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Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space by Jules Verne, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . BEN ZOOF WATCHES IN VAIN here CHAPTER VII. BEN ZOOF WATCHES IN VAIN In a few minutes the governor general and his population were asleep. The gourbi being in ruins, they were obliged to put up with the best accommodation they could find in the adjacent erection. It must be owned that the captain’s slumbers were by no means sound; he was agitated by the consciousness that he had hitherto been unable to account for his strange experiences by any reasonable theory. Though far from being advanced in the knowledge of natural philosophy, he had been instructed, to a certain degree, in its elementary principles; and, by an effort of memory, he managed to recall some general laws which he had almost forgotten. He could understand that an altered inclination of the earth’s axis with regard to the ecliptic would introduce a change of position in the cardinal points, and bring about a displacement of the sea; but the hypothesis entirely failed to account, either for the shortening of the days, or for the diminution in the pressure of the atmosphere. He felt that his judgment was utterly baffled; his only remaining hope was that the chain of marvels was not yet complete, and that something farther might throw some light upon the mystery. Ben Zoof’s first care on the following morning was to provide a good breakfast. To use his own phrase, he was as hungry as the whole population of three million Algerians, of whom he was the representative, and he must have enough to eat. The catastrophe which had overwhelmed the country had left a dozen eggs uninjured, and upon these, with a good dish of his famous couscous, he hoped that he and his master might have a sufficiently substantial meal. The stove was ready for use, the copper skillet was as bright as hands could make it, and the beads of condensed steam upon the surface of a large stone al-caraza gave evidence that it was supplied with water. Ben Zoof at once lighted a fire, singing all the time, according to his wont, a snatch of an old military refrain. Ever on the lookout for fresh phenomena, Captain Servadac watched the preparations with a curious eye. It struck him that perhaps the air, in its strangely modified condition, would fail to supply sufficient oxygen, and that the stove, in consequence, might not fulfill its function. But no; the fire was lighted just as usual, and fanned into vigor by Ben Zoof applying his mouth in lieu of bellows, and a bright flame started up from the midst of the twigs and coal. The skillet was duly set upon the stove, and Ben Zoof was prepared to wait awhile for the water to boil. Taking up the eggs, he was surprised to notice that they hardly weighed more than they would if they had been mere shells; but he was still more surprised when he saw that before the water had been two minutes over the fire it was at full boil. “By jingo!” he exclaimed, “a precious hot fire!” Servadac reflected. “It cannot be that the fire is hotter,” he said, “the peculiarity must be in the water.” And taking down a centigrade thermometer, which hung upon the wall, he plunged it into the skillet. Instead of 100 degrees, the instrument registered only 66 degrees. “Take my advice, Ben Zoof,” he said; “leave your eggs in the saucepan a good quarter of an hour.” “Boil them hard! That will never do,” objected the orderly. “You will not find them hard, my good fellow. Trust me, we shall be able to dip our sippets into the yolks easily enough.” The captain was quite right in his conjecture, that this new phenomenon was caused by a diminution in the pressure of the atmosphere. Water boiling at a temperature of 66 degrees was itself an evidence that the column of air above the earth’s surface had become reduced by one-third of its altitude. The identical phenomenon would have occurred at the summit of a mountain 35,000 feet high; and had Servadac been in possession of a barometer, he would have immediately discovered the fact that only now for the first time, as the result of experiment, revealed itself to him—a fact, moreover, which accounted for the compression of the blood-vessels which both he and Ben Zoof had experienced, as well as for the attenuation of their voices and their accelerated breathing. “And yet,” he argued with himself, “if our encampment has been projected to so great an elevation, how is it that the sea remains at its proper level?” Once again Hector Servadac, though capable of tracing consequences, felt himself totally at a loss to comprehend their cause; hence his agitation and bewilderment! After their prolonged immersion in the boiling water, the eggs were found to be only just sufficiently cooked; the couscous was very much in the same condition; and Ben Zoof came to the conclusion that in future he must be careful to commence his culinary operations an hour earlier. He was rejoiced at last to help his master, who, in spite of his perplexed preoccupation, seemed to have a very fair appetite for breakfast. “Well, captain?” said Ben Zoof presently, such being his ordinary way of opening conversation. “Well, Ben Zoof?” was the captain’s invariable response to his servant’s formula. “What are we to do now, sir?” “We can only for the present wait patiently where we are. We are encamped upon an island, and therefore we can only be rescued by sea.” “But do you suppose that any of our friends are still alive?” asked Ben Zoof. “Oh, I think we must indulge the hope that this catastrophe has not extended far. We must trust that it has limited its mischief to some small portion of the Algerian coast, and that our friends are all alive and well. No doubt the governor general will be anxious to investigate the full extent of the damage, and will send a vessel from Algiers to explore. It is not likely that we shall be forgotten. What, then, you have to do, Ben Zoof, is to keep a sharp lookout, and to be ready, in case a vessel should appear, to make signals at once.” “But if no vessel should appear!” sighed the orderly. “Then we must build a boat, and go in search of those who do not come in search of us.” “Very good. But what sort of a sailor are you?” “Everyone can be a sailor when he must,” said Servadac calmly. Ben Zoof said no more. For several succeeding days he scanned the horizon unintermittently with his telescope. His watching was in vain. No ship appeared upon the desert sea. “By the name of a Kabyle!” he broke out impatiently, “his Excellency is grossly negligent!” Although the days and nights had