The effect of these two phenomena is to permit a condenser to be charged to a high potential and then, by the disappearance of the resistance of the interrupter, to discharge it very rapidly. The result of this action is to set up violent and rapid current impulses in the circuit containing the condenser, and thence in the sending wire. The current impulse, being very powerful, will enable messages to be sent to great distances, and as the number of oscillations per second can be controlled, this permits of selective signaling. The number of impulses can be made very high--above a million a second. The device is inexpensive and durable. It is considered a great contribution to wireless telegraphy and establishes it on a commercial basis, and selective signaling is solved and trans-Atlantic transmission will be easy.

Radium is a rare metal recently discovered, having remarkable qualities and very difficult to obtain. It is a const.i.tuent of pitchblende, which is found in many places, but only in a small way. So far all that has been procured has come from a mine in Cornwall. A ton of pitchblende carries about 15 grains of radium and it is very difficult to extract.

A grain is estimated to be worth $200,000 and a kilogram is worth about $2,000,000. There is only about one pound of radium in the world. It is estimated to be worth $1,000,000.

Radium was discovered by M. and Mme. Curie, in France, after they had familiarized themselves with the remarkable properties of uranium and polonium. Radium has many curious and inexplicable qualities. It continually emits heat and light without combustion, without chemical changes of any kind, and without any change in its bulk, appearance or molecular structure, which remains identical after many months.

It is so powerful in the energy it constantly hurls forth as to entail many dangers in handling it. Sir Wm. Crookes says in describing it: "Probably if half a kilogram were in a bottle on that table it would kill us all. It would most certainly destroy our sight and burn our skins to such an extent we could not survive. The smallest bit placed on one's arm would produce a blister it would take months to heal." It also emits electrons with a velocity so great that Prof. Crookes estimates "one gram is enough to lift the whole of the British navy to the top of Ben Nevis, and I am not quite certain that we could not throw in the French fleet as well."

It has such surprising properties that Lord Kelvin was moved to say of it that, "it threatens to overthrow the correlation of forces," which is the rock-ribbed, foundation postulate of science. It seems already to have unsettled the accepted theory of light, and after the experiments of the Russian scientists who are now investigating it, Profs.

Mendelief, Yigooff and Borgruan, the result may give us new scientific theories and a new nomenclature.

Radium tends to confirm my electric theory of creation, it also seems to aid the Thomson corpuscles hypothesis, and will open the way to new and important discoveries.

My opinion from very brief thought on the subject is that radium is in its nature a form of electric energy solidified, and may be a bundle of Thomson corpuscles or electrons combined and solidified by some process not yet understood. It is in the nature of an electric dynamo, and draws its constant supply of electricity from the air. It is plain that it is an electric substance and manifestation, for, as Prof. Crookes says, "it emits electrons with a velocity so great one gram would lift the British navy to the top of a mountain, and he is even willing to throw in the French fleet." If he were not a great scientist, I should say he was exaggerating like an amateur. Radium is at present a great scientific puzzle. It seems to destroy the present theory of light and the conservation of energy and the so-called attraction of gravitation by reason of its marvelous energy and wonderful qualities.

But I stand with the scientists on the doctrine of the conservation of energy and the correlation of forces, and do not believe radium seriously threatens it, though Lord Kelvin had much reason to say so; and it is a puzzle yet unsolved as to how it maintains its energy without diminution of its force and bulk. I see but one explanation, and that is, that it renews itself constantly by drawing electric energy from the air, as a battery or dynamo draws it, and thus retains its marvelous power unimpaired.

I hold that energy, like matter, is a substance and can neither be created nor destroyed. It is impossible to create a molecule out of nothing or to reduce a single particle of energy to nothing. Energy, like matter, can be changed from one form to another or from one place to another, but all matter is one matter in its elemental form, and all energy is from one original energy, which I hold to be electricity. All matter is the aggregate manifestations of the invisible atom, and all energy is the varied manifestations of the one ultimate and only force in nature--electricity.

