CHAPTER 1 OF A JOURNEY IN OTHER WORLDS The protracted struggle between science and the classics appears to be drawing to a close, with victory about to perch on the banner of science, as a perusal of almost any university or college catalog shows. While a limited amount of both Greek and Latin is important for the correct use of our language, the amount till recently required in my judgment has been absurdly out of proportion to the intrinsic value of these branches, or perhaps more correctly, roots of study. The classics have been thoroughly and painfully threshed out, and it seems impossible that anything new can be unearthed. We may equal the performances of the past, but there is no opportunity to surpass them or produce anything original. Even the much-vaunted mental training argument is beginning to pawl, for would not anything equally difficult give as good developing results, while by learning a live matter we kill two birds with one stone? There can be no question that there are many forces and influences in nature whose existence we have as yet little more than suspect. How much more interesting it would be if, instead of reiterating our past achievements, the magazines and literature of the period should devote their consideration to what we do not know. It is only through investigation and research that inventions come. We may not find what we are in search of, but may discover something of perhaps greater moment. It is probable that the principal glories of the future will be found in as yet but little trodden pasts, and as Professor Cortland justly says at the close of his history, next to religion we have most to hope from science. Book 1. Chapter 1. Jupiter. Jupiter, the magnificent planet with a diameter of 86,500 miles, having 119 times the surface and 1,300 times the volume of the Earth lay beneath them. They had often seen it in the terrestrial sky, emitting its strong steady ray and had thought of that far away planet about which till recently so little had been known, and a burning desire had possessed them to go to it and explore its mysteries. Now, thanks to Apogee, the force whose existence the ancients suspected, but of which they knew so little all things were possible. Aral manipulated the silk-covered glass handles, and the Callisto moved on slowly in comparison with its recent speed, and all remained glued to their telescopes as they peered through the rushing clouds, now forming and now dissolving before their eyes. What transports of delight, what ecstatic bliss was theirs? Men had discovered and mastered the secret of Apogee, and now, little lower than the angels, they could soar through space, leaving even planets and comets behind. Is it not strange, said Dr. Cortland, that though it has been known for over a century that bodies charged with unlike electricities attract one another, and those charged with like repel, no one thought of utilizing the counterpart of gravitation? In the 19th century, savants and Indian jugglers performed experiments with their disciples and masses of inert matter by causing them to remain without visible support at some distance from the ground, and while many of these, of course, were quacks, some were on the right track, though they did not push their research. President Bear Warden and Errol ascended. They were steering for an apparently hard part of the planet's surface, about a degree and a half north of its equator. Since Jupiter's axis is almost at right angles to the plane of its orbit, said the doctor, being inclined only about one degree and a half, instead of 23 and a half, as was the Earth's till nearly so recently, it will be possible for us to have any climate we wish, from constantly warm at the equator, to constantly cool or cold as we approach the poles, without being troubled by extremes of winter and summer. Until the Callisto entered the planet's atmosphere, its five moons appeared like silver shields against the black sky, but now things were looking more terrestrial, and they began to feel at home. Bear Warden put down his notebook, and Errol returned a photograph to his pocket, while all three gazed at their new abode. Beneath them was a vast continent, variegated by chains of lakes and rivers stretching away in all directions except toward the equator, where lay a placid ocean as far as their telescopes could pierce. To the eastward were towering and massive mountains, and along the southern border of the continent, smoking volcanoes, while toward the west they saw forests, gently rolling plains, and tablelands that would have satisfied a poet or set an agriculturalist's heart at rest. How I would like to mine those hills per copper, or drain the swamps to the south, exclaimed Colonel Bear Warden, the Lake Superior mines and the reclamation of the Florida Everglades would be nothing to this. Any inhabitants we may find here have so much land at their disposal that they will not need to drain swamps on account of pressure of population for some time put in the doctor. I hope we may find some four-legged inhabitants at Errol, thinking of their explosive magazine rifles. If Jupiter is passing through its Jurassic or Mesozoic period, there must be any amount of some kind of gain. Just then a quiver shook the callisto, and glancing to the right they noticed one of the volcanoes in violent eruption. Smoke filled the air in clouds, hot stones, and then floods of lava poured from the crater, while even the walls of the hermetically sealed callisto could not arrest the thunderous crashes that made the interior of the car resound. Had we not better move on, said Bear Warden, and accordingly they went toward the woods they had first seen. Finding a firm strip of land between the forest and an arm of the sea, they gently grounded the callisto, and not being altogether sure how the atmosphere of their new abode would suit terrestrial lungs, or what its pressure to the square inch might be, they cautiously opened a porthole, a crack. Retaining their hold upon it with its screw. Instantly there was a rush and a whistling sound as of escaping steam, while in a few moments their barometer stood at thirty-six inches, whereupon they closed the opening. I fancy, said Dr. Cortland, we had better wait now till we become accustomed to this pressure. I do not believe it will go much higher for the window made but little resistance when we shut it. Finding they were not inconvenienced by a pressure but little greater than that of a deep coal mine, they again opened the port, whereupon their barometer showed a further rise to forty-two, and then remained stationary. Finding also that the chemical composition of the air suited them and that they had no difficulty in breathing, the pressure being the same as that sustained by a diver in fourteen feet of water, they opened the door and emerged. They knew fairly well what to expect and were not disturbed by their new conditions. Though they had apparently gained a good deal of weight as a result of their ethereal journey, this did not incomode them. For though Jupiter's volume is thirteen hundred times that of the earth, on account of its lesser specific gravity, it has but three hundred times the mass, i.e. it would weigh but three hundred times as much. Further, although a cubic foot of water or anything else weighs two and a half times as much as on earth, objects near the equator on account of Jupiter's rapid rotation weigh one-fifth less than they do at the poles. By reason of the centrifugal force. Influenced by this fact, and also because they were 483 million miles from the sun, instead of 92 million as on earth, they had steered for the northern limit of Jupiter's tropics. And in addition to this, they could easily apply the apragetic power in any degree to themselves when beyond the limits of the Callisto, and so be attracted to any extent from twice the pull they received from gravitation on earth to almost nothing. Bearwarden and Arrel shouldered their rifles, while Dr. Cortland took a repeating shotgun with number four shot, and having also some hunting eyes and a sextant, all three set out in a northwesterly direction. The ground was rather soft, and a warm vapor seemed to rise from it. To the east, the sky was veiled by dense clouds of smoke from the towering volcanoes, while on their left the far seemed to extend without limit. Clumps of huge ferns were scattered about, and the ground was covered with curious tracks. Jupiter is evidently passing through a carboniferous or Devonian period, such as existed on earth, though, if consistent with its size, it should be on a vastly larger scale, said the doctor. I never believed in the theory, he continued, that the larger the planet, the smaller should be its inhabitants, and always considered it a makeshift put forward in the absence of definite knowledge, the idea being apparently that the weight of very large creatures would be too great for their strength. Of the fact that mastodons and creatures far larger than any now living on earth existed there, we have absolute proof, though gravitation must have been practically the same then as now. Just here they came upon a number of huge bones, evidently the remains of some Sarian, and many times the size of a grown crocodile. On passing a growth of most luxuriant vegetation, they saw a half dozen sac-like objects, and drawing nearer, noticed that the tops began to swell, and at the same time became lighter in color. Just as the doctor was about to investigate one of them with his duck shot, the enormously inflated tops of the creatures collapsed with a loud report, and the entire group soared away. When about to alight forty yards off, they distended, membranous folds in the manner of wings, which checked their descent, and on touching the ground remained where they were without rebound. We expected to find all kinds of reptiles and birds, exclaimed the doctor, but I do not know how we should class those creatures, they seemed to have pneumatic feet and legs, for their motion was certainly not produced like that of frogs. When the party came up with them, the heads again began to swell. I will perforate the air chamber of one, said Colonel Bearwarden, withdrawing the explosive cartridge from the barrel of his rifle, and substituting one with a solid ball. This will doubtless disable one so that we can examine it. Just as they were about to rise, he shot the largest through the neck, all but the wounded one soared off, while Bearwarden, Errol, and Cortland approached to examine it more closely. You see, said Cortland, this vertebrae, for that is as definitely as we can yet describe it, forces a great pressure of air into its head and neck, which by the action of its valves it must allow to rush into its very rudimentary lower extremities, distending them with such violence that the body is shot upward and forward. You