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 experiments. 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, must 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."
[Illustration: FIG. 23. A, brine. B, sand and brine mixed. C, sand and
water.]
"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. You 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 (D) with water from the hydrant, and having spread a strip
of thin muslin over the mouth of the other can (B), pressed it firmly
over the mouth (C) 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.)
[Illustration: Fig. 24.
A, surface of brine.
B, upper can filled with brine.
C, necks of cans telescoped.
D, lower can full of water.]
"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 may 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 be 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."