The transformation of energy, such as falling water, expanding steam, heat, light, vital force, and so-called gravitation, are all from the same electric elemental force, and this energy is without increase or decrease and is known as the conservation of energy. The definition given of electricity by Atkins in his work on electricity, which says, "it is a molecular mode of motion," is an absurdity, for motion is an effect produced by a cause, and all motion is caused by electric energy.

And the mode of motion is simply the manner in which the law of electro-magnetism operates. Thus there may be an electric law yet undiscovered by which a substance like radium may draw electric energy from the air and keep its force and bulk unimpaired for many months, or perpetually.

But radium raises many other questions affecting the nature of light and heat, such as how such great heat and light can be condensed into so small a compa.s.s and evolved with such wonderful power.

Prospecting for valuable metals by electricity has been recently introduced in Wales with remarkable success. In the Cwnystwyth mines in Cornwall new and valuable deposits of ore and blende were located. These mines have been worked for over fifteen hundred years, and much of this time the search for additional lodes has been going on; yet this electrical device accomplished in a few hours what fifteen centuries of search failed to discover.

By the electric method of prospecting a current of high potential--30,000 volts or more--is employed to energize a piece of ground supposed to contain mineral. The current is taken from the terminals of the generating coil to metal rods or electrodes which are pushed an inch or two into the earth. From these distributers the lines of force spread out in both vertical and horizontal planes and may be made to extend over an area of several miles.

Their presence is detected by means of a delicate telephonic receiver connected with a second pair of metallic rods, which are stuck into the earth in any desired position. When the receiver is silent or gives only faint sounds, it indicates that the lines of force are deflected from their normal course. This reveals the presence of metallic ma.s.ses in the earth, and, by moving the electrodes about, the position and area of an ore deposit may be determined with considerable accuracy. In new and unknown ground the operator would place his distributing electrodes about 200 yards apart, and remove his receiving instrument to a distance of half a mile or more. If his general knowledge of geological formation led him to believe that the metallic veins, if there were any, would run generally north and south, he would place his electrodes east and west, and if he found the electrical distribution normal he might conclude that the ground contained no mineral.

This remarkable electrical system for detecting the mineral deposits beneath the surface of the earth will doubtless be tested and perfected until man will be able without digging into the earth to ascertain the mineral deposits at any point beneath its surface. It may not always determine if they may be profitably worked, but in many mining regions it will be a blessing, and save much unprofitable work and sad disappointment.

Electrically heated cooking and laundry apparatus is now used in Germany and other countries. And there are farms on large German estates which are run by electricity. The Guednau farm in Eastern Prussia consists of 450 acres, and its dairy handles one thousand gallons of milk daily. It is lighted by electricity, has an electrical churn and feed-cutting machine, water-pumping apparatus, incandescent lamps, threshing and grist mills, saw mill, automatic plough and electrical agricultural machines, all run by charged batteries and a fifty-horse power stationery engine moving two dynamos. Thus farming is made attractive and free from drudgery, and is run like a machine by the electric current. Electricity is used not only to run some farms, but also to hasten and increase the growth of farm products by running wires a few inches beneath the surface to energize the soil.

The Commercial Cable Company announce that their ocean cable connections will be complete with Manila, in the Philippines, by the 4th of July of this year, 1903, and that on that day they will telegraph around the world in forty seconds. What a miracle of wonders! Fifty years ago the speediest communication from point to point was by swift hors.e.m.e.n making fifty miles a day. Now the round earth's antipodes is only forty seconds apart by reason of electric appliances.

So wonderful has been the growth of electrical appliances and utilities that Prof. H. B. Shaw, of the Missouri University, in a recent lecture, said: "In twenty years the electric light industry has developed from nothing to the manufacture of over 100,000 incandescent lamps per day.

Ninety-five per cent. of the street railways in this country are electrically operated. Yet this industry was cradled in Kansas City, Mo., only about twenty years ago."

This was when I first had my attention drawn to electricity, for I saw the building of that line on East Fifth street, in that city. That and the lighting of the gas by an electric flash from a human body caused me to investigate electric phenomena and formulate the electric theory of creation.

Prof. Shaw said: "The latest development in long distance power is in California, where ten thousand horse power is transmitted two hundred miles from where it is generated with a loss of only ten per cent. of power in the line. Ten thousand horse power is sufficient to raise a million tons two inches per minute."