may have noticed the tightly inflated portion underneath as they left the ground. While speaking, he had moved rather near, when suddenly a partially concealed mouth opened, showing the unmistakable tongue and fangs of a serpent. It emitted a hissing sound, and the small eyes gleamed maliciously. Do you believe it is a poisonous species? asked Errol. I suspect it is, replied the doctor, for though it is doubtless able to leap with great accuracy upon its prey, we saw it took some time to recharge the upper air chamber, so that were it not armed with poison glands, it would fall an easy victim to its more powerful and swifter contemporaries, and would soon become extinct. As it will be unable to spring for some time, said Bairwarden, we may as well save it the disappointment of trying, and snapping the used shell from his rifle, he fired an explosive ball into the reptile, whereupon about half the body disappeared, while a sickening odor arose. Although the sun was still far above the horizon, the rapidity with which it was descending showed that the short night of less than five hours would soon be upon them, and though short it might be very dark, for they were in the tropics, and the sun, going down perpendicularly, must also pass completely around the globe, instead of, as in northern latitudes on earth and summer, approaching the horizon obliquely, and not going far below it. A slight and diffused sound here seemed to rise from the ground, all about them, for which they could not account. Presently it became louder, and as the sun touched the horizon, it poured forth in prolonged strains. The large trumpet-shaped lilies, reeds, and heliotropes seemed fairly to throb as they raised their anthem to the sky, and the setting sun, while the air grew dark with clouds of birds that gradually alighted on the ground, until, as the chorus grew fainter and gradually ceased, they flew back to their nests. The three companions had stood astonished while this act was played. The doctor then spoke, This is the most marvelous development of nature I have seen, for its wonderful divergence from, and yet analogy to, what takes place on earth. You know our flowers offer honey, as it were, as baked insects, that in eating or collecting it they may catch the pollen on their legs, and so carry it to other flowers, perhaps of the opposite sex. Here flowers evidently appeal to the sense of hearing instead of taste, and make use of birds, of which there are enormous numbers, instead of winged insects, of which I have seen none, one being perhaps the natural result of the other. The flowers have become singers by long practice, or else, those that were most musical having had the best chance to reproduce, we have a neat illustration of the survival of the fittest. The sound is doubtless produced by a shrinking of the fibers as the sun withdraws its heat, in which case we may expect another song at sunrise, when the same result will be affected by their expanding. Searching for a camping place, in which to pass the coming hours, they saw lights flitting about like will of the wisps, but brighter and intermittent. They seem to be as bright as sixteen candle-power lamps, but the light is yellower, and appears to emanate from a comparatively large surface, certainly nine or ten inches square, said the doctor. They soon gave up the chase, however, for the lights were continually moving and frequently went out. While grouping in the growing darkness, they came upon a browned object about the size of a small dog, and close to the ground. It flew off with a humming insect sound, and as it did so, showed the brilliant phosphorescent glow they had observed. That is a good-sized firefly, said Bear Warden. Evidently, the insects here are on the same scale as everything else. They are like the fireflies in Cuba, which the Cubans are said to put into a glass box, and get light enough from to read by. Here they would need only one, if it could be induced to give its light continuously. Having found an open space on high ground, they sat down, and Bear Warden struck his repeater, which for convenience had been arranged for Jupiter time, dividing the day into ten hours, beginning at noon, midnight, being, therefore, five o'clock. Twenty minutes past four, said he, which would correspond to about a quarter to eleven on earth. As the sun rises at half past seven, it will be dark about three hours, for the time between dawn and daylight will, of course, be as short as that which we have just experienced between sunset and night. If we say here long to the doctor, I suppose we shall become accustomed, like sailors, to taking our four, or in this case, five hours on duty, and five hours off. Or, at Erol, we can sleep ten consecutive hours, and take the next ten for exploring and hunting, having the sun for one half the time, and the moons for the other. Bear Warden and Cortland now rolled themselves in their blankets, and were soon asleep, while Erol, whose turn it was to watch till the moons rose, for they had not yet enough confidence in their new domain to sleep in darkness simultaneously, leaned his back against the rock and lighted his pipe. In the distance he saw the torrents of fiery lava from the volcanoes reflected in the sky, and faintly heard their thunderous crashes, while the fireflies twinkled unconcertedly in the hollow, and the night winds swayed the fern-like branches. Then he gazed at the earth, which but little above the horizon, shone with a faint but steady ray, and with his mind's eye ran beyond his natural vision, while he pictured to himself the girl of his heart, wishing that by some communion of spirits he might convey his thoughts to her, and receive hers. It was now the first week of January on earth. He could almost see her house, and the snow-clad trees in the park, and knew that at that hour she was dressing for dinner, and hoped and believed that he was in her heart, while he thus mused one moon after another rose, each at a different phase, till three were at once in the sky. Adjusting the electric protection, wires that were to paralyze any creature that attempted to come within the circle, and would arouse them by ringing a bell, he knocked the ashes from his pipe, rolled himself in a blanket, and was soon asleep beside his friends. This is the end of Chapter 1 in Book 1 of A Journey in Other Worlds. Recording by Tom Weiss. This is Chapter 2, Book 1 of A Journey in Other Worlds. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Tom Weiss. A Journey in Other Worlds. Antecedental. Come in, sounded a voice, as Dr. Cortland and Dick Errol tapped at the door of the president of the Terrestrial Access Straightening Company's private office on the morning of the 21st of June, A.D. 2000. Colonel Bear Warden sat at his capacious desk, the shadows passing over his face as April clouds flit across the sun. He was a handsome man, and young for the important post he filled, being, scarcely 40, a graduate of West Point, with great executive ability, and a wonderful engineer. Sit down, chapiste, said he. We have still a half hour before I begin to read the report I am to make to the stockholders and representatives of all the governments, which is now ready. I know you smoke, passing a box of Havana's to the professor. Professor Cortland, L.L.D., United States government expert, appointed to examine the company's calculations, was about 50, with a high forehead, grayish hair, and quick gray eyes, a geologist and astronomer, and altogether as able a man in his own way as Colonel Bear Warden in his. Richard Errol, a large stockholder and one of the honorary vice presidents in the company, was about 30, a university man, by nature a scientist, engaged to one of the prettiest society girls, who was then a student at Vassar in the beautiful town of Fokipsi. Knowing the way you carry things in your mind, and the difficulty of rattling you, said Cortland, we have dropped in on our way to hear the speech that I would not miss for a fortune. Let us know if we bother you. Impossible, dear boy, replied the president genially. Since I survived your official investigations, I think I deserve some of your attention informally. Here are my final examinations, said Cortland, handing Bear Warden a roll of papers. I have been over all your figures and testified to their accuracy in the appendix I have added. So they sat and chatted about the enterprise that interested Cortland and Errol almost as much as Bear Warden himself. As the clock struck eleven, the president of the company put on his hat and, saying au revoir to his friends, crossed the street to the opera house, in which he was to read a report that would be copied in all the great journals and heard over thousands of miles of wire in every part of the globe. When he arrived, the vast building was already filled with the distinguished company, representing the greatest intelligence, wealth, and powers of the world. Bear Warden went in by the stage entrance, exchanging greetings as he did so with officers of the company and directors who had come to hear him. Cortland and Errol entered by the regular door, the former going to the government representatives box, the latter to join his fiance, Sylvia Preston, who was there with her mother. Bear Warden had a role of manuscript at hand, but so well did he know his speech that he scarcely glanced at it. After being introduced by the chairman of the meeting and seeing that his audience was all attention, he began, holding himself erect, his clear, powerful voice, making every part of the building ring. This is the end of Chapter 2 in Book 1 of A Journey in Other Worlds. Recording by Tom Weiss. This is Chapter 3, Book 1 of A Journey in Other Worlds. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Tom Weiss. A Journey in Other Worlds. Chapter 3. President Bear Warden's speech. To the bondholders and stockholders of the Terrestrial Access Straightening Company and representatives of earthly governments. Gentlemen, you know that the objects of this company are to straighten the access of the earth, to combine the extreme heat of summer with the intense cold of winter and produce a uniform temperature for each degree of latitude the year round. At present, the earth's access, that is, the line passing through its center and the two poles is inclined to the ecliptic about 23 and a half degrees. Our summer is produced by the northern hemisphere's leaning at that angle towards the sun and our winter by its turning that much from it. In one case, the sun's rays are caused to shine more perpendicularly and, in the other, more obliquely. This wobbling, like that of a top, is the sole cause of the seasons. Since owing to the eccentricity of our orbit, the earth is actually 1500,000 miles nearer the sun during our winter in the northern hemisphere than in summer. That there is no limit to a planet's inclination and that inclination is not essential, we have astronomical proof. Venus' access is inclined to the plane of her orbit 75 degrees so that the Arctic circle comes within 15 degrees of the equator and the tropics also extend to latitude 75 degrees or within 15 degrees of the poles producing great extremes of heat and cold. Venus is made still more difficult of habitation by the fact that she rotates on her axis in the same time that she revolves about the sun, in the same way that the moon does about the earth so that one side must be perpetually frozen while the other is parched. In Uranus, we see the axis till it still further so that the Arctic circle descends to the equator. The most varied climate must therefore prevail during its year, whose length exceeds 81 of hours. The axis of Mars is inclined about 28 and two-thirds degrees to the plane of its orbit, consequently its seasons must be very similar to ours, the extremes of heat and cold being somewhat greater. In Jupiter, we have an illustration of a planet whose axis is almost at right angles to the plane of its orbit being inclined but about a degree and a half. The hypothetical inhabitants of this majestic planet must therefore have perpetual summer at the equator, eternal winter at the poles and in the temperate regions ever lasting spring. On account of the straightness of the axis, however, even the polar inhabitants if there are any are not oppressed by a six months night for all except those at the very pole have a sunrise and a sunset every ten hours, the exact day being nine hours, 55 minutes and 28 seconds. The warmth of the tropics is also tempered by the high winds that must result from the rapid whirl on its axis. Every object at the equator being carried around by this at the rate of 27,600 miles an hour or over 3,000 miles farther than the Earth's equator moves in 24 hours. The inclination of the axis of our own planet has also frequently considerably exceeded that of Mars and again has been but little greater than Jupiter's at least. This is by all odds the most possible inclination of the numerous glacial periods through which our globe has passed and of the recurring mild spells probably lasting thousands of years in which elephants mastodons and other semi-tropical vertebrate roamed in Siberia some of which died so recently that their flesh preserved by the cold has been devoured by the dogs of modern explorers. It is true that the inclining of the axis of Jupiter, Venus, the Earth and the other planets is now fixed. In some cases it is known to be changing. As long ago as 1890, Major General A.W. Dresen of the British Army showed in a work entitled Untrodden Ground in Astronomy and Geology that as a result of the second rotation of the Earth of its axis was changing. It having been 28°, 28 minutes, 23 seconds on January 1, 1750, 23°, 27 minutes, 55.3 seconds on January 1, 1800 and 23°, 27 minutes, 30.9 seconds on January 1, 1850. And by calculation 110 years ago showed that in 1900, 100 years ago that is, it would be 23°, 27 minutes and 8.8 seconds. This natural straightening is, of course, going on and we are merely about to anticipate it. When this improvement was mooted all agreed that the extremes of heat and cold could well be spared. Balance those of summer against those of winter by partially straightening the axis. Reduce the inclination from 23°, 30 minutes to about 15°, but let us stop there, many said. Before we had gone far, however, we found it would be best to make the work complete. This will reclaim and make productive the vast areas of Siberia and the northern part of this continent and will do much for the Antarctic regions but there will still be change in temperature. A wind blowing towards the equator will always be colder than one blowing from it while the slight eccentricity of the orbit will supply enough change to awaken recollections of seasons in our eternal spring. The way to accomplish this is to increase the weight of the pole leaving the sun by increasing the amount of material there in the pole approaching or turning towards the sun by removing some heavy substance from it and putting it preferably at the opposite pole. This shifting of ballast is most easily accomplished as you will readily perceive by confining and removing water which is easily moved and has a considerable weight. How we purpose to apply these aqueous breaks to check the wobbling of the earth and the means of the attraction of the sun you will now see. From Commander Fillmore of the Arctic Shade and the committee on bulkheads and dams I have just received the following by cable telephone. The Arctic Ocean is now in condition to be pumped out in summer and to have its average depth increased 100 feet by the dams in winter. We have already 50 million square yards of windmill turbine surface in position and ready to move. The cables bringing us currents from the dynamos at Niagara Falls are connected with our motors and those from the tidal dynamos at the Bay of Fundy will be in contact when this reaches you at which moment the pumps will begin. In several of the landlocked golfs and bays our system of confining is so complete that the depth of the water can be raised 200 feet above sea level. The polar bears will soon have to use artificial ice. Perhaps the cheers now ringing without may reach you over the telephone. The audience became greatly interested and when the end of the telephone was applied to a microphone the room fairly rang with exultant cheers and a telegraph which is a visual telegraph terminating in a camera obscura on the shores of Bapham Bay were able to see engineers and workmen waving and throwing up their caps and falling into one another's arms in ecstasies of delight when the excitement subsided the president continued. Chairman Wetmore of the committee on excavations and embankments in Wilksland and the Antarctic continent reports 250,000 square miles are now hollowed out and enclosed sufficiently to hold water to an average depth of 400 feet. Every summer when the basin is allowed to drain we can if necessary extend our reservoir and shall have the best season of the year for doing work until the earth has permanent spring. Though we have comparatively little water or tidal power the earth's crust is so thin at this latitude on account of the flattening that by sinking our tubular boilers and pipes to a depth of a few thousand feet we have secured so terrific a volume of superheated steam that in connection with our wind turbines we shall have no difficulty in raising half a cubic mile of water a minute to our enclosure. Which is but little above sea level and into which till the pressure increases we can fan or blow the water so that it can be full three weeks after our longest day or since the present unimproved arrangement gives the indigenous but one day and night a year I will add the 21st day of December. We shall be able to find use for much of the potential energy of the water in the reservoir when we allow it to escape in June in melting some of the accumulated polar ice cap thereby decreasing still further the weight of this pole and lighting and warming ourselves until we get the sun's light and heat and extending the excavations and in charging the storage batteries of the ships at this end of the line. Everything will be ready when you signal raise water. Let me add parenthetically said Bear Warden that this means of obtaining power by steam boilers sunk to a great depth is much to be commended for though the amount of heat we can withdraw is too small to have much effect the farther towards the center of our globe can be cooled the deeper will the water of the oceans be able to penetrate since it is its conversion into steam that prevents the water from working its way in farther and the more dry land we shall have. You see the president continued the storage capacity at the south pole is not quite as great as at the north because it is more difficult to excavate a basin than to close the exits of one that already exists which is what we have done in the Arctic. The work is also not so nearly complete since it will not be necessary to use the southern pole for storing weight for six months or until the south pole which is now at its maximum declination from the sun is turned towards it and begins to move away then by increasing the amount of matter there and at the same time lightening the north pole and reversing the process every six months we decrease the speed at which the departing pole leaves the sun and at which the approaching pole advances. The north pole we see will be a somewhat more powerful lever than the south for working the globe to a straight position but we may be sure that the ladder in connection with the former will be able to hold up its end. The building here fairly shook with applause so that had the Arctic workers used the microphone they might have heard in the enthusiastic uproar a good counterpart of their own period. I only regret the president continued that when we began this work the most marvelous force yet discovered Apogee was not sufficiently understood to be utilized for it would have eased our labors to the point of almost eliminating them but we have this consolation it was in connection with our work that its applicability was discovered so that had we and all others postponed our great undertaking on the pretext of waiting for a new force Apogee might have continued to lie dormant for centuries. With this force obtained by simply blending negative and positive electricity with electricity of the third element or state and charging a body sufficiently with this fluid or avatation is nullified or partly reversed and the earth repels the body with the same or greater power than that with which it still attracts or attracted it so that it may be suspended or cause to move away in space Sik itur ad astra we may say with this force an everlasting spring before us what may we not achieve we may someday be able to visit the planets though many say that since the axis of most of those we have considered are more inclined than ours they would rather stay here blessed are they that shall inherit the earth he went on turning a four foot globe with its axis set vertically and at right angles to a yellow globe labeled sun and again waxing eloquent he added we are the instruments destined to bring about the accomplishment of that prophecy for never in the history of the world has man reared so splendid a monument to his own genius as he will in straightening the axis of the planet no one need henceforth be troubled by sudden change and every man can have perpetually the climate he desires northern Europe will again luxuriate in a climate that favored the elephants that roamed in northern Asia and Switzerland to produce these animals and the food they need