become reduced from twenty-four hours to twelve, Captain Servadac would not accept the new condition of things, but resolved to adhere to the computations of the old calendar. Notwithstanding, therefore, that the sun had risen and set twelve times since the commencement of the new year, he persisted in calling the following day the 6th of January. His watch enabled him to keep an accurate account of the passing hours. In the course of his life, Ben Zoof had read a few books. After pondering one day, he said: “It seems to me, captain, that you have turned into Robinson Crusoe, and that I am your man Friday. I hope I have not become a negro.” “No,” replied the captain. “Your complexion isn’t the fairest in the world, but you are not black yet.” “Well, I had much sooner be a white Friday than a black one,” rejoined Ben Zoof. Still no ship appeared; and Captain Servadac, after the example of all previous Crusoes, began to consider it advisable to investigate the resources of his domain. The new territory of which he had become the monarch he named Gourbi Island. It had a superficial area of about nine hundred square miles. Bullocks, cows, goats, and sheep existed in considerable numbers; and as there seemed already to be an abundance of game, it was hardly likely that a future supply would fail them. The condition of the cereals was such as to promise a fine ingathering of wheat, maize, and rice; so that for the governor and his population, with their two horses, not only was there ample provision, but even if other human inhabitants besides themselves should yet be discovered, there was not the remotest prospect of any of them perishing by starvation. From the 6th to the 13th of January the rain came down in torrents; and, what was quite an unusual occurrence at this season of the year, several heavy storms broke over the island. In spite, however, of the continual downfall, the heavens still remained veiled in cloud. Servadac, moreover, did not fail to observe that for the season the temperature was unusually high; and, as a matter still more surprising, that it kept steadily increasing, as though the earth were gradually and continuously approximating to the sun. In proportion to the rise of temperature, the light also assumed greater intensity; and if it had not been for the screen of vapor interposed between the sky and the island, the irradiation which would have illumined all terrestrial objects would have been vivid beyond all precedent. But neither sun, moon, nor star ever appeared; and Servadac’s irritation and annoyance at being unable to identify any one point of the firmament may be more readily imagined than described. On one occasion Ben Zoof endeavored to mitigate his master’s impatience by exhorting him to assume the resignation, even if he did not feel the indifference, which he himself experienced; but his advice was received with so angry a rebuff that he retired in all haste, abashed, to résumé his watchman’s duty, which he performed with exemplary perseverance. Day and night, with the shortest possible intervals of rest, despite wind, rain, and storm, he mounted guard upon the cliff—but all in vain. Not a speck appeared upon the desolate horizon. To say the truth, no vessel could have stood against the weather. The hurricane raged with tremendous fury, and the waves rose to a height that seemed to defy calculation. Never, even in the second era of creation, when, under the influence of internal heat, the waters rose in vapor to descend in deluge back upon the world, could meteorological phenomena have been developed with more impressive intensity. But by the night of the 13th the tempest appeared to have spent its fury; the wind dropped; the rain ceased as if by a spell; and Servadac, who for the last six days had confined himself to the shelter of his roof, hastened to join Ben Zoof at his post upon the cliff. Now, he thought, there might be a chance of solving his perplexity; perhaps now the huge disc, of which he had had an imperfect glimpse on the night of the 31st of December, might again reveal itself; at any rate, he hoped for an opportunity of observing the constellations in a clear firmament above. The night was magnificent. Not a cloud dimmed the luster of the stars, which spangled the heavens in surpassing brilliancy, and several nebulae which hitherto no astronomer had been able to discern without the aid of a telescope were clearly visible to the naked eye. By a natural impulse, Servadac’s first thought was to observe the position of the pole-star. It was in sight, but so near to the horizon as to suggest the utter impossibility of its being any longer the central pivot of the sidereal system; it occupied a position through which it was out of the question that the axis of the earth indefinitely prolonged could ever pass. In his impression he was more thoroughly confirmed when, an hour later, he noticed that the star had approached still nearer the horizon, as though it had belonged to one of the zodiacal constellations. The pole-star being manifestly thus displaced, it remained to be discovered whether any other of the celestial bodies had become a fixed center around which the constellations made their apparent daily revolutions. To the solution of this problem Servadac applied himself with the most thoughtful diligence. After patient observation, he satisfied himself that the required conditions were answered by a certain star that was stationary not far from the horizon. This was Vega, in the constellation Lyra, a star which, according to the precession of the equinoxes, will take the place of our pole-star 12,000 years hence. The most daring imagination could not suppose that a period of 12,000 years had been crowded into the space of a fortnight; and therefore the captain came, as to an easier conclusion, to the opinion that the earth’s axis had been suddenly and immensely shifted; and from the fact that the axis, if produced, would pass through a point so little removed above the horizon, he deduced the inference that the Mediterranean must have been transported to the equator. Lost in bewildering maze of thought, he gazed long and intently upon the heavens. His eyes wandered from where the tail of the Great Bear, now a zodiacal constellation, was scarcely visible above the waters, to where the stars of the southern hemisphere were just breaking on his view. A cry from Ben Zoof recalled him to himself. “The moon!” shouted the orderly, as though overjoyed at once again beholding what the poet has called: “The kind companion of terrestrial night;” and he pointed to a disc that was rising at a spot precisely