Thus we see that the body of man, the cereal and fruit that furnish him food, the structure that gives him shelter, aye, the many things that please the eye: the landscape, the beautiful flowers, the green fields, the babbling brooks, even the rose blush on the maiden’s cheek,[2]—really come from this wonderful fluid surrounding the earth, and well may it be said that the queen of life rides upon the crest of the wind. CHAPTER III EXPLORATION OF THE ATMOSPHERE DISCOVERIES AS VALUABLE TO THE FUTURE AS THOSE MADE BY COLUMBUS An entire new world is coming within the range of man’s vision. Its possibilities for adding to the health and happiness of mankind are almost limitless. The geographic poles have been conquered and the jungles of Africa traversed; and deep borings have been made into the bowels of the earth until heat has arrested further progress. The further exploration of both regions is of the utmost importance to the coming age. It is not at all visionary to assume that the heat of the earth’s interior in near time will furnish the power necessary to do the drudgery of mankind, give warmth and light to habitations, and operate transportation systems; and the New World Above offers pure, electrified, and highly stimulating air into which helium-inflated dirigible balloons will sail, and in which they will remain not only days but weeks or longer, with their multitudes of people. While the use of kites and balloons in sending automatic meteorological instruments far aloft has revealed more of the wonders of this hitherto uncharted wilderness of cold and partial or total darkness than the general public is aware of, only the outer fringes of the mysterious regions above the clouds and the storms have been penetrated. When the manufacture of helium, a noncombustible gas almost as light as hydrogen, becomes more general, as seems imminent in the United States, the dirigible balloon may successfully compete with the railroads in the carrying of long-distance passengers. The recent loss of over forty lives in England by the collapse of the dirigible ZR2 probably was largely if not entirely due to the explosion and fire of the hydrogen gas with which the ship was inflated. A decade ago, in a number of Chautauqua lectures, the writer invariably was greeted with looks of incredulity when he prophesied that within ten years travelers of the air would take breakfast at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York and afternoon tea on the banks of the Thames. And yet the ocean already has been crossed by an aëroplane in continuous flight, and in the near future it is highly probable that aërial navigation will be safer than travel by rail or automobile. The hitherto inaccessible parts of the earth will be sailed over and closely scrutinized, while travelers enjoy the comforts that heretofore have been associated with Pullman service.