Read Motor Matt's Race; or, The Last Flight of the Comet Page 20

  COLD FIRE.

  Cold fire is a coming invention. So also is heatless light. You mayfind them in nature already, if you but inquire intelligently into hersecrets.

  Cold flame is exemplified in the firefly, and the glowworm gives forthheatless light.

  Such flames and lights are not mysteries. Their cause is due to one ofthe subtlest forces in the universe--ether.

  Only in an indirect way are the human senses acquainted with thiswonderful substance. Yet ether flows through the earth's atmosphere inmighty currents, unchecked, resistless, and subtle. The ether is thedirect parent of the X-ray and the speech of the wireless telegraph.

  When man shall attain the perfect vacuum, then the rude ether blush ofthe electric-light bulb will give forth many times more light, purifiedand heatless, soft and healing as the light of the stars, penetratingas the sun. An examination of the firefly, when emitting flames orlight, shows bodily movements that cannot be understood to meananything else than vacuum producing.

  The lights are always seen in the vacuum sac on the back. Immediatelybefore emitting light, the insect will flatten the body, draw the legsin, droop the head, seemingly contracting in all directions; then withthe relaxation comes the flame and light. The bodies of the glowwormand firefly always are transparent when filled with flame. The bladesof grass or other debris are seen plainly through the bodies. Here arecases of nature anticipating man and dealing with X-rays.