CHAPTER
XXVIII.
A CHALLENGE.- MY UNBIDDEN GUEST ACCEPTS IT.
The white-haired reader, in whom I had now become deeply interested, no longer
an unwelcome stranger, suspended his reading, laid down his manuscript, and
looking me in the face, asked:
" Are you a believer?"
" No," I promptly answered.
" What part of the narrative do you question?"
"All of it."
" Have you not already investigated some of the statements I previously
made?" he queried.
" Yes," I said; " but you had not then given utterance to such
preposterous expressions."
" Is not the truth, the truth?" he answered.
" You ask me to believe impossibilities," I replied.
" Name one."
" You yourself admit," I said warmly, " that you were
incredulous, and shook your head when your guide asserted that the bottom of the
ocean might be as porous as a sieve, and still hold water. A fountain can not
rise above its source."
" It often does, however," he replied.
" I do not believe you," I said boldly. " And, furthermore, I
assert that you might as reasonably ask me to believe that I can see my own
brain, as to accept your fiction regarding the production of light, miles below
the surface of the earth."
" I can make your brain visible to you, and if you dare to accompany me, I
will carry you beneath the surface of the earth and prove my other
statement," he said. " Come!" He arose and grasped my arm.
I hesitated.
" You confess that you fear the journey."
I made no reply.
" Well, since you fear that method, I am ready to convince you of the facts
by any rational course you may select, and if you wish to stake your entire
argument on the general statement that a stream of water can not rise above its
head, I will accept the challenge; but I insist that you do not divulge the
nature of the experiment until, as you are directed, you make public my
story."
" Of course a fluid can be pumped up," I sarcastically observed.
" However, I promise the secrecy you ask."
" I am speaking seriously," he said, " and I have accepted your
challenge; your own eyes shall view the facts, your own hands prepare the
conditions necessary. Procure a few pints of sand, and a few pounds of salt;
to-morrow evening I will be ready to make the experiment."
" Agreed; if you will induce a stream of water to run up hill, a fountain
to rise above its head, I will believe any statement you may henceforth
make."
" Be ready, then," he replied, " and procure the materials
named." So saying he picked up his hat and abruptly departed.
These substances I purchased the next day, procuring the silver sand from
Gordon's pharmacy, corner of Eighth and Western Row, and promptly at the
specified time we met in my room.
He came, provided with a cylindrical glass jar about eighteen inches high and
two inches in diameter ( such as I have since learned is called a hydrometer
jar), and a long, slender drawn glass tube, the internal diameter of which was
about one-sixteenth of an inch.
" You have deceived me," I said; " I know well enough that
capillary attraction will draw a liquid above its surface. You demonstrated that
quite recently to my entire satisfaction."
" True, and yet not true of this experiment," he said.- " I
propose to force water through and out of this tube; capillary attraction will
not expel a liquid from a tube if its mouth be above the surface of the
supply."
He dipped the tip of a capillary tube into a tumbler of water; the water rose
inside the tube about an inch above the surface of the water in the tumbler.
Capillary attraction can do no more," he said. " Break the tube
one-eighth of an inch above the water ( far below the present capillary surface
), and it will not overflow. The exit of the tube must be lower than the surface
of the liquid if circulation ensues."
He broke off a fragment, and the result was as predicted.
Then he poured water into the glass jar to the depth of about six inches, and
selecting a piece of very thin muslin, about an inch square, turned it over the
end of the glass tube, tied it in position, and dropped that end of the tube
into the cylinder.
" The muslin simply prevents the tube from filling with sand," he
explained. Then he poured sand into the cylinder until it reached the surface of
the water. (See Figure 23.)
" Your apparatus is simple enough," I remarked, I am afraid with some
sarcasm.
" Nature works with exceeding simplicity," he replied; " there is
no complex apparatus in her laboratory, and I copy after nature."
Then he dissolved the salt in a portion of water that he drew from the hydrant
into my wash bowl, making a strong brine, and stirred sand into the brine to
make a thick mush. This mixture of sand and brine he then poured into the
cylinder, filling it nearly to the top. ( See Figure 23, B. The sand settling
soon left a layer of brine above it, as shown by A.) I had previously noticed
that the upper end of the glass tube was curved, and my surprise can be imagined
when I saw that at once water began to flow through the tube, dropping quite
rapidly into the cylinder. The lower end of the curve of the glass tube was
fully half an inch above the surface of the liquid in the cylinder.
I here present a figure of the apparatus. ( Figure 23.)
The strange man, or man image, I do not know which, sat before me, and in
silence we watched the steady flow of water, water rising above its surface and
flowing into the reservoir from which it was being continually derived.
" Do you give up?" he asked.
" Let me think," I said.
" As you please," he replied.
" How long will this continue?" I inquired.
" Until strong salt water flows from the tube."
Then the old man continued:
" I would suggest that after I depart you repeat these experi-
ments. The observations of those interested in science must be repeated time and
again by separate individuals. It is not sufficient that one person should
observe a phenomenon; repeated experiments are necessary in order to overcome
error of manipulation, and to convince others of their correctness.
