"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 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 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.'