 1 It is impossible that the stupendous events which followed the disastrous invasion of the earth by the Martians should go without record, and circumstances having placed the facts at my disposal, I deem it a duty, both to posterity and to those who were witnesses of and participants in the avenging counter-stroke that the earth dealt back at its ruthless enemy in the heavens to write down the story in a connected form. The Martians had nearly all perished, not through our puny efforts, but in consequence of disease, and the few survivors fled in one of their projectile cars, inflicting their cruelest blow in the act of departure. Their Mysterious Explosive They possessed a mysterious explosive of unimaginable poisons. With whose aid they set their car in motion for Mars from a point in Bergen County, New Jersey, just back of the Palisades. The force of the explosion may be imagined when it is recollected that they had to give the car a velocity of more than seven miles per second in order to overcome the attraction of the earth and the resistance of the atmosphere. The shock destroyed all of New York that had not already fallen a prey, and all the buildings yet standing in the surrounding towns and cities fell in one far-circling ruin. The Palisades tumbled in vast sheets, starting a tidal wave in the Hudson that drowned the opposite shore. Thousands of Victims The victims of this ferocious explosion were numbered by tens of thousands, and the shock transmitted through the rocky frame of the globe was recorded by seismographic pendulums in England and on the continent of Europe. The terrible results achieved by the invaders had produced everywhere a mingled feeling of consternation and hopelessness. The devastation was widespread. The death-dealing engines which the Martians had brought with them had proved irresistible, and the inhabitants of the earth possessed nothing capable of contending against them. There had been no protection for the great cities, no protection even for the open country. Everything had gone down before the savage onslaught of those merciless invaders from space. Savage ruins covered the sites of many formerly flourishing towns and villages, and the broken walls of great cities stared at the heavens like the exhumed skeletons of Pompeii. The awful agencies had extirpated pastures and meadows and dried up the very springs of fertility in the earth where they had touched it. In some parts of the devastated lands pestilence broke out. Elsewhere there was famine. Despondency black as night brooded over some of the fairest portions of the globe. All not yet destroyed. Yet all had not been destroyed, because all had not been reached by the withering hand of the destroyer. The Martians had not had time to complete their work before they themselves fell prey to the diseases that carried them off at the very culmination of their triumph. From those lands which had fortunately escaped invasion, relief was sent to the sufferers. The outburst of pity and of charity exceeded anything that the world had known. Differences of race and religion were swallowed up in the universal sympathy which was felt for those who had suffered so terribly from an evil that was as unexpected as it was unimaginable in its enormity. But the worst was not yet. More dreadful than the actual suffering and the scenes of death and devastation which overspread the afflicted lands was the profound mental and moral depression that followed. This was shared even by those who had not seen the Martians and had not witnessed the destructive effects of the frightful engines of war that they had imported for the conquest of the earth. All mankind was sunk deep in this universal despair, and it became tenfold blacker when the astronomers announced from their observatories that strange lights were visible, moving and flashing upon the red surface of the planet of war. These mysterious appearances could only be interpreted in the light of past experience to mean that the Martians were preparing for another invasion of the earth, and who could doubt that with the invincible powers of destruction at their command, they would this time make their work complete and final? A Startling Announcement This startling announcement was the more pitiable in its effects because it served to unnerve and discourage those few of stouter hearts and more hopeful temperaments who had already begun the labor of restoration and reconstruction amid the embers of their desolated homes. In New York, this feeling of hope and confidence, this determination to rise against disaster and to wipe out the evidences of its dreadful presence as quickly as possible, had especially manifested itself. Already a company had been formed and a large amount of capital subscribed for the reconstruction of the destroyed bridges over the East River. Already architects were busily at work planning new twenty-story hotels and apartment houses, new churches and new cathedrals on a grander scale than before. The Martians Returning Amid this stir of renewed life came the fatal news that Mars was undoubtedly preparing to deal us a death blow. The sudden revulsion of feeling flitted like the shadow of an eclipse over the earth. The scenes that followed were indescribable. Men lost their reason. The faint-hearted ended the suspense with self-destruction. The stout-hearted remained steadfast but without hope and knowing not what to do. But there was a gleam of hope of which the general public has yet knew nothing. It was due to a few dauntless men of science, conspicuous among whom were Lord Calvin, the great English savant, Air Renshin, the discoverer of the famous x-ray, and especially Thomas A. Edison, the American genius of science. These men and a few others had examined with the utmost care the engines of war, the flying machines, the generators of mysterious destructive forces that the Martians had produced with the object of discovering, if possible, the sources of their power. Suddenly, from Mr. Edison's laboratory at Orange, flashed the startling intelligence that he had not only discovered the manner in which the invaders had been able to produce the mighty energies which they employed with such terrible effect, but that going further he had found a way to overcome them. The glad news was quickly circulated throughout the civilized world. Luckily the Atlantic cables had not been destroyed by the Martians, so the communication between the Eastern and Western continents was uninterrupted. It was a proud day for America. Even while the Martians had been upon the earth carrying everything before them, demonstrating to the confusion of the most optimistic that there was no possibility of standing against them a feeling a confidence had manifested itself in France, to a minor extent in England, and particularly in Russia, that the Americans might discover means to meet and master the invaders. Now it seemed this hope and expectation were to be realized. Too late it is true in a certain sense, but not too late to meet the new invasion which the astronomers had announced was impending. The effect was as wonderful and indescribable as that of the despondency which but a little while before had overspread the world. One could almost hear the universal sigh of relief which went up from humanity. To relief succeeded confidence. So quickly does the human spirit recover like an elastic spring when pressure is released. We are ready for them. Let them come, was the almost joyous cry. We shall be ready for them now. The Americans have solved the problem. Edison has placed the means of victory within our power. Looking back upon that time now, I recall with a thrill the pride that stirred me at the thought that after all the inhabitants of the earth were a match for those terrible men from Mars, despite all the advantage which they had gained from their millions of years of prior civilization and science. As good fortunes, like bad, never come singly, the news of Mr. Edison's discovery was quickly followed by additional glad tidings from that laboratory of marvels in the lap of the Orange Mountains. During their career of conquest the Martians had astonished the inhabitants of the earth no less with their flying machines which navigated our atmosphere as easily as they had that of their native planet than with their more destructive inventions. These flying machines in themselves had given them an enormous advantage in the contest. High above the desolation that they had caused to rain on the surface of the earth and out of the range of our guns they had hung safe in the upper air. From the clouds they had dropped death upon the earth. Edison's Flying Machine Now a rumor declared that Mr. Edison had invented and perfected a flying machine much more complete and manageable than those of the Martians had been. Wonderful stories quickly found their way into the newspapers concerning what Mr. Edison had already accomplished with the aid of his model electrical balloon. His laboratory was carefully guarded against the invasion of the curious because he rightly felt that a premature announcement, which should promise more than could be actually fulfilled, would at this critical juncture plunge mankind back again into the Gulf of Despair out of which it had just begun to emerge. Nevertheless inklings of the truth leaked out. The flying machine had been seen by many persons hovering by night high above the orange hills and disappearing in the faint starlight as if it had gone away into the depths of space out of which it would re-emerge before the morning light had streaked the east and be seen settling down again within the walls that surrounded the laboratory of the Great Inventor. At length the rumor gradually deepening into a conviction spread that Edison himself, accompanied by a few scientific friends, had made an experimental trip to the moon. At a time when the spirit of mankind was less profoundly stirred such a story would have been received with complete incredulity. But now rising on the wings of the new hope that was buoying up the earth this extraordinary rumor became a day-star of truth to the nations. A trip to the moon. And it was true. I had myself been one of the occupants of the car of the flying ship of space on that night when it silently left the earth and rising out of the great shadow of the globe sped on to the moon. We had landed upon the scarred and desolate face of the earth's satellite and but that there are greater and more interesting events the telling of which must not be delayed I should soon undertake to describe the particulars of this first visit of men to another world. But, as I have already intimated, this was only an experimental trip. By visiting this little nearby island in the ocean of space Mr. Edison simply wished to demonstrate the practicability of his invention and to convince first of all himself and his scientific friends that it was possible for men, mortal men, to quit and to revisit the earth at their will. That aim this experimental trip triumphantly attained. It would carry me into technical details that would hardly interest the reader to describe the mechanism of Mr. Edison's flying machine. Let it suffice to say that it depended upon the principle of electrical attraction and repulsion. By means of a most ingenious and complicated construction he had mastered the problem of how to produce, in a limited space, electricity of any desired potential and of any polarity and that without danger to the experimenter or to the material experimented upon. It is gravitation, as everybody knows, that makes man a prisoner on the earth. If he could overcome or neutralize gravitation, he could float away a free creature of interstellar space. Mr. Edison, in his invention, had pitted electricity against gravitation. Nature, in fact, had done the same thing long before. Every astronomer knew it, but none had been able to imitate or to reproduce this miracle of nature. When a comet approaches the sun, the orbit in which it travels indicates that it is moving under the impulse of the sun's gravitation. It is in reality falling in a great parabolic or elliptical curve through space. But, while a comet approaches the sun, it begins