Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 95, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1908 — THE VANISHING FLEETS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE VANISHING FLEETS

By ROY NORTON

ILLtISTBATCD BT A. WBtt

! The, admiral In boyish exuberance would hare thrown wide the door; but ' the inventor, remembering the other ' contretemps, forbade. The latter boiled himself for a few minutes In I his storehouse, and returned with a sheet of peculiar insulation which waa i of his own Invention, almost lnde- • structlble by heat, and a resistant to | any form of radioactivity, which he I?laced with great care on top of the j huge plate. The second plate was lowered squarely ori top of this, clamped for additional security, and , the workmen dismissed. The conneci tlons were made in Identically the same way aa In the previous test, ex- | cept that one electrical apparatus waa , attached to the upper plate above the . insulation and the other to the one beneath. seeing that the currents were about to be applied, I backed- oil into the corner, until 1 stopped by the farthermost partition. “It’s all right this time,” the inventor assured him. “Wild current and wet floor before, badly Insulated handle, too. All fixed np now. Won’t be any accident this time,” and so oh, making the final inspection of his apparatus as he talked. Norma reviewed her father’s work, to be certain that all was well, and then at a nod from him took her station at the other monster which had not been used hitherto. There waa a simultaneous movement on their part, and, aa If suddenly endowed with a soul, the lights once more flashed here and there, glaring at them with sinister contempt— Frankensteins under control! The admiral, fascinated by the mystery of science, stared at the whitehaired old man who was calmly watching his play Of colors, and then At the girl, who .with equal self-possession and coolness manipulated the strange currents beneath her hands. They were animated as by one mind, throwing their levers and switches to and fro at identically the same moment without looking at each other, and the click of the closing currents came In unison. Not until then did they step back from their stations and interchange what seemed to the admiral mutual glances of congratulation. “That assistant of mine Is a wonder!” was all the old man said as he came over, dragged a stool up beside that on which the ofijper sat, and gleefully rubbed his hands together. “She thinks more clearly than I do.” Brockton, who had been tense as a violin string and had almost forgotten to breathe, drew a long breath and lpoked at the glrl t who had been leaning against the wall as though exhausted, but was now watching the slowly cooling metal. He would have asked questions; but the Inventor turned to him and with an air of triumph said: “I wish you would invite all those who were here when we made the flrat tost. Then you will have the explanation unless I am again mistaken.” The admiral obeyed, and even as the cooling sprays were sifting over the great pieces of metal they came trooping in from the work which they had resumed. There were men from the draughting rooms with pencils behind their ears, engineers from the outside with shirt; sleeves rolled up and forgotten diagrams under their arms, and one man came from the laboratory absentmindedly carrying a test tub*, balancing It so that be might spijl none of the liquid which It contained. Norma was now resting calmly against one of the huge dead machines. In a tone of unusual gravity Roberta addressed them. “Boys,” he began—they were all boys to him—“you have witnessed the accidental discow ery, I believe, of the most powerfiA force the world has ever known. Ton hare been fortunate. In more than 70 years of life I, who have spent the time in strange studies and stranger work, have had no privilege so great You have all been kind to my daughter and to me, And I am glad you are hese now.” He paused for a moment, ■eelag with introspective eyes all the great events of his life. Then, recalling himself from this review, be turned to Jenkins as a kindred aplrit, and to a boyish offleer who stood near At hand. "You two,” he said, Indicating them with his hand, “may hav* the honor of picking up those plates.” i There was an Instant of breathless astonishment Jenkins was the first to recover, and unhesitatingly walked forward. The younger man drew back as though he had received an order from an Insane man consigning him to Inglorious death. The voice of thf admiral pot an end to tha wait. ”Oo ahead!” ha said quietly. “Those plates may weigh tons; bat if t>r. Roberts tells you to pick them up. you go and try lt“ • ' ” w#** < With the absolute precisian of trainin*, tha oAcer's heels came together !«*d kls haed to Ua septa qulok satote, He strode to tha; W* stood ODDOiItB Jon kina, while imo* tatorp craned torwar£ S^ulatlaJ^