not necessary to have great heat but merely to prevent great cold half the summer sun being absorbed in melting the winter's accumulation of ice when the axis has reached the point at which it inclines but about 12 degrees it will become necessary to fill the Antarctic reservoir in June and the Arctic Ocean in December in order to check the straightening since otherwise it might get beyond the perpendicular and swing the other way when this motion is completely arrested I suggest that we blow up the Aleutian Isles and enlarge bearing straight so as to allow what corresponds to the Atlantic Gulf Stream in the Pacific to enter the Arctic archipelago which I have calculated will raise the average temperature of that entire region about 30 degrees thereby still further increasing the amount of available land ocean currents being the result of the prevailing winds which will be more regular than at present can be counted upon to continue practically as they are it may not be plain to you why the trade winds do not blow towards the equator due south and north since the equator has much the same effect on air that a stove has in the center of a room causing an ascending current towards the ceiling which moves off in straight lines in all directions on reaching it its place being taken by cold currents moving in opposite directions along the floor picture to yourselves the ascending currents at the equator moving off to the poles from which they came as they move north they are continually coming to parts of the globe having smaller circles of latitude than those they have left and therefore not move forward as rapidly by the Earth's daily rotation as the latitudes nearer of the equator the winds consequently run ahead of the surface and so move east of north the Earth turning towards the east while the heavier colder surface currents rushing towards the equator to take the place of the ascending column coming from regions where the surface whirls comparatively slowly to those where it is rotating faster are continually left behind and so move south west while south of the equator a corresponding motion results though this is not the most exact explanation it may serve to make the action clear I will add that if anyone prefers a colder or a warmer climate than that of the place in which he lives he need only go north or south for an hour or if he prefers his own latitude he can rise a few thousand feet in the air or descend to one of the worked out coal mines which are now used as sanitariums and secure his object by a slight change of altitude let us speed the departure of racking changes and extremes of client and prepare to welcome what we believe prevails in paradise namely everlasting spring Append it to the address was the report of the department examining committee which ran we have critically examined the terrestrial access straightening companies figures and calculations also its statements involving natural philosophy physics and astronomy all of which we find correct and hereby approved signed for the committee Henry Chelmsford courtland the board of directors having ratified the acts of its officers and past congratulatory resolutions the meeting adjourned this is the end of chapter 3 in book 1 of a journey in other worlds recording by Tom Weiss this is chapter 4 book 1 of a journey in other worlds this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Tom Weiss a journey in other worlds chapter 4 professor courtland's historical sketch of the world in AD 2000 professor courtland preparing a history of the times at the beginning of the great terrestrial and astronomical change wrote as follows this period AD 2000 is by far the most wonderful world has as yet seen the advance in scientific knowledge and attainment within the memory of the present generation has been so stupendous that it completely overshadows all that has preceded all times in history and all periods of the world have been remarkable for some distinctive or characteristic trait the feature of the period of Louis XIV was the splendor of the court and the centralization of power in Paris the year 1789 marked the decline of the power of courts and the evolution of government by the people so by the spread of republican ideas and the great advance in science education has become universal for women as well as for men and this is more than ever a mechanical age with increased knowledge we are constantly coming to realize how little we really know and are also continually finding manifestations of forces that at first seem like exceptions to established laws this is of course brought about by the modifying influence of some other natural law though many of these we have not yet discovered electricity in its varied forms does all work having superseded animal and manual labor in everything and man has only to direct the greatest ingenuity next to finding new uses for this almost omnipotent fluid has been displayed in inducing the forces of nature and even the sun to produce it before describing the features of this perfection of civilization let us review the steps by which society and the political world reached their present state at the close of the Franco-Prussian war in 1871 continental Europe entered upon the condition of an armed camp which lasted for nearly half a century the primary cause of this was the mutual dislike and jealousy of France and Germany each of which strove to have a larger and better equipped national defense than the other there were also many other causes as the ambition of the Russian Tsar supported by his country's vast though imperfectly developed resources and practically unlimited supply of men one phase of which was the constant ferment in the Balkan Peninsula and another Russia's schemes for extension in Asia was the general desire for colonies in Africa in which one continental power pretty effectually blocked another and the latent distrust inside the Triple Alliance England, meanwhile preserved a wise and profitable neutrality these tremendous sacrifices for armaments both on land and water had far reaching results and as we see it now work clouds with silver linings the demand for hardened steel projectiles nickel steel plates and light and almost unbreakable machinery was a great incentive to improvement in metallurgy while the necessity for compact and safely carried ammunition greatly stimulated chemical research and led to the discovery of explosives whose powers no obstacle can resist and incidentally to other more useful things further mechanical and scientific progress however such as flying machines provided with these high explosives and asphyxiating bombs containing compressed gas that could be fired from guns or dropped from the air intervened the former would have laid every city in the dust and the latter might have almost exterminated the race these discoveries providentially prevented hostilities so that the great war so long expected never came and the rival nations had their pains for nothing or rather for others than themselves let us now examine the political and ethnological results hundreds of thousands of the flower of continental Europe were killed by overwork and short rations and millions of desirable and often unfortunately for us undesirable people were driven to emigration nearly all of whom came to English speaking territory greatly increasing our productiveness and power as we have seen the jealousy of the continental powers actually prevented their extending their influence or protectorates to other continents which jealousy was considerably aided by the small but destructive wars that did take place high taxes also made it more difficult for the moneyed men to invest in colonizing or development companies which are so often the forerunners of absorption while the United States which the Mediterranean states have scarcely any other resources and low taxes which though necessary can be nothing but an evil has been able to expand naturally as no other nation ever has before this is given the English speakers especially the United States a free hand rendering enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine Easy where the land started English a long way towards becoming the universal language while all formerly unoccupied land is now owned by those speaking it at the close of our civil war in 1865 we had but 3 million square miles and a population of 34 million the country staggered beneath a colossal debt of over 4 billion dollars had an expensive but essentially perishable navy and there was an ominous feeling between the sections the purchase of Alaska in 1867 by which we added over half a million square miles to our territory marked the resumption of the forward march of the United States 25 years later at the presidential campaign of 1892 the debt had been reduced to 900 million dollars deducting the sinking fund and the charge for pensions had about reached its maximum and soon began to decrease though no one objected to any amount of reward for bona fide soldiers who had helped to save the country the country's wealth had also enormously increased while the population had grown to 65 million our ancestors had or in building a navy of which no nation need be ashamed and though occasionally marred by hard times there was general prosperity gradually the different states of Canada who were provinces as they were then called came to realize that their future would be far grander and more glorious in union with the United States then separated from it their sympathy was far stronger for their nearest neighbors than for anyone else one by one these northern states made known their desire for consolidation with the union retaining complete control of their local affairs as have the older states they were gladly welcomed by our government and people and possible rivals became the best of friends preceding of Mexico Central America and parts of South America tiring of the incessant revolutions and difficulties among themselves which had pretty constantly looked upon us as a big brother on account of our maintenance of the Monroe Doctrine began to agitate for annexation knowing they would retain control of their local affairs in this they were vigorously supported by the American residents and property holders who knew that their possessions would double in value the day the United States constitution was signed thus in the first place by the encouragement of our people and laterally apparently by its own volition the union has increased enormously in power till it now embraces 10 million square miles and has a free and enlightened population of 300 million though the union established by Washington and his contemporaries has attained such tremendous proportions its growth is by no means finished and as a result of modern improvements it is less of a journey now to go from Alaska to the Orinco