was used in surgery and in mechanical arts, and in many varieties
of scientific operations, but no considerable advance in its line
of application had been recognized for a quarter of a century.
But Roland Clewe had come to believe in the existence of a photic
force, somewhat similar to the cathode ray, but of infinitely
greater significance and importance to the searcher after
physical truth. Simply described, his discovery was a powerful
ray produced by a new combination of electric lights, which would
penetrate down into the earth, passing through all substances
which it met in its way, and illuminating and disclosing
everything through which it passed.

All matter likely to be found beneath the surface of the earth in
that part of the country had been experimented upon by Clewe, and
nothing had resisted the penetrating and illuminating influence
of his ray--well called Artesian ray, for it was intended to bore
into the bowels of the earth. After making many minor trials of
the force and powers of his light, Roland Clewe had undertaken
the construction of a massive apparatus, by which he believed a
ray could be generated which, little by little, perhaps foot by
foot, would penetrate into the earth and light up everything
between the farthest point it had attained and the lenses of his
machine. That is to say, he hoped to produce a long hole of
light about three feet in diameter and as deep as it was possible
to make it descend, in which he could see all the various strata
and deposits of which the earth is composed. How far he could
send down this piercing cylinder of light he did not allow
himself to consider. With a small and imperfect machine he had
seen several feet into the ground; with a great and powerful
apparatus, such as he was now constructing, why should he not