opposite the place where they would have expected to see the sun. “The moon!” again he cried. But Captain Servadac could not altogether enter into his servant’s enthusiasm. If this were actually the moon, her distance from the earth must have been increased by some millions of miles. He was rather disposed to suspect that it was not the earth’s satellite at all, but some planet with its apparent magnitude greatly enlarged by its approximation to the earth. Taking up the powerful field-glass which he was accustomed to use in his surveying operations, he proceeded to investigate more carefully the luminous orb. But he failed to trace any of the lineaments, supposed to resemble a human face, that mark the lunar surface; he failed to decipher any indications of hill and plain; nor could he make out the aureole of light which emanates from what astronomers have designated Mount Tycho. “It is not the moon,” he said slowly. “Not the moon?” cried Ben Zoof. “Why not?” “It is not the moon,” again affirmed the captain. “Why not?” repeated Ben Zoof, unwilling to renounce his first impression. “Because there is a small satellite in attendance.” And the captain drew his servant’s attention to a bright speck, apparently about the size of one of Jupiter’s satellites seen through a moderate telescope, that was clearly visible just within the focus of his glass. Here, then, was a fresh mystery. The orbit of this planet was assuredly interior to the orbit of the earth, because it accompanied the sun in its apparent motion; yet it was neither Mercury nor Venus, because neither one nor the other of these has any satellite at all. The captain stamped and stamped again with mingled vexation, agitation, and bewilderment. “Confound it!” he cried, “if this is neither Venus nor Mercury, it must be the moon; but if it is the moon, whence, in the name of all the gods, has she picked up another moon for herself?” The captain was in dire perplexity. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Jules Verne (1998). Off on a Comet! a Journey through Planetary Space. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1353/pg1353-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

BEN ZOOF WATCHES IN VAIN

Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Carroll, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . AN OUTLANDISH WATCH here CHAPTER XXIII. AN OUTLANDISH WATCH As I entered the little town, I came upon two of the fishermen's wives interchanging that last word “which never was the last”: and it occurred to me, as an experiment with the Magic Watch, to wait till the little scene was over, and then to 'encore' it. “Well, good night t'ye! And ye winna forget to send us word when your Martha writes?” “Nay, ah winna forget. An' if she isn't suited, she can but coom back. Good night t'ye!” A casual observer might have thought “and there ends the dialogue!” That casual observer would have been mistaken. “Ah, she'll like 'em, I war'n' ye! They'll not treat her bad, yer may depend. They're varry canny fowk. Good night!” “Ay, they are that! Good night!” “Good night! And ye'll send us word if she writes?” “Aye, ah will, yer may depend! Good night t'ye!” And at last they parted. I waited till they were some twenty yards apart, and then put the Watch a minute back. The instantaneous change was startling: the two figures seemed to flash back into their former places. “—isn't suited, she can but coom back. Good night t'ye!” one of them was saying: and so the whole dialogue was repeated, and, when they had parted for the second time, I let them go their several ways, and strolled on through the town. “But the real usefulness of this magic power,” I thought, “would be to undo some harm, some painful event, some accident—” I had not long to wait for an opportunity of testing this property also of the Magic Watch, for, even as the thought passed through my mind, the accident I was imagining occurred. A light cart was standing at the door of the 'Great Millinery Depot' of Elveston, laden with card-board packing-cases, which the driver was carrying into the shop, one by one. One of the cases had fallen into the street, but it scarcely seemed worth while to step forward and pick it up, as the man would be back again in a moment. Yet, in that moment, a young man riding a bicycle came sharp round the corner of the street and, in trying to avoid running over the box, upset his machine, and was thrown headlong against the wheel of the spring-cart. The driver ran out to his assistance, and he and I together raised the unfortunate cyclist and carried him into the shop. His head was cut and bleeding; and one knee seemed to be badly injured; and it was speedily settled that he had better be conveyed at once to the only Surgery in the place. I helped them in emptying the cart, and placing in it some pillows for the wounded man to rest on; and it was only when the driver had mounted to his place, and was starting for the Surgery, that I bethought me of the strange power I possessed of undoing all this harm. “Now is my time!” I said to myself, as I moved back the hand of the Watch, and saw, almost without surprise this time, all things restored to the places they had occupied at the critical moment when I had first noticed the fallen packing-case. Instantly I stepped out into the street, picked up the box, and replaced it in the cart: in the next moment the bicycle had spun round the corner, passed the cart without let or hindrance, and soon vanished in the distance, in a cloud of dust. “Delightful power of magic!” I thought. “How much of human suffering I have—not only relieved, but actually annihilated!” And, in a glow of conscious virtue, I stood watching the unloading of the cart, still holding the Magic Watch open in my hand, as I was curious to see what would happen when we again reached the exact time at which I had put back the hand. The result was one that, if only I had considered the thing carefully, I might have foreseen: as the hand of the Watch touched the mark, the spring-cart—which had driven off, and was by this time half-way down the street, was back again at the door, and in the act of starting, while—oh woe for the golden dream of world-wide benevolence that had dazzled my dreaming fancy!