"Jules Verne - In the Year 2889" - читать интересную книгу автора (Verne Jules)

impracticable schemes to propose. In fact, one of them wants to revive
painting,
an art fallen into desuetude owing to the progress made in color photography.
Another, a physician, boasts that he has discovered a cure for nasal catarrh!
These impracticalities are dismissed in short order. Of the four projects
favorably received, the first is that of a young man whose broad forehead
betokens his intellectual power.
"Sir, I am a chemist," he begins, "and as such I come to you."
"Well!"
"Once the elementary bodies," says the young chemist, "were held to be 62 in
number; a century ago they were reduced to 10; now only three remain
irresolvable, as you are aware."
"Yes, yes."
"Well, sir, these also I will show to be composite. In a few months, a few
weeks, I shall have succeeded in solving the problem. Indeed, it may take only
a
few days."
"And then?"
"Then, sir, I shall simply have determined the absolute. All I want is money
enough to carry my research to a successful conclusion."
"Very well," says Mr. Smith. "And what will be the practical outcome of your
discovery?"
"The practical outcome? Why, that we shall be able to produce easily all
bodies
whatever--stone, wood, metal, fibers--"
"And flesh and blood?" interrupts Mr. Smith. "Do you pretend that you expect
to
manufacture a human being out and out?"
"Why not?"
Mr. Smith advances $100,000 to the young chemist, and engages his services
for
the Earth Chronicle laboratory.
The second of the four successful applicants, starting from experiments made
so
long ago as the 19th century and again and again repeated, has conceived the
idea of moving an entire city all at once from one place to another. His
particular interest is the city of Granton, situated, as everyone knows, some
15
miles inland. He proposes transporting the city on rails, turning it into a
beachfront resort. The profit, of course, would be enormous. Mr. Smith,
captivated by the scheme, buys a half-interest in it.
"As you are aware, sir," begins applicant No. 3, "by the aid of our solar and
terrestrial accumulators and transformers, we are able to make all the
seasons
the same. I propose to do something better still. Transform into heat a
portion
of the surplus energy at our disposal; send this heat to the poles; then the
polar regions, relived of their snowcaps, will become a vast territory
available
for man's use. What think you of the scheme?"