The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1910-07-23
CHAPTER |.
A Marvellous Invention.

r. DATUND STONEWALB was TIE
- most ingenious man that ever
lived
In my private opinion he was
the greatest human being that has ever
s appeared on this earth. I say this, de-
TpIte the fact that against my viii, and
without my knowledge at the start, he
took me and two OF our friends IN com
mon On the widest. crazIest, most i'm
possible and incredible adventure that
ever Imagination conceived
I ought 70 hate Edmund Stonewau for
what he did TO me and 10 my friends.
but. in fact. I reverence his memory
Let ne tell you the story, and then
you will see the reason that UndeTIies
my feeling toward him
IN the first place, he made the most
wonderful invention that ever the world
heard Of In fact. until now the world
never has heard all about It, and I
shudder yet when think Of II
II was, Of course based on electricity,
for everybody knows now that electric
ity IS al the bottom Of everything. II
came out Of that discovery which made
so much excitement at the beginning OF
the Twentieth century radiOaCtlvity.' %
What is radioactivity2
Heavens only knows. But IL came
near being the death OF me- Il has rob
bed ne Of my dearest friends: and
don't know but that Il StonewaI had
kept on, Il might have put 2 finish 20
this old earth Of ours.
Stonewau was always bothering him
what not he knew machinery and en-
glneS as a boy knows craps and mar
bles- But he was dissatisfied with
everything
might be Ike gods They ought TO run
the globe, and steer II where they ike
You remember the old Kelley mo-
tori Wei. Edmund believed IN IL, but
said Kelley had got hold Of the wrong
end, and would never make II 90 that
way
All the while he vas experimenting
himself be had money from q rich
uncle, I guess. and he built himself a
laboratory, and once in a while he would
invite Jack Ashton. Henry Darton.
VIII Church and ne TO come and
watch some OF his experiments 1t was
all Greek 20 Us, bat il never failed 10
make US stare We saw some wonder
ful things there, that people knew moth
ing ABOUT EDMUND TOOK up Ieslas too
with his communication with Mars idea
but after while he dropped that, and
then came radiOactivity.
When the discovery OF radiUm and
uranium and those things came out. the
rest Of Us would never have Known
anything about il but for Edmund
We used to skip that part IN the papers,
and I can't say that his explanation
y
made the thing very inspiring 70 our i'm
agiuatiOn-
Listen TO this. boys" he said to US
Here's Prof. Thomson declaring that
q single grain of hydrogen contains N
its padIOcked atoms enough energy TO
lift million tons three hundred yards
high But Prof Thomson doesn't know
how to get at the energy and neither
does Prof Rutherford nor anyone else
But somebody has got to get II, and 1
guess il viii have TO be me-
But what would you do with il If
Won cot IL Fd nund2 asked Jack in
his zood-na tured, drawing manner
EdmuEd's eyes shOne strangely, but
I Would do what Archimedes dream
ed Of
None OF Us knew anything about the
dreams Of Archimedes, and we dropped
But Edmund Stonewau did not drop
il. He simply went to work at It he
used TO Be at our club every evening,
but after he got this new idea We would
not see him for weeks on end And
when we die see him he was as mum
as an oyster But what q look he had
in these deep eyesi Somehow, with all
MS eCCenTrlC1tTs we never connected Ehe
ldea Of CTaZiness with StOnewall- He
was different from other human beings.
that vas all
One evening. after a long absence.
Edmund suddenly turned up at the
club, and mighty glad we were TO see
him. WC couldn't understand his talk
half the time. but e charmed Us lust
the same We never laughed at his
extraordinary ideas There was q
depth in him that awed US This time
he showed an animation that We had
never noticed before
Wen, boys. he said, shaking hands
ali around, I've gOI it
Got WhatZ dra-gled Jack
The interatomic energy under con-