SPACE

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1935, Page 8 (Supplement)

SPACE

Professor AMLoto ffi

The Story So Far. Throe boys, Peter Haridiey, Phillip Joyce and Victor Standlsn, are oir on a motor cycling: holiday, when tliey como upon a slirj in winch 1l housed a stratosphere balloon. Out or curiosity the boys climb into the balloon and Phillip, lingering: a little gadget,- sends the airship into space, just as Professor Marsden and two rriends enter the Held The balloon, controlled by the wind passes upwards through ii cloud and then hangs motionless. Peter linds a lever, which he pulls experimentally, and immediately the cabin is enveloped in name and the balloon is som speeding towards the earth. Just in time Peter' drew the lever back, and the Aeronauticus righted itsfiir and began to plunge upwards again, relieved now or tho weight ol' the balloon which had been dragging it to the earth. The cabin now passed through several zones or colour, bright red, green and b: .:<;, then a zone ol' electric sparks. The oxygen in the cabin was failing and tho boys gasping Tor breath when they passed through an X-ray zone, which rendered a certain part or the cabin invisible. Through the glass Petor could see the cylinders or oxygen, and, pulling a switch, he filled thn cabin again with l'rcsh air. After this the Aeronauticus began- to drop in jerky falls, then speed upwards ■again as suddenly. What had caused this strange disturbance? CHAPTER VI. The Mysteries of thfcSpage Ship. Glancing round among what seemed 'Lo be a collection of debris on the floor of the cabin, Peter and Phillip made some interesting discoveries. Through the violence of the shocks the Aeronauticus Jfad experienced, a large Clipboard that stood near the starboard -window had been forced open and its contents thrown out. A metal bc-x of considerable size was one of the first things picked up by Phillip. With his pen-knife he (opened the lid to reveal a large number of small black tablets. "What on earth are these for?" asked Phillip in a puzzled voice, sniffing them. The other two looked on with equally mystified expressions. Then Victor said: "Oh, I say, there's something ( printed on the inside of the lid." Peter read aloud: "Super-vitamin tablets.* Each represents four thousand calories. One represents sufficient food for one person for one day. Dissolve in the mouth and swallow slowly." "Good heavens!" growled Victor. "Is a fellow expected to live for a day on one of those things?" The other two grinned again.

"It looks like it," answered Phillip. '"You see, these tablets contain enough nourishment to maintain life and health. Also, they prevent you from over-eating!" Victor grunted. "I'd rather have a good plate of roast beef any day." "You can't get roast beef in the stratosphere," said Phillip. "We're lucky to be alive at all, and I'm hanged if I know how we're going to get . . . but never mind that now." Meanwhile, Peter was sorting out the odd collection of articles, and Victor turned his head for a moment to gaze out of the cabin window. "I thought I saw something in the distance," he remarked. "But I must have been mistaken." "Look!" said Peter quicklj r . "Here is the apparatus showing our speed. Kight hundred and fifty miles an hour and we scarcely seem to be moving." With the exception of the moments when the rocket had been fired off, and when, they were plunged down to earth and back again, they had scarcely been conscious of the terrific speed at which they were hurtling upwards. As in the case of people flying high in a fast aeroplane, they had no landmarks by which to gauge their rate of travel. "But there must be some instrument to'show our height," Phillip. Peter nodded. 'It's probably in this box, but it's sealed, and we'd better leave it alone. We shall know when we get back— if ever we do," he added with grim humour. "Hallo, what's in this wooden box?" said Peter, giving it a slight kick. The lid of the box yielded to a little force, and the trio were surprised to find that it contained bottles of soda water. "That's great," was Victor's exclamation. "I'll try one of them. Oh, and here's a lifter, too." Two surprising things happened when Victor prised the metal cap from the top of the bottle. As it came off the cap went hurtling upwards and hit the root of the cabin with a loud smack. The bottle opened with a roar like that of a gun. "What the—!" cried Phillip, starting back.

