A. D. 2000

the cushions of their sleeper, Cobb immediately

owerful corporations, these w

the government. All railroads in the United States are in the hands of

ates of pa

re is one fixed rate throughout

difference in operating the roads? Are not some

versal rate is found to be the best; the larger and more patronized

changes in the general management, supervision, e

At the sending point it is stamped similarly to a letter, showing date, place of shipment, destination, etc. The same rule is followed in regard to baggage of individuals, the owner having a duplicate of the stamp placed upon his baggage. There are no tickets shown or taken up on the pneumatic lines, but the names of passengers to depart from the train at intermediate points are telegraphed ahead, and the persons are looked after by the inspectors. On all lines the tracks are double, trai

sleeper door opened, and a trainman entered and walked direct to their section and asked f

thanked the man, w

at time!" surprisedly exclaimed C

open the envelope. "Every person on the train is kno

and read t

an order from the Secretary of State to stop at the Central Sea." And he and Ly

gton, 1

on Central Pneu

bmarine boat Tracer ordered there to

r Secret

Collins, C

y remark; then, handing it back while a troub

rt of the words 'Central Sea.' The submarine boat spoken of does not surprise me, for I would naturally ex

r time. The Ohio is now but a small stream fl

s it mean? Is there an inland sea?" and Co

slowly spo

big one, too,"

ieve until the facts were clearly before his mind. He was perfectly cognizant of the physical geography of the Un

g the circuit of the electric light to lessen

l August, 1916, gas wells were being sunk all over the country drained by the Ohio and its tributaries. Their number was way up in the thousands. Billions of cubic feet of natural gas were being consumed or flowing to waste daily. Pittsburgh alone used 300,000,000 cubic feet a day in its vast manufactories. The earth in the Ohio basin was honey-combed with the gas pockets and strata, and gas veins were struck in which the gas was under such pressure that the flow could not be checked by human hands. It was 14 dial, as I have said, on the last day of August, 1916, and the workmen in the large foundry of Dillenback & Co., at Lakeside, on the Ohio, some fifty miles below Pittsburgh, were tapping a huge melting of aluminum bronze for the purpose of casting the outer shell of one of the latest model guns of that period. But let me first describe the interior arrangements of the foundry, that you may fully grasp the situation as it then stood, and the cause of the results which followed. Natural gas was, and had been for a long time, the fuel used in these works. Up to 1914 the gas boring of Lakeside had furnished all the gas required. This well was of ten-inch bore, and reached a depth of 4,737 feet, but in the year mentioned the well had failed to furnish gas at any pressure. The standard pipe had been moved and an iron plate set over the mouth of the tube, on a level with the floor. Five hundred feet from this well a boring to 4,016 feet had struck a new stratum, giving vast quantities of gas at a pressure of five atmospheres. To revert back: Just as the tapping of the furnaces was made, the steam boiler of the crane engine, through some unaccountable cause, burst. The concussion shook the buildings, tore up the ground, displaced the iron plate over the disused gas well, and broke the aluminum furnaces, letting over one hundred tons of molten metal flow rapidly across the foundry floor. Recovering from the first shock and fright of the explosion, all efforts were at once made to arrest the flow of the liquid stream, or to divert its course away from the old well. That well, as all knew, still contained gas intermingled with comm

ng of his chest, as he listened to this terrible narr

lass of wine and retire. I wish to think this over

iet in the first sleeper of the

st 2, the next morning, when the C

rd that vessel, which lay at anchor in the stream. Cobb was informed that, as it was so early, he had better retire a

appointed apartment. Electric lamps threw a charming, subdued light over everything in the room, while an electric heater diffused a gentle warmth which was

awoke their guest, who, after a refreshing bath and a del

ll area amidship, some two feet above the w

of bustle and activity. The stream was covered with shipping, some at anchor, while others were plying between the city and the opposite shore, a mile and a h

and inquiry made of Lyman, who stood near

Lipthalite vapor, or lipthalene, is now the motive power of vessels without

small, water-flush deck of a metal submarine vessel, the total area of which could not exceed a thousand square feet. A number of peculiar openings,