What a miracle that such power can pa.s.s along a wire no larger than a child's finger, and exert such force two hundred miles from where it is generated! Nothing but the invisible creative cosmic force of the universe could accomplish such a seeming miracle.

But some scientists are so irrational as to say this force is merely the pressure, twist or whirl of the ether, when it is plain that if the ether were as rigid as steel it could not exert such force and power.

And as to it being a derivative force derived from the coal, wood or sun, it is plain it is the same force and the original, ultimate, creating evolving and only force in the physical universe.

There has been much labor and money expended in endeavoring to perfect a balloon or airship, which would be safe and could be directed through the air at will in any course desired. Electricity has been used as the steering power and aluminum, because of its light weight, for the frame-work. The French especially have given great attention to what they call the dirigible balloon, but no great amount of success has been achieved and, in my opinion, never will.

In the very nature of things, no safe airship can ever be built. It was not intended that man should travel or carry burdens through the upper regions of the air. First, because the law of the earth's electric attraction forbids it. Second, because the sudden and powerful wind and electric currents that pervade the upper regions of the atmosphere are sure to bring ruin and death, sooner or later, and no human power can prevent it.

The balloon or airship is only a dangerous toy which can be useful perhaps in times of war to spy out the enemy, but utterly useless otherwise, and which means death in a very short time to all who risk their lives in its treacherous power.

There have been two recent and striking examples of this in the case of the two distinguished experts in Paris who thought they had built airships that could overcome the powers of nature, and while proudly exhibiting them to their family and friends were hurled to a sudden and fearful death.

The many deaths and narrow escapes from these useless and dangerous toys make it almost certain that no sane man would risk his life in one of them, though there were a thousand at his command free of expense.

Of all the useless follies on which inventive genius and money have been expended, the airship is the worst, because if millions of the most perfect ones the imagination of man can conceive were built and offered free, no prudent man would risk his life or his goods in their treacherous care. The powers of nature, and what the ancients called the demons of the air, forbid that the airship should ever be anything more than a dangerous toy for reckless persons, who wish to jeopardize their lives.

Great efforts have been made, much money expended and many lives lost in futile attempts to find the North Pole, which when discovered may appear like any other ice field, mountain glacier, or snowdrift of the Arctic Circle. But the thirst for knowledge and the love of adventure and exploration where no financial reward can be expected is creditable to humanity, and shows that the love of knowledge is sometimes above that of sordid gain. The struggle for two centuries has been to reach the North Pole, and it has been approached as near as 700 miles; but recent reports indicate that conditions are more favorable for reaching the South Pole; and a French expedition outfitted this year for the North Pole have changed their destination to the South Pole. One or both poles are likely to be discovered in a few years.

There have been many scientific expeditions to various parts of our globe for astronomical observations. One recently sent to Chili from the Lick Observatory should command especial interest since its object is by the study of the southern stars to ascertain where the earth and the solar system is going. We know our sun system is moving swiftly towards the north, in the direction of the stars Vega or Alpha Lyra, at the rate of more than forty-three thousand miles an hour. Each year we are more than three hundred million miles nearer these stars, unless they also are in motion in the same direction. The southern stars have been studied much less than the northern stars, and the testimony of both is desired to determine the direction of the mysterious voyage of the sun and its family of worlds through the unexplored regions of s.p.a.ce.

We have been watching the stars in front of us for many years, and will now give some attention to the stars in our rear to confirm or disprove many astronomical hypotheses.

It is like getting back to anti-Copernican times to have Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace, in his flights of speculative astronomy, say that, "our solar system is central in the universe and that this earth of ours is probably the only planet on which humanity has been developed." In a recent article he undertakes to establish this ancient fallacy. It is very doubtful whether the universe has a general center, but if it has it should be plain to our learned astronomer that as our system is moving through s.p.a.ce in a straight line at the rate of 420,000 miles per day it could not occupy a central position very long. The only means we have to judge of the inhabitability of other worlds is by a.n.a.logy, which is the foundation of all scientific hypotheses. The likeness in form, substance and electric power of suns and planets to our own world leads to the natural conclusion that all suns and worlds are inhabitated. In fact any other a.s.sumption is contrary to all cosmological reasoning and all a.n.a.logy to be found in universal nature. Nature nowhere bestows vast substance and power without commensurate results of life and growth, and it is reversing all the laws of reason, a.n.a.logy and cosmic experience to hold to the contrary. We must give up this egotistic a.s.sumption that our little world is the only living world in this vast universe, or that it is only one of a few living worlds.

