If
you wish to expand it, we should try to bring a uniform eccentric
force to bear on every molecule; for unless we conform accurately to
this law, we shall have breaches in continuity. The modes of motion,
sir, are infinite, and no limit exists to combinations of movement.
Upon what effect have you determined?"
"I want any kind of pressure that is strong enough to expand the skin
indefinitely," began Raphael, quite of out patience.
"Substance is finite," the mathematician put in, "and therefore will
not admit of indefinite expansion, but pressure will necessarily
increase the extent of surface at the expense of the thickness, which
will be diminished until the point is reached when the material gives
out----"
"Bring about that result, sir," Raphael cried, "and you will have
earned millions."
"Then I should rob you of your money," replied the other, phlegmatic
as a Dutchman. "I am going to show you, in a word or two, that a
machine can be made that is fit to crush Providence itself in pieces
like a fly. It would reduce a man to the conditions of a piece of
waste paper; a man--boots and spurs, hat and cravat, trinkets and
gold, and all----"
"What a fearful machine!"
"Instead of flinging their brats into the water, the Chinese ought to
make them useful in this way," the man of science went on, without
reflecting on the regard man has for his progeny.
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