The Universe a Vast Electric Organism

by Geo. W. Warder

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 space.

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.