Edisons Conquest of Mars | Page 4

producing, with the aid of the electrical
generator contained in this car, an enormous charge of electricity, Mr. Edison was able to
counterbalance, and a trifle more than counterbalance, the attraction of the earth, and thus
cause the car to fly off from the earth as an electrified pith ball flies from the prime
conductor.
As we sat in the brilliantly lighted chamber that formed the interior of the car, and where
stores of compressed air had been provided together with chemical apparatus, by means
of which fresh supplies of oxygen and nitrogen might be obtained for our consumption
during the flight through space, Mr. Edison touched a polished button, thus causing the
generation of the required electrical charge on the exterior of the car, and immediately we
began to rise.
The moment and direction of our flight had been so timed and prearranged, that the
original impulse would carry us straight toward the moon.
A Triumphant Test.
When we fell within the sphere of attraction of that orb it only became necessary to so
manipulate the electrical charge upon our car as nearly, but not quite, to counterbalance
the effect of the moon's attraction in order that we might gradually approach it and with
an easy motion, settle, without shock, upon its surface.
We did not remain to examine the wonders of the moon, although we could not fail to
observe many curious things therein. Having demonstrated the fact that we could not only
leave the earth, but could journey through space and safely land upon the surface of
another planet, Mr. Edison's immediate purpose was fulfilled, and we hastened back to
the earth, employing in leaving the moon and landing again upon our own planet the
same means of control over the electrical attraction and repulsion between the respective
planets and our car which I have already described.
Telegraphing the News.
When actual experiment had thus demonstrated the practicability of the invention, Mr.

Edison no longer withheld the news of what he had been doing from the world. The
telegraph lines and the ocean cables labored with the messages that in endless succession,
and burdened with an infinity of detail, were sent all over the earth. Everywhere the
utmost enthusiasm was aroused.
"Let the Martians come," was the cry. "If necessary, we can quit the earth as the
Athenians fled from Athens before the advancing host of Xerxes, and like them, take
refuge upon our ships--these new ships of space, with which American inventiveness has
furnished us."
And then, like a flash, some genius struck out an idea that fired the world.
"Why should we wait? Why should we run the risk of having our cities destroyed and our
lands desolated a second time? Let us go to Mars. We have the means. Let us beard the
lion in his den. Let us ourselves turn conquerors and take possession of that detestable
planet, and if necessary, destroy it in order to relieve the earth of this perpetual threat
which now hangs over us like the sword of Damocles."
Chapter II.
This enthusiasm would have had but little justification had Mr. Edison done nothing more
than invent a machine which could navigate the atmosphere and the regions of
interplanetary space.
He had, however, and this fact was generally known, although the details had not yet
leaked out--invented also machines of war intended to meet the utmost that the Martians
could do for either offence or defence in the struggle which was now about to ensue.
A Wonderful Instrument.
Acting upon the hint which had been conveyed from various investigations in the domain
of physics, and concentrating upon the problem all those unmatched powers of intellect
which distinguished him, the great inventor had succeeded in producing a little
implement which one could carry in his hand, but which was more powerful than any
battleship that ever floated. The details of its mechanism could not be easily explained,
without the use of tedious technicalities and the employment of terms, diagrams and
mathematical statements, all of which would lie outside the scope of this narrative. But
the principle of the thing was simple enough. It was upon the great scientific doctrine,
which we have since seen so completely and brilliantly developed, of the law of
harmonic vibrations, extending from atoms and molecules at one end of the series up to
worlds and suns at the other end, that Mr. Edison based his invention.
Every kind of substance has its own vibratory rhythm. That of iron differs from that of
pine wood. The atoms of gold do not vibrate in the same time or through the same range
as those of lead, and so on for all known substances, and all the chemical elements. So,
on a larger scale, every massive body has its