. Edison done nothing more than invent a machine which could n

leaked out-invented also machines of war intended to meet the utmost that the Martian

rful In

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

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 tramped together, and were followed by other companies keeping the same time with their feet, after a

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 w

set into violent undulation, sufficient to burst it asunder and to scatter its molecules broadcast. This the inventor effected by the simplest means in the world-

he "Disin

oof of Mr. Edison's laboratory and the inventor held the little instrument, with its attached mirror, in his hand. We looked about fo

e touched a button at the side of the inst

a vibration period of three hundred

poke. Then, through a sightin

tch," h

row's

tary flash of light close around it, and, beh

"they have been dissipated into their cons

st of the Di

tary flash of light close around it, and, beh

clude a certain range of vibrations, and the crow itself was gone-vanished in empty space! There was the bare twig on which a moment befor

the Ma

hich their war engines whose remains we have collected together are composed. They can be shattered into nothingness in the frac

onlookers. "We have met the

ontrivances which Mr. Edison invente

ability, with the aid of his wonderful instrument, to destroy any given object, or any part of an object, provided

d been destroyed by the Martians, impended in such a manner that it threatened at any moment to fall upon the heads of the passers-by. The Fire Department did not dare touch it. To blow it up seem

to Mr. Edison, "to try the powers

antly replied. "I

rating a

erwise 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 se

Cloud R

soft whirr, 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 all around the place where i

us Scienti

hing and to tingle in the nerves of the spectato

d upon the successful negotiation of a gigantic war fund, in comparison with which all the expenditures in all of the wars that had been waged by the nations for 2,000 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

ankee

ates naturally took the lead, and their leader

ufficient 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

ew focus and centre 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, the Emperor William, the Czar Nicholas, Alphonso of Spain, with his mother, Maria Christina; the old Emperor Francis Joseph and the Empress Elizabeth, of Austria; King Oscar and Queen Sophia, of Sweden and Norway; King Humbert and Que

onarchs had set out, attended by brilliant suites and convoyed by fleets of warships, for their destination, some c

spectacle. Would yo

nly," I

d Spec

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 toward the object, whatever it might be, like a pith 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, h

s. As we drew nearer a marvellous spectacle unfolded itself to our eyes. From the northeast, their great guns flashing in the sunlight and their huge funnels belching black volumes that rested like thunder clouds upon the sea, came

, the hulls and guns and burgeons of another great fleet, carrying the tri-color of Fr

the gold and red of Spain fluttering from its masthead. This, too, was carryi

al Brot

ceful 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, and no fear between them when the throat

at the Kaiser, although at first consenting to the arrangement by which Washington

ilhelm's

to allow these upstart Republicans to lead in a warlike enterprise of this kind. What would my g

and so untenable. And swept along by their enthusiasm the Kaiser had at last consented to embark on his fl

ancient habit, and partly due to the fact that such multitudes of officials and members of ruling families wished to e

e sight, Mr. Edison suddenly exclaimed: "Now

e Missi

nd north, an endless succession of railway trains bearing their multitudes on to Washington. With marvellous speed we rushed westward, rising high to skim over the snow-topped peaks of the Rocky Mountains and then the glittering rim of t

look at the man to whose genius this uprising of the earth was due. But Mr. Edison, after his wont, appeared totally unconscious of the fact that he was personally responsible for what w

o Wash

gh?" he asked. "Then let

ift progress, and volleys of cheers reached our ears, for every one knew that this was Edison's electrical warship, on which the hope of the nation, and the hopes of all the nations