第6章 BOOK I.(5)

"It is not to be supposed that the inclining of the axes of Jupiter,Venus,the Earth,and the other planets,is now fixed;in some cases it is known to be changing.As long ago as 1890,Major-Gen.A.W.Drayson,of the British Army,showed,in a work entitled Untrodden Ground in Astronomy and Geology,that,as a result of the second rotation of the earth,the inclination of its axis was changing,it having been 23@28'23"on January 1,1750,23@27'55.3"on January 1,1800,and 23@27'30.9"on January 1,1850;and by calculation one hundred and ten years ago showed that in 1900(one hundred years ago)it would be 23@27'08.8".This natural straightening is,of course,going on,and we are merely about to anticipate it.When this improvement was mooted,all agreed that the EXTREMES of heat and cold could well be spared.'Balance those of summer against those of winter by partially straightening the axis;reduce the inclination from twenty-three degrees,thirty minutes,to about fifteen degrees,but let us stop there,'many said.Before we had gone far,however,we found it would be best to make the work complete.

This will reclaim and make productive the vast areas of Siberia and the northern part of this continent,and will do much for the antarctic regions;but there will still be change in temperature;a wind blowing towards the equator will always be colder than one blowing from it,while the slight eccentricity of the orbit will supply enough change to awaken recollections of seasons in our eternal spring.

"The way to accomplish this is to increase the weight of the pole leaving the sun,by increasing the amount of material there for the sun to attract,and to lighten the pole approaching or turning towards the sun,by removing some heavy substance from it,and putting it preferably at the opposite pole.This shifting of ballast is most easily accomplished,as you will readily perceive,by confining and removing water,which is easily moved and has a considerable weight.How we purpose to apply these aqueous brakes to check the wabbling of the earth,by means of the attraction of the sun,you will now see.

"From Commander Fillmore,of the Arctic Shade and the Committee on Bulkheads and Dams,I have just received the following by cable telephone:'The Arctic Ocean is now in condition to be pumped out in summer and to have its average depth increased one hundred feet by the dams in winter.We have already fifty million square yards of windmill turbine surface in position and ready to move.The cables bringing us currents from the dynamos at Niagara Falls are connected with our motors,and those from the tidal dynamos at the Bay of Fundy will be in contact when this reaches you,at which moment the pumps will begin.In several of the landlocked gulfs and bays our system of confining is so complete,that the surface of the water can be raised two hundred feet above sea-level.The polar bears will soon have to use artificial ice.Perhaps the cheers now ringing without may reach you over the telephone.'"The audience became greatly interested,and when the end of the telephone was applied to a microphone the room fairly rang with exultant cheers,and those looking through a kintograph (visual telegraph)terminating in a camera obscura on the shores of Baffin Bay were able to see engineers and workmen waving and throwing up their caps and falling into one another's arms in ecstasies of delight.When the excitement subsided,the president continued:

"Chairman Wetmore,of the Committee on Excavations and Embankments in Wilkesland and the Antarctic Continent,reports:

'Two hundred and fifty thousand square miles are now hollowed out and enclosed sufficiently to hold water to an average depth of four hundred feet.Every summer,when the basin is allowed to drain,we can,if necessary,extend our reservoir,and shall have the best season of the year for doing work until the earth has permanent spring.Though we have comparatively little water or tidal power,the earth's crust is so thin at this latitude,on account of the flattening,that by sinking our tubular boilers and pipes to a depth of a few thousand feet we have secured so terrific a volume of superheated steam that,in connection with our wind turbines,we shall have no difficulty in raising half a cubic mile of water a minute to our enclosure,which is but little above sea-level,and into which,till the pressure increases,we can fan or blow the water,so that it can be full three weeks after our longest day,or,since the present unimproved arrangement gives the indigenes but one day and night a year,I will add the 21st day of December.

"'We shall be able to find use for much of the potential energy of the water in the reservoir when we allow it to escape in June,in melting some of the accumulated polar ice-cap,thereby decreasing still further the weight of this pole,in lighting and warming ourselves until we get the sun's light and heat,in extending the excavations,and in charging the storage batteries of the ships at this end of the line.Everything will be ready when you signal "Raise water."'""Let me add parenthetically,"said Bearwarden,"that this means of obtaining power by steam boilers sunk to a great depth is much to be commended;for,though the amount of heat we can withdraw is too small to have much effect,the farther towards the centre our globe can be cooled the deeper will the water of the oceans be able to penetrate--since it is its conversion into steam that prevents the water from working its way in farther--and the more dry land we shall have.""You see,"the president continued,"the storage capacity at the south pole is not quite as great as at the north,because it is more difficult to excavate a basin than to close the exits of one that already exists,which is what we have done in the arctic.