alice and her father had been invited, the next day, to ralph's laboratory, as he wished to show them some of his latest discoveries. they found him sitting in front of his desk while he was engaged in dictating scientific data to thin air.
"ah!" said alice, as she entered, "you are evidently using some of the methods of my kidnapper, since you seem to be dictating to an invisible secretary!"
"nothing so complicated," said ralph.
ralph, who then welcomed them, denied the charge, and went on to explain to his party his new invention.
"the evolution of letter-writing has been a slow and painful one. our remote ancestors, many thousands of years ago, carved their letters in stone slabs. later on, the more civilized egyptians wrote their letters upon papyrus. still later, upon the invention of paper and ink, communications and letters could be written much better and faster in that improved manner. later still, the typewriter came into use.
"all of these methods had one great drawback. it was possible to easily falsify such records. while there had been handwriting experts, it happened very frequently in olden times—too frequently, in fact—that a signature on such an important document as, for instance, a will,[pg 128] was forged, and it became a question for handwriting experts to decide whether the signature was genuine. but even the handwriting experts were not always right.
"it has often occurred to me that it should be possible to use the human voice as its own document so that it could be preserved in a different manner than the phonographic method discovered in the 20th century. of course, under that method it was possible for one to speak one's last will and testament, but it was a clumsy way and was rarely used on account of its high cost. furthermore it was difficult to make copies of a talk. then, too, the disc or cylinder upon which the phonographic records were made were very fragile, and could be broken, either accidentally or purposely.
"the method you see me using is phonetic, and it is practically impossible to falsify such a record. watch how the machine works."
ralph reseated himself at his desk and started to talk. facing him on the desk was a machine of about the shape of an old-fashioned typewriter, except that there were no keys. there were a few dials and knobs and from the top of the cabinet a white sheet of paper slowly emerged as ralph dictated. when he had finished, he pressed a button and the entire sheet was ejected. it was covered with queer-looking wave lines, similar to the lines made by a seismograph when recording earthquakes—queer little parallel lines with humps at the tops that increased from very short wave-like scrolls to long ones. the entire sheet was covered with these lines in indelible ink. ralph showed alice the page and went on explaining:
"the page which you see here is an exact record of my voice, but just as no two fingerprints are alike in this[pg 129] world, no two voices are alike either. each has certain characteristics produced by certain overtones in the voices of the various individuals. the pronunciation of individuals varies, so does the intonation, so does the speed of talking, so does the timbre of the voice, and a hundred other differences that to an expert are observable immediately.
"suppose, then, during my life i have recorded a great many documents similar to this one. the waves traced on this piece of paper have certain characteristics, which are entirely individual. here are two sheets of paper, both containing the lord's prayer, but spoken by two different individuals in my office. both of these individuals have voices that are very nearly alike, yet, you can see how great a difference there is between the lines. on one sheet the lines are much heavier and swing in quite an apparently different manner.
"by reference to authentic documents of this character, it will be impossible to falsify any record by having some one else make such a spoken record. a will, or any other important document, will, in the future, be made by this machine and will do away with many court cases and much business squabble, and much shirking of responsibility.
"furthermore, by my method it is possible with the same machine to make as many as twenty-five copies at one time, while the original is being made. this is done by a chemical process in the machine itself, the copies being simply thin chemical papers which are being developed at the same time as the voice-writing is being made.
"reading these pages is not as difficult as you might think. it would be necessary, however, to know the pho[pg 130]nolphabet. the phonolphabet is not very much different from the alphabet that you now know. every syllable and every consonant used by you makes a certain impression in my machine, and while it may vary, as explained before, still it remains roughly the same, exactly as handwriting by different persons may vary, but still you can read because the characteristics are the same. the same is true of my machine. by studying the characters of the phonolphabet, it is possible, within a few weeks, to learn how to read a phonetic letter, with the same ease that you read a handwritten or typewritten letter.
"i expect that in the schools of the future children will be taught the phonolphabet so that every one will be able to read phonetic records.