concerning their use, when Lieutenant Sibley, the officer

a courteous and pleasing tone of voice, "but I was detained in Central City, across the rive

but anxious for i

eutenant, the anchor was raised, and the

l colors, which were displayed from its mast, were sa

t, answered these salutations, and also caused that

button, Lieutenant Sibley apolog

ad others aboard than those who

feet in length by twenty beam, or middle diameter, a

ll of the finest steel, the vessel combined great stren

me," said Lieutenant Sibley, "I

to which could be closed by an air-tight

ubes, one-half inch thick, containing over 4,500 cubic feet of air under a pressure of 1,500 pounds per square inch. This was sufficient, as Lieutenant Sibley explained, to sustain active life for the entire crew for two hours. "But we have other facilities," continued the

though these rooms were, they were made with every convenience, and given

ts, one electrician, cook, assistant cook, captain's boy, two helpers, and two officers. Everything was so admirably arranged, and machinery played such a wonderful

artitions between the rooms, and ask

he shell of the vessel is of 1?-inch steel, covered externally by an aluminum armor of .3 of an inch in thickness, and weighs 570,000 pounds. The steel deck upon which we stand weighs 500,000; the steel partitions, braces, and iron-work weigh 195,000; the engines and machinery, 200,000; compressed air pipes, 125,000; the water cylinders, which you will soon see, weigh 100,000; all other parts, stores, lipthalite, etc., are allowed

the depth below, Cobb, Rawolle, and Lyman were soon

minated by electricity. Here, Mr. Lochridge, the f

ns; but never before had he perceived such beautiful specimens of strength combined with size; nor did the fines

He noted an absence of steam and heat, the peculiar constru

im, "that you informed me last evening that no steam wa

d vapor nowadays," b

, bearing some slight resemblan

nstructed frontal additions, which had quite a number of straight pipes running into the large receiver, "are our furnac

more, a stick of dark-brown material about four feet long by one

arc light situated in the generator. Gas is evolved in great quantities, but the composition burns only while in the fiel

with the solid base? and is it cheape

0 cubic feet of lipthalene, a combination of nitrogen, carbonic acid, and other gases. The ratio between water and lipthalite, evolved into gas, is as 1 to 500. In other words, to operate the engines of this vessel at a given speed for one hour, requires, of coal and water, one and thirty-one tons respectivel

en he had spent hours in his laboratory, at the Presidio, searching for this very same agent-the storage of great power in small volume-and his partial success in the

as been made in a hundred years?" and Rawolle br

anyone have dreamed of

nture the knowledge that his thoughts and work had been centered on s

turned into gas

ammation alone, and not very fast, either. In our generators, here, it is

very principle!" he said, half aloud; then

ater cylinders;

grating,

inders, each divided into halves, with piston-rods and cylinder-hea

a piece of paper and pencil from his pocket, and making a few notes. "Yes; 1,940,000 pounds, or just thirty tons less than our displacement. The water cylinders have a capacity of fifty tons. By allowing thirty tons of water to enter the cylinders, our weight is equal to our displacement, and we sink. Allowing all loss of weight aboard ship during a cruise, and which never exceeds twenty tons, we c

crossed one another; peculiar machines occupied each side of the room, and a hundred other things, strange to him, were upon eith

ng on the table, sat Mr. Irwin, the first pilot of the Tracer. On either side of him, and fastened to the walls of the room, were a great number of delicate instruments, some o

" questioned Lieutenant Sibley, as the pilot arose

e returned, bowing. "Have you

, Mr. Irwin," said Lyman

nd where are we now?"