to display, stretching out for millions and sometimes hundreds of millions of miles on the side away from the sun, an immense, luminous train called its tail. This train extends back into that part of space from which the comet is moving. Thus the sun at one and the same time is drawing the comet toward itself and driving off from the comet in an opposite direction minute particles or atoms which, instead of obeying the gravitational force, are plainly compelled to disobey it. That this energy, which the sun exercises against its own gravitation, is electrical in its nature hardly anybody will doubt. The head of the comet being comparatively heavy and massive falls on toward the sun despite the electrical repulsion. But the atoms which form the tail, being utmost without weight, yield to the electrical rather than to the gravitational influence and so fly away from the sun. Gravity Overcome Now, what Mr. Edison had done was, in effect, to create an electrified particle which might be compared to one of the atoms composing the tail of a comet, although in reality it was kind of a car of metal weighing some hundreds of pounds and capable of bearing some thousands of pounds with it in its flight. By producing, with the aid of the electrical generator contained in this car, an enormous charge of electricity, Mr. Edison was able to counterbalance, and to trifle more than counterbalance, the attraction of the earth, and thus to cause the car to fly off from the earth as an electrified pith ball flies from the prime conductor. As we sat in the brilliantly lighted chamber that formed the interior of the car, and where stores of compressed air had been provided together with chemical apparatus, by means of which fresh supplies of oxygen and nitrogen might be obtained for our consumption during the flight through space, Mr. Edison touched a polished button, thus causing the generation of the required electrical charge on the exterior of the car, and immediately we began to rise. The moment and direction of our flight had been so timed and pre-arranged that the original impulse would carry us straight toward the moon, a triumphant test. When we fell within the sphere of attraction of that orb, it only became necessary to so manipulate the electrical charge upon our car as nearly, but not quite, to counterbalance the effect of the moon's attraction in order that we might gradually approach it, and with an easy motion, settle without shock upon its surface. We did not remain to examine the wonders of the moon, although we could not fail to observe many curious things therein. Having demonstrated the fact that we could not only leave the earth, but could journey through space and safely land upon the surface of another planet, Mr. Edison's immediate purpose was fulfilled, and we hastened back to the earth, employing, in leaving the moon and landing again upon our own planet, the same means of control over the electrical attraction and repulsion between the respective planets in our car, which I have already described. TELEGRAPHING THE NEWS When actual experiment had thus demonstrated the practicability of the invention, Mr. Edison no longer withheld the news of what he had been doing from the world. The telegraph lines and the ocean cables labored with the messages that, in endless succession, and burdened with an infinity of detail, were sent all over the earth. Everywhere the utmost enthusiasm was aroused. Let the Martians come, was the cry. If necessary, we can quit the earth as the Athenians fled from Athens before the advancing host of Xerxes, and like them take refuge upon our ships, these new ships of space with which American inventiveness has furnished us. And then, like a flash, some genius struck out an idea that fired the world. Why should we wait? Why should we run the risk of having our cities destroyed and our lands desolated a second time? Let us go to Mars. We have the means. Let us beard the lion and his den. Let us ourselves turn conquerors and take possession of that detestable planet. And if necessary, destroy it in order to relieve the earth of this perpetual threat which now hangs over us like the sword of Damocles. End of chapter 1 Recording by Roger Moline Chapter 2 of Edison's Conquest of Mards by Garrett P. Service Read for LibriVox.org by Robbie Rogers This enthusiasm would have had but little justification had Mr. Edison done nothing more than invent a machine which could navigate the atmosphere and the regions of interplanetary space. He had, however, and this fact was generally known although the details had not yet leaked out, invented also machines of war intended to meet the utmost that the Martians could do for either offense or defense in the struggle which was now about to ensue. A wonderful instrument. Acting upon the hint which had been conveyed from various investigations in the domain of physics and concentrating upon the problem, all those unmatched powers of intellect which distinguished him, the great inventor had succeeded in producing a little implement which one could carry in his hand, but which was more powerful than any battleship that ever floated. The details of its mechanism could not be easily explained without the use of tedious technicalities and the employment of terms, diagrams, and mathematical statements all of which would lie outside the scope of this narrative. But the principle of the thing was simple enough. It was upon the great scientific doctrine which we have since seen so completely and brilliantly developed of the law of harmonic vibrations extending from atoms and molecules at one end of the series up to worlds and sons at the other end that Mr. Edison based his invention. Every kind of substance has its own vibratory rhythm. That of iron differs from that of pinewood. The atoms of gold do not vibrate in the same time or through the same range as those of lead and so on for all known substances and all the chemical elements. So on a larger scale every massive body has its period of vibration. A great suspension bridge vibrates under the impulse of forces that are applied to it in long periods. No company of soldiers ever crosses such a bridge without breaking step. If they tramp together and were followed by other companies keeping the same time with their feet after while the vibrations of the bridge would become so great and destructive that it would fall in pieces. So any structure if its vibration rate is known could easily be destroyed by a force applied to it in such a way that it should simply increase the swing of its vibrations up to the point of destruction. Now Mr. Edison had been able to ascertain the vibratory swing of many well-known substances and to produce by means of the instrument which he had contrived pulsations in the ether which were completely under his control and which could be made long or short quick or slow at his will. He could run through the whole gamut from the slow vibrations of sound and air up to the 125 millions of millions of vibrations per second of the ultra red rays. Having obtained an instrument of such power it only remained to concentrate its energy upon a given object in order that the atoms composing that object should be sent into violent undulation sufficient to burst to the sunder and to scatter its molecules broadcast. This the inventor affected by the simplest means in the world simply a parabolic reflector by which the destructive rays could be sent like a beam of light but invisible in any direction and focused upon any desired point. Testing the disintegrator. I had the good fortune to be present when this powerful engine of destruction was submitted to its first test. We had gone upon the roof of Mr. Edison's laboratory and the inventor held the little instrument with its attached mirror in his hand. We looked about for some object on which to try its powers. On the bare limb of a tree not far away, for it was late in fall, sat a disconsolate crow. Good said Mr. Edison, that will do. He touched a button at the side of the instrument and a soft whirring noise was heard. Feathers, said Mr. Edison, have a vibration period of 386 million per second. He adjusted the index as he spoke. Through a sighting tube he aimed at the bird. Now watch, he said. The crow's fate. Another soft whir in the instrument a momentary flash of light close around it and behold the crow had turned from black to white. Its feathers are gone, said the inventor. They have been dissipated into their constituent atoms. Now we will finish the crow. Instantly there was another adjustment of the index. Another shooting a vibratory force. A rapid up and down motion of the index to include a certain range of vibrations and the crow itself was gone, vanished in empty space. There was the bare twig on which a moment before it had stood. Behind, in the sky, was the white cloud against which its black form had been sharply outlined. But there was no more crow. Bad for the Martians. That looks bad for the Martians, doesn't it? said the Wizard. I have ascertained the vibration rate of all the materials of which their war engines, whose remains we have collected together, are composed. They can be shattered into nothingness in the fraction of a second. Even if the vibration period were not known it could quickly be hit upon by simply running through the gamut. Hurrah! cried one of the onlookers. We have meant the Martians and they are ours. Such in brief was the first of the contrivances which Mr. Edison invented for the approaching war with Mars and these facts had become widely known. Additional experiments had completed the demonstration of the inventor's ability with the aid of his wonderful instrument to destroy any given object or any part of an object provided that that part differed in its atomic constitution and consequently in its vibratory period from the other parts. A most impressive public exhibition of the powers of the little disintegrator was given amid the ruins of New York. On lower Broadway a part of the walls of one of the gigantic buildings which had been destroyed by the Martians impended in such a manner that it threatened at any moment to fall upon the heads of the passersby. The fire department did not dare touch it. To blow it up seemed a dangerous expedient because already new buildings had been completed in the neighborhood and their safety would be imperiled by the flying fragments. This fact happened to come to my knowledge. Here is an opportunity, I said to Mr. Edison, to try the powers of your machine on a large scale. Capital, he instantly replied, I shall go at once. Dysintegrating a building. For the work now in hand it was necessary to employ a battery of disintegrators since the field of destruction covered by each was comparatively limited. All of the impending portions of the wall must be destroyed at once and together, for otherwise the danger would rather be accentuated than annihilated. The disintegrators were placed upon the roof of a neighboring building, so adjusted that their fields of destruction overlapped one another upon the wall. Their indexes were all set to correspond with a vibration period of the peculiar kind of brick of which the wall consisted. Then the energy was turned on and a shout of wonder arose from the multitudes which had assembled at a safe distance to witness the experiment. Only a cloud remained. The wall did not fall. It did not break asunder. No fragments shot this way and that, high in the air. There was no explosion, no shock or noise disturbed the still atmosphere. Only a soft whir that seemed to pervade everything and to tingle in the nerves of the spectators and what had been was not. The wall was gone. But high above and around the place where it had hung over the street with its thread of death there appeared swiftly billowing outward in every direction a faint bluish cloud. It was the scattered atoms of the destroyed wall. And now the cry on Tamar's was heard on all sides. But for such an enterprise funds were needed millions upon millions. Yet some of the fairest and richest portions of the earth had been impoverished by the frightful ravages of those enemies who had dropped down upon them from the skies. Still the money must be had. The