"another feature of my invention is that if you do not wish to read the letter you can listen to it." saying so, ralph inserted the letter into an odd-shaped cabinet, which had a slot at the top. two grippers slowly began to draw the paper into the inside of the machine. ralph turned two knobs and pushed a button, and within a few seconds his own voice was heard with unmistakable clarity repeating what he had said fifteen minutes before.
"this machine, likewise, is very simple," said ralph. "the ink tracing on the paper record is opaque, while the paper itself is more or less transparent under a strong light. a light-sensitive cell on the other side slowly moves from left to right, taking off the entire phonetic record, as it were. this light-sensitive cell moves in the same ratio and with the same speed that i originally dictated, and the words are reproduced exactly as i spoke them, by means of a loud-speaking telephone coupled to an amplifier.
[pg 131]
"thus it is now possible to have a double record; an audible and a written one, and with the two it is practically impossible to falsify records.
"as you know, there have been some big embezzlement scandals recently and it was not always possible to convict those suspected due to the clever methods which these swindlers used.
"one great advantage of the new system is that it is done entirely by machine and does away with the human element. i do not require my real secretary when i dictate. i sit alone in my study or office and simply talk."
"there is one unique place, i am sure you will be interested in." ralph led the way to the elevator and they quickly shot up to the roof, where they boarded one of ralph's flyers and within a few minutes were heading north. the machine rose until they were up about 20,000 feet. the cold made it necessary to turn on the heat in the enclosed cab. in the distance, just ahead there shortly appeared a brilliant spot of light suspended in the dark sky, which quickly increased in size as they approached. from a distance it appeared like an enormous hemisphere with the flat side facing the earth below. as they drew close, they could see that it was a great city suspended in the air apparently covered with a transparent substance, just as if a toy city had been built on a dinner plate and covered with a bell-shaped globe.
they alighted on the rim, at a landing stage outside the transparent covering. they were soon walking along a warm, beautifully laid out street. here was neither bustle nor noise. the deepest calm prevailed. there were small houses of an old-fashioned design. there were shops in[pg 132] great profusion. there were playgrounds, neatly-laid-out parks, but without looking at the humans that were walking around, the visitors felt as if they had gone back many centuries.
there were no power roller skates, no automatic vehicles. there were no aeroflyers beneath the glass ceiling. instead a serene calm prevailed, while people with happy expressions on their faces were leisurely walking to and fro.
very much puzzled, alice wanted to know what this mysterious glass-encased city was.
"this," explained ralph, "is one of our many vacation cities that i hope will soon dot every part of the world. people are living entirely too intensely nowadays and with the many functions that they have to perform, with all the labor-saving devices they have, their lives are speeded up to the breaking point. the businessman or executive must leave his work every month for a few days, if he is not to become a wreck. heretofore we have sent him to the mountain tops or to the seashore; there he found no rest. the noise, even on top of the mountains, due to aeroflyers and other vehicles, did not give a man a real rest. on our floating city there is absolute rest. there is no noise, no excitement, not even a radio telephone.
"the city, 20,000 feet above the ground, is floating in perfectly clean and uncontaminated air. this air, while less dense than that further down, is renewed automatically every few hours. it is invigorating, just the same as mountain air with all its benefits.
"the roof is made of steel lattice work, thick glass panes being fitted in between the steel frames. the shape[pg 133] is in the form of a huge dome covering the entire city, which measures about a little over a mile in circumference. the height of the center of the dome from the floor of the city is about 200 feet. at night the city is illuminated by cold light from high frequency wires running below the dome, similar to the system now used to light up our cities.
"the floor upon which the entire city rests is steelonium, and the city is held up by means of anti-gravitational impulse. by neutralizing the gravity for the area below the floating city and a little beyond it, it is possible to keep the floating city at any distance from the earth. in other words, we use a gravitational 'screen,' and then build a city on top of this screen.
"by charging the gravitational screen at a very high potential, we nullify gravity and as the city no longer has any weight it can be placed on any level and remain there practically indefinitely. a few air propellers keep the city from being blown away by storms or wind.
