Page:Meda - a tale of the future.djvu/105

Rh giving it off at night when he uncovered them. He then asked me:—"Should you like to see the grounds illuminated?" I said:—"It would give me much pleasure."

He went back to the wall of the building and turned a handle. In an instant hundreds of light balls appeared all over the surface of the grounds. One of these was quite close to me, and I went forward to examine it. It appeared like a great ball of chalk, about a foot in diameter, heated to a white heat, but I could feel no warmth coming from it; it was simply a gush of the purest light, and coming as it did off a sphere, the light was thoroughly diffused. "These lights are all constructed of the same wonderful material," remarked the Recorder. "No antiquated coal gas, water gas, electricity, lime, or oil lights, are required now, as in the days of the ancients. No, everything we have is self-sustaining, and lasts for scores of years. We collect our heat in the same way, storing it past until we require it, but this takes more skill and costs more trouble than the storage of light.