get a lunar circus, or a crater. There are thousands of such craters on the Moon. There are small ones - about two kilometers, but there are also gigantic ones - up to one hundred and forty kilometers in diameter.
Many scientists are interested in the question of how lunar craters were formed and where they came from. In Sunny City, all the astronomers even quarreled among themselves, trying to resolve this complex issue, and were divided into two halves. One half claims that the lunar craters came from volcanoes, the other half says that the lunar craters are traces of the fall of large meteorites. The first half of astronomers are therefore called followers of the volcanic theory or simply volcanists, and the second - followers of the meteorite theory or meteorites.
Znayka, however, did not agree with either the volcanic or meteorite theory. Even before traveling to the Moon, he created his own theory of the origin of lunar craters. Once, together with Steklyashkin, he observed the Moon through a telescope, and it struck him that the lunar surface was very similar to the surface of a well-baked pancake with its spongy holes. After that, Znayka often went to the kitchen and watched the pancakes being baked. He noticed that while the pancake is liquid, its surface is completely smooth, but as it heats up in the frying pan, bubbles of heated steam begin to appear on its surface. Having appeared on the surface of the pancake, the bubbles burst, as a result of which shallow holes are formed on the pancake, which remain when the dough is properly baked and loses its viscosity.
Znayka even wrote a book in which he wrote that the surface of the Moon was not always hard and cold as it is now. Once upon a time, the Moon was a fiery liquid, that is, heated to a molten state, a ball. Gradually, however, the surface of the Moon cooled and became no longer liquid, but viscous, like dough. It was still very hot from the inside, so hot gases burst to the surface in the form of huge bubbles. Having reached the surface of the Moon, these bubbles, of course, burst. But while the surface of the Moon was still quite liquid, the traces of the bursting bubbles were delayed and disappeared, leaving no trace, just as bubbles on water during rain leave no trace. But when the surface of the Moon cooled so much that it became thick like dough or like molten glass, traces of the bursting bubbles no longer disappeared, but remained in the form of rings protruding above the surface. Cooling more and more, these rings finally hardened. At first they were smooth, like frozen circles on the water, and then they gradually collapsed and eventually became like those lunar ring mountains, or craters, that everyone can observe through a telescope.