questioning, looked across at his companion, nodded to him, and together they stooped and caught a-handhold. Together they gathered their muscles an if for some prodigious exercise of strength, and simultaneously strained upward, - To the amazement of those within, the room the great masses of metal came up with such e&se that they were lifted breast high without perceptible effort “Higher, higher!" called the old inventor, springing toward them and gesturing with hie hands. The plates rote until they were held with finger tips, and breathless suspense enchained the spectators. ’ --SC-i: “Now stand from under! Let go of them! Let go of them!” yelled Roberta, dancfhg up and down ia excitement; but the men still held on as U rendered powerless by astonishment. •Stand from under!” commanded the admiral; and discipline again mastering them they ebeyed, springing bank in the apprehension that the two Immense plates might by some necromancy come crashing down and disappear through the floor. With something almost like a sob, so great had been his mental strain, Jenkins stood transfixed. The admiral gave a gasp, and with one hand poised in the air stood like a statue. A hammer fell from the hand of one of the engineers standing behind, and the man who had been tightly clutching the test tube opened his lingers and let it crash to the floor. In this tinkling sound of broken glass on cement, another gave a sharp ejaculation and took an Involuntary step forward. They, had witnessed the first positlve exhibition of true levitation, asolid body suspended in the air without support. They had seen in times past with complacency, knowing that It was dependent upon optical llfusion, the conjurer’s trick, mystifying to the outward Bense but readily explainable in the light of Investigation; but here before them, beyond the range of charlatanry, in perversion of all known physical laws, there hung motionless In the air, dependent upon itself for its flotation, a great mass of metal that but a short time before would have been beyond the power of their combined strength to lift. And standing placidly beneath It, enjoying their surprise and supremely triumphant, stood a quiet little old itian smiling up at his daughter, whose hand he was holding. CHAPTER XVI. - An Invincible Arm. The officers, still doubting their senses, stood before this uncanny manifestation like men in a world of unreality. From without, for some unaccountable reason, the varied clamor of industry had subsided to silence, and the soldiers’ song was finished. Even the yellow light of the afternoon which filtered through the window panes appeared strange, spectral, and unearthly. In the shadow of that massive thing which hovered above them, Nature seemed bent on the revocation of her laws, and for an Instant their senses reeled tn the struggle for comprehension. “Old Bill” Roberts broke the spell. He reached up and touched the tip of a finger to the mass and moved it gently toward them with no more exertion than would be necessary to push a toy balloon. There was no levity In him when he addressed them, but rather' the simple grandeur of one who has wrested from Nature one of her greatest powers, and was now preparing to harness it for all time, a slave to peace, progress and the welfare of his fellows; < - “My friends,” he said, "by the discovery of an alloy of metal and metalloids we have created a new substance, Which when an electrical current of certain potentiality is passed through it becomes intensely radioactive; Infinitely more so than radium. Through these machines,” and here he waved his hand at the twin apparatus in the rear, "my daughter and I have produced electrical manifestations hitherto unsuspected and unknown. The metal itself, while radicn. active to a certain degree, does not become Intensely so without the application of the excitant current.” He pulled the plata down Oil It rested on the floor, and stood upon it, while thoy, still awed, waitod for his further exposition. “This morning,' by an accidental contact which laatpd nnUl the plate had torn itself loose and broken the current, I saw to the full the possibilities ft contained. Tbs Impact of the «manad6ins, or radioactive corpuncles, against the sheet of Insulation and tank at the bottom drove it through the floor and Into the ground, because tha corpsucles which flew o(t in the other direction were unimpeded, free and harmless. Had the excitant current been maintained, the plat* would have hurled itself indefinitely toward the center of the earth.” The officers gave a gasp of something almost approaching Incredulity, with the exception of Jenkins, who nodded his head and excitedly nibbed his handa. Roberta picked op a scrap at his feet and held it toward them. “Fog years I experimented upon and perfected this,” he said. “It is *a insulation which will pass no current of electricity, and which no known heat can destroy. Today by aocldent I learned that it was also an impervious screen to radioactive emanations. In the second experiment I so charged the alloy In my lower plate that it merely offsets gravitation, sad pat my sheet of Insular substance between; nnd there we have levitation. Those

