"And do you notice that the reflector in the picture has the elliptical
curve, instead of the parabolic of the usual reflectors?"
I gasped. In painting that object into the picture I had not thought of
curves. In fact, knew nothing of conic sections at the time.
"The secondary focus of that reflector," went on Mr. Mayhew, "was about
sixty feet away. I had designed it for experimenting with light. In
fact, I had invented the searchlight, now in general use, as I have
learned by reading up lately. But I have also learned more--that in the
fifty years of my darkness the scientific world has not caught up to
me. At that time I had not only liquefied the six refractory gases of
Clerk Maxwell, but had solidified hydrogen and discovered in advance a
gas which I had not named, but which I now find is called helium. I
had also succeeded in liquefying this gas."
"And in the focus of that reflector?" inquired the old artist, half
rising from his chair.
"Was a small cup of liquefied helium, on which floated a lump of
solid hydrogen. It produced a temperature of nearly two hundred and
seventy-three minus centigrade--the absolute zero of space."
"And it froze the blood in their veins," commented the artist,
reseating himself. "Lucky for me you didn't switch it a little higher."