than it was for the father of his country to travel from New York or Philadelphia to the site of the city named in his honor adequate and really rapid transportation facilities have done much to bind the different parts of the country together and to rub off the edges of local prejudice though we always favor peace no nation would think of opposing the expressed wishes of the United States and our moral power for good is tremendous the name chaffet is a great achievement and the prophecy seems about to be literally fulfilled by these his descendants the bankrupt suffering of so many European continental powers had also other results it enabled the socialist who have never been able to see beyond themselves to force their governments into selling their colonies in the eastern hemisphere to England and their islands to realize upon them with the addition of Canada to the United States and its loss to the British empire the land possessions of the two powers became about equal our union being a trifle the larger all danger of war being removed by the Canadian change a healthful and friendly competition took its place the nations competing in their growth on different hemispheres England easily added large areas in Asia and Africa while the United States grew as we have seen the race is still in a sense neck and neck and the English speakers together possessed nearly half the globe the world's recent rate of progress would have been impossible without this approximation to a universal language the causes that check made it the continental powers have ceased to exist many millions of men whose principal thought had been to destroy other members of the race became producers but it was then too late for the heavy armaments had done their work let us now glance at the times as they are and see how the business of life is trans active Manhattan Island has something over two million five hundred thousand inhabitants surrounded by a belt of population several miles wide of twelve million more of which it is the focus so that the entire city contains more than fourteen million five hundred thousand souls the several hundred square miles of land and water forming greater New York are perfectly united by numerous bridges tunnels and electric fairies while the city's great natural advantages have been enhanced and beautified by every ingenious device no main avenue in the newer sections is less than two hundred feet wide containing shade and fruit trees a bridal path broad sidewalks and open spaces for carriages and bicycles several fine diagonal streets and breathing squares have also been provided in the older sections and the existing parks have been supplemented by intermediate ones all being connected by parkways to form continuous chains the hollow mass of our ships to glance at another phase in Passant carry windmills instead of sails through which the wind performs the work of storing a great part of the energy required to run them at sea while they are discharging or loading cargo import and it can of course work to better advantage while they are stationary than when they are running before it these turbines are made entirely of light metal and fold when not in use so that only the frames are visible sometimes these also fold and are housed or wholly disappear within the mass steam boilers are also placed at the foci of huge concave mirrors often a hundred feet in diameter the required heat being supplied by the sun without smoke instead of by bulky and dirty coal this discovery gave commercial value to Sahara and other tropical deserts which are now desirable for mill sites and for generating power on account of the directness with which they receive the sun's rays and their freedom from clouds mile after mile this has been one for the uses of civilization till great stretches that were considered impassable are as productive as gardens are condensers which compress cool and rarify air enabling travelers to obtain water and even ice from the atmosphere are great aids in desert exploration removing absolutely the principal distress of the ancient caravan the erstwhile dark continent has a larger white population now than North America had a hundred years ago and has this advantage for the future that it contains eleven million six hundred thousand square miles while North America has less than nine million every part of the globe will soon sustain about as large and prosperous a population as the amount of energy it receives from the sun and other sources will warrant public debts and the efficiency of the governments being the variable elements the rabbits in Australia and the far more objectionable poison snakes in South America and India have been exterminated by the capture of a few dozen of the creatures in the infested districts their inoculation with the virus similar to the Moorish Tee-Fee or any other contagion germ complaint to which the species treated was particularly susceptible and the release of these individuals when the disease was seen to be taking hold the rabbits and serpents released at once return to their old haunts carrying the plague far and wide the unfortunate rabbits were greatly commiserated even by the medicos that wielded the death dealing syringe but fortunately for themselves they died easily the reptiles perhaps on account of the wider distribution of the nerve centers had more lingering but not painful deaths often while in articulo mortis leaving the holes with which they seem to connect their discomfort and making a vital struggle along the ground only to die more quickly as a result of their exertions we have applied this also to the potato bug locust and other insect pests no victim being too small for the ubiquitous subtle germ which properly cultivated and utilized has become one of man's best friends we have microbe tests that show us as unmistakably whether the germs of any particular disease like malaria typhoid or scarlet fever are present in the air as litmus paper shows alkalinity of a solution we also inoculate as a preventive against these and almost all other germ diseases with the same success that we vaccinate for smallpox the medicinal properties of all articles of food are so well understood also that most cures are brought about simply by dieting this reminds me of the mistakes perpetrated on a friend of mine who called in Dr. Grave Powders one of the old school physicians to be treated for insomnia and dyspepsia this old numbskull restricted his diet gave him huge doses of medicine and decided most learnedly that he was daily growing worse concluding that he had a short time to live my friend threw away the nauseating medicines ate whatever he had a natural desire for and was soon as well as ever the obvious moral of which is that we can get whatever treatment we need most beneficially from our food our physicians are most serious and thoughtful men they never claim to be infallible but studies scientifically increase their knowledge and improve the methods of treatment as a result of this fresh air regular exercises for both sexes with better conditions and the preservation of the lives of children that formerly died by thousands from preventable causes the physique especially of women is wonderfully improved and the average longevity is already over 60 and the structure to be brief is based on science for the conservation of energy as the greek philosophers predicted it was known to them that a certain amount of power would produce only a certain amount of work that is the weight of a clock in descending or a spring in on coiling returns theoretically the amount of work expended in raising or coiling it and in no possible way can it do more in practice on account of friction etc we know it does less this law being invariable of course limits us as it did our comedies and pythagoras we have simply utilized sources of power that their clumsy workmen allowed to escape of the four principal sources food fuel energy and tide including harnessed waterfalls the last two do by far the most work much of the electrical energy in every thunderstorm is also captured and condensed in our capacious storage batteries as natural hygia in the form of rain was and is still caught in our country cisterns every exposed place is crowned by a cluster of huge windmills that lift water to some pond or reservoir placed as high as possible every stiff breeze therefore raises millions of tons of water which operate hydraulic turbines as required incidentally these storage reservoirs by increasing the surface exposed to evaporation and the constant rainfall have a very beneficial effect on the dry regions of the interior of the continent and in some cases have almost superseded irrigation the windmill and dynamo thus utilize leak mountain tops that till their discovery seem to be but in different successes in dame nature's domain the electricity generated by these in connection with that obtained by waterfalls, tidal dynamos, thunderstorms chemical action and slow moving quadruple expansion steam engines provides the power required to run our electric ships and water spiders railways and stationary and portable motors for heating the cables laid along the bottom of our canals to prevent their freezing in winter and for almost every conceivable purpose sometimes a man has a windmill on his roof for light and heat then the harder the wintery blasts may blow the brighter and warmer becomes the house the current passing through a storage battery to make it more steady the operation of our ordinary electric railways is very simple the current is taken from an overhead side or underneath wire directly through the air without the transmission of a trolley and the fast cars for they are no longer run in trains make 5 miles a minute the entire weight of each car being used for its own traction it can ascend very steep grades and can attain high speed or stop very quickly another form is the magnetic railway on which the cars are wedge shaped at both ends by huge magnets weighing 4000 tons each placed 50 miles apart on passing a magnet the nature of the electricity charging the car is automatically changed from positive to negative or vice versa to that of the magnet just passed so that it repels while the next attracts the successive magnets are charged oppositely the sections being divided half way between by insulators the nature of the electricity in each section being governed by the charge in the magnet to prevent one kind of electricity from uniting with and neutralizing that in the next session by passing through the car at the moment of transit there is a dead stretch of 50 yards with rails not charged at all between the sections this change in the nature of the electricity is repeated automatically every 50 miles and obviates the necessity of revolving machinery the rails aiding communication magnetism being