salvation of the planet, as everybody was now convinced, depended upon the successful negotiation of a gigantic war fund in comparison to which all the expenditures of all the wars that had been waged by the nations for two thousand years would be insignificant. The electrical ships and the vibration engines must be constructed by scores and thousands. Only Mr. Edison's immense resources and unrivaled equipment had enabled him to make the models whose powers had been so satisfactorily shown. But to multiply these upon a war scale was not only beyond the resources of any individual hardly a nation on the globe in its period of its greatest prosperity could have undertaken such a work. All the nations then must now conjoin. They must unite the resources and, if necessary, exhaust all their hordes in order to raise the needed sum. The Yankees lead Negotiations were at once begun. The United States naturally took the lead and their leadership was never for a moment questioned abroad. Washington was selected as the place of meeting for a great Congress of the Nations. Washington luckily had been one of those places which had not been touched by the Martians. But if Washington had been a city comprised of hotels alone, and every hotel so great as to be a little city into itself, it would have been utterly insufficient for the accommodation of the innumerable throngs which now flocked to the banks of the Potomac. But when was American enterprise unequal to a crisis? The necessary hotels, lodging houses and restaurants were constructed with astounding rapidity. One could see the city growing and expanding day by day and week after week. It flowed over Georgetown Heights. It leapt the Potomac. It spread east and west, north and south, square mile after square mile of territory was buried under the advancing buildings until the gigantic city, which had thus grown up like a mushroom in a night, was fully capable of accommodating all its expected guests. At first it had been intended that the heads of the various governments should in person attend this universal Congress. But as the enterprise went on, as the enthusiasm spread, as the necessity for haste became more apparent through the warning notes which were constantly sounded from the observatories where the astronomers were nightly beholding new evidence of threatening preparation in Mars, the kings and queens of the old world felt that they could not remain at home. That their proper place was at the new focus and center of the whole world, the city of Washington. Without concerted action, without interchange of suggestion, this impulse seemed to seize all the old world monarchs at once. Suddenly Cablegrams flashed to the government at Washington, announcing that Queen Victoria and Emperor William, the Czar Nicholas, Alfonso of Spain with his mother Maria Cristina, the old Emperor Francis Joseph and the Empress Elizabeth of Austria, King Oscar and Queen Sophia of Sweden and Norway, King Humbert and Queen Margarita of Italy, King George and Queen Olga of Greece, Abulhamad of Turkey, Sien Yen, Emperor of China, Muto Hito, the Japanese Mikado with his beautiful Princess Haruto, the President of France, the President of Switzerland, the first syndic of the little republic Vandora perched on the crest of the Pyrenees and the heads of all the Central and South American republics were coming to Washington to take part in the deliberations which, it was felt, were to settle the fate of Earth and Mars. One day after this announcement had been received and the additional news had come that nearly all the visiting monarchs had set out, attended by brilliant suites and convoyed by fleets of warships for their destination, some coming across the Atlantic to the port of New York, others across the Pacific to San Francisco, Mr. Edison said to me, this will be a fine spectacle. Would you like to watch it? Certainly, I replied. A grand spectacle. The ship of space was immediately at our disposal. I think I have not yet mentioned the fact that the inventor's control over the electrical generator carried in the car was so perfect that by varying the potential or changing the polarity he could cause it slowly or swiftly, as might be desired, to approach or recede from any object. The only practical difficulty was presented when the polarity of the electrical charge upon an object in the neighborhood of the car was unknown to those in the car and happened to be opposite to that of the charge which the car at that particular moment was bearing. In such a case, of course, the car would fly towards the object whatever it might be, like a ball or a feather attracted to the knob of an electrical machine. In this way considerable danger was occasionally encountered and a few accidents could not be avoided. Fortunately, however, such cases were rare. It was only now and then that, owing to some local cause, electrical polarities unknown to or unexpected by the navigators endangered the safety of the car. As I shall have occasion to relate, however, in the course of the narrative, this became more acute and assumed at times the most formidable phase when we had ventured outside the sphere of the earth and were moving through the unexplored regions beyond. On this occasion, having embarked, we rose rapidly to a height of some thousands of feet and directed our course over the Atlantic. When halfway to Ireland we beheld in the distance, steaming westward, the smoke of several fleets, as we drew nearer a marvelous spectacle to our eyes. From the northeast, there great guns flashing in the sunlight and their huge funnels belching black volumes that rested like thunderclouds upon the sea came the mighty warships of England, with her meteor flags streaming red in the breeze, while the royal insignia, indicating the presence of the ruler of the British Empire, was conspicuously displayed upon the flagship of the squadron. Following a course more directly westward appeared under another black cloud of smoke the hulls and guns and burjians of another great fleet, carrying the tricolor of France and bearing in its midst the head of the magnificent Republic of Western Europe. Further south, beating up against northerly winds, came a third great fleet with the gold and red of Spain fluttering from its mast head. This too was carrying its king westward where now, indeed, the Star of Empire had taken its way. Universal Brotherhood Rising a little higher, so as to extend our horizon, we saw coming down the English Channel behind the British Fleet, the black ships of Russia, side by side or following one another's lead. These war vessels were on a peaceful voyage that belied their threatening appearance. There had been no thought of danger to or from the forts and ports of rival nations which they had passed. There was no enmity, no fear between them when the throats of their ponderous guns yawed at one another across the waves. They were now, in spirit, all one fleet, having one object, bearing against one enemy, ready to defend but one country, and that country was the entire earth. There was some time before we caught sight of Emperor Wilhelm's fleet. It seems that the Kaiser, although at first consenting to the arrangement by which Washington had been selected as the assembling place for the war, afterwards objected to it. Kaiser Wilhelm's jealousy. I ought to do this thing myself, he had said. My glorious ancestors would never have consented to allow these upstart Republicans to lead in a war-like enterprise of this kind. What would my grandfather have said to it? I suspect that it is some scheme aimed at the divine right of kings. But the good sense of the German people would not suffer their ruler to place them in a position so false and so untenable. Anne swept along by their enthusiasm the Kaiser had at last consented to embark on his flagship at Kale, and now he was following the other fleets on their great mission to the western continent. Why did they bring their warships when their intentions were peaceable, do you ask? Well, it was partly the effect of ancient habit, and partly due to the fact that such multitudes of officials and members of ruling families wished to embark for Washington that the ordinary means of ocean communications would have been utterly inadequate to convey them. After we had feasted our eyes on the strained site, Mr. Edison suddenly exclaimed, Now, let us see the fellows from the rising sun over the Mississippi. The car was immediately directed towards the west. We rapidly approached the American coast, and as we sailed over the Allegheny Mountains and the broad plains of the Ohio and the Mississippi, we saw crawling beneath us from west, south, and north an endless succession of railway trains bearing their multitudes on to Washington. With marvelous speed we rushed westward, rising high to skim over the snow-top peaks of the Rocky Mountains, and then the glittering rim of the Pacific was before us. Halfway between the American coast and Hawaii we meant the fleets coming from China and Japan. Side by side they were plowing the main, having forgotten or laid aside all the animosities of their former wars. I well remember how my heart was stirred at this impressive exhibition of the boundless influence which my country had come to exercise over all the people of the world, and I turned to look at the man to whose genius this uprising of the earth was due. But Mr. Edison, after his want, appeared totally unconscious of the fact that he was personally responsible for what was going on, his mind seemingly was entirely absorbed in considering problems, the solution of which might be essential to our success in the terrific struggle which was soon to begin. Back to Washington. Well, have you seen enough, he asked? Then let us go back to Washington. As we speeded back across the continent we beheld beneath us again the burdened express trains rushing towards the Atlantic, and hundreds of thousands of upturned eyes watched our swift progress, and volleys of cheers reached our ears, for everyone knew that this was Edison's electrical worship on which the hope of the nation and the hopes of all nations depended. These scenes were repeated again and again until the car hoovered over the still expanding capital on the Potomac where the unceasing ring of hammers rose to the clouds. End of Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Edison's Conquest of Mars by Garrett P. Service Read for LibriVox.org by Robbie Rogers The day appointed for the assembling of the nations in Washington opened bright and beautiful. Arrangements had been made for the reception of the distinguished guests at the capital. No time was to be wasted, and, having assembled in the Senate chamber, the business that had called them together was to be immediately begun. The scene in Pennsylvania Avenue, when the procession of dignitaries and royalties passed up towards the capital, was one never to be forgotten. Bands were plain, magnificent equipages flashed in the morning sunlight. The flags of every nation on the earth fluttered in the breeze. Queen Victoria, with the Prince of Wales escorting her, and riding in an open carriage, was greeted with roars of cheers. The Emperor William, following in another carriage with the Empress Victoria at his side, condescended to bow and smile in response to the greetings of a free people. Each of the other monarchs was received in a similar manner. The Tsar of Russia proved to be in a special favorite with the multitude, on account of the ancient friendship of his house for America. But the greatest applause of all came when the President of France, followed by the President of Switzerland, and the first syndict of the little Republic of Andorra made their appearance. Equally warm were the greetings extended to the representatives of Mexico and the South American States. The Sultan of Turkey The crowd apparently hardly knew at first how to receive the Sultan of Turkey, but the universal good feeling was in his favor, and finally rounds of hand clapping and cheers greeted his progress along the splendid avenue. A happy idea had apparently occurred to the Emperor of China and the Mikado of Japan. Four, attended by their intermingled