Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1900-09-14
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Newest Sky Ship. {.

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and far safer than any other form OF
travel. When the workman can live
several hundred miles from the work
shop or store and go home to lunch.
he will see the crowded cities gradual
" spread out over the country. The
millions now spent on roads and
bridges will go to identifying the
eartL's natural landscape. The tops Of
houses will be transformed. into sta.
tioEs or pocchlike vestibules for the
M,rt!!:lr O. aerial vehicles, and light
will IT. Kept burning on the house top
guile the aerial pilgrim. The great
:'i:hi,' ,'nys Of travel will be along
- :;us" 3hn:nS :!!e great cities. Hill
.u..:.>".i4 ,>!,s win become impor-
-.~:.: =. 4, .,: residences. And all this
viii :.r accomplished by a machine
auc!! ~ t!.' public has not yet seen.
''ihe general shape Of this new air.
ship Is that Of two long drawn out
cones placed base to base. A model
weighing only II ounces lately ascend.
ed to the enormous height of II miles,
as was authenticity recorded by an
aneroid barometer placed inside. This
was far above any height ever hereto
fore reached by mechanical device.
Yet the instrument came down within
one furlong Of the spot from which it
was sent up.
with q similar device am going to
make measurements Of the upper air.
Inside Of it am going to put instru-
ments which will measure tempera
. ture and moisture and another which
will bring down samples Of the atmos
phere found at such enormous heights.
These samples win be tested here in
the laboratory. I propose to use the
instrument at night, attaching device
which will show light during descent
and thus mark the path Of the drop.
will thus be able to locate the machine
when it returns to earth -
It was at this point that the CORE.
spondent asked why a powerful ma
chine built on these lines might not
venture into the ether, headed even for
the planet Mars. The professor raised
one elbow, as IL warding of something
thrown at him. Then he leaned back in
his chair, wheeled it around and looked
out Of the laboratory window.
Zone cannot reach Mars" said he,
by any existing method Of flight util.
izing atmosphere as an aid TO propul.
sion or buoyancy. When we were
schoolboys, we were taught that the
earth's layer Of atmosphere was only
48 miles deep. It has been estimated
recently that It IL more than four times
that depth. It probably extends $50
miles above our heads. Above It there
probably are some lighter gases which
will not mix with air.
1T would be impossible to travel to
the planets in balloons or In devices
using propellers, aeroplanes or tapping
wings. Once above the earth's atmos.
phere, there would be nothing to buoy
a balloon up and nothing against which
wings, propeIlers or aeroplanes could
act. Giant projectiles sent up by ex.
plosive force would be out Of the ques-
ton. Too much energy would be re.
quired to project them. The greatest
possible explosive force put back Of
the best adapted projectile would send
it hardly to the roof Of our atmosphere.
Between the planets we find only
ether, about the nature of which there
is much difference Of opinion. Some
experiments which have made In vac
uums prove to me that, contrary to the
accepted doctrine, ether is not entirely
frfctionless. 1t Is composed of parti-
cles many billions of times smaller
than atoms. These are Of such q ma.
ture that no ordinary body meets with
any resistance in passing through them.
"These experiments prove that
machine can be made to propel itself
where there Is no air. Such devices,
therefore, could traverse the open space
between the planets. Howl Through
this ether space between the planets
there are streams Of electric and light
waves. Against either Of these two
systems Of waves other sets of waves,
artifcially made by q machine, can be
forced in such q way as to cause re-
sistance and propel the machine along.
I have devices by which have proved
this. have proved that the rays
given of by q magnet may be acted
upon by light IN such manner AZ to 70.
tate the magnet. This II direct proof
Of the action OF one Get OF waves upon
another. The electric and light waves,
always coming from the sun, pene.
trate the ether in every direction. Al
any place in the ether reaction against
them may be had in any direction.
1T would thus be possible to con.
struct a machine capable OF propellins
itself through ether Ia any direction al
enormous speeds and one able to gen!
crate as 1t goes along waves that win
thus react upon other waves In th&
ether. As to how far beyond the
earth's atmosphere man could travel Ii
such a machine I, would not like to say.
II will go so far as to say that even
though there were no ether In the
space between the planets such ma
chine would propel itself absolutely
empty through space. This seems i'm
possible, but we have involved here
the same principle % that by which
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