practically as instantaneous as gravitation the only limitations to speed are the electrical pressure at the magnets the resistance of the air and the danger of the wheels bursting from centrifugal force the first can seemingly be increased without limit the atmospheric resistance is about to be reduced by running the cars hermetically sealed through a partial vacuum in a steel and toughened glass tube while the third has been removed indefinitely by the use of galvanized aluminum which bears about the same relation to ordinary aluminum that steel does to iron and which has twice the tensile strength and but one third the weight of steel in some cases the rails are made turned in so that it would be impossible for a car to leave the track without the road beds being totally demolished but in most cases this is found to be unnecessary for no through line has a curve on its vast stretches with a radius of less than half a mile rails one hundred and sixty pounds to the yard are set in grooved steel ties which in turn are held by a concrete road bed consisting of broken stone and cement making spreading rails and loose malice impossible a large increase in capital was necessary for these improvements the elimination of curves being the most labor is part requiring bridges cuttings and embankments that dwarf the pyramids and would have made the ancient pharaohs open their eyes but with the low rate of interest on bonds the slight cost of power and great increase in business the venture was a success and we are now in sight of further advances that will enable a traveler in a high latitude moving west to keep pace with the sun and should he wish it to have an ending day this is the end of chapter four in book one of a journey in other worlds recording by Tom Weiss this is chapter five book one of a journey in other worlds this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Tom Weiss a journey in other worlds chapter five Dr. Cortland's history continued in marine transportation we have two methods one for freight and another for passengers the old fashioned deeply immersed ship has not changed radically from the steam and sailing vessels of the last century except that electricity has superseded all other motive powers steamers gradually passed through the 500, 600 and 700 foot long class with other dimensions in proportion till their length exceeded 1000 feet these were very fast ships crossing the Atlantic in four and a half days and were almost as steady as houses in even the roughest weather ships at this period of their development had also passed through the twin and triple screw stage to the quadruple all four together developing 140,000 indicated horsepower and being driven by steam this of course involved sacrificing the best part of the ship to her engines and a very heavy idle investment while in port storage batteries with plates composed of lead or iron constantly increasing in size had reached a fair state of development by the close of the 19th century during the second decade of the 20th century the engineers decided to try the plan of running half of a transatlantic liner screws by electricity generated by the engines for driving the others while the ship was in port this having been a success already on the scale for a time this plan gave great satisfaction since it diminished the amount of coal to be carried and a consequent change of displacement at sea and enabled the ship to be worked with a smaller number of men the batteries could also of course be distributed along the entire length and placed where space was least valuable the construction of such called for much governmental river and harbor dredging and a ship drawing 35 feet can now enter New York at any state of the tide for ocean bars the old system of taking the material out to sea and discharging it still survives though a jet of water from force pumps directed against the obstruction is often employed with quick results for river work we have a better method all the mud is run back sometimes over a mile from the river bank where it is used as a fertilizer by means of wire railways strung from poles these wire cables combined in themselves the functions of trolley wire and steel rail and carry the suspended cars which empty themselves and return around the loop for another load often the removed material entirely fills small saucer shaped valleys or low places in which case it cannot wash back this improvement has ended the necessity of building jetties the next improvement in sea traveling was the marine spider as the name shows this is built on the principle of an insect it is well known that a body over the water much faster than through it with this in mind builders at first constructed light framework decks on large watertight wheels or drums having paddles on their circumferences provide a hold on the water these they caused to revolve by means of machinery on the deck but soon found that the resistance offered to the barrel wheels themselves was too great they therefore made them more like centipedes with large bell shaped feet connected with a super structural deck by ankle jointed pipes through which when necessary a pressure of air can be forced down upon the enclosed surface of the water ordinarily however they go at great speed without this the weight of the water displaced by the bell feet being as great as that resting upon them thus they swing along like a pacing horse except that there are four rows of feet instead of two each foot being taken out of the water as it is swung forward the first and fourth and second and third rows being worked together although on account of their size which covers several acres they can go in any water they give the best results on Mediterranean's and lakes they're free from ocean rollers and under favorable conditions make better speed than the 19th century express trains and of course going straight as the crow flies and without stopping they reach a destination in considerably shorter time some passengers and express packages still cross the Atlantic on spiders but most of these light cargos go in a far and more rapid way the deep displacement vessels or heavy freight make a little better speed than was made by the same class a hundred years ago but they are also run entirely by electricity largely supplied by wind and by the tide turning their motors which become dynamos while at anchor in any stream they therefore need no bulky boilers engines, sails or coal bunkers and consequently can carry unprecedentedly large cargos with comparatively small crews the officers on the bridge and the men in the crow's nest the way to which is by a ladder inside the mast to protect the climber from the weather are about all that is needed while disablement is made practically possible by having four screws each with its own set of automatically lubricating motors this change like other labor saving appliances at first resulted in laying off a good many men the least satisfactory being the first to go but the increase in business was so great that the intelligent men were soon re-employed as officers at higher rates of pay and more interesting work than before while they as consumers were benefited as much as anyone else by the decreased cost of production and transportation with a view to facilitating interchange still further our government has gradually completed the double coastline that nature gave us in part this was done by connecting islands separated from shore by navigable water and leaving openings for ingress and exit but a few hundred yards wide the breakwaters required to do this were built with cribbing of incorridible metal affixed to deeply driven metallic piles and filled with stones along coasts where they were found in abundance or excess this while clearing many fields and improving them for cultivation provided just the needed material since irregular stones bind together firmly and while also insoluble combine considerable bulk with weight south of Hatteras where stones are scarce the sand dredged from parts of the channel was filled into the crib the surface of which has a concave metallic cover a trough of still water being often the best barrier against the passage of waves this double coastline has been a great benefit and propelled vessels of moderate draught can range in smooth water carrying very full loads from Labrador to the Orinico the exits are of course protected by a line of cribbing a few hundred feet to seaward the rocks have been removed from all channels about New York and other commercial centers the shallow places have been dredged to a uniform depth this diminishes the dangers of navigation and considerably decreases the speed with which the tides rush through where the obstructions consisted of reefs surrounded by deep water their removal with explosives was easy the shattered fragments being allowed to sink to the bottom and remain there beneath the danger line many other great works have also been completed the canals at Nicaragua have been in operation many years it having been found best to have several sizes of locks and to use the large ones only for the passage of large vessels the improved Erie and Champlain canals also enable ships 400 feet long to reach New York from the Great Lakes via the Hudson River for flying we have an aeroplane that came in when we devised a suitable motor power this is obtained from very light paper cell batteries that combine some qualities of the primary and secondary type since they must first be charged from a dynamo after which they can supply full currents for 100 hours enough to take them around the globe while partly consuming the elements in the cells the power is supplied through turbine screws half of which are capable of propelling the flat deck in its incline position at sufficient speed to prevent its falling the moving parts have ball bearings and friction rollers lubrication being secured automatically when required by a supply of Vaseline that melts if any part becomes hot all the framing is of thin galvanized aluminum which has superseded steel for every purpose in which weight is not an advantage as in the permanent way on railways the airships whose length varies from 50 to 500 feet have rudders for giving a vertical or a horizontal motion and several strengthening keels that prevent leeway when turning they are entirely on the principle of birds maintaining themselves mechanically and differing thus from the unwieldy balloon starting as if on a circular railway against the wind they rise to a considerable height and then shutting off the batteries coast down the aerial slope at a rate that sometimes touches 500 miles an hour when near the ground the helmsman directs the prow upward and again turning on full current rushes up the slope at a speed that far exceeds the eagles each drop of 2 miles serving to take the