each garden closely with shrubs and flowering plants
of the greatest possible variety, partly to absorb
animal waste, partly in the hope of naturalising them
elsewhere. Covering both with wire netting extending
from the roof to the floor, I filled the cages thus
formed with a variety of birds. In the centre
of the vessel was the machinery, occupying altogether
a space of about thirty feet by twenty. The larger
portion of this area was, of course, taken up by the
generator, above which was the receptacle of the apergy.
From this descended right through the floor a conducting
bar in an antapergic sheath, so divided that without
separating it from the upper portion the lower might
revolve in any direction through an angle of twenty
minutes (20’). This, of course, was intended
to direct the stream of the repulsive force against
the Sun. The angle might have been extended to
thirty minutes, but that I deemed it inexpedient to
rely upon a force, directed against the outer portions
of the Sun’s disc, believing that these are
occupied by matter of density so small that it might
afford no sufficient base, so to speak, for the repulsive
action. It was obviously necessary also to repel
or counteract the attraction of any body which might
come near me during the voyage. Again, in getting
free from the Earth’s influence, I must be able
to steer in any direction and at any angle to the
surface. For this purpose I placed five smaller
bars, passing through the roof and four sides, connected,
like the main conductor, with the receptacle or apergion,
but so that they could revolve through a much larger
angle, and could at any moment be detached and insulated.
My steering apparatus consisted of a table in which
were three large circles. The midmost and left
hand of these were occupied by accurately polished
plane mirrors. The central circle, or metacompass,
was divided by three hundred and sixty fine lines,
radiating from the centre to the circumference, marking
as many different directions, each deviating by one
degree of arc from the next. This mirror was
to receive through the lens in the roof the image
of the star towards which I was steering. While
this remained stationary in the centre all was well.
When it moved along any one of the lines, the vessel
was obviously deviating from her course in the opposite
direction; and, to recover the right course, the repellent
force must be caused to drive her in the direction
in which the image had moved. To accomplish this,
a helm was attached to the lower division of the main
conductor, by which the latter could be made to move
at will in any direction within the limit of its rotation.
Controlling this helm was, in the open or steering
circle on the right hand, a small knob to be moved
exactly parallel to the deviation of the star in the
mirror of the metacompass. The left-hand circle,
or discometer, was divided by nineteen hundred and
twenty concentric circles, equidistant from each other.
The outermost, about twice as far from the centre