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Copyright, 1913, by the Star Company. Great Britain Bights Reserved.
unGas that Will Run Expresses
heStarsy
Professor
Nield, Lead
ing British
Astronomer,
Predicts That
the New Gas,
Coronium, by
Anni
hilating
Weight, Will
• Solve the
Problem
of Navigating Space
London, May 16.
E XPRESSES to the stars, half
day excursions to the sun
and evening trips to the
moon are within the wonderful
possibilities of the near future, ac
cording to a British scientist.
H. Krauss Nield, one of the lead
ing British astronomers, Is author-
• ty for this statement.
Professor Nield believes that In
terplanetary travelling will be
brought about with the help of the
newly discovered gas coronium.
which forms part of the corona of
the sun.
This gas is so light that a quan
tity of It the size of a baseball has
sufficient lifting power to raise an
elephant. Applied to the dirigible
balloon or the aeroplane it would
(increase the lifting power of the
machine hundreds of times.
The corona Is that part of the
sun which is most visible during a
total eclipse, and coronium forms
■the greater part of it. Coroninm
has never been found on earth.
Its properties, Its gravity and Its
lifting power have been calculated
from spectroscopic analysis and
from its behavior In association
with other substances of which
more Is known.
It is calculated that If a comet
could be condensed Into the density
of a piece of iron It could be packed
In a dress suit case, although it is
millions of miles long. Now, a
comet has been observed passing
through the sun’s corona at a speed
of 350 miles per second—that is.
without the slightest retardntlon of
speed. This shows that the corona
Is much lighter than a comet’s
tall, and enormously lighter than
_Jjydrogen, which we now use to lift
balloons.
It Is believed that coronium
exists In the upper regions of the
atmosphere. Many new atmos
pheric gases, such as krypton, neon
and argon, discovered by Sir Will
iam Ramsay, have been identified
in recent years, and it is highly
probable that others still remain
to be found. If coronium exists in
■the atmosphere it must be in com
bination with other substances
which hold It down.
“When we are successful tn
isolating coronium we shall solve
the problem of aviation both within
the atmosphere and beyond," said
Mr. Nield. He is a fellow of the
Royal Astronomical Society, and
was chief of the solar eclipse ex
pedition to Burgos, Spain, In 1905,
and also leader of the British As
tronomical Society's expedition to
Cape Mutifou, Algeria, in 1900.
"There is nothing lighter than
coronium.” he continued. "Although
it seems a rather extraordinary
prediction, I maintain that someday
this coronium will be harnessed, and
we will have an opportunity of
visiting our neighbors upon the oth
er planets. This may not be during
our generation. But it is sure to
come. And when it does we will be
able to discover for ourselves what
sort of people resi, » on Mars.
“Coronium is closely allied in
nature to nebulum, which exists in
large quantity in a great number
of the uebulae of the heavens, and,
like nebulum. it exists in a free
state there.
“The coronium line has only been
observed something slightly under
two hours in the whole history of
the human race. In other words,
it has been seen at the total eclipse
observations for only a few seconds
every two years. With specially
prepared chemical plates I suc
ceeded tu photographing the corona
at the moment of totality. I pre
pared my plates, placed my camera
and had everything in readiness
ten minutes before the eclipse, aud
was able to get a photograph before
the totality was over. The totality
lasts only 67 seconds, so you can
readily see that there Is not much
time to be lost, and everything
must be in readiness.
“An eclipse, wilh the corona
furnishing a sort of halo around It,
is a most beautiful sight to behold
aud one not to be forgotten.” \
Mr. Nield and his colleagues have
been planning the type of machine
which would be best adapted for
navigating space with the help of
coronium. This machine would
have a car of fish-like form, con
structed of steel, in order to resist
every kind of pressure from within
and without. Inside this little
fortress the voyagers to the stars
would operate the machinery and
guide the course of the vessel. They
would be provided with everything
to make them safe and comfortable
during such a hazardous and un
certain voyage.
Along the roof of the car would
be little reservoirs of the precious
gas coronium, arranged in balls of
corrugated steel of peculiar con
struction to guard against the
enormous pressure from within, ami
also against any possibility of
leakage.
The machine would be propelled
by an arrangement of planes and
propellers similar to those used In
aeroplanes. The coronium would
entirely eliminate the problem of
weight, which is the greatest dif
ficulty the aeroplane constructor
has to deal with.
Coronium having such tremen
dous lifting power, it would be nec
essary to anchor the airship down
“Enclo*ed
in a
Steel
Fortress
Forming
Part
of an
Aeroplane
Freed from
Weight
and Gravity
by the
Gas,
Coronium,
the
Voyagers
Will Fly
to the
Planets
and Stars
with the
Speed of
Light!”
. . The Corona of the Sun, Which
Is formed of the Gas, Coronium,
and Is Visible During a Total
Eclipse. Photograph Taken at
Mount Wilson, Cal., During the
Eclipse of May 28, 1906.
Short Courtships;
Quick Divorces
HE shorter the engagement
before marriage the more
certain the divorce to fol
low. But if the engagement is too ^ <
long the result will De an unhappy
marriage, though it does not gen
erally lead to divorce.”