machine 20 or 30 though if the pilot does not wish to soar or if there is a fair wind at a given height he can remain in that stratum of the atmosphere by moving horizontally he can also maintain his elevation when moving very slowly and though the headway be entirely stopped the descent is gradual on account of the airplane's great spread the batteries and motors being secured to the underside of the deck the motors are so light that they develop 2 horsepower for every pound of their weight while to keep the frames thin the necessary power is obtained by terrific speed of the moving parts as though a steam engine avoid great pressure in its cylinders had a long stroke and ran at great piston speed which however is no disadvantage to the rotary motion of the electric motor there being no reciprocating cranks etc that must be started and stopped at each revolution to obviate the necessity of gearing to reduce the number of revolutions to those possible for a large screw this member is made very small and allowed to revolve 3,000 times a minute so that the requisite power is obtained with great simplicity of mechanism which further decreases friction the shafts and even the wires connecting the batteries with the motors are made large and hollow though the primary battery pure and simple as the result of great recent advances in chemistry seems to be again coming up the best aeroplane batteries are still of the combination storage type these have been so perfected that 8 ounces of battery yield 1 horsepower for 6 hours so that 2 pounds of battery will supply a horsepower for 24 hours a small 50 horsepower aeroplane being therefore able to fly 4 days with a battery weight of but 400 pounds limestone and clarified acid are the principle parts of these batteries it was known long ago that there was about as much imprisoned solar energy in limestone as in coal but it was only recently that we discovered this way of releasing and using it common salt plays an important part in many of our chemical reactions by combining it with limestone and treating this with acid jelly we also get good results on raising to the boiling point however enjoyable the manly sport of yachting is on water how vastly more interesting and fascinating it is for a man to have a yacht in which he can fly to Europe in one day and with which the exploration of tropical Africa or the regions about the poles is mere child's day while giving him so magnificent a bird's eye view many seemingly insoluble problems are solved by the advent of these birds having as their halo the enforcement of peace they have in truth taken us a long step towards heaven and to the cooperation and higher civilization that followed we shall owe much of the success of the great experiment on other earth now about to be tried another change that came in with a rush upon the discovery of a battery with insignificant weight compact form and great capacity was the substitution of electricity for animal power for the movement of all vehicles this of necessity brought in good roads the results obtainable on such being so much greater than on bad ones that a universal demand for them arose this was in a sense cumulative since the better the streets and roads became the greater the inducement to have an electric carriage the work of opening up the country far and near by straightening and improving existing roads and laying out new ones that combined the solidity of the Appian way with the smoothness of modern asphalt was done by convicts working under the direction of state and government engineers every state contained a horde of these unprofitable borders who as they formally worked interfered with honest labor and when idle got into trouble city streets had been paved by the municipality country roads attended to by the farmers usually very unscientifically here was a field in which convict labor would not compete and an important work could be done when once this was made the law every year showed improvement while the convicts had useful and healthful occupation the electric fatons as those for high speed are called have three and four wheels and way including battery and motor 400 to 4000 pounds with hollow but immensely strong galvanically treated aluminum frames and pneumatic or cushioned tires they run at 35 or 40 miles an hour on country roads and attain a speed over 40 on city streets and can attain this rate without recharging for several days they can therefore roam over the roads of the entire hemisphere from the fertile valley of the peace and gray shores of the Hudson bay to beautiful Lake Nicaragua the river plate and Patagonia improving man by bringing him close to nature while they combine the sensations of coasting with the interest of seeing the country well to recharge the batteries which can be done in almost every town and village two copper pins attached to insulated copper wires are shoved into smooth bored these drop out of themselves by fusing a small lead ribbon owing to the increased resistance when the acid in the batteries begins to boil though there is of course but little heat in this the function of charging being merely to bring about the condition in which part of the limestone can be consumed the batteries themselves when in constant use requiring to be renewed about once a month I handle at the box seat turns on any part of the attainable current for either going ahead or reversing there being six or eight degrees of speed for both directions while the steering is done with a small wheel light but powerful batteries and motors have also been fitted on bicycles which can act either as auxiliaries or hill climbing or in case of headwind or they can propel the machine all together gradually the width of the streets became insufficient for the traffic although the elimination of horses and the consequent increase in speed greatly augmented their carrying capacity until recently a new system came in the whole width of the avenues and streets in the business parts of the city including the former sidewalks is given up to wheel traffic an iron ridge extending along the exact center to compel vehicles to keep to the right strips of nickel painted white and showing a bright phosphorescence at night are let into the metal pavement flush with the surface and run parallel to this ridge at distances of 10 to 15 feet dividing each half of the avenue into four or five sections their width increasing to the middle all trucks or Drays moving at less than 7 miles an hour are obliged to keep in the section nearest the building line those running between 7 and 15 in the next 15 to 25 in the third 25 to 35 in the fourth and everything faster than that in the section next to the ridge unless the avenue or street is wide enough for further subdivisions if it is wide enough for only four or less the fastest vehicles must keep next to the middle and limit their speed to the rate allowed in that section which is marked at every crossing in white letters sufficiently large for him that runs to read it is therefore only in the wide thoroughfares that very high speed can be obtained in addition to the crank that corresponds to a throttle every vehicle which shows its exact speed in miles per hour by gearing operated by the revolutions of the wheels the policeman on duty also have instantaneous codex mounted on tripods which show the position of any carriage at half and quarter second intervals by which it is easy to a certain the exact speed should the officers be unable to judge it by the eye so there is no danger of a vehicle's speed exceeding that allowed in the section in which it happens to be neither can a slow one remain on the fast lines of course to make such high speed for ordinary carriages possible a perfect pavement has become a scenic one known we have secured this by the half inch sheet of steel spread over a carefully laid surface of fastfall with but little devil and though this might be slippery for horses feet it never seriously affects our wheels there being nothing harder than the rubber ties of comparatively light draze upon it or the heavy traffic is carried by electric railways underground it will practically never wear out with the application of steel to the entire surface car tracks become unnecessary ordinary wheels answering as well those with flanges so that no new tracks were laid and finally the car companies tore up the existing ones selling them in many instances to the municipalities as old iron our streets also need but little cleaning neither is the surface continually indented as the old cobblestones and Belgian blocks were by the pounding of horses feet so that the substitution of electricity for animal power has done much to solve the problem of attractive streets scarcely a ton of coal comes to Manhattan island or its vicinity in a year very little of it leaves the mines at the mouse of which it is converted into electricity and sent to the points of consumption by wire where it is employed for all uses to which fuel was put and many others consequently there is no smoke and the streets are not encumbered with coal carts the entire width being given up to carriages etc the ground floors in the business parts are used for large warehouses trucks running in to load unload pedestrians therefore have sidewalks level with the second story consisting of glass floors let into aluminum frames while all street crossings private houses have a front door opening on the sidewalk and another on the ground level so that ladies paying visits or leaving cards can do so in carriages in business streets the second story is used for shops in place of steel covering country roads have a thick coating of cement and asphalt over a foundation of crushed stone giving a capital surface and have a width of 33 feet two rods in thinly settled districts to 63 feet or four rods where the population is greater all are planted with shade and fruit trees while the wide driveways have one or two broad sidewalks the same rule of making the slow moving vehicles keep near the outside prevails though the rate of increase in speed on approaching the middle is more and there is usually no dividing ridge on reaching the top of a long and steep hill if we do not wish to coast we convert the motors into dynamos while running at full speed and so change the kinetic energy of the descent into potential in our batteries this 20th century stage coaching is one of the delights to which we are heirs though horses are still used by those that prefer them we have been much aided in our material progress by the facility with which we obtain the metals it was observed some time ago that when artisan and oil wells had reached the considerable depth what appeared to be drops of lead and antimony came up with the stream it finally occurred to a well borer that if he could make his drill hard enough and get