The Washington times., 1910-07-23
CHAPTER /.
A Marvellous Invention.

r. DMUND STONETTALL was the
l. most ingenious man that ever
lived
IN my private opinion he was
the greatest human being that has ever
appeared on this earth 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
ought 10 hate Edmund StonewaU for
what he did 70 me and TO my friends,
but, in fact, I reverence his memory
Let me tell you the story, and then
YOU VIII see rhe reason that undeTltes
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 il. and I
shudder vet when think Of It
Il was, Of course. based on electricity
for everybody knows now that electric
lty IS at the bottom OF every LElnS- II
came out OF that discover which made
so much excitement at the beginning OF
the Twentieth century radi0actlv1ty-
What is radioactivity2
Heavens only knows. But IL came
near being the death Of me- Il has rob
bed me OF my dearest friends, and I
don't know but that Z StOueUaI had
kept on, II might have put q finish TO
this old earth Of oUrs-
StOnewaII was always bOthering him
self about power and energy and
what not. He knew machinery and en-
glnes as a boy knows craps and mar
bles- But he was dissatisfied with
Men are fools" he said. They
might be Ike gods They ought TO run
IL
You remember the old 'heeley mo-
tcr2' Well, Edmund believed in II, but
said Kelley had got hold Of the wrong
end and would never make Il 90 that
way.
All the while he vas experimenting
himself. He had money from q rich
uncle, guess. and he built himself q
laboratory. and once in a while he would
invite Jack Ashton. Henry barton,
VIII Church and me 70 come and
watch some Of his experiments It was
all Greek 70 Us. but IL never failed 70
make Us stare We saw some wonder
fUl things there, that people knew moth
ing about Edmund took UP Tesla, too,
with his communication with Mars idea
but after a while he dropped that, and
then came radiOacttvity-
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 10 skip that part IN the papers,
and I can't say that his explanation
made il much clearer; but, anyhow. ne
made the thing very inspiring TO our i'm
aginatiOn-
= listen 10 this. BOYS" he said TO rs.
Here's Prof. Thomson declaring that
q single grain OF hydrogen contains in
its padIccked atoms enough energy 10
lift a 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 IL, and ]
guess II will have TO be me-
Put what would you do with IL Il
v51! got IL. EGmund2' asked Jack. in
his zOod-na tured, drawing manner
Edmurd's eyes shone strangely but
I You'd DO what Archimedes dream
None Of US knew anything about the
dreams Of Archimedes, and we dropped
the SUBJECT
But Edmund Stonewau did not droI
it He simply went to work at II 10
used TO Be at our club every evening
but after he got this new idea We Woulc
not see him for weeks on END AND
when we die see him he was as nun
/ as an oyster But what q look ne nae
I In these deep eyeSt Somehow with al
Z his eCCenITiCltT. we never connected Int
I idea OF Craziness with StOnewaIL Ht
/ was different from other human beings
that was all
/ One evening, after a long absence
I Edmund suddenly turned up at Tht
/ club. and mighty glad we were 10 see
I him We couldn't understand his talh
I half the time. but z charmed Us JuS1
the same We never laughed AT his
extraordinary ideas There was
/ depth in him that aWcd Us This time
I he showed an animation that We had
never noticed before
/ We'll, boys" he said. shaking hands
I all around, I've gOT it
| Got WhaTZ draZgled Jack
J The interatOmie enersy under con-