at this energy, which the
sun exercises against its own gravitation, is electrical in its nature,
hardly anybody will doubt. The head of the comet being comparatively
heavy and massive, falls on toward the sun, despite the electrical
repulsion. But the atoms which form the tail, being almost without
weight, yield to the electrical rather than to the gravitational
influence, and so fly away from the sun.

Now, what Mr. Edison had done was, in effect, to create an electrified
particle which might be compared to one of the atoms composing the tail
of a comet, although in reality it was a kind of car, of metal, weighing
some hundreds of pounds and capable of bearing some thousands of pounds
with it in its flight. By producing, with the aid of the electrical
generator contained in this car, an enormous charge of electricity, Mr.
Edison was able to counterbalance, and a trifle more than
counterbalance, the attraction of the earth, and thus cause the car to
fly off from the earth as an electrified pithball flies from the prime
conductor.

As we sat in the brilliantly lighted chamber that formed the interior of
the car, and where stores of compressed air had been provided together
with chemical apparatus, by means of which fresh supplies of oxygen and
nitrogen might be obtained for our consumption during the flight through
space, Mr. Edison touched a polished button, thus causing the generation
of the required electrical charge on the exterior of the car, and
immediately we began to rise.

The moment and direction of our flight had been so timed and
prearranged, that the original impulse would carry us straight toward
the moon.

When we fell within the sphere of attraction of that orb it only became
necessary to so manipulate the electrical charge upon our car as nearly,
but not quite, to counterbalance the effect of the moon's attraction in
order that we might gradually approach it and with an easy motion,
settle, without shock, upon its surface.

We did not remain to examine the wonders of the moon, although we could
not fail to observe many curious things therein. Having demonstrated the
fact that we could not only leave the earth, but could journey through
space and safely land upon the surface of another planet, Mr. Edison's
immediate purpose was fulfilled, and we hastened back to the earth,
employing in leaving the moon and landing again upon our own planet the
same means of control over the electrical attraction an