Not only yourself, but many others, after this manuscript appears, should go
through with similar investigations, varied in detail as mind expansion may
suggest. This experiment is but the germ of a thought which will be enlarged
upon by many minds under other conditions. An event meteorological may occur in
the experience of one observer, and never repeat itself. This is
possible. The results of such experiments as you are observing, however, trust
be followed by similar results in the hands of others, and in behalf of science
it is necessary that others should be able to verify your experience. In the
time to come it will be necessary to support your statements in order to
demonstrate that your perceptive faculties are now in a normal condition.
Are you sure that your conceptions of these results are justified
by normal perception? May you not be in an exalted state of
mind that hinders clear perception, and compels you to imagine
and accept as fact that which does not exist? Do you see what
you think you see? After I am gone, and the influences that
my person and mind exert on your own mind have been
removed, will these results, as shown by my experiments, follow
similar experimental conditions? In the years that are to pass
before this paper is to be made public, it will be your duty to
verify your present sense faculty. This you must do as opportunities present,
and with different devices, so that no question may arise as to what will follow
when others repeat our
experiments. To-morrow evening I will call again, but remember, you must not
tell others of this experiment, nor show the
devices to them.
" I have promised," I answered.
He gathered his manuscript and departed, and I sat in meditation watching the
mysterious fountain.
As he had predicted, finally, after a long time, the flow slackened, and by
morning, when I arose from my bed, the water had ceased to drip, and then I
found it salty to the taste.
The next evening he appeared as usual, and prepared to resume his reading,
making no mention of the previous test of my faith. I interrupted him, however,
by saying that I had observed that the sand had settled in the cylinder, and
that in my opinion his experiment was not true to appearances, but was a
deception, since the sand by its greater weight displaced the water, which
escaped through the tube, where there was least resistance.
" Ah," he said, " and so you refuse to believe your own eyesight,
and are contriving to escape the deserved penalty; I will, however, acquiesce in
your outspoken desire for further light, and repeat the experiment without using
sand. But I tell you that mother earth, in the phenomena known as artesian
wells, uses sand and clay, pools of mineral waters of different gravities, and
running streams. The waters beneath the earth are under pressure, induced by
such natural causes as I have presented you in miniature, the chief difference
being that the supplies of both salt and fresh water are inexhaustible, and by
natural combinations similar to what you have seen; the streams within the
earth, if a pipe be thrust into them, may rise continuously, eternally, from a
reservoir higher than the head. In addition, there are pressures of gases, and
solutions of many salts, other than chloride of soda, that tend to favor the
phenomenon. Yon are unduly incredulous, and you ask of me more than your right
after staking your faith on an experiment of your own selection. You demand more
of me even than nature often accomplishes in earth structure; but to-morrow
night I will show you that this seemingly impossible feat is possible."
He then abruptly left the room. The following evening he presented himself with
a couple of one-gallon cans, one of them without a bottom. I thought I could
detect some impatience of manner as he filled the perfect can with water from
the hydrant, and having spread a strip of thin muslin over the mouth of the
other can, pressed it firmly over the mouth of the can of water, which it fitted
tightly, thus connecting them together, the upper ( bottomless ) can being
inverted. Then he made a narrow slit in the center of the muslin with his
pen-knife, and through it thrust a glass tube like that of our former
experiment. Next he wrapped a string around the open top of the upper can,
crossed it over the top, and tied the glass tube to the center of the cross
string.
" Simply to hold this tube in position," he explained.
The remainder of the bag of salt left from the experiment of the preceding
evening was then dissolved in water, and the brine poured into the upper can,
filling it to the top. Then carefully thrusting the glass tube downward, he
brought the tip of the curve to within about one-half inch of the surface of the
brine, when immediately a rapid flow of liquid exhibited itself.
( Figure 24.)
" It rises above its source without sand," he observed.
" I can not deny the fact," I replied, " and furthermore I am
determined that I shall not question any subsequent statement that you
make." We sat in silence for some time, and the water ran continuously
through the tube. I was becoming alarmed, afraid of my occult guest, who
accepted my self-selected challenges, and worked out his results so rapidly ; he
seemed to he more than human.
" I am a mortal, but a resident of a higher plane than you," he
replied, divining my thoughts. " Is not this experiment a natural
one?"
" Yes," I said.
" Did not Shakspeare write, ` There are more things in heaven and earth,
Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy'?"
" Yes," I said.
And my guest continued:
" He might have added, ' and always will be'."
" Scientific men will explain this phenomenon," I suggested. "
Yes, when they observe the facts," he replied, " it is very simple.
They can now tell, as I have before remarked, how Columbus stood the egg on end;
however, given the problem before Columbus expounded it, they would probably
have wandered as far from the true solution as the mountain with its edgewise
layers of stone is from the disconnected artesian wells on a distant sea coast
where the underground fresh and salt water in overlying currents and layers
clash together. The explanation, of course, is simple. The brine is of greater
specific gravity than the pure water; the pressure of the heavier fluid forces
the lighter up in the tube. This action continues until, as you will see by this
experiment, in the gradual diffusion of brine and pure water the salt is
disseminated equally throughout the vessels, and the specific gravity of the
mixed liquid becomes the same throughout, when the flow will cease. However, in
the earth, where supplies are inexhaustible, the fountain flows
unceasingly."