Doctor Jones' Picnic
CHAPTER I.
"Figures Don't Lie."
The North Pole! That spot upon earth so environed with trackless fieldsof unbroken snow and mountains of ice; with an atmosphere so cold thatnone but the bravest and hardiest of mankind can breathe it and live.And yet these apparently insuperable obstacles have but stimulated mento do and dare all things, so that they might but reach that _ultimathule_. In vain have our utilitarians cried, "Qui bono?" God has plantedwithin man the spirit of lordship and domination; and, true to thatspirit, he will never rest until Nature shall have yielded up to him herlast secret, and his restless foot shall have trodden the wildest andfarthest spot of earth. Then, and not till then, will he stand crowned"Lord of Creation."
In this faithful history of the discovery and exact location of theNorth Pole, it is not necessary to bring before the reader in historicalreview the many illustrious names and grand heroisms of former explorersof Arctic regions. They did marvelous deeds, beyond the comprehension ofthose who did not actually participate in them. They sacrificedthousands of noble lives, and undoubtedly did all that could be donewith the means at their command. Ah! there we have struck the keynote.The means at their command were inadequate, and nothing but failure anddisaster could result from their best laid plans and efforts.
Dr. Jonathan Jones sat in his office in the populous, thriving city ofR----, situated in one of our western states. He occupied an easy chair,heels upon a low, flat-topped writing desk, newspaper in hand, readingan account of the failure of Dr. Nansen to reach the North Pole. Thatrenowned and hardy explorer proposed reaching the spot by floating on anice floe. We are all familiar with the fact that he did actually get towithin about three hundred miles of the coveted spot, but was obliged toturn back for want of dogs and sledges.
Dr. Jones laid the paper down with a groan. "Will they never learn?" heapostrophizingly cried to a bust of Hahnemann that rested upon a bracketin a corner of the room. "They can never get there on any such lines. Ibelieve it to be a perfectly feasible scheme, if worked out on simplescientific principles. If I had capital, I would try it."
He sat with the points of his extended fingers touching each its mate ofthe opposite hand, and mused for several moments. Suddenly he seized apencil, and rapidly jotted down figures, lines, and characters thatmeant nothing to any mortal but himself.
"Figures don't lie!" he shouted to aforesaid bust. "That depends,Doctor, on whether they are legitimately used or not. Sometimes they aremade to represent the vilest untruth," said a voice behind him. TheDoctor wheeled about and encountered the genial countenance of Mr. A.L.Denison.
"Hullo! Denison. Just the man I wanted to see. Sit down."
"What's up now, Doctor? Anyone hurt or seriously sick?" inquiredDenison, as he occupied a chair.
For answer the Doctor read aloud the account of Dr. Nansen's failure toreach the North Pole, and then said: "I do not wonder that he failed. Noone will succeed upon any such lines or plans."
"Well, Doctor, you don't suppose that anyone will ever get there andback alive, do you?"
"Whether they will or not, I do not know; but that it is a perfectlyfeasible and rational undertaking, under proper conditions, I as firmlybelieve as I do that I am alive," and he brought his fist down upon thedesk by way of emphasis with a whack that made the various loosearticles in the little office rattle. Even the bust upon the bracketmoved about uneasily, whether by way of approbation or not, thistruthful chronicle ventures no opinion. Denison looked at the flushedface and glittering eyes of the Doctor, moved uneasily in his chair,and said: "What's up, Doctor? I never knew you to drink. Getting off?"tapping his _os frontis_ with his forefinger significantly.
"Denison," replied the Doctor, unheeding the innuendoes of his friend,"I tell you that I have a plan for going to, and returning from, theNorth Pole with perfect safety, absolute certainty, and a degree ofcomfort that will reduce the whole expedition to the level of a gloriouspicnic." Denison indulged in a long, low whistle.
"Draw it a little milder, Doctor. Go to and return from the North Polewith perfect safety, certainty, comfort, and pleasure! What do you mean?I never heard of anything so preposterous in my life!"
"Hitch up to the desk here, and I will soon tell you what I mean," criedthe Doctor. Denison complied, and the Doctor, seizing a pencil, drewupon a leaf of the scratch book, with a few vigorous strokes, a sketchof a globe, thus:
"There," said he, as he gave a few finishing touches. "There you havethe idea."
