Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1893-08-24
4 TRIP 10 THE SUN.

lish baronet.f He was q ootd, calm.
passionless man-almost as cold,
calm, and passionleas as he was
English. For years he had been q
mem.,er of the London Beefsteak
Club.
Sir Fillemup had three friends
at the club. They met every even
ing to bet. They would bet Oh
anything. One day they bet on
the length of their respective feet.
Sir Fillemup won by two laps.
s.I would be willing to bet that
lean climb up to the sum-" said
he.
His friends bet him 100000,
and the money was staked.
I will start in three days." he
said calmly.
s.And how long will you. be
gone2n they asked.
Ten days." was the cool re-
sponse.
From that moment Sir Fillemup
absented himself from the club.
He was preparing for his flight.
His preparations were simple.
First he procured a suit of Jspan
silk, light and flexible. Then he
pulled on a pair of boots of his
own invention. The lega reached
to the armpits. The soles were of
gun barrels arranged perpendicu-
larly.
From a belt at his waist sus-
pended two 4,O00-ton columbiads.
The guns and columbiads were SO
arranged as to load and fire them
selves sixty times minute.
The process was SO simple as to
make explanation unnecessary.
With the recoil from the firing of
these pieces, Sir Fillemup proposed
to secure q velocity of 100000
miles an hour. This would enable
him to reach the sun in four days
and tWenty-three hours.
he calculated to remain there
8 two days. Then, reversing him
sell, he proposed to turn his guns
loose again and return to the earth,
in the same time occupied by hia
ascent.
He had fixed upon May atl.
= /, clock IA the mo orning. A frame
work had been built to suspend
him until he could get his ordi-
nance in working order. Ata sig
nal the guns opened, and Sir Fill
lemup dashed into the air.
He had not miscalculated his
velocity, though it seemed to him
thathe ought to have reached his
destination in about ten minutes
at The rate he was going. Still his
pedometer showed only rate of
100000 an hour.
There was nothing upon which
the sun could reflect, and Sir Fill
lemup was in darkness after leav-
ing the earth's atmosphere, except
when he looked straight at the sun.
It was to him a perfectly round
ball, afording neither light nor
heat.
He did not feel that he was NOV
ing. He could gee it drawing
closer.
At the end of the second day he
appeared to be surrounded by a
yellow nebula. 1t was not dense,
but a series of not unpleasant
shocks showed that he was passing
through a magnetic influence.
The yellow belt appeared 10 be
composed of sparks that compelled
him to cover his face and hands.
They were apparently iron filings
in q state of fusion, His dress
was protected from danger by fire
by a preparation of alum.
Toward the middle of the third
day he emerged from the zone and
entered another Of intense cold
and fearfully dark. Beyond he
could see a peculiar mass of mat
ter, brownish in color and oval in
shape.
Passing through the frigid belt
! the detonations of his cannona
almost deafened him. Itwas clear
that he had again entered an
atmosphere. During the afternoon
he passed througha q warmer zone
and at 10 o'clock, just ninety-fve
hours after leaving the earth, he
stood on the dull cotored mass. He
had reached the sun.
What struck him as most pecu-
liar was the warm, even tempera.
ture. There was no intense heat.