There are no dead worlds or planets or burning suns in this electric universe, and we are not "the only pebble on the boundless beach" of creative worlds. We have the same electric fire in our bodies that is in the sun, and it neither burns us nor causes us to shrink up annually, as the scientists say the sun does. It is not the consumer of life, but the giver of life, and the continual life energy of the universe.

During a recent eclipse of the moon, Prof. W. H. Pickering, of Harvard Observatory, ascertained that the bright spot around the crater Linne on the surface of the moon grows considerably larger when deprived of the heat of the sun. For many years it has been noticed that the Linne area has been gradually changing and many theories regarding the causes have been advanced.

Prof. Pickering is inclined to the belief that it is h.o.a.r frost or ice.

This tends to confirm my theory that the moon has an atmosphere and some moisture which is mostly hidden in its perforated volcanic surface.

Alexander Young, an astronomer of Laport, Ind., announced on February 20th, 1903, that, "from observations made by him, he is confident that the sun is inhabited; that with his instruments he has seen on the sun's surface mountain sides with great and precipitous rocks which glow with prismatic colors, mingled with the greenness of perennial vegetation."

I was not expecting this scientific proof so soon, but I am satisfied that the inhabitants, the mountains and the perennial vegetation are there; and if he has succeeded in magnifying the rays of light from the vast openings in the sun's photosphere sufficiently he can and did see them.

I am a firm believer in the inhabitability of the sun, and that it is a perfected, self-luminous world--a world like our world, only vastly larger and more prolific in life and power. As it is the source of all life and power to the planets, it must be the creator of all life to its celestial inhabitants.

Profs. Proctor and Hersch.e.l.l seem to believe that most of the heavenly bodies are inhabited. Sir Wm. Hersch.e.l.l went so far as to contend for a time that the sun was inhabited or inhabitable because, he said, the heat of the sun was in its photosphere, which was far out in s.p.a.ce and many miles from the sun's surface, and that there were cool clouds and layers of atmosphere, he thought, between the heat and the sun's surface which made the body of the sun cool enough for animal and vegetable life and human habitation. He changed his mind, however, in a few years and held the heat of the sun was too hot to allow anything in nature to keep such excessive heat from its surface, and besides, the law of the conservation of forces just coming into scientific prominence then forbid it.

Prof. Proctor, says: "I adopt the principle of Sir Wm. Hersch.e.l.l that a.n.a.logy is the chief and the best guide for the student of astronomy.

That general resemblance of structure indicates a general resemblance in the purpose which the celestial bodies are intended to subserve is evident when we compare the stars with our sun or with each other. Some time or other those worlds have been or will be the abode of intelligent creatures seems to be a fair conclusion from what we know of their structure."

Deity does no irrational things, nature is always logical and consistent, and where there is such vast resources of substance and power bestowed, as in our sun and the eighteen millions of suns of the universe, it was not for the purpose of making bonfires and blazing furnaces of them. But they were created for vaster, more perfect theatres of intelligent life and activities. Besides, burning them up could bestow no benefit on the planets; the heat could not reach them, and if it could it is only a sensation, and sensation cannot produce vegetable or animal life, or control the earth's motion.

One of the greatest of modern discoveries is that heat is not a substance but a sensation, produced by electric currents. So that eighteen millions to one hundred millions of suns do not need to be burning up to furnish electric currents to their planetary worlds. And our sun is not burning up thirty quintillions cubic feet of itself annually, and a hundred millions of suns many a thousand times larger than ours are not burning up a thousand times more of themselves, as the astronomers claim, and the whole thing is a great absurdity and superst.i.tion.

CHAPTER IX

AT PRESENT SCIENCE IS IN A DUBIOUS AND CHAOTIC CONDITION