"although it was very cold in our aeroflyer as we came up, it is nice and warm on the streets here. nor is there any artificial heating during the daytime. there is perpetual sunshine during the day at this level, at which practically no clouds ever form.
"the city being entirely roofed over by the glass dome, and the interior being filled with air, the sun quickly heats up the atmosphere. within two hours after the sun rises the air is balmy, and it would become stifling hot if the air was not renewed from time to time. air is a poor conductor of heat, and if the air were not renewed, it would soon be 150 degrees in the shade. cold air, however, from the outside, is continually drawn in so that an[pg 134] even temperature is maintained. only at night is the city heated artificially, as without the sunlight at this altitude it soon becomes exceedingly cold.
"all the heating is done by electricity, and a uniform temperature is maintained during the night, which is somewhat less than the temperature during the day.
"there is nothing that a man or woman can do up here except rest, and that is precisely what they do. one week's rest up here is equivalent to a month's rest down below."
ralph, with alice and her father strolled through the suspended city in which the simple life was the keynote. there were recreation parks, gymnasiums, baths of various kinds, such as hydrotherapy, electrotherapy, and others. there were sun parlors and sun baking parks. the din of the city, the curse of man's own handiwork, was absent. everyone wore either felt or rubber shoes. the entire atmosphere was delightful and restful.
it was with genuine regret that alice and her father returned to the aeroflyer and back to new york.
that night after dinner ralph took his guests to a new entertainment that had just become popular. they entered a big building on which, in big fiery letters, was inscribed
gravitational circus
ralph explained to his guests that with the invention of the nullifying of gravitation, many new and wonderful effects had come about. gravity, he explained, was an electromagnetic manifestation, in the ether, the same as light, radio waves, etc. it had always been the dream of scientists for hundreds of years to nullify the effect of gravitation. "in other words," ralph continued, "if you pick up[pg 135] a stone and open your hand, the stone will fall to the ground. why does it fall? first, because the earth attracts the stone, and second because the stone attracts the earth. there is a definite gravitational pull between the two. the effect of the stone in pulling up the earth is, however, inconsequential, and while the stone does exert a certain amount of pull towards the earth, the latter is so tremendously larger that the effect on the earth is not felt at all.
"'if,' scientists had argued for hundreds of years, 'you could interpose between the stone and the earth a screen which nullified gravitation, the stone would not fall down when let go, but would remain suspended just exactly where you left it.'
"scientists also argued that if gravitation was an electromagnetic manifestation of the ether, it should be possible to overcome and nullify it by electrical means.
"it took hundreds of years, however, before the correct solution was found. it was known that certain high frequency currents would set up an interference with the gravitational waves, for it had been found in the first part of our century that gravitation was indeed a wave form, the same as light waves, or radio waves. when this interference between the two waves, namely, the gravitational waves and the electrical waves was discovered, it was found that a metallic screen charged by electric high frequency waves would indeed nullify gravitation to a certain extent. if you charged a metal netting in this fashion and you weighed yourself on a spring scale on top of the screen, insulated of course from the screen itself, your weight would be roughly diminished one-half.
"in other words, about half of the gravitation had been[pg 136] nullified, the other half still remaining. thus things stood until about two years ago, when i began to occupy myself with the problem. i reasoned that while we had achieved much, still much more remained to be done. our anti-gravitational screen still let through some of the gravitational waves, or fifty percent of the energy, which we could not seem to counteract. i felt that it was not so much the effect of the current as the material of the screen which seemed to be at fault. experimental work along this line convinced me that i was on the right track and that if ever gravitation was to be annulled in its entirety a screen of a special material would have to be evolved in order to obtain the desired results.
"i finally found that only the densest material known, namely thoro-iridium, would completely stop the gravitational waves, providing that the metal screen was uninterruptedly bombarded with alpha rays which are continually emitted by radium.