—the wounded youth was once more reclining on the heap of pillows, his pale face set rigidly in the hard lines that told of pain resolutely endured. “Oh mocking Magic Watch!” I said to myself, as I passed out of the little town, and took the seaward road that led to my lodgings. “The good I fancied I could do is vanished like a dream: the evil of this troublesome world is the only abiding reality!” And now I must record an experience so strange, that I think it only fair, before beginning to relate it, to release my much-enduring reader from any obligation he may feel to believe this part of my story. I would not have believed it, I freely confess, if I had not seen it with my own eyes: then why should I expect it of my reader, who, quite possibly, has never seen anything of the sort? I was passing a pretty little villa, which stood rather back from the road, in its own grounds, with bright flower-beds in front—-creepers wandering over the walls and hanging in festoons about the bow-windows—an easy-chair forgotten on the lawn, with a newspaper lying near it—a small pug-dog “couchant” before it, resolved to guard the treasure even at the sacrifice of life—and a front-door standing invitingly half-open. “Here is my chance,” I thought, “for testing the reverse action of the Magic Watch!” I pressed the 'reversal-peg' and walked in. In another house, the entrance of a stranger might cause surprise—perhaps anger, even going so far as to expel the said stranger with violence: but here, I knew, nothing of the sort could happen. The ordinary course of events first, to think nothing about me; then, hearing my footsteps to look up and see me; and then to wonder what business I had there—would be reversed by the action of my Watch. They would first wonder who I was, then see me, then look down, and think no more about me. And as to being expelled with violence, that event would necessarily come first in this case. “So, if I can once get in,” I said to myself, “all risk of expulsion will be over!” {Image...'The pug-dog sat up'} The pug-dog sat up, as a precautionary measure, as I passed; but, as I took no notice of the treasure he was guarding, he let me go by without even one remonstrant bark. “He that takes my life,” he seemed to be saying, wheezily, to himself, “takes trash: But he that takes the Daily Telegraph—!” But this awful contingency I did not face. The party in the drawing-room—I had walked straight in, you understand, without ringing the bell, or giving any notice of my approach—consisted of four laughing rosy children, of ages from about fourteen down to ten, who were, apparently, all coming towards the door (I found they were really walking backwards), while their mother, seated by the fire with some needlework on her lap, was saying, just as I entered the room, “Now, girls, you may get your things on for a walk.” To my utter astonishment—for I was not yet accustomed to the action of the Watch “all smiles ceased,” (as Browning says) on the four pretty faces, and they all got out pieces of needle-work, and sat down. No one noticed me in the least, as I quietly took a chair and sat down to watch them. When the needle-work had been unfolded, and they were all ready to begin, their mother said “Come, that's done, at last! You may fold up your work, girls.” But the children took no notice whatever of the remark; on the contrary, they set to work at once sewing—if that is the proper word to describe an operation such as I had never before witnessed. Each of them threaded her needle with a short end of thread attached to the work, which was instantly pulled by an invisible force through the stuff, dragging the needle after it: the nimble fingers of the little sempstress caught it at the other side, but only to lose it again the next moment. And so the work went on, steadily undoing itself, and the neatly-stitched little dresses, or whatever they were, steadily falling to pieces. Now and then one of the children would pause, as the recovered thread became inconveniently long, wind it on a bobbin, and start again with another short end. At last all the work was picked to pieces and put away, and the lady led the way into the next room, walking backwards, and making the insane remark “Not yet, dear: we must get the sewing done first.” After which, I was not surprised to see the children skipping backwards after her, exclaiming “Oh, mother, it is such a lovely day for a walk!” In the dining-room, the table had only dirty plates and empty dishes on it. However the party—with the addition of a gentleman, as good-natured, and as rosy, as the children—seated themselves at it very contentedly. You have seen people eating cherry-tart, and every now and then cautiously conveying a cherry-stone from their lips to their plates? Well, something like that went on all through this ghastly—or shall we say 'ghostly'?—-banquet. An empty fork is raised to the lips: there it receives a neatly-cut piece of mutton, and swiftly conveys it to the plate, where it instantly attaches itself to the mutton already there. Soon one of the plates, furnished with a complete slice of mutton and two potatoes, was handed up to the presiding gentleman, who quietly replaced the slice on the joint, and the potatoes in the dish. Their conversation was, if possible, more bewildering than their mode of dining. It began by the youngest girl suddenly, and without provocation, addressing her eldest sister. “Oh, you wicked story-teller!” she said. I expected a sharp reply from the sister; but, instead of this, she turned laughingly to her father, and said, in a very loud stage-whisper, “To be a bride!” The father, in order to do his part in a conversation that seemed only fit for lunatics, replied “Whisper it to me, dear.” But she didn't whisper (these children never did anything they were told): she said, quite loud, “Of course not! Everybody knows what Dotty wants!” And little Dolly shrugged her shoulders, and said, with a pretty pettishness, “Now, Father, you're not to tease! You know I don't want to be bride's-maid to anybody!” “And Dolly's to be the fourth,” was her father's idiotic reply. Here Number Three put in her oar. “Oh, it is settled, Mother dear, really and truly! Mary told us all about it. It's to be next Tuesday four weeks—and three of her cousins are coming; to be bride's-maids—and—” “She doesn't forget it, Minnie!” the Mother laughingly replied. “I do wish they'd get it settled! I don't like long engagements.” And Minnie wound up the conversation—if so chaotic a series of remarks deserves the name—with “Only think! We passed the Cedars this morning, just exactly as Mary Davenant was standing at the gate, wishing good-bye to Mister—-I forget his name. Of course we looked the other way.” By this time I was so hopelessly confused that I gave up listening, and followed the dinner down into the kitchen. But to you, O hypercritical reader, resolute to believe no item of this weird adventure, what need to tell how the mutton was placed on the spit, and