s action to me thus:--

"The polarizing action of the gravity apparatus affects only steel and
iron, and has no effect upon lead. Therefore, when the current is
conducted through the copper wire into the soft steel ball, it will
immediately rise up the wire, by the repulsion of negative gravity. Now,
if the leaden weights are piled upon the steel ball one by one, until it
is just balanced half way up the wire, our buoyancy is thus measured or
weighed. For instance, with the first two batteries turned in we have a
buoyancy a little exceeding one pound. That means, we should rise with
one-tenth the velocity that we should fall. Turning in two more
batteries, you see the buoyancy is three pounds, or our flying speed
will be three-tenths of our falling speed. With all the batteries acting
upon the gauge, you see it will carry up more than ten pounds of lead,
because the pressure of the air is against weight and in favour of
buoyancy. So long as we are in atmospheres, then, it is possible to fall
up more rapidly than to fall down; but, on account of friction and the
resultant heat, it is not safe to do so."

"So we have been doing the hard thing, by falling all our lives, when
flying would really have been easier!" I put in.

"We have been overlooking a very simple thing for a long time, just as
our forefathers overlooked the usefulness of steam, being perfectly well
acquainted with its expansive qualities. But let us be off. Close your
port-hole, and screw it in tightly and permanently for the trip. Then
let down your bunk and prepare for a night of awkward, cramped
positions. We shall be more uncomfortable to-night than any other of the
trip. You see, when we start, this thing will stand up on its rear end,
and that end will continue to be the bottom until we begin to fall into
Mars. Then the forward end will be the bottom. But after the first night
our weight will have so diminished that we can sleep almost as well
standing on our heads as any other way. Within fifteen hours you will
have lost all idea which end of you should be right side up, and we
will be quite as likely to float in the middle of the projectile as to
rest upon anything."

My bed was hinged in the middle, and one end lifted up until it looked
like a letter L, with the shorter part extending across the projectile
and the longer part reaching up the side. I could sit in it in a half
reclining posture. The doctor then pulled out a fan-like, extending
l