Another World Part 6

I a.s.sembled from all parts the mighty men of our world, men of truth and wisdom, fathers of science and knowledge, chiefs in all the princ.i.p.al departments; for it was provided by one of my laws that before any great work was undertaken these men should be consulted, and that, so far as was in accordance with the chief intent, the work should be carried on in harmony with the requisitions of the princ.i.p.al sciences.

After much thought, deliberation, and study, a stupendous work was undertaken; a work so great in the parent thought, and so wondrous in the execution, that it is looked upon by the people as the wonder of our world.

With your limited mechanical appliances, and backwardness of electrical science, you will perhaps have difficulty in realizing the practicability of such a construction.

X.

THE MOUNTAIN SUPPORTER.

"Let all hearts unite in grat.i.tude to Him who sent His angels to aid us in this work.

"He inspired the directing mind, and gave strength to those that executed. He created the fire that married the two substances into one indestructible compound ma.s.s.

"Behold, and wonder!"

A circular tower, whose base above the foundation is more than a mile in diameter, and whose round walls are more than a hundred feet in thickness, is carried up from the lower land nearest to the sea-level until the head of the tower reaches and supports the projecting mountain ma.s.s above.

The diameter of the tower-head is one-third of the diameter of the base.

The diminution being very gradual is scarcely perceptible, and appears to be the effect of distance. The height of the tower is the same as its circ.u.mference at the base. Our ordinary powers of vision generally exceed yours, and the light in our world is more intense; and yet the head of the tower can from the lower cities seldom be distinguished from the illuminated clouds above.

The area in the interior of the tower at the base, and for some distance above, is divided horizontally and vertically, and the compartments are used for storehouses, including the storing of scientific instruments, and for experiments connected with science. The different strata and incidents of the atmosphere at various elevations are there studied with peculiar advantage, as there are numerous landings at different distances, and we have the means of ascending and descending the whole distance, or of alighting on any of the landings by means of a machine raised and lowered by electric power.

As the work progressed, stages were constructed at different heights on which buildings were erected, where the workmen and their families lived until the task was completed, the materials and electricities used, as well as provisions and necessaries, being raised to these stages by electric power. The princ.i.p.al material used is the hardest and most durable substance known in our world--an amalgamated material consisting of certain proportions of iron and marble fused into a solid compact ma.s.s by the action of fire and electricity.

HEAVY MATERIALS LIGHTENED BY ELECTRICITY.

The blocks used were of immense size, so huge, that even with our electrical and mechanical levers, many expedients were employed to raise them to their a.s.signed places.

Electric science had greatly advanced in my reign, and electric powers had been discovered by which the heaviest ma.s.ses could be lightened temporarily, so that their specific gravity, called by us the "tenacious electricity," and its tendency to seek the sympathetic electricity of the earth was temporarily diminished, if not entirely neutralized, without injury to the ma.s.s subjected to the operation.

Though the means and end are different, the principle is not unlike that by which you often lighten the specific gravity of bodies, and even change their nature by chemical combination, the action of fire, and other expedients, the bodies often resuming their specific gravity and original form. The means we employ for lightening bodies are far more rapid and effectual, and, at the same time, the materials acted upon are less abruptly or violently changed.

Notwithstanding all our knowledge of electric and mechanical powers, our thousands of artificers employed, and all the industry and energy exerted in obedience to my will, nine of our years[1]--more than thirty of yours--were spent in the completion of this stupendous work.

[Footnote 1: Our year is not calculated like yours. The year is marked by a peculiar appearance which the sun a.s.sumes at equidistant epochs.]

The tower of itself is an object of great grandeur and beauty, and is richly ornamented. The external walls of the plinth at the base of the tower are overlaid with gold and ravine[1] metal, inlaid with large transparent stones of varied colours. The ravine metal--a metal prized beyond gold--possesses beautiful veins of colour, which change with the temperature--veins of watery green, of purple, blue, and steel. When refined, it is most beautiful. The colours are sometimes so bright that it is dazzling to look at them.

[Footnote 1: So named from being found in the great ravine, the largest ravine in Montalluyah.]

On the tower are scrolls and images of peculiar meaning, and of large characters in gold and ravine metal, ornamented with transparent stones.

The sun's rays playing on these stones, and particularly on a large yellow stone like an amethyst, illuminates the column with what may be called a supernatural light.

Alternating with the scrolls are designs representing episodes in my life and reign. These designs are in pure white marble in relief, and with the light of our world stand out prominently from the iron-marble, sufficiently large to be plainly seen at great distances from nearly all parts of the city. The proposal for thus recording the events of my reign came from the kings and people who loved me greatly.