suites, they rode together in a single carriage. This object lessened in the unity of international feeling immensely pleased the spectators. An unparalleled scene. The scene in the Senate chamber stirred everyone profoundly. That it was brilliant and magnificent goes without saying. But there was a seriousness, an intensity of expectancy, pervading both those who looked on and those who were to do the work for which these magnets of the earth had assembled, which produced an ineradicable impression. The President of the United States, of course, presided. Representatives of the greater powers occupied the front seats, and some of them were honored with special chairs near the President. No time was wasted in preliminaries. The President made a brief speech. We have come together, he said, to consider a question that equally interests the whole earth. I need not remind you that unexpectedly and without provocation on our part, the people, the monsters, I should rather say, of Mars recently came down upon the earth, attacked us in our homes, and spread desolation around them. Having the advantage of ages of evolution, which for us are yet in the future, they brought with them engines of death and of destruction against which we found it impossible to contend. It is within the memory of everyone in reach of my voice that it was through the entirely unexpected sucker which Providence sent us that we were suddenly ineffectually freed from the invaders. By our own efforts we could have done nothing. McKinley's Tribute But as you all know, the first feeling of relief which followed the death of our foes was quickly succeeded by the fearful news which came to us from the observatories that the Martians were undoubtedly preparing for a second invasion of our planet. Against this we should have had no recourse and no hope, but for the genius of one of my countrymen, who as you are all aware, has perfected means which may enable us not only to withstand the attack of these awful enemies, but to meet them and let us hope to conquer them on their own ground. Mr. Edison is here to explain to you what these means are. But we also have another object. Whether we send a fleet of interplanetary ships to invade Mars, or whether we simply confine our attention to works of defense, in either case it will be necessary to raise a very large sum of money. None of us has yet recovered from the effects of the recent invasion. The earth is poor today compared to its position a few years ago. Yet we cannot allow our poverty to stand in the way. The money, the means, must be had. It will be part of our business here to raise a gigantic war fund by the aid of which we can construct the equipment and machinery that we shall require. This, I think, is all I need, say. Let us proceed to business. Where is Mr. Edison? cried a voice. Will Mr. Edison please step forward? said the President. There was a stir in the assembly, and the iron gray head of the great inventor was seen moving through the crowd. In his hand he carried one of his marvelous disintegrators. He was requested to explain and illustrate its operations. Mr. Edison smiled. Edison to the rescue. I can explain its details, he said, to Lord Kelvin, for instance, but if their majesties will excuse me I doubt whether I can make it plain to the crowned heads. The Emperor William smiled superciliously. Apparently he thought that another assault had been committed upon the divine right of kings. But, as our Nicholas appeared to be amused, and the Emperor of China, who had been studying English, laughed in his sleep as if he suspected that a joke had been perpetrated. I think, said one of the deputies, that a simple exhibition of the powers of the instrument, without a technical explanation of its method of working, will suffice for our purpose. This suggestion was immediately approved. In response to it, Mr. Edison, by a few simple experiments, showed how he could quickly and certainly shatter into its constituent atoms any object upon which the vibratory force of the disintegrator should be directed. In this manner he caused an ink-stand to disappear under the very nose of the Emperor William, without a spot of ink being scattered upon his sacred person. But, evidently, the odor of the disunited atoms was not agreeable to the nostrils of the Kaiser. Mr. Edison also explained in general terms the principle upon which the instrument worked. He was greeted with round after round of applause, and the spirit of the assembly rose high. Next the workings of the electrical ship were explained, and it was announced that after the meeting had adjourned, an exhibition of the flying powers of the ship would be given in the open air. These experiments, together with the accompanying explanations, added to what had already been disseminated through the public press, and were quite sufficient to convince all the representatives who had assembled in Washington that the problem of how to conquer the Martians had been resolved. The means were plainly at hand. It only remained to apply them. For this purpose, as the President had pointed out, it would be necessary to raise a very large sum of money. How much will be needed, asked one of the English representatives? At least ten thousand millions of dollars, replied the President. It would be safer, said a Senator from the Pacific Coast, to make it twenty-five thousand millions. I suggest, said the King of Italy, that the nations be called in alphabetical order, and that the representatives of each name a sum which it is ready and able to contribute. We want the cash or its equivalent, shouted the Pacific Coast Senator. I shall not follow the alphabet strictly, said the President, but shall begin with the larger nations first. Perhaps under the circumstances it is proper that the United States united stage should lead the way. Mr. Secretary, he continued, turning to the Secretary of the Treasury. How much can we stand? An enormous sum. At least a thousand millions, replied the Secretary of the Treasury. A roar of applause that shook the room burst from the assembly. Even some of the monarchs threw up their hats. The Emperor at Sien smiled from ear to ear. One of the Rocotois, or native chiefs from Fiji, sprang up and brandished a war-club. The President then proceeded to call the other nations, beginning with Austria-Hungary and ending with Zanzibar, whose Sultan, Mahmoud bin Mohammed, had come to the Congress in the escort of Queen Victoria. Each contributed liberally. Germany, coming in alphabetical order just before Great Britain, had named, through its Chancellor, the sum of 500 millions. But when the First Lord of the British Treasury, not wishing to be behind the United States, named double that sum as the contribution of the British Empire, the Emperor William looked displeased. He spoke a word in the ear of the Chancellor who immediately raised his hands. A thousand million dollars. We will give a thousand million dollars, said the Chancellor. Queen Victoria seemed surprised, though not pleased. The First Lord of the Treasury met her eye, and then rising in his place said, Make it 1500 million for Great Britain. Emperor William consulted again with his Chancellor, but evidently concluded not to increase his bid. But at any rate, the fund had benefited to the amount of a thousand millions by this little outburst of imperial rivalry. The greatest surprise of all, however, came when the King of Siam was called upon for his contribution. He had not been given a foremost place in the Congress, but when the name of his country was pronounced, he rose by his chair, dressed in a gorgeous specimen of the peculiar attire of his country, then slowly pushed his way to the front, stepped up to the President's desk, and deposited upon it a small box. This is our contribution, he said, in broken English. The cover was lifted, and there darted, shimmering in the half-gloom of the chamber, a burst of iridescence from the box. The long-lost treasure. My friends of the western world, continued the King of Siam, will be interested in seeing this gem. Only once before has the eye of a European been blessed with the sight of it. Your books will tell you that in the seventeenth century a traveller, Tavaneer, saw in India an unmatched diamond which afterward disappeared like a meteor, and was thought to have been lost from the Earth. You all know the name of that diamond in its history. It is called the Great Mogul, and it lies before you. How it came into my possession I shall not explain. At any rate, it is honestly mine, and I freely contributed here to aid in protecting my native planet against those enemies who appear determined to destroy it. When the excitement which the appearance of this long-lost treasure that had been the subject of so many romances and of such long and fruitless search had subsided, the President continued calling the list until he had completed it. Upon taking the sum of the contributions, the Great Mogul was reckoned at three millions, it was found to be still one thousand million short of the required amount. The Secretary of the Treasury was instantly on his feet. Mr. President, he said, I think we can stand that addition. Let it be added to the contribution of the United States of America. When the cheers that greeted the conclusion of the business were over, the President announced that the next affair of the Congress was to select a director who should have entire charge of the preparations for the war. It was the universal sentiment that no man should be so well suited for this post as Mr. Edison himself. He was, accordingly, selected by the unanimous and enthusiastic choice of the Great Assembly. How long a time do you require to put everything in readiness? asked the President. Give me carte blanche, replied Mr. Edison, and I believe I can have a hundred electric ships and three thousand disintegrators ready within six months. A tremendous cheer greeted this announcement. Your powers are unlimited, said the President. Draw on the fund for as much money as you need, whereupon the treasure of the United States was made the dispersing officer of the fund, and the meeting was adjourned. Not less than five million people had assembled at Washington from all parts of the world. Every one of this immense multitude had been able to listen to the speeches and the cheers in the Senate chamber, although not personally present there. Wires had been run all over the city, and hundreds of improved telephonic receivers provided so that everyone could hear. Even those who were unable to visit Washington, people living in Baltimore, New York, Boston, and as far away as New Orleans, St. Louis, and Chicago, had also listened to the proceedings with the aid of these receivers. Upon the whole, probably not less than fifty million people had heard the deliberations of the great Congress of the Nations. The excitement in Washington. The telegraph and the cable had sent the news across the oceans to all the capitals of the earth. The exultation was so great that the people seemed mad with joy. The promised exhibition of the electrical ship took place the next day. Enormous multitudes witnessed the experiment. There was a struggle for places in the car, even Queen Victoria, accompanied by the Prince of Wales, ventured to take a ride in it, and they enjoyed it so much that Mr. Edison prolonged the journey as far as Boston in the Bunker Hill Monument. Most of the other monarchs also took a high ride, but when the turn of the Emperor of China came he repeated a fable which he said had come down from the time of Confucius. A Chinese legend. Once upon a time there was a Chinaman living in the valley of the Huanghou River, who was accustomed frequently to lie on his back, gazing at and envying the birds he saw flying away in the sky. One day he saw a black speck which rapidly grew larger and larger. Until as it got near he perceived that it was an enormous bird which overshadowed the earth with its wings. It was the elephant of birds, the rock. Come with me, said the rock, and I will show you the wonders of the kingdom of the birds. The man caught hold of its claw and nestled among its feathers, and they rapidly rose high in the air and