This was the interesting statement
made recently by an expert on di
vorce matters.
“By far the largest number of di
vorces follow the short engagement,’’
he said. 1V
“Indeed, sitting in the divorce j'
courts, year in and year out, you be
come very certain that the short en
gagement ought to be condemned.
It seems to be the surest route to
divorce. Do away with the short en
gagement and the hasty marriage
and you would do away with a very
substantial number of the divorces
which occur every year.” ,
This is a very decided opinion coa*
until it reached the atmosphere
some other heavenly body or some
solid object. That was the theory
upon which Jules Verne based his
famous scientific romance, “A Trip
to the Moon.” It was assumed
that as a vessel was propelled
through space without ef
fort it would be stopped by
a solid object without
shock. Hence Jules Verne’s
travellers were able to
alight safely on the moon.
The nature of the ether
is, however, still subject to
discussion, since It is a hy-
A Drawing by Lanos Representing the Destruction of Humanity Through the
the Earth. We May Escape This Calamity by Moving to Another Planet on a
to the earth with strong cables.
When the start is to be made for
the heavenly spaces, the ship’s
prow is carefully aimed in the di
rection of the heavenly body to be
visited. Then the ship is releas
ed. and away she flies through the
heavy lower atmosphere with al
most the speed of light. As she
reaches the rarefied upper regions
the speed diminishes.
At last she clears the atmos
phere and the wonders of the whole
celestial universe are revealed to
the adventurers in the steel car.
All the stars and planets appear as
balls of light upon a black ground,
for where there is no atmosphere
there is no diffusion of light. All
about them is absolute zero.
The watchers peering through
the windows see the surfaces of
the heavenly bodies just as if they
were a foot away, for distance can
not obscure the vision where there
is neither dust nor vapor.
Let us suppose that the travel
lers are bound for Venus. That
will provide a comfortable dwell
ing place for man when the earth
becomes uninhabitable t from the
cold, as we know it must become
in course of time. Venus has a
high temperature, for the density
of the atmosphere causes the re
tention of the heat, it is probably
inhabited by gigantic reptiles, for
its conditions are similar to those
of the Jurassic period, when the
earth was peopled by dinosaurs.
Those conditions would be better
than a world without heat, for that
would make life impossible, and in
time to come the climate of Venus
will be modified.
A heavy struggle through the
heavy atmosphere awaits the coro
nium airship, and when the voya
gers alight they may meet mon
sters never before seen by human
eye.
The difficulties of this undertak
ing appear to be in steering a ves
sel accurately through the ether.
The atmosphere extends to a dis
tance of sixty miles beyond our
planet. After that comes the ether,
the hypothetical substance occupy
ing the space between the planets
and stars aud pervadiug all matter.
it is usually held by science that
au object entering the ether would
retain the impetus it had on leav
ing the atmosphere. An aerial
vessel, under such conditions, would
therefore continue ou its course
Cooling of
Coronium
Airship.
The Lifting
Power of
Coronium
Is so Great
That a
Balloon Filled
with
It the Size
of a Baseball
Would Raise
an Elephant.
V
pothetical substance whose exist
ence is based on reasoning and not
on physical perception. There are
scientists who argue that an air
ship could be made to navigate the
ether if it could be projected there.
There are various ways in which
the object could be attained. The
airship might throw out an atmos
phere of its own when it wished
to change its course. The vessel
would, in any case, have to carry
a great supply of compressed
oxygen for the use of its occupants.
There are scientists, however,
who argue that the ether possesses
a certain resisting power, since this
must be included in the power to
conduct light waves and electricity.
They believe that an aeroplane
constructed with sufficient light
ness and delicacy could drive it
self with propellers through the
ether. /
Many scientists besides Mr. Nield
have discussed the possibility of
reaching the other heavenly bodies.
The great French chemist, Berthe-
lot, believed that it would be done
some day. Maeterlinck, who com
bines considerable scientific knowl
edge with his great philosophic and
literary gifts, believes that the final
service of aviation will be to carry
man away fom the earth when it is
no longer fit for human habitation.
H. G. Wells, the most scientific of
all novelists, has also explained
why we shall be able to navigate
the ether.
When man is able to roam
through the universe at will he
will be completely emancipated
from the bonds of hunger, disease
and ignorance, which are largely
the creation of conditions that keep
him rooted to one narrow spot.
cerning the evil of the short engage
ment On the other hand, there is
also the peril of the long’engage
ment.
“The short engagement,” said a
woman doctor, “may be a step in the
dark and may lead to divorce, but
the long engagement is just as likely
to lead to lifelong unhappiness.
“An engagement which lasts for
several years is bound to destroy
most of the romance and fine feelings
between the two.
“When marriage does take place
it has really very little interest for
them.
“There are many reasons for the
short engagement, and they are all
practical ones. In the first place, a
six months’ engagement to-day is
considered quite a long one; indeed,
it is by no means unusual to an
nounce the engagement and an ap
proximate date for the wedding at
one and the same time.
“The man who proposes to a girl
before he has a home to offer her is
not applauded by the modern parent,
who is, to a great extent, responsible ,
for the fashion for short engage
ments." 9