. two plates are working against each other with nearly equal force, toe balance being disturbed only in ratio to gravitation.” “The solution of toe flying mar chine!” Jenkins shouted excitedly, and Roberts, appreciating the engineer’s quick understanding, smiled and responded: “Yes, Just that” “But what will furnish its propulsion?” adked Jenkins, whose mind was traveling over the possibilities of rapid flight. The others evinced their interest by craning forward. "It will furnish Its Own,” top scientist answered, “because by toe use of the apparatus behind It we can excite Its radioactivity to any degree that might be safe. More plainly, toe moment the current excites and therefore increases the power of the lower plate, a lifting energy could be exerted which would destroy the equilibrium of levitation and drive the plates Into the air with a force corresponding to the strength or character of the current Or, on toe other hand, if the upper plate waa similarly excited, thus liberating its corpuscles, the plate would be driven toward the earth.” The admiral, who had been slowly following this dissertation, seemed suddenly to have grasped its entire meaning, and thrust himself out from the group with' both hands extended and gesticulating rapidly. “Then all you have to do,” he said, "la to put on either end of- your airship a freeboard made of this metal, capable of excitation and Insulated on its Inner surface, and you would thereby be able to drive your craft in either direction at any speed you might wish!” "That’s it exactly," answered Roberts and Jenkins in unison. The inventor continued: ”1 can beat a freeboard, however, because I shall apply my electrical current in such a way as to send all the corpuscles of radioactive matter In any direction I may, choose. I could with this alloy even create magnets otsunknown power. I can built a craft in sections where magnets and radioactive surfaces will alternate.” He was growing excited as toe magnitude of the scope of his discovery dawned upon his imagination. Norma calmed him down; but the admiral, infected with these visions, took np the strain and enthusiastically expatiated to his companions. To him the skies were already filled with flying ships that, were to swoop down over an enemy, drop terrific bombs of high explosives, and thus sweep the seas." But future events, he was to learn, cannot be predicted with certainty. "Well, well!” he said, briskly. "What next?” “Your engineers must assist me in drawing plans. We shall want great quantities of new material and electrical equipment, and must have them soon; because when we get well unifier way we should be able to create two or three of these radioplanes each day.” The great plates were locked in, and toe group repaired to one of the offices, where for hours the inventor elaborated his scheme of control, the mechanical means of which were to be worked out and drawings made by the engineers. And as they toiled over their plans, there spread from mouth to mouth throughout the strange colony the story of the marvelous conception, until even the most prosaic workman found himself dreaming and speculating over his task. Before dusk had crowded the light from the skies, the Columbia, under a full head of steam,.picked her way out to meet the ocean swells, and headed for Miami, where she was to send a message to

Washington, calling for strangely aasorted supplies and notifying ths anxious naval men that to* dry dock would not be needed. There where the heart of the American government beat was nothing but nnxiety and suspense. Each succeeding day’s events had made It more certain that Japan would force the issue to war, and, Ilka an athlete, was stripping and training for the fight. The men who had taken upon themselves the tremendous responsibility of Intrusting the nation’s defense to a single discovery, and were backing it with funds for which they must aocount some day, say the days slipping by, and grimly realized that they were Irrevocably bound to the success or fcilure on the key. It was too late now to attempt other projects, and glory or defeat hung suspended on tha IMS (To be continued.)

A Clash Had Taken Place at Chemulpo.