I did so, and it slowly rose toward the ceiling.
"Close the aperture slowly, and finally close it entirely."
This I did, and it settled back to its original place.
"There," said Remo, "you have the direct current and its direct application to machinery and inert bodies. You know enough about mechanics to understand what that means. The ascent and flight and movements and descent of the Aerocar; the running of the Medocar and the sailing of the Merocar, are not such a profound mystery to you as they were yesterday."
He conducted me into another factory and exhibited a number of accumulators, each filled with apparently the same granulated substance, but of different colors and admixture of colors. Remo opened the apertures of a long line of them upon a wire rack, and they flashed into brilliant lamps of every hue and color and shade—a light that was as steady as that of the stars. He closed them one by one, showing the absolute independence of each.
"Our lamps, with which we beautify the night, are no longer a mystery to you—that is, not an absolute mystery."
In another factory he exhibited more accumulators with varicolored materials in the globes. He opened one and directed its power toward an ingot of metal. It melted like wax. Turning its force upon a fragment of rock, it was transformed into the ordinary dust of our roadways. With another he turned a vessel of water into a solid block of ice.
"Our topographical construction, our culinary economy and the absence of fire are now plainer than they were."
"But how do you achieve all these different results with apparently the same means?"
"The first device shown you is the primary; the others are subsequent discoveries. By the primary medium we were able to produce or secure the electric current in the form of dynamic power, eminently tractable and harmless with ordinary prudence. New combinations of the medium gave us all the other results, at intervals, subsequent to the original discovery. And the field is not exhausted."