The explosion had been due to the higher air pressure in the bottle than in the cabin, where, in spite of the oxygen cylinder, the air was thin. Peter expressed the opinion that the metal top had. struck the roof of the cabin because the Aeronaiiticiis was already getting outside the area in which the earth's force of gravity could be strongly, felt. In sorting out the junk on the floor of the cabin, Peter had a difficult task because the professor had labelled only a few of the things. There was no indication, for example, as to the use of a large flat box containing a honeycomb substance, electrical contacts on which appeared to be fitted for connection with terminals in the floor of the cabin. There was also a box arrangement that looked like a wireless set, and Victor, who prided himself on his knowledge of radio, was allowed to tinker with it. While he did so, he sipped at the soda water, which was still fizzling. Almost immediately his stomach began to swell in a most extraordinary manner. The others laughed. Phillip gave him two sharp smacks on the back, and this caused large-sized bubbles to emerge from Vic's mouth. Bubble after bubble floated upwards in.quick succession, and Vic's face was a comical study. "You'll blow up if you drink any more," said Peter, gravely. As the bubbles rose up, Vic's stomach dwindled to its normal size again. "That had something to do with air pressure, I suppose," commented Phillip. Vic didn't mind being laughed at, but felt a bit sore when, a minute or two later, after the Aeronauticus had given a slight tremor, his two companions looked at him and again burst into a roar of laughter. Vic's long, bushy hair was standing up on end as though he had seen twenty ghosts. "Now what on earth is the cause of that?" asked Phillip. "I expect it has something to do with that wireless set Vic is messing about with," answered Peter. This theory seemed to be correct, for when Victor released his hold of what appeared to be a control knob, his hair "flattened out" once more. "You chaps may laugh," retorted Vic as he went on tinkering with the super-radio set, "but I've got a feeluig that I'm making sonic progress with this set. I could almost swear I heard a sound come from it then." Peter and Phillip looked at him curiously. They knew that Vic was a queer fellow in some ways, but ho was certainly 710 fool when it came to radio. Together they bent over the seat, and as they did so Victor lifted his hand for silence. All three listened intently, wondering at first if they were mistaken in thinking they heard a faint lmm come from the set. Then there was no doubt about it. The hum grew from a low murmur to a strong buzz. The set was "alive." Vie pushed the others away impatiently and tried tuning again. A great deal of atmospherics came tlirough at first, and then the hum r

came in again louder than ever. Vic made a further adjustment or two, and then the trio held their breaths as they heard a muffled sentence. What station were they hearing? Was someone trying to get in touch with the Aeronauticus? Or were they wireless waves from some other planet? The three men thrilled at the thought. Further attempts by Vic brought a voice thundering into the cabin. "Listen," broke out Phillip. "It's from England—Wembley!" Wembley it was, indeed. The voice was giving a running commentary on the football final. It was precisely the same running commentary of the classic football match they had heard broadcast two weeks previously. There was the same voice, the same excited descriptions of an attack, the same vivid narration of a penalty episode in the last ten minutes of play —indeed, it was the same broadcast, and now they were hearing it 14 days later. Had the Aeronauticus carried them into high regions of the sky where wireless waves continue to exist and do not die? A programme of dance music followed. It came through loud and clear, but none of them could say when it was originally sent out from London. But this was only one of the many strange mysteries the three companions were to encounter. CHAPTER VII. The Monster of the Void. Another important discovery which Peter made was a book in the professor's handwriting. Unfortunately, the handwriting was atrocious, and Peter could make out only parts of it. The book obviously contained a" full description of Aeronauticus and the principle of its working. Incidentally, the professor referred to Aeronauticus as "the ship," and certainly this description was now more appropriate since the balloon part of the structure had become detached. There were many roughly-sketched diagrams in the book, but neither Peter nor Phillip could make much out of them. "I suppose if we go on studying the writing we shall gradually be able to understand more and more of it. Hallo, what's this?" Phillip looked over Peter's shoulder at a diagram of a peculiar triangular object. "Why," eaid Phillip, "that must be this metal object here—this one with the point sticking outside the cabin. What does it say about it?" "That's what I'm trying to make out," laughed Peter. Both of -them. screwed their foreheads, looked at the writing from different angles, sometimes holding the book at arm's length. "That word's dear enough," said Phillip. "It's 'Televista,' but what can it mean?" "Wait a minute," replied Peter, who was beginning to decipher at least some of the writing underneath the diagram. "It says something about getting close-up views of the moon." (To be continued.)