sailed away to the Quen Lun Mountains. Here as they passed near the top of the peaks another rock made its appearance. The wings of the two great birds brushed together and immediately they fell to fighting. In the midst of the melee the man lost his hold and tumbled into the top of the tree, where his pigtail caught in a branch and he remained suspended. There the unfortunate man hung helpless, until a rat, which had its home in the rocks at the foot of the tree, took compassion upon him and climbing up, not off the branch. As the man slowly and painfully wended his weary way home, he said, This teaches me that the creatures to whom nature has given neither feathers nor wings should leave the kingdom of the birds to those who are fitted to inhabit it. Having told this story, Set Sien turned his back on the electrical ship. The Grand Ball After the exhibition was finished, and amid the fresh outburst of enthusiasm that followed, it was suggested that a proper way to wind up the Congress and give suitable expression to the festive mood which now possessed mankind would be to have a Grand Ball. This suggestion meant with immediate and universal approval. But for so gigantic an affair it was, of course, necessary to make special preparations. A convenient place was selected on the Virginia side of the Potomac. A space of ten acres was carefully leveled and covered with a polished floor. Rows of columns, one hundred feet apart, were run in every direction, and these were decorated with electric lights displaying every color of the spectrum, unsurpassed fireworks. Above this immense space, rising in the center to a height of more than a thousand feet, was anchored a vast number of balloons, all aglow with lights and forming a tremendous dome in which brilliant lamps were arranged in such a manner as to exhibit in an endless succession of combinations all the national colors, insings, and insignia of the various countries represented at the Congress. Blazing eagles, lions, unicorns, dragons, and other imaginary creatures that the different nations had chosen for their symbols appeared to hoover high above the dancers, shedding a brilliant light upon the scene. Circles of magnificent thrones were placed upon the floor in convenient locations for scene, a thousand bands of music played, and tens of thousands of couples gaily dressed and flashing with gems whirled together upon the polished floor. Queen Victoria dances. The Queen of England led the dance on the arm of the President of the United States. The Prince of Wales led fourth of Fair Daughter of the President, universally admired as the most beautiful woman upon the great ballroom floor. The Emperor William, in his military dress, danced with the beautyous Princess Misako, the daughter of the Mikado, who wore for the occasion the ancient costume of the women of her country, sparkling with jewels and glowing with quaint combinations of color like a gorgeous butterfly. The Chinese Emperor, with his pigtail flying high as he spun, danced with the Empress of Russia. The King of Siam, Eseta Walz, with Queen Ravila Nova of Madagascar, while the Sultan of Turkey, best in the smiles of his Chicago heiress, to a hundred millions. The Tsar chose for his partner a dark-eyed beauty from Peru. But King Malatoa of Samoa was suspicious of the civilized charmers, and avoiding all of their allurements expressed his joy and gave vent to his enthusiasm in a pa soul. In this he was quickly joined by a band of Suu Indian Chiefs, whose whoops and yells so startled the leader of a German band on their part of the floor that he dropped his baton and followed by the musicians took to his heels. This incident amused the good-nature Emperor of China more than anything else that had occurred. Make Muchi noisy, he said, indicating the fleeing musicians with this sum. Ali's same Muchi fled noisy, and then his round face dimpled into another laugh. The scene from the outside was even more imposing than that which greeted the eye within the brilliantly lighted enclosure. Far away in the night, rising high among the stars, the vast dome of illuminated balloons seemed like some supernatural creation, too grand and glorious to have been constructed by the inhabitants of the earth. All around it and from some of the balloons themselves rose jets and fountains of fire, ceaselessly plain and blotting out the constellations of the Heaven by their splendor. The Prince of Wales Toast. The dance was followed by a grand banquet at which the Prince of Wales proposed a toast to Mr. Edison. It gives me much pleasure, he said, to offer, in the name of the nations of the Old World, this tribute of our admiration for, and our confidence in, the genius of the New World. Perhaps on occasions such as this, when all racial differences and prejudices ought to be, and are, buried and forgotten, I should not recall anything that might revive them. Yet I cannot refrain from expressing my happiness in knowing that the champion, who is to achieve the salvation of the earth, has come forth from the bosom of the Anglo-Saxon race. Several of the great potentates look grave upon hearing the Prince of Wales words, and the Tsar and the Kaiser exchanged glances. But there was no interruption to the cheers that followed Mr. Edison, whose modesty and dislike to display and to speechmaking were well known, simply said. I think we have got the machine that can whip them. But we ought not to be wasting any time. Probably they are not dancing on Mars, but are getting ready to make us dance. Haste to Embark These words instantly turned the current of feeling in the vast assembly. There was no longer any disposition to expend time in vain boastings and rejoicings. Everywhere the cry now became, let us make haste, let us get ready at once. Who knows but the Martians have already embarked and are now on their way to destroy us. Under the impulse of this new feeling, which it must be admitted, was very largely inspired by terror, the vast ballroom was quickly deserted. The lights were suddenly put out in the great dome of balloons, for someone had whispered, Suppose they should see that from Mars. Would they not guess what we were about and redouble their preparations to finish us? Upon the suggestion of the President of the United States, an executive committee representing all the principal nations was appointed, and without delay a meeting of this committee was assembled at the White House. Mr. Edison was summoned before it, and asked to sketch briefly the plan upon which he proposed to work. Thousands of men for Mars. I need not enter into the details of what was done at this meeting. Let it suffice to say that when it broke up in the small hours of the morning, it had been unanimously resolved that as many thousands of men as Mr. Edison might require should be immediately placed at his disposal. That, as far as possible, all the great manufacturing establishments of the country should be instantly transformed into factories where electrical ships and disintegrators could be built. And, upon the suggestion of Professor Sylvainius P. Thompson, the celebrated English electrical expert, seconded by Lord Kelvin, it was resolved that all the leading men of science in the world should place their services at the disposal of Mr. Edison, in any capacity in which, in his judgment, they might be useful to him. The members of this committee were disposed to congratulate one another upon the good work which they had so promptly accomplished, when, at the moment of their adjournment, a telegraphic dispatch was handed to the president from Professor George E. Hale, the director of the Great Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin. The telegram read, What's Happening on Mars? Professor Barnard, watching Mars tonight with the 40-inch telescope, saw a sudden outburst of reddish light, which we think indicates that something has been shot from the planet. Spectroscopic observations of this moving light indicated it was coming earthward, while visible, at the rate of not less than 100 miles a second. Hardly had the excitement caused by the reading of this dispatch subsided when others of a similar import came from the Lick Observatory in California, from the branch of the Harboured Observatory at Arapica in Peru, and from the Royal Observatory at Potsdam. When the telegram from this last name-place was read, the Emperor William turned to his chancellor and said, I want to go home. If I am to die, I prefer to leave my bones among those of my imperial ancestors, and not in this vulgar country where no king has ever ruled. I don't like this atmosphere. It makes me feel limp. And now, whipped on by the lash of alternate hope and fear, the earth sprang to its work of preparation. End of chapter 3 Chapter 4 of Edison's Conquest of Mars This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Edison's Conquest of Mars by Garrett P. Service. Chapter 4 It is not necessary for me to describe the manner in which Mr. Edison performed his tremendous task. He was as good as his word, and within six months from the first stroke of the hammer, a hundred electrical ships, each provided with a full battery of disintegrators, were floating in the air above the harbour and the partially rebuilt city of New York. It was a wonderful scene. The polished sides of the huge floating cars sparkled in the sunlight, and as they slowly rose and fell and swung this way and that upon the tides of the air, as if held by invisible cables, the brilliant penins streaming from their peaks waved up and down, like the wings of an assemblage of gigantic hummingbirds. Not knowing whether the atmosphere of Mars would prove suitable to be breathed by the inhabitants of the Earth, Mr. Edison had made provision by means of an abundance of glass-protected openings to permit the inmates of the electrical ships to survey their surroundings without quitting the interior. It was possible by properly selecting the rate of undulation to pass the vibratory impulse from the disintegrators through the glass windows of the car without damage to the glass itself. The windows were so arranged that the disintegrators could sweep around the car on all sides and could also be directed above or below, as necessity might dictate. To overcome the destructive forces employed by the Martians, no satisfactory plan had yet been devised, because there was no means to experiment with them. The production of those forces was still the secret of our enemies. But Mr. Edison had no doubt that if we could not resist their effects, we might at least be able to avoid them by the rapidity of our emotions. As he pointed out, the war machines which the Martians had employed in their invasion of the Earth were really very awkward and unmanageable affairs. Mr. Edison's electrical ships, on the other hand, were marvels of speed and of manageability. They could dart about, turn, reverse their course, rise, fall, with the quickness and ease of a fish in the water. Mr. Edison calculated that even if mysterious bolts should fall upon our ships, we could diminish their power to cause injury by our rapid evolutions. We might be deceived in our expectations and might have overestimated our powers, but at any rate, we must take our chances and try. Watching the Martians A multitude exceeding even that which it assembled during the Great Congress at Washington now thronged New York and its neighborhood to witness the mustering and the departure of the ships bound for Mars. Nothing further had been heard of the mysterious phenomena reported from the observatory six months before and which, at the time, was believed to indicate the departure of another expedition from Mars for the invasion of the Earth. If the Martians had set out to attack us, they had evidently gone astray, or perhaps it was some other world that they were aiming at this time. The expedition had, of course, profoundly stirred the interest of the scientific world and representatives of every branch of science from all the civilized nations urged their claims to places in the ships. Mr. Edison was compelled, from lack of room, to refuse transportation to more than one in a thousand of those who, on the plea might be able to bring back