slowly unroasted—how the potatoes were wrapped in their skins, and handed over to the gardener to be buried—how, when the mutton had at length attained to rawness, the fire, which had gradually changed from red-heat to a mere blaze, died down so suddenly that the cook had only just time to catch its last flicker on the end of a match—or how the maid, having taken the mutton off the spit, carried it (backwards, of course) out of the house, to meet the butcher, who was coming (also backwards) down the road? The longer I thought over this strange adventure, the more hopelessly tangled the mystery became: and it was a real relief to meet Arthur in the road, and get him to go with me up to the Hall, to learn what news the telegraph had brought. I told him, as we went, what had happened at the Station, but as to my further adventures I thought it best, for the present, to say nothing. The Earl was sitting alone when we entered. “I am glad you are come in to keep me company,” he said. “Muriel is gone to bed—the excitement of that terrible scene was too much for her—and Eric has gone to the hotel to pack his things, to start for London by the early train.” “Then the telegram has come?” I said. “Did you not hear? Oh, I had forgotten: it came in after you left the Station. Yes, it's all right: Eric has got his commission; and, now that he has arranged matters with Muriel, he has business in town that must be seen to at once.” “What arrangement do you mean?” I asked with a sinking heart, as the thought of Arthur's crushed hopes came to my mind. “Do you mean that they are engaged?” “They have been engaged—in a sense—for two years,” the old man gently replied: “that is, he has had my promise to consent to it, so soon as he could secure a permanent and settled line in life. I could never be happy with my child married to a man without an object to live for—without even an object to die for!” “I hope they will be happy,” a strange voice said. The speaker was evidently in the room, but I had not heard the door open, and I looked round in some astonishment. The Earl seemed to share my surprise. “Who spoke?” he exclaimed. “It was I,” said Arthur, looking at us with a worn, haggard face, and eyes from which the light of life seemed suddenly to have faded. “And let me wish you joy also, dear friend,” he added, looking sadly at the Earl, and speaking in the same hollow tones that had startled us so much. “Thank you,” the old man said, simply and heartily. A silence followed: then I rose, feeling sure that Arthur would wish to be alone, and bade our gentle host 'Good night': Arthur took his hand, but said nothing: nor did he speak again, as we went home till we were in the house and had lit our bed-room candles. Then he said more to himself than to me, “The heart knoweth its own bitterness. I never understood those words till now.” The next few days passed wearily enough. I felt no inclination to call by myself at the Hall; still less to propose that Arthur should go with me: it seemed better to wait till Time—that gentle healer of our bitterest sorrows should have helped him to recover from the first shock of the disappointment that had blighted his life. Business however soon demanded my presence in town; and I had to announce to Arthur that I must leave him for a while. “But I hope to run down again in a month,” I added. “I would stay now, if I could. I don't think it's good for you to be alone.” “No, I ca'n't face solitude, here, for long,” said Arthur. “But don't think about me. I have made up my mind to accept a post in India, that has been offered me. Out there, I suppose I shall find something to live for; I ca'n't see anything at present. 'This life of mine I guard, as God's high gift, from scathe and wrong, Not greatly care to lose!'” “Yes,” I said: “your name-sake bore as heavy a blow, and lived through it.” “A far heavier one than mine,” said Arthur. “The woman he loved proved false. There is no such cloud as that on my memory of—of—” He left the name unuttered, and went on hurriedly. “But you will return, will you not?” “Yes, I shall come back for a short time.” “Do,” said Arthur: “and you shall write and tell me of our friends. I'll send you my address when I'm settled down.” About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Lewis Carroll (1996). Sylvie and Bruno. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022 https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/620/pg620-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

AN OUTLANDISH WATCH

THE ASTRONOMICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF HEAT

The War of the Worlds, by H. G. Wells, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book here . V. THE HEAT-RAY V. THE HEAT-RAY After the glimpse I had had of the Martians emerging from the cylinder in which they had come to the earth from their planet, a kind of fascination paralysed my actions. I remained standing knee-deep in the heather, staring at the mound that hid them. I was a battleground of fear and curiosity. I did not dare to go back towards the pit, but I felt a passionate longing to peer into it. I began walking, therefore, in a big curve, seeking some point of vantage and continually looking at the sand-heaps that hid these new-comers to our earth. Once a leash of thin black whips, like the arms of an octopus, flashed across the sunset and was immediately withdrawn, and afterwards a thin rod rose up, joint by joint, bearing at its apex a circular disk that spun with a wobbling motion. What could be going on there? Most of the spectators had gathered in one or two groups—one a little crowd towards Woking, the other a knot of people in the direction of Chobham. Evidently they shared my mental conflict. There were few near me. One man I approached—he was, I perceived, a neighbour of mine, though I did not know his name—and accosted. But it was scarcely a time for articulate conversation. “What ugly brutes!” he said. “Good God! What ugly brutes!” He repeated this over and over again. “Did you see a man in the pit?” I said; but he made no answer to that. We became silent, and stood watching for a time side by side, deriving, I fancy, a certain comfort in one another’s company. Then I shifted my position to a little knoll that gave me the advantage of a yard or more of elevation and when I looked for him presently he was walking towards Woking. The sunset faded to twilight before anything further happened. The crowd far away on the left, towards Woking, seemed to grow, and I heard now a faint murmur from it. The little knot of people towards Chobham dispersed. There was scarcely an intimation of