第88章

I could not help thinking that we three bespectacled figures lacked only the flowing robes to be taken for a group of medieval alchemists set down a few centuries out of our time in the murky light of Prescott's sanctum.Yet, though he accepted us at our face value, and began to talk of his strange discoveries there was none of the old familiar prating about matrix and flux, elixir, magisterium, magnum opus, the mastery and the quintessence, those alternate names for the philosopher's stone which Paracelsus, Simon Forman, Jerome Cardan, and the other medieval worthies indulged in.This experience at least was as up-to-date as the Curies, Becquerel, Ramsay, and the rest.

"Transmutation," remarked Prescott, "was, as you know, finally declared to be a scientific absurdity in the eighteenth century.

But I may say that it is no longer so regarded.I do not ask you to believe anything until you have seen; all I ask is that you maintain the same open mind which the most progressive scientists of to-day exhibit in regard to the subject."Kennedy had seated himself some distance from a curious piece or rather collection of apparatus over which Prescott was working.It consisted of numerous coils and tubes.

"It may seem strange to you, gentlemen," Prescott proceeded, "that a man who is able to produce gold from, say, copper should be seeking capital from other people.My best answer to that old objection is that I am not seeking capital, as such.The situation with me is simply this.Twice I have applied to the patent office for a patent on my invention.They not only refuse to grant it, but they refuse to consider the application or even to give me a chance to demonstrate my process to them.On the other hand, suppose I try this thing secretly.How can I prevent any one from learning my trade secret, leaving me, and making gold on his own account? Men will desert as fast as I educate them.Think of the economic result of that; it would turn the world topsy-turvy.I am looking for some one who can be trusted to the last limit to join with me, furnish the influence and standing while I furnish the brains and the invention.Either we must get the government interested and sell the invention to it, or we must get government protection and special legislation.I am not seeking capital; I am seeking protection.First let me show you something."He turned a switch, and a part of the collection of apparatus began to vibrate.

"You are undoubtedly acquainted with the modern theories of matter,"he began, plunging into the explanation of his process."Starting with the atom, we believe no longer that it is indivisible.Atoms are composed of thousands of ions, as they are called, - really little electric charges.Again, you know that we have found that all the elements fall into groups.Each group has certain related atomic weights and properties which can be and have been predicted in advance of the discovery of missing elements in the group.Istarted with the reasonable assumption that the atom of one element in a group could be modified so as to become the atom of another element in the group, that one group could perhaps be transformed into another, and so on, if only I knew the force that would change the number or modify the vibrations of these ions composing the various atoms.

"Now for years I have been seeking that force or combination of forces that would enable me to produce this change in the elements - raising or lowering them in the scale, so to speak.I have found it.I am not going to tell you or any other man whom you may interest the secret of how it is done until I find some one I can trust as I trust myself.But I am none the less willing that you should see the results.If they are not convincing, then nothing can be."He appeared to be debating whether to explain further, and finally resumed: "Matter thus being in reality a manifestation of force or ether in motion, it is necessary to change and control that force and motion.This assemblage of machines here is for that purpose.

Now a few words as to my theory."

He took a pencil and struck a sharp blow on the table."There you have a single blow," he said, "just one isolated noise.Now if Istrike this tuning fork you have a vibrating note.In other words, a succession of blows or wave vibrations of a certain kind affects the ear and we call it sound, just as a succession of other wave vibrations affects the retina and we have sight.If a moving picture moves slower than a certain number of pictures a minute you see the separate pictures; faster it is one moving picture.

"Now as we increase the rapidity of wave vibration and decrease the wave length we pass from sound waves to heat waves or what are known as the infra-red waves, those which lie below the red in the spectrum of light.Next we come to light, which is composed of the seven colours as you know from seeing them resolved in a prism.After that are what are known as the ultra-violet rays, which lie beyond the violet of white light.We also have electric waves, the waves of the alternating current, and shorter still we find the Hertzian waves, which are used in wireless.We have only begun to know of X-rays and the alpha, beta, and gamma rays from them, of radium, radioactivity, and finally of this new force which I have discovered and call 'protodyne,' the original force.

"In short, we find in the universe Matter, Force, and Ether.Matter is simply ether in motion, is composed of corpuscles, electrically charged ions, or electrons, moving units of negative electricity about one one-thousandth part of the hydrogen atom.Matter is made up of electricity and nothing but electricity.Let us see what that leads to.You are acquainted with Mendeleeff's periodic table?"He drew forth a huge chart on which all the eighty or so elements were arranged in eight groups or octaves and twelve series.

Selecting one, he placed his finger on the letters "Au," under which was written the number, 197.2.I wondered what the mystic letters and figures meant.