it down far enough keeping it cool and so he would be able to get it down to the surface and the metal would be the most specified carbonic acid during the proceeding he would reach a point at which most of the metals would be viscous if not actually molten and on being freed from the pressure of the crust they would expand and reach the surface in the stream this experiment he performed beyond his usual stopping place to be rewarded by a stream of metal that heralded its approach by a loud explosion and a great rush of superheated steam it ran for a month completely filling the bed of a small dried up river and when it did stop there were 10 million tons in sight this proved the feasibility of the scheme and though any subsequent attempts were less successful we have learned by experience where it is best to drill and can now obtain almost any metal we wish. Magnetic eyes are of great use to miners and civil engineers these instruments are something like a mariner's compass with the sensitiveness enormously increased by galvanic currents the eye as it were sees what substances are underground and at what distances it also shows how many people are in an adjoining room through the magnetic properties of the iron in their blood whether they are moving and in what directions and at what speed they go in connection with the phonograph and concealed by draperies it is useful to detectives who through a registering attachment can obtain a record of everything said and done our political system remains with but little change each state has still two united states senators though the population represented by each representative has been greatly increased so that the senate has grown numerically much more than the house it is the duty of each member of congress to understand the conditions interesting in every other member's state or district and the country's interest always precedes that of party we have a comprehensive examination system in the civil service and every office owner except members of the cabinet retains his office while efficiently performing his duty without regard to politics the president can also be reelected any number of times the cabinet members as formerly usually remain in office while he does and appear regularly in congress to defend their measures the really rapid transit lines in new york are underground and have six tracks two being used for freight at all stations the local tracks rise several feet towards the street and slope off in both directions while the express tracks do this only at stations at which the faster trains stop this gives the passengers a shorter distance to descend or rise in the elevators and the ascent before the stations aids the brakes in stopping while the drop helps the motors to start the trains quickly in getting away photography has also made great strides and there is now no difficulty in reproducing exactly the colors of the object taken telephones have been so improved that one person can speak in his natural voice with another in any part of the globe the wire that enables him to hear also showing him the face of the speaker though he be at the added pods all telephone wires being underground and kept by themselves they are not interfered with by any high tension electric light or power wires thunderstorms or anything else rain making is another subject removed from the uncertainties and has become an absolute science we produce clouds by explosions in the atmosphere's heights and by surface air forced by blowers through large pipes up the side of a mountain or natural elevation and they're discharged through an opening in the top of a tower built on the highest part in a poor heat conductor so that the air retains its warmth until discharged when it is cooled by expansion and the surrounding cold air condensation takes place and soon serves to start a rain yet until the Earth's axis is straightened we must be more or less dependent on the eccentricities of the weather with extremes of heat and cold droughts and floods which last are of course largely the result of several months moisture held on the ground in the form of snow the congestion being relieved suddenly by the warm spring rains medicine and surgery have kept pace with other improvements inoculation and antiseptics as already seen rendering most of the germ diseases and formerly dreaded epidemics impotent though the potency of electrical affinity we form wholesome food products rapidly instead of having to wait for their production by nature's slow processes the metric system now universal superseded the old fashioned arbitrary standards so prolific of mistakes and confusion about a century ago English as we have seen is already the language of 600 million people is constantly increasing through its adoption by the numerous races of India where even before the close of the last century it was about as important as Latin during the greatness of Rome and by the fact that the Spanish and Portuguese elements in Mexico and Central and South America show a constant tendency to die out much as the population of Spain fell from 30 million to 17 million during the 19th century as this goes on in the western hemisphere the places left vacant are gradually filled by the more progressive Anglo-Saxons so that it looks as if the study of ethnology in the future would be very simple the people with cultivation and leisure whose number is increasing relatively to the population at each generation spend much more of their year in the country than formally where they have large and well cultivated country seats parts of which are also preserved for gain this growing custom on the part of society in addition to being of great advantage to the out of town districts has done much to save the forest and preserve some forms of gain that would otherwise like the buffalo have become extinct in astronomy we have seen tremendous strides the old fashioned double convex lens used in telescopes became so heavy as its size grew that it bent perceptibly from its own weight when pointed at the zenith distorting the vision while when it was used upon a star near the horizon though the glass on edge kept its shape there was too much atmosphere between it and the observed object for successful telescopes have therefore concave plate glass mirrors 20 meters in diameter like those used for converging the sun's rays in solar engines but with curves more mathematically exact which collect an immense amount of light and focus it on a sensitive plate or on the eye of the observer whose back is turned to the object he is studying an electrical field also plays an important part the electricity being as great an aid to light as in the telephone it is to sound with these placed generally on high mountain peaks beyond the reach of clouds we have enormously increased the number of visible stars though there are still probably boundless regions that we cannot see these telescopes have several hundred times the power of the largest lenses of the 19th century currently bring Mars and Jupiter when in opposition within one thousand and ten thousand miles respectively so that we study their physical geography and topography and we have good maps of Jupiter and even of Saturn not withstanding their distance and atmospheric envelopes and we are able to see the disks of third magnitude stars it seems as if when we wish any particular discovery or invention in whatever field we had but to turn our efforts in its direction to obtain our desire we seem in fact to have awakened in the scenes of the Arabian nights yet the mysterious genius which we control and which dims Aladdin's lamp is the gift of no fairy godmother sustained by the haze of dreams but shines as the child of science with endless and growing splendor and may yet bring us and our little planet much closer to god we should indeed be happy living as we do at this apex of attained civilization with the boundless possibilities of the future unfolding before us on the horizon of which we may fairly be said to stand we are freed from the rattling granite of only a century ago which made the occupant of an omnibus feel like a fly inside of a drum from the domination of our local politics by ignorant foreigners and from country roads that either filled the eyes, lungs or hair of the unfortunate traveling upon them with dust or resembling plowed and fertilized fields saturated and plastered them with mud these miseries together with seasickness in ocean traveling are forever past and we feel that Excelsior is indeed our motto our new and increasing sources of power have so stimulated production and manufacturing that poverty or want is scarcely known while the development of the popular demand as a result of the supplied need is so great that there is no visible limit to the diversification of industry or the possibilities of the arts it may seem strange to some that apparently so disproportionate a number of inventions have been made in the last century there are several reasons since every discovery or advance in knowledge increases our chance of obtaining more it becomes cumulative and our progress is in geometric instead of arithmetical ratio public interest and general appreciation of the value of time have also effectively assisted progress at the beginning of each year the president, the governors of the states and the mayors of cities publish a prospectus of the great improvements needed contemplated and underway within their jurisdiction it may be planning a new boulevard a new park or an improved system of sewers and at the years end they issue a resume of everything completed and the progress in everything else and though there is usually a great difference between the results hoped for and those attained the effect is good the newspapers publish at length the recommendations of the executives and also the results obtained and keep up public interest in all important matters free to delve in the allurement and fascination of science emancipated man goes on subduing nature as his maker said he should and turning her giant forces to his service in his constant struggle to rise and become more like him who gave the commandments and showed him how he should go not withstanding our strides in material progress we are not entirely content as the requirements of the animal become fully supplied we feel a need for something else some say this is like a child that cries for the moon but others believe it is the awakening and craving of our souls it narrates with the signs of the times and strives to efface himself yet there is clearly a void becoming yearly more apparent which materialism cannot fill is it some new subtle force for which we sigh or would we commune with spirits there is as far as we can see no limit to our journey and I will add in closing that with the exception of religion we have most to hope