Page:Meda - a tale of the future.djvu/234

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230
MEDA:

"There are many other refinements that I will not trouble you with as you are not a scientific man, such as resistance coils that prevent the vessels when descending from coming suddenly into contact with the earth's surface, and attraction coils that prevent the vessels ascending above a certain altitude. These are practically self-acting governors which come into action in the event of any accident to the other instruments or carelessness on the part of the steersman.

"The naval fleets are not the same as these; they depend, except for anchoring, entirely on the power of the red and blue lines of force, and as they have the great buoyancy of the water to assist them in carrying greater weights, they are provided with propelling engines that utilize these forces mechanically; the speeds they attain you would consider very great,—they have reached one hundred miles an hour,—but compared with the speed of the aerial vessels their speed is as nothing. The naval fleets are steered by a modification