movement from the pit. It was this, as much as anything, that gave people courage, and I suppose the new arrivals from Woking also helped to restore confidence. At any rate, as the dusk came on a slow, intermittent movement upon the sand-pits began, a movement that seemed to gather force as the stillness of the evening about the cylinder remained unbroken. Vertical black figures in twos and threes would advance, stop, watch, and advance again, spreading out as they did so in a thin irregular crescent that promised to enclose the pit in its attenuated horns. I, too, on my side began to move towards the pit. Then I saw some cabmen and others had walked boldly into the sand-pits, and heard the clatter of hoofs and the gride of wheels. I saw a lad trundling off the barrow of apples. And then, within thirty yards of the pit, advancing from the direction of Horsell, I noted a little black knot of men, the foremost of whom was waving a white flag. This was the Deputation. There had been a hasty consultation, and since the Martians were evidently, in spite of their repulsive forms, intelligent creatures, it had been resolved to show them, by approaching them with signals, that we too were intelligent. Flutter, flutter, went the flag, first to the right, then to the left. It was too far for me to recognise anyone there, but afterwards I learned that Ogilvy, Stent, and Henderson were with others in this attempt at communication. This little group had in its advance dragged inward, so to speak, the circumference of the now almost complete circle of people, and a number of dim black figures followed it at discreet distances. Suddenly there was a flash of light, and a quantity of luminous greenish smoke came out of the pit in three distinct puffs, which drove up, one after the other, straight into the still air. This smoke (or flame, perhaps, would be the better word for it) was so bright that the deep blue sky overhead and the hazy stretches of brown common towards Chertsey, set with black pine trees, seemed to darken abruptly as these puffs arose, and to remain the darker after their dispersal. At the same time a faint hissing sound became audible. Beyond the pit stood the little wedge of people with the white flag at its apex, arrested by these phenomena, a little knot of small vertical black shapes upon the black ground. As the green smoke arose, their faces flashed out pallid green, and faded again as it vanished. Then slowly the hissing passed into a humming, into a long, loud, droning noise. Slowly a humped shape rose out of the pit, and the ghost of a beam of light seemed to flicker out from it. Forthwith flashes of actual flame, a bright glare leaping from one to another, sprang from the scattered group of men. It was as if some invisible jet impinged upon them and flashed into white flame. It was as if each man were suddenly and momentarily turned to fire. Then, by the light of their own destruction, I saw them staggering and falling, and their supporters turning to run. I stood staring, not as yet realising that this was death leaping from man to man in that little distant crowd. All I felt was that it was something very strange. An almost noiseless and blinding flash of light, and a man fell headlong and lay still; and as the unseen shaft of heat passed over them, pine trees burst into fire, and every dry furze bush became with one dull thud a mass of flames. And far away towards Knaphill I saw the flashes of trees and hedges and wooden buildings suddenly set alight. It was sweeping round swiftly and steadily, this flaming death, this invisible, inevitable sword of heat. I perceived it coming towards me by the flashing bushes it touched, and was too astounded and stupefied to stir. I heard the crackle of fire in the sand-pits and the sudden squeal of a horse that was as suddenly stilled. Then it was as if an invisible yet intensely heated finger were drawn through the heather between me and the Martians, and all along a curving line beyond the sand-pits the dark ground smoked and crackled. Something fell with a crash far away to the left where the road from Woking station opens out on the common. Forth-with the hissing and humming ceased, and the black, dome-like object sank slowly out of sight into the pit. All this had happened with such swiftness that I had stood motionless, dumbfounded and dazzled by the flashes of light. Had that death swept through a full circle, it must inevitably have slain me in my surprise. But it passed and spared me, and left the night about me suddenly dark and unfamiliar. The undulating common seemed now dark almost to blackness, except where its roadways lay grey and pale under the deep blue sky of the early night. It was dark, and suddenly void of men. Overhead the stars were mustering, and in the west the sky was still a pale, bright, almost greenish blue. The tops of the pine trees and the roofs of Horsell came out sharp and black against the western afterglow. The Martians and their appliances were altogether invisible, save for that thin mast upon which their restless mirror wobbled. Patches of bush and isolated trees here and there smoked and glowed still, and the houses towards Woking station were sending up spires of flame into the stillness of the evening air. Nothing was changed save for that and a terrible astonishment. The little group of black specks with the flag of white had been swept out of existence, and the stillness of the evening, so it seemed to me, had scarcely been broken. It came to me that I was upon this dark common, helpless, unprotected, and alone. Suddenly, like a thing falling upon me from without, came—fear. With an effort I turned and began a stumbling run through the heather. The fear I felt was no rational fear, but a panic terror not only of the Martians, but of the dusk and stillness all about me. Such an extraordinary effect in unmanning me it had that I ran weeping silently as a child might do. Once I had turned, I did not dare to look back. I remember I felt an extraordinary persuasion that I was being played with, that presently, when I was upon the very verge of safety, this mysterious death—as swift as the passage of light—would leap after me from the pit about the cylinder, and strike me down. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. H. G. Wells (1992). The War of the Worlds. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved October 2022, from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/36/36-h/36-h.htm This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org , located at https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html.

