登陆注册
5302100000005

第5章 BOOK I.(4)

"Knowing the way you carry things in your mind,and the difficulty of rattling you,"said Cortlandt,"we have dropped in on our way to hear the speech that I would not miss for a fortune.Let us know if we bother you.""Impossible,dear boy,"replied the president genially."Since Isurvived your official investigations,I think I deserve some of your attention informally.""Here are my final examinations,"said Cortlandt,handing Bearwarden a roll of papers."I have been over all your figures,and testify to their accuracy in the appendix I have added."So they sat and chatted about the enterprise that interested Cortlandt and Ayrault almost as much as Bearwarden himself.As the clock struck eleven,the president of the company put on his hat,and,saying au revoir to his friends,crossed the street to the Opera House,in which he was to read a report that would be copied in all the great journals and heard over thousands of miles of wire in every part of the globe.When he arrived,the vast building was already filled with a distinguished company,representing the greatest intelligence,wealth,and powers of the world.Bearwarden went in by the stage entrance,exchanging greetings as he did so with officers of the company and directors who had come to hear him.Cortlandt and Ayrault entered by the regular door,the former going to the Government representatives'box,the latter to join his fiancee,Sylvia Preston,who was there with her mother.Bearwarden had a roll of manu at hand,but so well did he know his speech that he scarcely glanced at it.After being introduced by the chairman of the meeting,and seeing that his audience was all attention,he began,holding himself erect,his clear,powerful voice making every part of the building ring.

CHAPTER III.

PRESIDENT BEARWARDEN'S SPEECH.

"To the Bondholders and Stockholders of the Terrestrial Axis Straightening Company and Representatives of Earthly Governments.

"GENTLEMEN:You know that the objects of this company are,to straighten the axis of the earth,to combine the extreme heat of summer with the intense cold of winter and produce a uniform temperature for each degree of latitude the year round.At present the earth's axis--that is,the line passing through its centre and the two poles--is inclined to the ecliptic about twenty-three and a half degrees.Our summer is produced by the northern hemisphere's leaning at that angle towards the sun,and our winter by its turning that much from it.In one case the sun's rays are caused to shine more perpendicularly,and in the other more obliquely.This wabbling,like that of a top,is the sole cause of the seasons;since,owing to the eccentricity of our orbit,the earth is actually fifteen hundred thousand miles nearer the sun during our winter,in the northern hemisphere,than in summer.That there is no limit to a planet's inclination,and that inclination is not essential,we have astronomical proof.Venus's axis is inclined to the plane of her orbit seventy-five degrees,so that the arctic circle comes within fifteen degrees of the equator,and the tropics also extend to latitude seventy-five degrees,or within fifteen degrees of the poles,producing great extremes of heat and cold.

"Venus is made still more difficult of habitation by the fact that she rotates on her axis in the same time that she revolves about the sun,in the same way that the moon does about the earth,so that one side must be perpetually frozen while the other is parched.

"In Uranus we see the axis tilted still further,so that the arctic circle descends to the equator.The most varied climate must therefore prevail during its year,whose length exceeds eighty-one of ours.

The axis of Mars is inclined about twenty-eight and two thirds degrees to the plane of its orbit;consequently its seasons must be very similar to ours,the extremes of heat and cold being somewhat greater.

"In Jupiter we have an illustration of a planet whose axis is almost at right angles to the plane of its orbit,being inclined but about a degree and a half.The hypothetical inhabitants of this majestic planet must therefore have perpetual summer at the equator,eternal winter at the poles,and in the temperate regions everlasting spring.On account of the straightness of the axis,however,even the polar inhabitants--if there are any--are not oppressed by a six months'night,for all except those at the VERY pole have a sunrise and a sunset every ten hours--the exact day being nine hours,fifty five minutes,and twenty-eight seconds.The warmth of the tropics is also tempered by the high winds that must result from the rapid whirl on its axis,every object at the equator being carried around by this at the rate of 27,600miles an hour,or over three thousand miles farther than the earth's equator moves in twenty-four hours.

"The inclination of the axis of our own planet has also frequently considerably exceeded that of Mars,and again has been but little greater than Jupiter's at least,this is by all odds the most reasonable explanation of the numerous Glacial periods through which our globe has passed,and of the recurring mild spells,probably lasting thousands of years,in which elephants,mastodons,and other semi-tropical vertebrates roamed in Siberia,some of which died so recently that their flesh,preserved by the cold,has been devoured by the dogs of modern explorers.

