We gave the tunnel for the first five miles a grade of one foot in ten
and from that point to the summit a grade of sixty degrees, and laid
heavy steel segment rails six feet apart bolted to the solid rock, by
this means dispensing with ties and permitting a free flow of water and
slum. We found it necessary to build a chamber within the mouth of the
tunnel sixty feet long, with automatic doors opening and shutting, to
secure an abundance of air in the tunnel, and also in the observatory.
The tunnel required no timbering, as we bored all the way through
synetic granite and encountered very little water, and when we were
about to break through at the summit we provided the workmen with fur
clothing, and with air respirators, so that they would not be overcome
by the cold and rarety of the atmosphere. We had a car driven by
electricity to carry the men and material into the tunnel, having four
cogwheel drivers on each side, and the tunnel throughout was lighted by
electricity. We built the observatory of composition metal and glass,
which was carried up on the car-but come along and you shall see for
yourself."

We entered an observatory car that was run by its own dynamo but in
case of the dynamo giving out a trolley wire overhead could furnish
power any moment. After a pleasant ride of an hour's duration we came
out of the tunnel into the observatory and I saw two magnificently
mounted telescopes, one for visitors to look through and the other one
for taking photographic views. I looked through the visitors' telescope
and to my astonishment the sun was blue and when I asked one of the
astronomers present the reason for it he replied that the sun was a
great dynamo and that the dazzling brightness seen at low altitudes was
caused by our atmosphere offering like the filament in an incandescent
lamp great resistance to the electric energy of the sun producing a
brilliant glow and if you were able to go outside the atmosphere of our
earth you would only see the sun as a dark body in space and you would
find yourself in absolute darkness and eternal silence. Night fell and
when I looked again through the telescope and gazed on the countless
hosts of heaven's millions of suns there came into my mind and I
repeated aloud that noble passage in the Bible, "The heavens declare
the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork." I remarked
to the Chief Engineer as we went down to the station, that a great many
people visi