The War of the Worlds: Chapter V. THE HEAT-RAY

This year’s heat waves across Europe have mercilessly reminded us that the Earth is becoming a much warmer place than our ancestors would remember it. We are long past the pre-industrial temperature levels: since the beginning of the XX century, the temperatures have gone up about 1.1°C – just a little bit short of the critical figures that would make our planet literally unlivable in the near future. In 2015, 193 countries signed the well-known in their commitment to pursue limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5°C by limiting greenhouse emissions. The document was expected to set the pathway for limiting carbon dioxide emissions by 45% by 2030, eventually reaching net zero by 2050. Paris Agreement Seven years later, these goals remain a miraculous milestone that seems almost impossible to achieve. Last year’s CO2 emissions hit the , and the figures continue to rise. historical maximum of 2 billion tonnes Is There a Way Out? While the governments struggle to align the national climate plans with the net-zero agenda, it’s the world of tech that might give us hope for a better future. Innovators from across the world are continuously bringing in new ideas for making our activities more sustainable and greener. Luckily for them, more and more investors are acknowledging the importance of these ideas and backing them financially. In 2021, Climate Tech projects have secured , exceeding $60Bn in total. 210% more in funding than the year before While some of this funding has gone to the companies that have already been in the sector for a while, it is always inspiring to see new players securing considerable rounds in the first couple of years of existence. Climate Tech projects often require quite a few years of research, testing, and legislation to finally demonstrate a feasible proof of concept. However, some founders manage to overcome these barriers in a remarkably short amount of time. Let’s take a look at some of the most promising Climate Tech startups under three years old that have really managed to impress the public (and especially investors) with their innovations: hopefully, these companies will make our perspectives look brighter in the near future. Top-5 Startups to Keep an Eye On in 2022 1Komma5 Germany Country: 2021 Founding year: $217.5M Funding to date: Having that 1.5°C temperature limit goal embedded in its name, this German startup claims to transform 1.5 million buildings across Europe with carbon-neutral technology. Their solar panels, heat pumps, energy storage systems, and intelligent charging stations are expected to make a net-zero lifestyle more accessible to everyone, thus significantly reducing our individual carbon imprint. The company was co-founded by an ex-Tesla country director Philipp Schröder, which might be one of the reasons for its successful funding round despite fierce competition in the sector. Volta Trucks Sweden Country: 2019 Founding year: $329M Funding to date: No matter how much we advocate for replacing old-fashioned cars with their electric analogs or even bicycles, none of that solves the problem of logistical deliveries. Designing electric trucks for freight distribution within the cities (at least to start with!) is the challenge this Swedish startup has promised to solve. Their first 16-tonne commercial vehicle Volta Zero was launched in September 2020, featuring electric 160-200 kWh batteries sufficient for a 200km drive. More trucks with a wider size range (7.5-, 12- and 18-tonne) are expected to be manufactured and largely distributed by 2023. Verkor France Country: 2020 Founding year: $120M Funding to date: The growing number of electric vehicles is inevitably generating a dire need for more electric batteries. That’s the problem this Grenoble-based startup is determined to solve by amplifying low-carbon battery cell production. Backed by EIT InnoEnergy, Schneider Electric, and the IDEC Group, the company is soon due to start building its first Gigafactory in Dunkirk, France with an aim to deliver its first batch of batteries by 2025. Verkor is currently focused on manufacturing two types of battery cells for electric vehicles and large‑scale stationary storage markets. Newcleo UK Country: 2019 Founding year: $433.5M Funding to date: Safer nuclear energy – is it even possible? That’s something we will find out very soon, as this British startup has just closed a €300M round for building its first sites in the UK and France. The company will use the capital to manufacture sustainable reactors and safe nuclear fuel – including the so-called MOX, a mix of plutonium and uranium dumped from old-fashioned nuclear plants. Should Newcleo deliver its promises, much of the depleted nuclear waste will no longer be polluting the environmental sites? Instead, it will be safely recycled for producing clean energy that will help us shift further away from fossil fuels. Verdox USA Country: 2019 Founding year: $100.3M Funding to date: While some projects focus on reducing the current amount of CO2 emissions, others think backward: how do we take out what’s already been released into the atmosphere? This MIT-originated startup may have an answer to this question. Verdox seems to propose one of the most viable technologies to capture carbon dioxide from the air. Unlike other companies addressing carbon removal challenges, Verdox is putting forward a cost-effective, scalable method based on an electrochemical approach that requires significantly less energy for functioning. Also published . here

5 Emerging Climate Tech Startups to Watch in 2022 and Beyond

If you've been in the digital marketing industry for some time now, it should come as no surprise that many SEO trends continue to change year after year. Gone are the days when you could use a single keyword tool and a bunch of keywords for an to work. Nowadays there’s no cookie-cutter approach to SEO. It’s completely based on the dynamic SEO trends — relying on how people want to search and consume content. So here's a look at some of the SEO trends to watch out for in 2022, as well as some tips on how you can prepare your SEO strategy this year to further increase your authority and rankings. SEO strategy 5 SEO Trends to Include in Your Online Strategy in 2022 Voice Search Optimization Will Be the Next Big Thing Voice search is becoming more popular among users as they want to interact with their devices without being forced to type or tap away on their keyboards. Voice search queries will likely become even more popular as more people start using smart speakers such as Google Home and Amazon Echo Dot at home. In fact, prefer voice searches over typing into the search boxes. This presents an opportunity for brands to optimize their websites for voice search queries, ranking higher in SERPs when users speak their queries into a search box on their smartphones or smart speakers. 71% of consumers As more people start using their devices hands-free while driving or doing other activities, it's important that your site can be easily accessed via voice search devices such as Google Home or Amazon Echo. And because these devices are getting smarter all the time, they'll be able to answer more complex questions than ever before – making them an increasingly popular way for consumers to interact with brands online. By ensuring your site displays well on these devices, you can gain an edge over competitors who may not be fully optimized yet. Mobile-First Websites Will Continue to Dominate the SERPs It's no secret that more people are using mobile devices than ever before — so much so that mobile traffic now accounts for more than ! To keep up with this SEO trend, Google announced that it would start ranking websites based on their mobile version rather than the desktop version. half of all internet traffic Google announced mobile-first indexing back in 2017, which means websites that have been built with mobile users in mind will receive priority when Google crawls their pages for content and links. Sites that haven't been optimized for mobile won't be penalized outright — at least not yet — but they may not rank as highly as those customized for mobile users.
This trend shows no signs of slowing down, so it's vital to ensure that your website is optimized for mobile users by 2022. The best way to ensure your website is mobile-friendly is to use one of the many online tools to test your site for speed and page load time. It's also wise to make sure that you're using responsive design so that your website looks good on any device. Integrating Social Media for Relevancy Is Becoming a Thing We've seen social media integration in SEO before — like Facebook's Open Graph protocol and Twitter Cards — but this is one of the SEO trends that's really starting to heat up.
