h the ships half empty and the crews floating
helplessly around us."

Mr. Edison's way of guarding against the danger was by contriving a
little apparatus, modeled after that which was the governing force of
the electrical ships themselves, and which, being enclosed in the
air-tight suits, enabled their wearers to manipulate the electrical
charge upon them in such a way that they could make excursions from the
cars into open space like steam launches from a ship, going and
returning at their will.

These little machines being rapidly manufactured, for Mr. Edison had a
miniature laboratory aboard, were distributed about the squadron, and
henceforth we had the pleasure of paying and receiving visits among the
various members of the fleet.

But to return from this digression to our experience of the asteroid.
The latter being a body of some mass was, of course, able to impart to
us a measurable degree of weight. Being five miles in diameter, on the
assumption that its mean density was the same as that of the earth, the
weight of bodies on its surface should have borne the same ratio to
their weight upon the earth that the radius of the asteroid bore to the
radius of the earth; in other words, as 1 to 1,600.

Having made this mental calculation, I knew that my weight, being 150
pounds on the earth, should on this asteroid be an ounce and a half.

Curious to see whether fact would bear out theory, I had myself weighed
with a spring balance. Mr. Edison, Lord Kelvin and the other
distinguished scientists stood by watching the operation with great
interest.

To our complete surprise, my weight instead of coming out an ounce and a
half, as it should have done, on the supposition that the mean density
of the asteroid resembled that of the earth--a very liberal supposition
on the side of the asteroid, by the way--actually came out five ounces
and a quarter!

"What in the world makes me so heavy?" I asked.

"Yes, indeed, what an elephant you have become," said Mr. Edison.

Lord Kelvin screwed his eyeglass in his eye, and carefully inspected the
balance.

"It's quite right," he said. "You do indeed weigh five ounces and a
quarter. Too much; altogether too much," he added. "You shouldn't do it,
you know."

"Perhaps the fault is in the asteroid," suggested Professor Sylvanus P.
Thompson.

"Quite so," exclaimed Lord Kelvin, a look of sudden comprehension
overspreading his features. "No doubt it is the internal constitut