something of advantage to science, wished to embark for Mars, as the Great Napoleon did. On the model of the celebrated core of literary and scientific men, which Napoleon carried with him in his invasion of Egypt, Mr. Edison selected a company of the foremost astronomers, archaeologists, anthropologists, botanists, bacteriologists, chemists, physicists, mathematicians, mechanicians, meteorologists, and experts in mining, metallurgy, and every other branch of practical science, as well as artists and photographers. It was but reasonable to believe that in another world, and a world so much older than the Earth as Mars was, these men would be able to gather materials in comparison with which the discoveries made among the ruins of ancient empires in Egypt and Babylonia would be insignificant indeed, to conquer another world. It was a wonderful undertaking, and a strange spectacle. There was a feeling of uncertainty which awed the vast multitude whose eyes were upturned to the ships. The expedition was not large, considering the gigantic character of the undertaking. Each of the electrical ships carried about twenty men, together with an abundant supply of compressed provisions, compressed air, scientific apparatus, and so on. In all, there were about two thousand men who were going to conquer, if they could, another world. But, though few in number, they represented the flower of the Earth, the culmination of the genius of the planet. The greatest leaders in science, both theoretical and practical, were there. It was the evolution of the Earth against the evolution of Mars. It was a planet in the heyday of its strength matched against an aged and decrepit world which, nevertheless, in consequence of its long ages of existence, had acquired an experience which made it a most dangerous foe. On both sides there was desperation. The Earth was desperate because it foresaw destruction unless it could first destroy its enemy. Mars was desperate because nature was gradually depriving it of the means of supporting life, and its teeming population was compelled to swarm, like the inmates of an overcrowded hive of bees, and find new homes elsewhere. In this respect the situation on Mars, as we were well aware, resembled what had already been known upon the Earth, where the older nations overflowing with population had sought new lands in which to settle, and, for that purpose, had driven out the native inhabitants, wherever those natives had proven unable to resist the invasion. No man could foresee the issue of what we were about to undertake, but the tremendous powers which the disintegrators had exhibited and the marvelous efficiency of the electrical ships bred almost universal confidence that we should be successful. Masterminds of the World The car in which Mr. Edison traveled was, of course, the flagship of the squadron, and I had the good fortune to be included among its inmates. Here, besides several leading men of science from our own country, were Lord Kelvin, Lord Raleigh, Professor Roington, Dr. Moyson, the man who first made artificial diamonds, and several others whose fame had encircled the world. Each of these men cherished hopes of wonderful discoveries along his line of investigation to be made in Mars. An elaborate system of signals had, of course, to be devised for the control of the squadron. Those signals consisted of brilliant electric lights displayed at night and so controlled that by their means long sentences and directions could be easily and quickly transmitted. A novel signal system The day signals consisted partly of brightly colored penins and flags, which were to serve only when, shattered by clouds or other obstructions, the full sunlight could not fall upon the ships. This could naturally only occur near the surface of the Earth or another planet. Once out of the shadow of the Earth, we should have no more clouds and no more night until we arrived at Mars. In open space, the sun would be continually shining. It would be perpetual day for us, except as, by artificial means, we furnished ourselves with darkness for the purpose of promoting sleep. In this region of perpetual day, then, the signals were also to be transmitted by flashes of light from mirrors reflecting the rays of the sun. Perpetual night Yet this perpetual day would be also, in one sense, a perpetual night. There would be no more blue sky for us because without an atmosphere the sunlight could fall. Objects would be illuminated only on the side towards the sun. Anything that screened off the direct rays of the sunlight would produce absolute darkness behind it. There would be no graduation of shadow. The sky would be as black as ink on all sides. While it was the intention to remain as much as possible within the cars, yet since it was probable that necessity would arise for occasionally quitting the interior Mr. Edison had provided for this emergency by inventing an airtight dress constructed somewhat after the manner of a diver's suit but of much lighter material. Each ship was provided with several of these suits by wearing which one could venture outside the car even when it was beyond the atmosphere of the earth. Terrific cold anticipated. Provision had been made to meet the terrific cold which new would be encountered the moment we passed beyond the atmosphere. That awful absolute zero which men had measured by anticipation but never yet experienced. By a simple system of producing within the airtight suits a temperature sufficiently elevated to counteract the effects of the frigidity without. By means of long flexible tubes air could be continually supplied to the wearer of the suits and by an ingenious contrivance a store of compressed air sufficient to last for several hours was provided for each suit so that in case of necessity the wearer could throw off the tubes connecting him with the air tanks in the car. Another object which had been kept in view in the preparation of these suits was the possible exploration of an airless planet such as the moon. The necessity of some contrivance by means of which we should be unable to converse with one another when on the outside of the cars in open space or when in an airless world like the moon where there would be no medium by which the waves of sound could be conveyed as they are in the atmosphere of the earth had been foreseen by our great inventor and he had not found it difficult to contrive suitable devices for meeting the emergency. Inside the headpiece of each of the electrical suits was the mouthpiece of a telephone. This was connected with a wire which when not in use could be conveniently coiled upon the arm of the wearer. Near the ears similarly connected with wires were telephonic receivers an aerial telegraph when two persons wearing airtight dresses which to converse with one another it was only necessary for them to connect themselves by the wires and conversation could then be easily carried on. Careful calculations of the precise distance of Mars from the earth at the time when the expedition was to start had been made by a large number of experts in mathematical astronomy but it was not Mr. Edison's intention to go direct to Mars. With the exception of the first electrical ship which he had completed none had yet been tried in a long voyage. It was desirable that the qualities of each of the ships should first be carefully tested and for this reason the leader of the expedition determined that the moon should be the first port of space at which the squadron would call. It chanced that the moon was so situated at this time as to be nearly in line between the earth and Mars which latter was in opposition to the sun and consequently as favorably situated as possible for the purposes of the voyage. What would be then for ninety nine out of the one hundred ships of the squadron a trial trip would at the same time be a step of a quarter of a million miles gained in the direction of our journey and so no time would be wasted. The departure from the earth was arranged to occur precisely at midnight. The moon near the full was hanging high overhead and a marvelous spectacle was presented to the eyes of those below as the great squadron of floating ships with their signal lights ablaze cast loose and began slowly to move away on their adventurous and unprecedented expedition into the great unknown. A tremendous cheer billowing up from the throats of millions of excited men and women seemed to rend the curtain of the night and made the airships tremble with the atmospheric vibrations that were set in motion. Magnificent fireworks instantly magnificent fireworks were displayed in honor of our departure. Rockets by hundreds of thousands shot heavenward and then burst in constellations of fiery drops. The sudden illumination thus produced over spreading hundreds of square miles of the surface of the earth with a light almost like that of a day must certainly have been visible to the inhabitants of Mars if they were watching us at the time. They might or might not directly interpret its significance but, at any rate, we did not care. We were off and we were confident that we could meet our enemy on his own ground before he could attack us again. And the earth was like a globe. And now as we slowly rose higher a marvelous scene was disclosed. At first the earth beneath us buried as it was in night resembled the hollow of a vast cup of ebony blackness in the center of which, like the molten lava run together at the bottom of a volcanic crater shown the light of the illuminations around New York. But when we got beyond the atmosphere and the earth still continued to recede below us its aspect changed. The cup shaped appearance was gone and it began to round out beneath our eyes in the form of a vast globe. An enormous ball mysteriously suspended under us glimming over most of its surface with the faint illumination of the moon and showing towards its eastern edge the oncoming light of the rising sun. When we were still further away having slightly varied our core so that the sun was once more entirely hidden behind the center of the earth we saw its atmosphere completely illuminated all around it with prismatic lights like a gigantic rainbow in the form of a ring. Another shift in our course rapidly carried us out of the shadow of the earth and into all the pervading sunshine then the great planet beneath us hung unspeakable in its beauty. The outlines of several of the continents were clearly discernible on its surface streaked and spotted with delicate shades of varying colors and the sunlight flashed and glowed in long lanes across the convex surface of the oceans. Parallel with the equator and along the regions of the ever-blowing trade winds were vast bells of clouds gorgeous with crimson and purple as the sunlight fell upon them immense expanses of snow and ice lay like a glittering garment upon both land and sea around the North Pole. Farewell to this terrestrial sphere. As we gazed upon this magnificent spectacle our hearts bounded within us. This was our earth this was the planet we were going to defend our home in the trackless wilderness of space and it seemed to us indeed a home for which we might gladly expend our last breath a new determination to conquer or die sprung up in our hearts and I saw Lord Kelvin after gazing at the beauty a scene which the earth presented through his eyeglass turn about and peer in the direction in which we knew that Mars lay with a frown that caused the glass to lose its grip and fall dangling from its string upon his breast even Mr. Edison seemed moved I am glad I thought of the disintegrator he said I shouldn't like to see that whirl down there laid waste again and it won't be said Professor Sylvanias P. Thompson gripping the handle of an electric machine not if we can help it. This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Edison's Conquest of Mars by Garrett P. Service Chapter 5 To prevent accidents it had been arranged that the ships should keep a considerable distance apart some of them gradually drifted away until on account of the neutral tint of their sides they were swallowed up in the abyss of space still it was possible to know where every member of the squadron was through