Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1898-11-03

III producing little implement which
one could carry in his hand, but which
was moro powerful than any battleship
that ever flOatCd. The details Of its
mechanism could not be easily explain.
cd without the use Of tedious technical
tiles and the employment of terms, dia-
grams and mathematical statements, all
of which would lie outside the scope of
this narrative. But the principle of tho
thing was simple enough 1t was upon
the great scientific doctrine, which we
have since seen SO completely and bril-
| liantly developed, Of the law of har-
monic vibrations, extending from atoms
and molecules ut one end of the series
up TO worlds and suns at the other end,
! that MIR. Edison based his invention.
Every kind of substance has its own
vibratory rhythm. That of iron differs
from that Of pine wood. The atoms of
gold do not vibratc in the same time or
Z through the same range as those of lead
and 50 on for all known substances and
! all tho chemical elements. So, on II
larger scale, every massive body has its
period Of vibration. a great suspension
bridge vibrates under the impulse of
forces that are applied to it in long
periods. No company of soldiers ever
crosses such u bridge without breaking
step, If they tramped together and were
followed by other Conl >:lics keeping
the same time with their feet after
awhile the vibrations of the bridge
would become 50 great and destructive
that it would fall in pieces. So any
structure, if its vibration rate is known,
could easily be- destroyed by q force mp.
/ piled to 1t i'll such u way that it should
simply increase the swing Of those vi
bratinns up to the point of destruction.
Now Mr.. Edison had been able to as
certain the Migratory swing of many
well known substances and to produce
by means of the instrument which he
had contrivcd pulsatiuns in the ether
which were completely under his con.
troll and which could be made long or
short, quick or slow, at his will. lie
could run through the whole gamut
from the slow vibrations of sound in mir
up to the four hundred and twenty-five
millions Of millions of vibrations per
second of the ultra red rays.
Having obtained an instrument of
such power, it only remained to couccn-
trate it's energy upon given object in
order that the atoms composing that Oh
ieCt should be set into violent undula-
ton, sufficient to lurst it asundcr and
to scatter its molecules broadcast. This
the inventor effected by the simplest
means in the wurld-s;mplya pnraLolic
reflector by which the destructive waves
could bo sent like beam of light, bat
Invisible in any direction and focused
upon any desired point.
had the good fortune to be present
when this powerful engine of destguc.
ton was submitted to its first test. We
had gone upon the roof of Mr. Edis0n's
laboratory, and the inventor held tho
little instrument with its attached mir
ror in his hand. We looked about fur
some object On which to try its powers.
On the bare limb of IA tree not far away,
for 1t was late III the fall, sat discun.
ISOLATE crow.
Good. said Mr.. Edison. THAT will
do. y He touched button ut the side Of
the instrument, and a soft whirring
noise was heard.
Feathers, " said Mr.. Edison, "have
Il vibration period of $50, 900, 900 per
second
He adjusted an index as he spoke.
Then through sighting tube he aimed
at the bird
Nov watch, he said
Another soft whir in the instrument,
"a momontnry flash of light close around
it, and, behold the crow haa turned
from black to white!
Its feathers are gone" said the in
ventor. They have been dissipatcd in
60 their constituent atoms. Now we
will finish with the crow"
Instantly there was another adjust
ment Of the index. another outshooting
of vibratory force rapid up and down
motion of the index to include certain
range of vibrations, and the crow itself
was gone-vanished in empty space!
There was the bare twig on which
moment before it had stood. Behind in
the sky was the white cloud against
which its black form had been sharply
outlined. but there was no more crow.
THAT looks bad for the Martians,
doesn't it"' aid the Wizard. Il have
asccrtainr1 the vibration rate of all tho
materials of which their war engines
whose remains we have collected to-
gether are composed. They can be shat.
tered into nothingncss in the fraction
of Il second. Even if the vibration period
We're not known, it could quickly be hit
upon by simply running through tho
gamut
"HurrahN' cried one of the onlookerS
"We have met the Martians, and they
Rro ours!'
Such in brief was the first of the con.
triyances which Mr.. Edison invented
for the approaching war with Mars.
And these facts had become widely
known. Additional experiments had
completed the demonstration Of the in
ventor's ability, with tho aid of his
wonderful instrument, 10 destroy any
given object or any part of an object
provided that that part differed in its
atomic constitution and consequently
III its Migratory period from tine other
parts.
a most impressive public exhibition
OF the powers of the little disintegratur
was given amid the ruins of New York
On lower Broadway part Of the walls
OF one of the gigantic buildings which
had been destroyed by tho Martians
impended i'll such manner that it
"a ON a.,