Some sites have been using social media data to target their content for years now, but this is only the beginning. In 2022, more companies will integrate social media into their websites to make them more relevant and engaging for users who visit from different sources. It's no secret that video content is becoming more popular than ever — which means it's time to pay attention to video SEO! Video marketing is a great way to attract new customers, increase customer engagement, and share your brand message with the world — but if you don't optimize your videos properly, they won't rank as well in search engines like Google or Bing.
Many businesses are already using videos to increase their SEO, but they are still not using them optimally. Video Optimization for SEO Is Going Mainstream In 2022, we expect that a lot of businesses will start using videos as a way to optimize their SEO. This is because Google has started prioritizing video content over text on its search results page. So if you want your business to be seen, you should start creating more video content that can be optimized for SEO, especially if your business sells products or services online. SEO is a long game and nobody can afford to play it with a single strategy. While some companies may thrive in the short term, they will likely not be able to beat their competitors over time. The best way to do that is by tailoring your content based on specific user needs, wants and behaviours. SEO Will Become More Personalized As voice search becomes more popular, SEOs will need to shift their focus from keywords to intent-based searches. This means that instead of optimizing for specific keywords like "buy baby stroller" or "How do I use my iPhone camera effectively?" SEO specialists will instead optimize for "help me choose between these two strollers" or "Can you help me turn off my iPhone timer?" Wrapping Up The SEO landscape is always changing, so it can be difficult to track what's happening. If you want to stay ahead of the curve and ensure your website gets the best results possible, then you need to include these SEO trends in your 2022 online strategy to increase your exposure and, thereby, revenue,

SEO Trends to Watch Out for in 2022

We are in the age where data is becoming an urgent issue, In this post Ill cover a matter that I thought about around a year ago, the privacy led (and how mobile phones got away with it). privacy If you google you wont find anything meaningful regarding this post, so lets start with : what is privacy led ? privacy led What is privacy led ? Back at the days I used to work for Intel RealSense group (A very exciting group, You get to see a lot of cool stuff), I came to learn about the term privacy led there, It was used both by us and our customers to describe the small led on the camera, indicating the camera is working and that video is actively being streamed to your PC. You can find this led on every web-camera and on your laptops these days. Once we got into drones, robotics and other devices (Cameras are going everywhere these days) the requirement for privacy led dropped. It seems there was active regulation around this led when it cames to webcams and PC (The camera on your laptop considered a webcam). This regulation didn't continue to robots and drones. No photos please Why privacy led is important ? The name say it by itself , If someone is taking your video this led is an indication that you agree for your privacy to go away. The privacy led indicates that even if you own the device, the device is hackable and that losing control over the device doesn't mean losing control over your privacy. This is becoming even much more important these as we see it everyday in , It is no longer people who watch you but machines as well and they never get board, never limited by the amount of cameras and remember for good. dataloop.ai In these days is questioned aggressively regarding its user’s data handling and I believe we are just scraping the surface here when it comes to data collection and capitalization, Not just by Facebook but by the entire tech world. Facebook A great example for this data abundance a , Maybe your there as well ? site offering access to many cameras that didn't change their password If one thing is for sure then data sharing is required, It should be clear to the person being tracked that he is tracked if for some reason his device is hacked. simplicity Checkout this famous photo of how . Mark zuckerberg is handling his privacy led settings The two privacy domains I distinguish between two privacy domains as they will be treated very differently, The public domain and the private domain. Though in many cases the line is blurred,I believe eventually regulators will sort every case into one of these. The personal domain The personal domain is your home or device. Its a place you own the rights for data collection (fancy word for video or voice capturing). The personal domain should become much more protected, just like webcams notify you they are active I would expect regulators to make sure every personal device to comply with these, both for voice and video under the assumption every device is hackable. The weird exception Why do cell phones don’t get the privacy led ? My feeling is that since mobile phones have started as a digital cameras they got away with it, It doesnt make sense to put a led on handheld camera device — you are choosing to be exposed by clicking on a button, but since the year 2000 cell phones have upgraded themselves to fully functional hackable computers with embedded cameras, regulation hasn't caught up with the change and the industry has no motivation doing it by itself. The public domain On the public domain privacy is dead, Get use to it. Since the year 2016 we have more cameras on the planet then humans and this grows exponentially. We are entering an era where there are cameras everywhere, They are smart enough to monitor everyone and have enough compute power to do it all the time. So just like mama said, Behave yourself in public. This can go very far though , for example in China there is already a plan for large scale surveillance system, giving every person a public behavior score that effects every aspect of life,The plan(Social credit system) was initiated in 2014 and going online these days — . check it out here Different approach from regulators is seen on the EU, where the new regulations are going effective in may 2018 to protect personal data much better. AFAIK GDPR dont deal with privacy leds. GDPR How secured is the privacy led ? Kind-of … Its very dependent on the manufacturers and operating systems, but in most cases one of the following overrides will work: Camera settings Registry hacking (Windows) Driver settings Camera firmware (The code on the camera itself) hacking. One thing worth mentioning is that Apple mackbooks have the led connected to power, which all of the above will fail to override the privacy led but You can say a lot of things about Apple but they do keep top priority to their users experience, privacy included. even Apple got some heat on the matter. Summary Privacy leds should get into full gear on every personal device, both for video and sound capturing. Regulators should apply simple step for data privacy on our personal sensors, put privacy led on personal devices and make sure they are Apple style privacy leds. As for everything else but your own device and home, Get use to it — You are being watched, in some countries more then others.

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