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Then Deriugin asked for the floor, and briefly summed up the situation on hand:

“The process is enlarging and growing. To wait till the obstinate work of the brain or a fortunate chance or accident will disclose to us a method or a means to stop it — is unthinkable. We must do now, at least, whatever is possible; we must check the further movements of the sphere — arrest it…”

The hall reverberated with exclamations of wonderment, almost indignation, on the part of the assembled scientists. Some delegates openly declared that they had not come there to listen to the hollow prattle of dilettanti.

Deriugin, having waited till the noise subsided, asked that he be heard carefully till the end. And concentrated attention, a few minutes later, was the answer to his speech.

His project had the following salient points: to adjust upon a huge caterpillar-tractor, moving at a speed of 40 kilometers an hour, a powerful dynamo, fed by electric motors of several thousand horsepower. Its current should pass through the armature of the electromagnet, thereby supplying the latter with colossal force. Four — five such colossal magnetos, in Deriugin’s opinion, would suffice to cause the sphere to move against a moderately blowing wind to reach the magnet poles.

Of course, the execution of the project demanded a colossal effort and a large sum of money. Germany was not the only country where precautions were necessary. It was of paramount importance to organize a system of construction of electro-magnets in several points on the continent, because it was impossible to foretell whither the tide would toss the strange enemy in the near future. Besides, the work would have to be completed in the shortest possible time; else it might be too late. The operations seemed very difficult, indeed — almost beyond possibility of fulfilment — but upon them rested the fate of mankind. It was absolutely necessary to try.