As before observed, a person can be raised from the base to the top of the column, and through a shaft into the Upper city. The movement is rapid, and takes less than half an hour either way, whilst the journey by our external roads, by reason of the circuits to be taken, and the ascents and descents would, even to descend, occupy two days on a fleet horse. The pa.s.sage through the Tower, however, is seldom used either for ascent or descent, except in cases of great emergency, because the great difference of the atmosphere above and below materially affects the health of the pa.s.senger.

The machinery, too, in the descent requires much care and calculation, for the weight of the descending body would otherwise increase to such an extent, that accidents would occur.

The difference of the atmosphere and the effect on the human frame between the Upper and Lower cities is remarkable; those accustomed to live in the Lower city have a disposition to spring from their feet when first arriving in the Upper city. I recollect a lady--rather weakly--who seemed mad, but was rational enough; only she could not for some time resist the impulse of springing upwards.

This mode of communication would perhaps have been more resorted to had we not possessed the telegraph. The electric telegraph is, in its rapidity, not unlike that used in your world, but is different in construction and mode of working. What is written at one station is reproduced in its exact size and form at another. Even a portrait designed at one end of the telegraph with the electric acid would be instantaneously reproduced at the other end, perhaps many hundred miles distant.

At different stages of the Tower the colour of the atmosphere sensibly changes. This phenomenon is caused by certain minute particles which contain animalcula, or their ova, and exist at different distances in layers, and which as they are developed and become heavier have a tendency to fall into lower regions of the atmosphere, till they awaken into life under the influence of the sun. Blights, called by us Viscotae, "infectious visitors," are often thus generated, falling from layer to layer till they settle on plants and trees.

These ova, moved by the winds, are sometimes mixed together, but when the winds subside the more advanced and heaviest tend to settle in the lower regions of the air just as the heaviest particles of a mixture have a tendency to sink and settle below.

All this has been shown beyond doubt by a quant.i.ty of air being collected when falling fast, and at different times and alt.i.tudes. Each portion of air being secured in a separate gla.s.s case, the ova were then viewed through our powerful microscopes, and subjected to various tests.

The Mountain Supporter, which can be seen from nearly every part of the Middle and Lower cities of Montalluyah, is an object of inconceivable grandeur and beauty, its appearance varying according to the point whence it is seen.

This great work often seems broken into numerous parts of varied length, by mountains, rocks, and ravine sides, raising their heads between it and the spectator. Often, particularly when the clouds have been high, and the sky has been clear, I have seen from a distance parts of the huge Mountain Supporter seemingly broken into vertical lines towards the middle and lower parts in a way that, in conjunction with the upper parts, has produced an effect like that of an immense flower raising its head towards the skies, supported by a long stalk resting on many elegant but slender tendrils.

The grandeur and beauty of the tower is, if possible, heightened by the Great Cataract, in conjunction with which it is almost invariably seen.

The falling waters vie with the Mountain Supporter in breadth, and overtop it by the height from which they are hurled; the one firm, stately, and magnificent in its solidity and repose, the other vapoury and grand in its gracefulness and movement; both inconceivably beautiful; the Cataract, a work of all-powerful Providence, whose wise purposes no one can scan in their entirety; the Supporter symbolizing the inspired genius of man, who, with the beneficent purpose of saving innumerable lives from destruction, had, by the sweat of his brow, constructed a work more stable than the solid rock,--work whose head might be said to "reach unto Heaven."

XI.

ELECTRICITY

IN MONTALLUYAH.

"A spark of Heaven power."

In the construction of the Mountain Supporter you will have perceived that we were greatly aided by our extended knowledge of electricity.

Before my reign, although electricity was used for some purposes, the existence of varieties in electricity, and the manifold uses to which their wondrous powers could be applied, were unknown.

Electricity was not then utilised for locomotion either on land or sea, or for raising ponderous bodies to an immense height, or in the various products of manufacture and art, or, in short, for any of the almost innumerable purposes where the various electricities are now employed, either separately or in combination.

This could not well be otherwise; for beyond a contrivance like your Leyden jar, for collecting "air electricity," no means of collecting, still less concentrating, electricity of any kind then existed.

The belief once generally entertained was, that there were but two electricities, or rather two varieties of the same electricity, one repellent and the other attractive, answering in a measure to your terms of positive and negative. Some, indeed, thought that several different kinds existed; but the renowned electricians--truly great men, for they had opened the gates of science--proclaimed that all electricities were in reality one and the same, modified only by accidents.