the constant interchange of signals these, as I have explained were affected by means of mirrors flashing back the light of the sun but although it was now on ceasing day for us yet there being no atmosphere to diffuse the sun's light the stars were visible to us just as at night upon the earth and they shone with extraordinary splendor against the intense black background of the ferrament the lights of some of the more distant ships of our squadron were not brighter than the stars in whose neighborhood they seemed to be in some cases it was only possible to distinguish between the light of a ship and that of a star by the fact that the former was continually flashing while the star was steady in its radiance an uncanny effect the most uncanny effect was produced by the absence of atmosphere around us inside the car where there was air the sunlight streaming through one or more of the windows was diffused and produced ordinary daylight but when we ventured outside we could only see things by halves the side of the car that the sun's rays touched was visible the other side was invisible the light from the stars not making it bright enough to affect the eye in contrast with the sun illuminated half as I held up my arm before my eyes half of it seemed to be shaved off lengthwise a companion on the deck of the ship looked like half a man and so the other electrical ships near us appeared as half ships only the illuminated sides being visible we had now got so far away the earth had taken on the appearance of a heavenly body like the moon its colors had become all blended into a golden reddish hue which overspread nearly its entire surface except at the poles where there were broad patches of white it was marvellous to look at this huge orb behind us while far beyond it shown the blazing sun like an enormous star in the blackest of nights in the opposite direction appeared the silver orb of the moon and scattered all around were millions of brilliant stars amid which, like fireflies flashed and sparkled the signal lights of the squadron danger manifests itself a danger that might easily have been anticipated that perhaps had been anticipated but against which it would have been difficult if not impossible to provide presently manifested itself looking out of a window towards the right I suddenly noticed the lights of the distant ship darting about in a curious curve instantly afterwards another member of the squadron nearby, behaved in the same inexplicable manner then two or three of the floating cars seemed to be violently drawn from their courses and hurried rapidly in the direction of the flagship immediately I perceived a small object, luredly flaming which seemed to move with a significant speed in our direction the truth instantly flashed upon my mind and I shouted to the other occupants of the car struck by a meteor a meteor! and such indeed it was we had met this mysterious wander in space at a moment when we were moving in a direction at right angles to the path it was pursuing around the sun small as it was and its diameter probably did not exceed a single foot it was yet an independent little world and as such a member of the solar system its distance from the sun being so near to that of the earth I knew that its velocity assuming it to be traveling in a nearly circular orbit must be about eighteen miles in a second with this velocity then it plunged like a projectile shot by some mysterious enemy in space directly through our squadron it had come and was gone before one could utter a sentence of three words its appearance and the effect it had produced upon the ships in whose neighborhood it passed indicated that it bore an intense and tremendous charge of electricity how it had become thus charged I cannot pretend to say I simply record the fact and this charge it was evident was opposite in polarity to that which the ships of the squadron bore it therefore exerted an attractive influence upon them and thus drew them after it I had just time to think how lucky it was that the meteor did not strike any of us when glancing at a ship just ahead I perceived that an accident had occurred the ship swayed violently from its course dazzling flashes played upon it and two or three of the men forming its crew appeared for an instant on its exterior wildly gesticulating but almost instantly falling prone it was evident at a glance that the car had been struck by the meteor how serious the damage might be we could not instantly determine the course of our ship was immediately altered the electropolarity was changed and we rapidly approached the disabled car the men who had fallen lay upon its surface one of the heavy circular glasses covering a window had been smashed to atoms through this the meteor had passed and two or three men who stood in its course then it had crashed through the opposite side of the car and passing on disappeared into space the store of air contained in the car had immediately rushed out through the openings and when two or three of us having donned our airtight suits as quickly as possible entered the wrecked car we found all its inmates stretched upon the floor in a condition of asphyxiation they as well as those who lay upon the exterior were immediately removed to the flagship restoratives were applied and fortunately our aid had come so promptly that the lives of all of them were saved but life had fled from the mangled bodies of those who had stood directly in the path of the fearful projectile this strange accident had been witnessed by several of the members of the fleet and they quickly drew together in order to inquire for the particulars as the flagship was now overcrowded by the addition of so many men to its crew Mr. Edison had then distributed among the other cars fortunately it happened that the disintegrators contained in the wrecked car were not injured Mr. Edison thought it would be possible to repair the car itself and for that purpose he had it attached to the flagship in order that it might be carried on as far as the moon the bodies of the dead were transported with it and as it was determined instead of committing them to the fearful deep of space where they would have wandered forever or else have fallen like meteors upon the earth to give them interment in the lunar soil nearing the moon as we now rapidly approached the moon the change which the appearance of its surface underwent was no less wonderful than that which the appearance of the earth had presented in the reverse order while we were receding from it from a pale silver orb shining with comparative faintness among the stars it slowly assumed the appearance of a vast mountainous desert as we drew nearer its colors became more pronounced the great flat regions appeared darker the mountain peaks shone more brilliantly the huge chasm seemed bottomless and blacker than midnight gradually separate mountains appeared what seemed like expanses of snow and immense glaciers streaming down their sides sparkled with great brilliancy in the perpendicular rays of the sun our motion had now assumed the aspect of falling we seemed to be dropping from an immeasurable height and with an inconceivable velocity straight down upon those giant peaks the mountains of Luna here and there curious lights glowed upon the mysterious surface of the moon where the edge of the moon cut the sky it was broken and jagged with mountain masses vast crater rings overspread at surface and in some of these I imagined I could perceive a lurid illumination coming out of their deepest cavities and the curling of mephitic vapors around their terrible jaws we were approaching that part of the moon which is known to astronomers as the Bay of Rainbows here a huge semi-circular region as smooth almost as the surface of a prairie lay beneath our eyes stretching southward into a vast ocean-like expanse while on the north it was enclosed by an enormous range of mountain cliffs rising perpendicularly to a height of many thousands of feet and rent and gashed in every direction by forces which seemed at some remote period to have labored at tearing this little world in pieces a dead and mangled world the moon's strange and ghastly surface in full view of man it was a fearful spectacle a dead and mangled world too dreadful to look upon the idea of the death of the moon was of course not a new one to many of us we had long been aware that the Earth satellite was a body which had passed beyond the stage of life if indeed it had ever been a life-supporting globe but none of us were prepared for the terrible spectacle which now smote our eyes at each end of the semi-circular ridge that encloses the Bay of Rainbows there is a lofty promontory that at the north-western extremity had long been known to astronomers under the name of Cape Laplace the other promontory at the southeastern termination is called Cape Heraclides it was towards the later that we were approaching and by interchange of signals all the members of the squadron had been informed that Cape Heraclides was to be a rendezvous upon the moon I may say that I had been somewhat familiar with the scenery of this part of the lunar world for I had often studied it from the Earth with a telescope and I had thought if there was any part of the moon where one might with fair expectation of a success look for inhabitants or if not for inhabitants at least for relics of life no longer existent there this would surely be the place it was therefore with no small degree of curiosity notwithstanding the unexpectedly frightful and repulsive appearance that the surface of the moon presented that I now saw myself rapidly approaching the region concerning whose secrets my imagination had so often busied itself when Mr. Edison and I had paid our previous visit to the moon on the first experimental trip we had landed at a point on its surface remote from this and as I have before explained we then made no effort to investigate its secrets but now it was to be different and we were at length to see something of the wonders of the moon like a human face I had often on the Earth drawn a smile from my friends by showing them Cape Heraclides with a telescope and a reflection to the fact that the outline of the peak terminating the Cape was such as to present a remarkable resemblance to a human face unmistakably a feminine countenance seen in profile and possessing no small degree of beauty to my astonishment this curious human semblance still remained when we had approached so close to the moon that the mountains forming the Cape filled nearly the whole field of view the resemblance indeed was most startling the resemblance disappears can this indeed be Diana herself I said half a loud but instantly afterward I was laughing at my fancy for Mr. Edison had overheard me and exclaimed where is she who? Diana why there I said pointing to the moon but lo the appearance was gone even while I spoke in place in the line of sight by which we were viewing it and the likeness had disappeared in consequence a few moments later my astonishment was revived but the cause this time was a very different one we had been dropping rapidly towards the mountains and the electrician in charge of the car was swiftly and constantly changing his potential and like a pilot who feels his way into an unknown harbor endeavoring to approach the moon the hidden peril should surprise us as we thus approached I suddenly perceived crowning the very apex of the lofty peak near the termination of the Cape the ruins of what appeared to be an ancient watch tower it was evidently composed of cyclopean blocks larger than any that I had ever seen even among the ruins of Greece, Egypt and Asia Minor the moon was inhabited here then was visible proof that the moon had been inhabited although probably it was not inhabited now I cannot describe the exultant feeling which took possession of me at this discovery it settled so much that learned men had been disputing about for centuries what will they say I exclaimed when I show them a photograph of that below the peak stretching far to right and left lay a barren beach which it evidently once been washed sea waves because it was marked by long curved ridges such as the advancing and retiring