Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-07-10

| CHANGED to run across a paragraph In
newspaper stating that further traces OF
the balloon of the explorer Andree had
been discovered in that trackless waste
known as Franz Josef's Land. At the con-
clusion of the meeting 1 called the news
paper statement to the attention OF halt
a dozen of the members and asked their
views upon Andree's fate. To my sur
prise there was only one general opinion:
The balloon had been wrecked near the
pole and no human being would probably
ever find the least vestige of that fool
| hardy expedition.
Their practical explanation disposed of
the question so effectually that in the nat
ural order of events all further thought OF
| it would have passed from my mind had
it not been for a chance remark of one OF
/ the scientists. This casual observation
opened up such a startling and sensational
theory that / am tempted to describe IL,
for whether or not 1t may have any peal
scientific value it possesses at least
thrilling interest in these days, when aero
nautfc experiments are so prevalent that
some other adventurous spirits may strive,
as Andree did, to reach the North Pole
in an airship.
After expressing his belief that the fear
less Norwegians were Gagged until the
crack o. doom in the Arctic ice deserts, the
savant added: UNLESS a much more hor-
rible fate was theirs, as Nine Renooz
thinks"
what is It that she thinIs?' I asked.
THAT poor Andree and his companions
are still shooting through space and Will
keep on doing so forever"
Then this horrible theory was explained
| to me as 1t has been propounded by Nine.
Renooz, who is a well known Paris scien-
fist, and the author of several works that
have at various times created something
OF stir among French physicists.
MOST DANGEROUS SPOT ON GLOBE.
-. L. hot a I'M p
diate neighborhood of the pole Is the
most dangerous spot on this globe OF ours
on account of a natural dynamic force
| that prevails Whereabouts. She styles this
| element solar radiation" and declares
that its speed is so terrific that it requires
only eight and one-half minutes to cover
| the millions of miles between the sun and
the earth. Moving with such inconceiva-
| BILE rapidfty the radiation strikes this
planet at the POLE and glinting from the
frozen tip of the dashes into bottomless
space with the unspent force of thousand
whirlwinds. If poor Andree's balloon wan
dered into the track of this resistless cur
rent 1t would be as helpless as gnat in
| q hurricane.
Nine. Renooz is of the opinion that the
unhappy explorer and his companions ven
tured too near the pole in their airship and
were engulfed in that awful maelstrom.
| If So they are still she thinks, floating
| ing perhaps, some resemblance TO the
human form, have become simply atoms
adrift in the infinite sea of ether. destined
to float there for perhaps 100000 years
until all the universe dissolves.
The author of this startling and stipend
Gus theory is so CONVINCED of its being the
fact that she declares beyond the fear of
contradiction, that the mortal remains of
Andree and his men are nowhere on earth
today, nor sunk in any OF the earth's seas,
but have been carried of the planet-as
perhaps never before occurred to any
human being since this world of ours be-
gan. Yet, according to the lady, Andree
| and his companions have nobody but
themselves to blame, having been warned
by her of the appalling risks they ran in
trying to reach the North Pole in bal
| loon.
on May Is, 1896, Mime. Renooz, who
was then in Paris. wrote the following
letter to the foolhardy explorer:
Dear Sir-I have just visited the bal
loon The North Pole,P exhibited at the
Champs de Mars. andJI cannot resist the
desire to write you IN order to make an
observation on the subject of the courag-
eous enterprise that you are about to I'M
dertake.
1T admire your audacity and your hero
ism, which would make me regard 1t as
great misfortune If such q man as you
should fall a martyr to science. 1t is this
anxiety that impels me to write you.
You have studied. am sure. all the
conditions of the regions that you propose
to explore, but venture to suggest some
new theories as to the forces that govern
our planet, and constitute danger that
up to the present time has not been OBJ
served. One may defend himself against
perils that are complete surprises, whose
existence has never been dreamed of.
II have studied the physical conditions
of the poles. have discovered the cause
that makes life possible there, and hope
before your departure, you will acquaint
yourself with my work. 1t is little vol
ume of two hundred pages that may be
read in a couple of hours. 1t is styled
Force am sending you a copy by the
post.
my object is not alone to make you
realize a possible danger that has not
been forseen but also to call your at
tention to physical conditions newly sus-
pected, and which it would be interesting
to study. With high regard, yours truly,
&C. RENOOZ."
ANDREE DALLIED A YEAR.
When this note was written the Andree
expedition was almost ready to start. The
departure, however. was postponed for a
whole year. From this circumstance the
apprehensive Frenchwoman assumed that
Andree had read Force and been fright
ened by the possibilities It suggested. She
had heard that the explorer, replying to
haunting remarks of some friends, had
justified his delay by explaining that the
balloon was not ready. But Nine. Renooz
had seen the great airship, all spick and
span, and she knew that there was some
truer reason than that Moreover, she
heard a little later that in the course of a
conversation with M. Wilfred de Fon-
vielle, the secretary and moving spirit of
the Aeronautic society Of Paris, Andree
had expressed his fear of the Arctic bal
loon being overtaken by "the solar rays"
Be that as 1t may, Andree finally left.
Nine. Renooz never heard from him di-
rectly, so she did not know whether he
had simply made up his mind to take des-
perate chances or whether he hoped in
some way or other to counterfeit the ap-
palling effect of contact with the danger
Gus sunbeams. This latter alternative ac-
cording to the author of Force" would
be as great physical impossibility as for
a child's hand to check the fall of Niagara.
According to her, there are countless 9TH
er terrors in the solar radiation, quite as
frightful and as unacceptable as the amaz-
ing velocity of the rays and the centripetal
force that they sway. The radiation, she
says, is transferred into the most intense
heat by the contact with the pole, and is
then distributed in a way to generate
light. to diffuse itself into the electric cur
rents in the atmosphere, to determine a
multitude of chemical phenomena, to de-