同类推荐
  • 阿遫达经

    阿遫达经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Village Watch-Tower

    The Village Watch-Tower

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 月

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 马关议和中之伊李问答

    马关议和中之伊李问答

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 分甘余话

    分甘余话

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 水浒后传

    水浒后传

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 快穿之女皇陛下万万岁

    快穿之女皇陛下万万岁

    许昭十六岁那年,终于算计死了自己的父皇和大哥二哥四哥,荣登帝位,然而登基当天却被系统抽取灵魂,过上了每天被系统欺(tao)压(hao)的生活。#贫贱不移的老师:你借我的情,我一生来还。#威武不屈的和尚:唯你回首一眼,方知这是人间。#温柔乖巧的小叔子:哪怕众叛亲离,我,依旧不悔。 【男主同一人,1v1宠文,欢迎入坑。】
  • 大圣文殊师利菩萨赞佛法身礼

    大圣文殊师利菩萨赞佛法身礼

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 霉运加成系统

    霉运加成系统

    新书《不死神女异界狂虐渣》有兴趣可以了解一下,发在女频,还是升级打脸为主,只不过换成了女主。海阔天高任你皮,我有霉运在手,保证让你霉到爽!“那边那个天才,快来尝尝小爷的霉运!”
  • 错为王宠:一等王爷二手妃

    错为王宠:一等王爷二手妃

    她,生的一副俏皮样,职业却是令人钦佩的特工,官方称之为间谍,窃密是她的专长......他,朝中王爷一枚,有时潇洒俊逸、气宇不凡,有时眼神凌厉、不屑一顾,任谁看了都止不住议论一番,却只得养鸟、练字的喜好,让人大跌眼镜梦中穿越掉进王爷的寝室中,一觉醒后,经过一轮仔细的侦查,情报收集、整理,才知道自己俨然穿越成了一个十五岁、二次待嫁的异国小公主而那个一天就知道养鸟,遛鸟,读书,练字的文质彬彬年轻王爷竟是她要嫁的夫君,拜托,气场就不同,女强男弱最后的归属都是杯具好不好?难道嫁过去让她保护他吗?不可能他看起来对她不屑一顾,只知道她是个他的未来小媳妇,还不如一只整天叽喳个没完的八哥重要,这样她情何以堪啊?好吧,她气愤了,后果会是相当严重她知道,现代中有一种东西可以让其穿越到古代,将那东西古代化,自然可以回到现代,才不要跟那个小男人在一起呢,她决定了可......可......发生了什么?他怎么突然变的强势了?强到她已经快受不了了,看来只好拿出她的看家本领,他不知道,间谍可是个非常厉害的工作不会点什么十八般武艺,怎么能在关公面前耍大刀?她跟他杠行了,以后的日子一定越来越有意思了。
  • 安全生产法律法规教程

    安全生产法律法规教程

    本书主要内容包括:《安全生产法》应用、安全生产行政法规应用、安全生产部门规章应用、《矿产资源法》和《煤炭法》应用、《矿山安全法》应用、《劳动法》和《劳动合同法》应用、《煤矿安全监察条例》和《职业病防治法》应用、《生产安全事故报告和调查处理条例》和《工伤保险条例》应用、《特种作业人员安全技术培训考核管理办法》和《特种设备安全监察条例》应用。
  • 钻石婚约:腹黑君少别耍赖

    钻石婚约:腹黑君少别耍赖

    一夜之间,那个男人竟然变成了她的丈夫。赵嘉悦背负着骂名,千夫所指。夏奕骋将她困在怀里,轻咬她的耳朵。“委屈吗?”赵嘉悦的脸埋在他颈后,水眸氤氲,却还是坚定地摇摇头。其实她比姐姐更早认识他,只是他忘了。--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 你不可不知的防癌抗癌100招

    你不可不知的防癌抗癌100招

    《你不可不知的防癌抗癌100招》从改变不良习惯着手。提出了生活环境、饮食、运动、心理等方面的防癌抗癌妙招,可供读者浏览。此外,还对一些常见癌症的防治方法进行探讨,并对中医中药的一些防癌抗癌知识进行了简要介绍。祝每一位读者开卷有益,远离生活方式癌。越活越健康!
  • Sweeney Astray

    Sweeney Astray

    Sweeney Astray is Seamus Heaney's version of the medieval Irish work Buile Suibhne - the first complete translation since 1913. Its hero, Mad Sweeney, undergoes a series of purgatorial adventures after he is cursed by a saint and turned into a bird at the Battle of Moira. The poetry spoken by the mad king, exiled to the trees and the slopes, is among the richest and most immediately appealing in the whole canon of Gaelic literature. Sweeney Astray not only restores to us a work of historical and literary importance but offers the genius of one of our greatest living poets to reinforce its claims on the reader of contemporary literature.
  • 静居集

    静居集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。