tide leaves upon the shore of an ocean this beach sloped rapidly outward and downward towards a profound abyss which had once evidently been the bed of a sea but which now appeared to us simply as the empty yawning shell of an ocean that had long vanished it was with no small difficulty and only after the expenditure of considerable time that all the floating ships of the squadron were gradually brought to rest on this lone mountaintop of the moon in accordance with my request Mr. Edison had had the flagship moored in the interior of the great ruined watchtower that I have described the other ships rested upon the slope of the mountain around us although time pressed for we knew that the safety of the earth depended on our promptness in attacking Mars but it was determined to remain here for at least two or three days in order that the wreck car might be repaired it was found also that the passage of the highly electrified meteor had disarranged the electrical machinery in some of the other cars so that there were many repairs to be made besides those needed to restore the wreck burying the dead moreover we must bury our unfortunate companions who had been killed by the meteor this in fact was the first work that we performed strange was the sight and stranger our feelings is here on the surface of a world distant from the earth and on soil which had never before been pressed by the foot of man we performed that last ceremony of respect which mortals paid to mortality in the ancient beach at the foot of the peak we made a deep opening and there covered for ever the faces of our friends among the ruins of empires and among the graves of races which had vanished probably ages before Adam and Eve appeared in paradise while the repairs were being made several scientific expeditions were sent out in various directions across the moon one went westward to investigate the great ring of Plato and the lunar Alps another crossed the ancient sea of showers towards the lower Apennines the first crater of Copernicus which yawning 50 miles across presents a wonderful appearance even from the distance of the earth the ship in which I myself had the good fortune to embark was bound for the mysterious lunar mountain Erestarchus before these expeditions started a careful exploration had been made in the neighborhood of Cape Heraclides but except that the broken walls of the watchtower on the peak comprised of blocks of enormous size and evidently been the work of creatures endowed with human intelligence no remains were found indicating the former presence of inhabitants upon this part of the moon a gigantic human footprint but along the shore of the old sea just where the so-called Bay of Rainbows separates itself from the abyss of the sea of showers there were found some stratified rocks in which the fascinated eyes of the explorer beheld the clear imprint of a gigantic human foot measuring five feet in length from toe to heel detailing the marvelous adventures of the earth's warriors in unknown worlds the most minute search failed to reveal another trace of the presence of the ancient giant who had left the impress of this foot in the wet sands of the beach here so many millions of years ago that even the imagination of the geologists shrank from the task of attempting to fix the precise period the great footprint around this gigantic footprint gathered most of the scientific members of the expedition wearing their oddly shaped airtight suits connected with telephonic wires and the spectacle but for the impressiveness of the discovery would have been laughable in the extreme bending over the mark in the rock knotting their heads together pointing with their awkwardly accoutred arms they looked like an assemblage of Andaluvian monsters collected around their prey their disappointment over the fact that no other marks of anything resembling human habitation could be discovered was very great still this footprint in itself was quite sufficient as they all declared to settle the question of the former inhabitation of the moon and it would serve for the production of many a learned volume after their return to the earth further discovery should be made in other parts of the lunar world expeditions over the moon it was the hope of making such other discoveries that led to the dispatch of the other various expeditions which I have already named I had chosen to accompany the car that was going to Aristarchus because as everyone who had viewed the moon from the earth was aware there was something very mysterious about that mountain I knew that it was a crater nearly 30 miles in diameter and very deep although its floor was plainly visible the glowing mountains what rendered it remarkable was the fact that the floor and the walls of the crater particularly on the inner side glowed with a marvelous brightness which rendered them almost blinding when viewed with a powerful telescope so bright were they indeed that the eye was unable to see many of the details which the telescope but for the flood of light which poured from the mountains Sir William Herschel had been so completely misled by this appearance that he supposed he was watching a lunar volcano interruption it had always been a difficult question of what caused the extraordinary luminosity of Aristarchus no end of hypotheses had been invented to account for it now I was to assist in settling these questions forever from Cape Heraclides to Aristarchus the distance in an airline was something over 300 miles our course lay across the northeastern part of the sea of showers with enormous cliffs, mountain masses and peaks shining on the right while in the other direction the view was bounded by the distant range of the lower Apennines some of whose towering peaks when viewed from our immense elevation appeared as sharp as the Swiss Matterhorn when we had arrived within about a hundred miles from our destination we found ourselves floating directly over the so-called Harbinger Mountains the serrated peaks of Aristarchus then appeared ahead of us fairly blazing in the sunshine a gigantic string of diamonds it seemed as if a gigantic string of diamonds everyone as great as a mountain peak had been cast down upon the barren surface of the moon and left to waste their brilliance upon the desert air of this abandoned world as we rapidly approached the dazzling splendor of the mountains became almost unbearable to our eyes and we were compelled to resort to the device practiced by all climbers of lofty mountains where the glare of sunlight upon snow surfaces is liable to cause temporary blindness of protecting our eyes with neutral tinted glasses Professor Moissan, the great French chemist and maker of artificial diamonds fairly danced with delight voila, voila, voila was all that he could say a mountain of crystals when we were comparatively near the mountain no longer seemed to glow with the uniform radiance evenly distributed over its entire surface but now with innumerable points of light all as bright as so many little suns blazed away at us it was evident that we had before us a mountain composed of or at least covered with crystals without stopping to alight on the outer slopes of the great ring-shaped range of peaks which composed Aristarchus we sailed over their rim and looked down into the interior here the splendor of the crystals was greater than on the outer slopes and the broad floor of the crater thousands of feet beneath us shone and sparkled with overwhelming radiance as if it were an immense bin of diamonds while a peak in the center flamed like a stupendous tiara crusted with selected gems eager to see what these crystals were the car was now allowed rapidly to drop into the interior of the crater with great caution we brought it to rest upon the blazing ground for the sharp edges of the crystals would certainly have torn the metallic sides of the car if it had come into violent contact with them donning our airtight suits and stepping carefully out upon this wonderful footing we attempted to detach some of the crystals many of them were firmly fastened but a few some of the astonishing size were readily loosened a wealth of gems a moment's inspection showed us that we had stumbled upon the most marvelous work of the forces of crystallization the human eyes had ever rested upon sometime in the past history of the moon there had been an enormous outflow of molten material from the crater it overspread the walls and partially filled up the interior and later its surface had flowered into gems as thick as blossoms and a bit of pansies the whole mass flash prismatic rays of indescribable beauty and intensity we gazed at first speechless with amazement it cannot be surely it cannot be said Professor Moisson at length but it is, said another member of the party are these diamonds, asked a third? I cannot yet tell, replied the Professor they have the brilliancy of diamonds but they may be something else moon jewels, suggested a third and worth untold millions whatever they are, remarked another jewels from the moon these magnificent crystals some of which appeared to be almost flawless varied in size from dimensions of a hazelnut to geometric solids all at several inches in diameter we carefully selected as many as it was convenient to carry and placed them in the car for future examination we had solved another long-standing lunar problem and had perhaps opened up an inexhaustible mine of wealth which might eventually go far towards reimbursing the earth for the damage which it had suffered from the invasion of the Martians on returning to Cape Heraclides we found that other expeditions had arrived on rendezvous ahead of us their members had wonderful stories to tell of what they had seen but nothing caused quite so much astonishment as that which we had to tell and to show the party which had gone to visit Plato and the lunar Alps brought back however, information which in a scientific sense was no less interesting than what we had been able to gather they had found within this curious ring of Plato which is a circle of mountains and miles in diameter enclosing a level plane remarkably smooth over most of its surface unmistakable evidences of former inhabitation a gigantic city had evidently at one time existed near the center of this great plane the outlines of its walls and the foundation marks of some of its immense buildings were plainly made out and elaborate plans of this vanished capital of the moon were prepared by several members of the party more evidences of habitation one of them was fortunate enough to discover an even more precious relic of the ancient Lunarians it was a piece of petrified skull bone representing but a small portion of the head to which it had belonged but yet sufficient to enable the anthropologists who immediately fell to examining it to draw ideal representations of the head as it must have been in life the head of a giant of enormous size which if it had possessed a highly organized brain of proportionate magnitude must have given its possessor intellectual powers immensely greater than any of the descendants of Adam have ever been endowed with giants in size indeed one of the professors was certain that some little concretions found on the interior of the piece of skull were petrified portions of the brain matter itself and he set to work with the microscope to examine its organic quality in the meantime the repairs to the electrical ship had been completed and although these discoveries upon the moon had created a most profound sensation among the members of the expedition and aroused an almost irresistible desire to complete the explorations thus happily begun yet everybody knew that these things were aside from the main purpose in view to be false to our duty in wasting a moment more upon the moon than was absolutely necessary to put the ships in proper condition to proceed on their warlike voyage departing from the moon everything being prepared then we left the moon with great regret just 48 hours after we had landed upon its surface carrying with us a determination to revisit it and to learn more of its wonderful secrets in case we should survive the dangers which we were now going to face End of Chapter 5