V. The System of Archangel Hariton (pgs. B70 – B72)
Chapitre 5 Système de l’Archange Khariton
Capítulo 5 Sistema do Arcanjo Hariton.
The captain of the ship Karnak explains to Beelzebub and Hassein that Archangel Hariton’s new system of ships was unanimously acknowledged to be the best, and soon it was adopted for service throughout the Universe, gradually superseding all previous systems.
He goes on to describe how the system works and he says: That system is not very complicated. The whole of this great invention consists of a single ‘cylinder’ shaped like an ordinary barrel. The secret of this cylinder lies in the disposition of the materials of which its inner walls are composed. These materials are isolated from each other by means of ‘amber’ and, owing to their arrangement in a certain order, have the property of acting on any cosmic gaseous substance entering the space they enclose—whether ‘atmosphere,’ ‘air,’ ‘ether,’ or any other combination of homogeneous cosmic elements—causing it immediately to expand within the cylinder. The bottom of this ‘cylinder-barrel’ is hermetically sealed, but the lid, although it can also be tightly closed, is hinged in such a way that on pressure from within it opens, and then shuts again. So, when this cylinder-barrel is filled with atmosphere, air, or any other such substance, the action of its walls causes these substances to expand to such an extent that the interior becomes too small to hold them. Striving to find an outlet from this constricted interior, they naturally press against the lid of the cylinder-barrel, which opens on its hinges and allows these expanded substances to escape, and the immediately closes again. Since in general Nature abhors a vacuum, as soon as the expanded gaseous substances are released, the cylinder-barrel is again filled up with fresh substances from outside, and they in their turn undergo the same process, and so on without end. Thus the substances are always being changed, and the lid of the cylinder-barrel alternately opens and shuts. Fixed to this lid is a very simple ‘lever,’ operated by the movement of the lid, which sets in motion some also very simple ‘cogwheels,’ and these in turn revolve fans attached to the sides and stern of the ship itself.
The captain continues saying that, in spaces where there is no resistance, contemporary ships simply fall toward the nearest stability; but where there are any cosmic substances that offer resistance, it is these substances, no matter what their density, that are acted upon by the cylinder and enable the ship to move in any desired direction, and can fall wherever intended without the complicated manipulations necessary in ships of the system of Saint Venoma.