airo is to our rear ninety-five miles. We are over Prin

sville. What time

hart a moment, M

d distant one hundred and eighty-eig

gentleman to my cabin. You will excuse us a few minutes, will you not, Mr. Cobb? I have some offi

minutes' conversation regarding the remarkable experience of t

ted by this little delicate meter. The speed of the vessel is shown on that reel, which is connected, electrically, with the log. These little bells," pointing to twenty-four little bells overhead, "will quickly give warning of the entrance of water into any of the chambers. The equilibrium of the ship is denoted automatically by this alcohol cross combined with a double pendulum. The lipthalene pressure is given here. The many buttons and tubes

oom, you can see nothing around the ship. Even on deck, especially in rough w

that box, if you please, and let your hea

noted Cobb's per

ts swell, vessels passing in various directions, the faint blue outlines of the shore to the northwest, and-click, the scene chan

rting back; "a ship! a

its warning; seizing the tiller-wheel, he threw it hard aport, and then, without pausing, pressed another button, and the large gongs of the ship pealed out their summons to its crew

safe! Look! the m

the dark, black stern of a large fr

f the Tracer were quickly huddle

ry narrow escape from being run down by a heavy freighter. Explaining the

ssed, and Mr. Irwin was exonerated by the Lieutenant.

n turned to C

so low in the water, that these many merchant ships, with their sleepy crews, often fail to sight her until too late to make a proper c

lves by pushing this button; thus a perfect image of the surrounding water and all upon it is thrown on the white ground within the box. Sitting here and looking in the box, I note the proximity of objects and steer the vessel. The mast also se

nked Mr. Irwin for his kindness, excused himself, and was so

ic pressure completed the ruin. The earth sank and crushed into these voids until a new foundation was reached. In some sections the fall of the crust was frightful, terrific. In the vicinity of Cincinnati but one shock was felt, but that shock was terrible, horrible, annihilating. The earth sank 196 feet at one fall. Not a living soul escaped the shock of impact upon the underlying strata. The city was an inconceivable mass of ruins, and in two days, was covered with water. So it was over a region of 100,000 square miles, the earth sinking everywhere, but to different depths and with different rates of depression. Pittsburgh sank 377 feet, but so slowly that few lives were lost, though the destruction of property was very great. At the mouth of the Ohio the earth sank only one foot, increasing toward the east. Millions of lives were sacrificed and untol

ngs have time to move their effects before the waters overtook them? for

e country was below the level of any outlet, natural or artificial, and was filling up into an inland sea. Surveys were made, and in 1918 the true condition of the country ascertained. Then, and only then, was it found that the region now covered by the Central Sea was destined to be lost to mankind. Human ingenuity could not solve the problem of drainage. There was no drainage. Far below the bed of the Mississippi, the only possible outlet, the country was doomed to in

ave required a considerable t

Central Sea reached the dam at that city, and passed over in a gently increasing stream. The dam was removed, the channel op

was twenty-three years after the disturbances!

sippi discharged a like amount into the sunken area. It was estimated that over ninety trillion cubic feet of water were pushed up, so to speak, from the strata of the earth by the subsidence of the upper crust. Thus, one hundred trillion cubic feet of water rushed into the doomed basin of

I admit I should be loath to believe it a possibility;" and Cobb seemed lost in a reve

tenant Sibley, who had been writin

we are near

n, in the pilot-room, and was informed that t

or descending to the bottom of the sea. He watched every movement and noted every detail,

The water cylinders were opened, and as they partially filled, the vessel lost its superiority of displacement and began to sink; the large float, with its air-valves, and attached to the hose, remained upon the top of the water, permitting air to be drawn down into

neither pleasing, nor yet distasteful-such a feeling as when, in his boy

's room, he saw the ease with which the descent was regulate

The displacement being but a trifle less than the weight of the vessel, th

f a bull's-eye, and then pressed the button near it. A brilliant flash shot out,

city of the dead, Louisville!-Louisville, once such a grand city, now a silent, sl

the city. Even as they stood years ago, so stood many at that moment. Others were in ruins, with gap

tops of the street-lamps could be discerned sticking out of

xpanse of the southeast side of this unfortunate

unknown power, upon the spot he had, in years long since past, visited, looked upon,

ghed. A tear glistened in his eye a

in Pittsburgh, and Cobb, Rawolle, and Lyma

ged for but an hour with them-an hour of true friendship and love; how he craved to listen to but a moment's innocent prattle of his girl-love. Alone among strangers, among a people far ahead of his time, he felt that he was looked upon