"Well, go on."
"This sketch represents a mammoth globe of aluminum, two hundred feet indiameter, as you will notice.
"I see," assented Denison.
"We have, then, a great hollow globe, consisting, as I said before, ofaluminum. I have chosen that material for two obvious reasons; lightnessand strength. The globe is simply to be floated by heating theatmosphere within it."
"What will you heat it with, and how long do you suppose it will bebefore your globe returns to the earth?" asked Denison.
"Your questions are quite practical, and I am ready to answer them.There are to be three skins or coverings to our globe, with a foot ofspace (or air blanket, if you please) between them. This affords us twoair chambers that materially prevent the radiation of heat. Once heated,a very little fuel will keep the interior of our great air-ship at thedesired temperature. You see, at the inferior or lower part of the ship,a square apartment attached, plentifully supplied with windows. Thatrepresents the living and store rooms. The living rooms are to becomfortably furnished, and no reason can be alleged why we should notenjoy in them absolute comfort. In our store-rooms, we will carry oneyear's supply of food. And in tanks of sufficient size, petroleum (orwhatever combustible we conclude to be most suitable) for heating andcooking purposes. See?"
"I see," said Denison.
"You will observe that so conservative of heat is this arrangement thatevery particle of caloric created in the living rooms, or cabin below,helps by that much to float the great globe. All the warmth from cookingand heating; the heat and smoke from our pipes and cigars; yea, even theanimal heat which radiates from our bodies, all subserve the one greatpurpose and function--keeping up the temperature and buoyant effort ofthe globe. Do you begin to catch on?" fairly shouted the enthusiasticDoctor.
"Well, it looks very well so far," returned Denison slowly. "But, mydear sir, I foresee one difficulty that in your enthusiasm you seem tohave overlooked. You can never guide or steer this immense ship. It mustgo with the wind, and you are just as likely to go to the South Pole asto the North, and very unlikely to go to either. You must excuse me,but this last is certainly an insuperable obstacle to your makinganything practicable of your idea."
"I admit at once that this great body could not be steered, nor in anydegree guided by any apparatus that we could devise," assented theDoctor. "But that we should be obliged to float aimlessly, hither andthither, altogether the creatures of chance, I do not for a momentadmit. The equator, receiving as it does, the vertical rays of the sun,is by far the hottest portion of the earth. The atmosphere at thatquarter, being constantly superheated and correspondingly rarified,ascends into the vault above. This creates a semi-vacuum below, and thecooler atmospheres north and south of the equator rush in and fill theaforesaid vacuum. Pouring in from opposite directions with an impetusthat often amounts to hurricanes, they boil up as they meet, miles intothe firmament above. They then set off in two strong currents towardeither Pole. What is the natural inference? The navigators of ourair-ship have the power to raise and lower at pleasure. Obviously, thereis but one thing for sensible men to do: Let her rise until we strike anortherly current, if necessary, and remain in it so long as it isfavorable; when it changes, rise or lower until another favorablecurrent is found, etc. Do you happen to think of any more 'insuperable'obstacles, my dear sir?"
"Well, I must say that while I am not convinced of the practicability ofyour scheme, still you meet my objections in a way that is quitesurprising, and which shows tha
t you have given the matter much thought;yet I am not sure that you will not run upon difficulties that will makeit altogether impossible. For instance, there is the cost of so vast anundertaking. It would cost hundreds of thousands, at the leastcalculation."
"Now, Denison, you have struck the only real difficulty that I can thinkof. I really have no idea of who will furnish the money. I had notthought even of asking anyone to do so."
Patients came in at this juncture, and Denison took his departure. A fewdays later, however, he returned, and when the Doctor was at leisure,opened the conversation by asking if anything had developed with regardto the air-ship building.
"O, ho!" cried Dr. Jones, "you are getting into my way of thinking onthat subject, are you?"
"Well, to tell you the truth, I have thought of it considerably since Isaw you. I would like, at least, to see it tried."
"There is but one way to do: If you get interested sufficiently to wishto take hold, we will see if we cannot stir up our friends and form astock company. Or, failing in that, we might have a working model built,and I think we could induce the Government to take hold of the matter."
Denison called frequently during the following month, and it was evidentthat he was fast becoming imbued with the Doctor's ideas andenthusiasm.