A brace of pistons and a few valves would do it
all. Do you perceive, my dear sir," he said taking Valentin by the
arm, "there is scarcely a substance in existence that would not be
compelled to dilate when fixed in between these two indefinitely
resisting surfaces?"
"What! the author of the _Lettres provinciales_ invented it?" Raphael
exclaimed.
"He and no other, sir. The science of mechanics knows no simpler nor
more beautiful contrivance. The opposite principle, the capacity of
expansion possessed by water, has brought the steam-engine into being.
But water will only expand up to a certain point, while its
incompressibility, being a force in a manner negative, is, of
necessity, infinite."
"If this skin is expanded," said Raphael, "I promise you to erect a
colossal statue to Blaise Pascal; to found a prize of a hundred
thousand francs to be offered every ten years for the solution of the
grandest problem of mechanical science effected during the interval;
to find dowries for all your cousins and second cousins, and finally
to build an asylum on purpose for impoverished or insane
mathematicians."
"That would be exceedingly useful," Planchette replied. "We will go to
Spieghalter to-morrow, sir," he continued, with the serenity of a man
living on a plane wholly intellectual.
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