Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1897-04-19

| his researches aud complete his grand
| discovery, which he described as the
| most glorious and sublime that had ever
entered into the brain of man. What
| this discovery was, was TO be kept d,
| secret from every living soul till [ had at
tanned the age of y. The day after
my twenty first birthday large sealed
| parcel of papers and manuscripts con-
tanning an account of his researches, SO
far as he had carried them, was to be
given to me- and | was earnestly en-
treated to perfect and complete them.
For this one object my whole course of
education for the next five years was
to be directed He had even indicated
| the books which I was to study, and the
special portions to which [ was to devote
particular attention. | was also to study
not merely the theoretical principles of
machines, but to acquire practical dex-
terity in their actual construction, espe-
| cially certain branches which he speci-
fed. This course of education was q
costly one; but my father was rich very
rich though from what source he had
obtained his riches / never knew. He
had left enough money, not only for my
education, but also to enable me to carry
on the costly practical experiments which
would be necessary for completing his
invention.
His will was carried out to the very let
ter both by his executors and by me.
I inherited his enthusiasm for science,
and worked, with such will, energy and
success that my instructors marveled.
Before the arrival of my twenty first
birthday [ had not only completed the
course Of instruction marked out for me,
but had revised and restudied it so often
that there was not portion OF 1T on
which | could not have passed the most
searching examination. In the practical
| construction of machines, also, | do not
| think | was much inferior to the best
| mechanics. This part of my work [ had
always regarded as a recreation from the
severer study Of theoretical principles.
At last the eyentful day arrived. Ny
twenty first birthday came and passed.
The following day, at noon, the two ex-
ecutors, formally and in the presence Of
witnesses, handed me the sealed parcel,
as we'll as all the other documents which
rendered me master of my own fortunes
This done, they took their leave of me
and departed.
trembling fingers, | broke the seal, and
opened the parcel of papers. The first
that presented itself was a short letter,
written in shaky and almost illegible
hand. It ran as follows:
Ny Dear and Only Son: I write this ~
ing on. bed of sickness, from which |
for you, but it is by no means certain that
shall be alive when, you come In that
| case, these few words which five years
hence you will find in the packet of papers
which I beuueath to you will make all the
greater impression upon you, as being my
trust, you have conscientiously followed the
directions in my will, you will be perfectly
qualified to carry on the Important i my
will find in the bequeathed packet. You
will find that | have already made i'm
portant advances; but much remains yet
to be done. God bless you, my son, and
grant you success in this noble undertake
- - = GILBERT STRANGER.
I kissed this letter reverently, while
tears of deep emotion ran down my
cheeks Then, when my feelings had
Gained down, [ proceeded to read my
fathers Investigations.
He had entitled his invention the HCal-
culus of Attraction and Repulsion." The
very first page startled me by the mag
nifcent boldness of its conceptions. He
opened his thesis as follows:
attraction is the chain which binds us
to this earth-a chain which, it is sup
posed no power of man can ever loosen
or break. This supposition is erroneous
Broken, perhaps, it cannot be; loosened it
certainly can. That very force Of attrac-
ton which now binds us to the earth can
be converted into an opposite force of re-
pulsion, which will take us away from
the earth. How this may be effected
will be explained in the following pages" "
My father then, without more pream-
bic. plunged at once into the abstract
technicalities of his subject. His in
vestigations / found extremely difficult
to follow; but the preceding five years,
training which he had himself prescribed
now stood me in good stead, and after
much long and arduous thinking | at
last succeeded in making myself master
of the whole subject. so far as he had
carried it. His main discoveries were
these:
o. Theoretically the attracting force
residing in every particle of matter, and
drawing it towards other particles, is
capable of conversion into a repelling
force.
(2) Practically, there are very few sub
stances in nature whose attracting ten
| dency can be thus converted into a re-
polling tendency; but there is certain
remarkable metallic compound harder
| than steel or even diamond, and, unlike
| other metallic compounds, perfectly trans
| parent, which possesses this capability of
| conversion to an enormous extent.
81 The main agent of this conversion
| is electricity.
a. A body, half of whose mass has
had it's attracting tendency converted
into a repelling tendency, will have a
| specific gravity of zero, and if placed in
/ a vacuum will neither rise nor fall; but
| if placed on the surface of the earth it
will rise rapidly into the air like a bal
| loon, till it reaches the limit of the at
mosphere.. If nearly but not quite half
| it's mass had been thus affected, it will
have very small specific gravity. and
will rise, into the all. till it attains a
height where it's specific gravity is equal
| to that of the surrounding atmosphere.
| % If more than half the mass of
body has had it's attracting tendency con-
verified into a repelling tendency, it will
rise in the air, and, passing the limits. of
| the atmosphere, will continue moving
| away from the earth with a velocity for
a time accelerated by terrestrial repul-
sion, but tending more and more towards
uniformity as it proceeds.
CO. By an instrument which he called
the regulator, the resultant of the attract
ing and repelling tendencies Of a ma
| chine constructed of the metallic COM
pound before mentioned can be turned in
a moment in any direction.
60 By means of an electric battery
acting upon the regulator, the attracting
| and repelling tendencies of such a ma
chine can be respectively increased ad
| libitum, SO that its velocity may be in
creased or diminished ad libitum also.
Other discoveries had reference to the