"the screen finally evolved was expensive to make at first, but quantity production now has very considerably lowered the price."
by this time the party had found their seats in the amphitheater, and they had seated themselves. seats were all around a ring, which did not look much different from the old-fashioned circus ring, except that it was, perhaps, a little larger. the gravitational screen, ralph explained, was located below and could not be actually seen. the machinery, too, was located in the basement. a fine wire netting surrounded the entire arena, from top to bottom, the purpose of which became apparent later.
it was an old-fashioned horse and bareback rider act. suddenly the gravitation was cut off, and the horse rose,[pg 137] beating the air with his hoofs, while the rider, in a sitting position hung onto the horse with his legs. the horse and rider no longer having any weight, they could not of course entirely control their movements. both horse and rider at times hung with their heads downwards, then sideways, until finally, by jerking, they arrived in the center of the arena.
the horse had been well trained and ceased pawing the air, and his legs hung limp.
the rider mounted on the back of the horse, and with a slight jump reached the ceiling of the arena, some hundred feet up. having no weight left, he bounced by the least muscular effort. pushing against the ceiling with one of his fingers, he bounded down to the floor of the arena, only to rebound again to the ceiling. he kept this up for a few minutes, and then repeated the same thing sideways, where he hit against the wire netting, stretched from top to bottom of the arena to keep the performer from falling into the audience.
the gravitational field extended only vertically, but was not in evidence immediately beyond the sides of the arena. had there been no screen, the performer, when passing outside the gravitational boundary, would have immediately regained his full weight and would have fallen.
the performer could jerk himself around anywhere in the arena, and being a good acrobat, he had no difficulty in reaching his horse. much care had to be exercised, however, because the slightest kick against the horse would have sent the horse to the opposite side.
slowly the gravitation was turned on, and both horse and rider sank gracefully toward the ground, where[pg 138] with the full gravitation restored, the horse and rider made their exit.
the next act was one that even ralph had not seen. two experts at juggling bounded into the arena and after the gravitation was cut off one of them placed a billiard cue on his forehead, and an old-fashioned hand lamp on top of the cue. the juggler then took the cue away and withdrew jerkily. the lamp remained in the same position, until brought down by one of the performers.
the tricks aroused great enthusiasm among the audience. an acrobat, using one of the billiard cues as a standing trapeze, revolved around the trapeze as if it were held securely in place. by jerking around the billiard cue, it was made to appear as if he was actually swinging around under his full "weight."
a beautiful effect was obtained when the jugglers brought several colored glass pitchers, filled with different-colored liquids. when the pitchers were inverted, nothing happened, because the liquid, having no weight, could not flow out. however, by turning the pitcher upside down and suddenly jerking it away the colored liquid, due to its own lag or inertia, stayed behind.
due to the surface tension of liquids, it did not retain the shape of the pitcher, but formed itself immediately into a globe. the jugglers emptied a number of pitchers all in a row, leaving behind the globular liquid balls, formed of water and fruit juices.
the jugglers approached the balls and began to drink, simply by placing their lips against them. they then demonstrated the mobility of the water balls by pushing their fingers into them and cutting the balls in two, the halves immediately becoming new and smaller balls.[pg 139] then by carefully giving each of the balls a slight push, the water balls would gravitate up to the ceiling of the arena and still having enough momentum left they would rebound and come back, only to be pushed up again by flat tennis racquets.
this had to be done carefully because the slightest false motion spread out the water balls into a flat sheet. the surface tension of the liquid always reasserted itself and the water balls came down sometimes in an elliptical shape. every time the flat tennis racquet hit the balls, they lost their shape momentarily, but soon were globular again.
the two jugglers finally managed to push the liquid spheres one into another, until finally all balls had been joined into one. this, of course, amalgamated the various colors, but the colors had been made in such a way that the ball became a somewhat dirty-looking white, all the colors having recombined, making one color, just as all the hues of the rainbow, if combined together, make white.
the final act was where a huge water ball, about twenty-five feet in diameter, was pushed to the center of the arena, while a number of pretty girls entered the liquid itself and swam within the ball. the ball was lit up by strong searchlights, and the entire arena darkened, as the girls swam within the clear crystal water ball. when the swimmers needed air, all they had to do was to push their heads out of the sphere, breathe, and then resume "swimming," or jerking themselves around within the weightless water.
