The Poison Belt was the second novel Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about Professor Challenger. Written in 1913, roughly a year before the outbreak of World War One, much of it takes place--rather oddly, given that it follows The Lost World, a story set in the jungle--in a room in Challenger's house. This would be the last story written about Challenger until the 1920s, by which time Doyle's spiritualist beliefs had begun to affect his writing. Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (May 22, 1859 - July 7, 1930) is the British author most famously known for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction. ... George Edward Challenger, better known as Professor Challenger, is a fictional character in a series of science fiction stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. ... Link title1913 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... The Lost World is the name of: a novel by Arthur Conan Doyle; see The Lost World (Arthur Conan Doyle) a 1925 film adaptation of the Arthur Conan Doyle book; see The Lost World (1925 film) a novel by Michael Crichton; see The Lost World (Michael Crichton) the film adaptation... Sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or primarily in North America as the Roaring Twenties. // Events and trends Technology John T. Thompson invents Thompson submachine gun, also known as Tommy gun John Logie Baird invents the first working mechanical television system (1925) Charles Lindbergh becomes the first person to... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

Challenger sends telegrams asking his three companions from The Lost World - Edward Malone, Lord John Roxton, and Professor Summerlee - to join him at his home outside of London. The cryptic telegrams also instruct each of them to bring a tank of oxygen. When they arrive they are ushered into a sealed room, along with Challenger and his wife. In the course of his research, Challenger has predicted that the Earth is about to come into contact with a belt of poisonous ether, which will, based on its effect on the people of Sumatra earlier in the day, cause the end of humanity. Challenger seals them in the room with the cylinders of oxygen, which he (correctly) believes will counter the effect of the ether. The sealing is not to keep the ether out - it permeates everything - but "to keep the oxygen in". Sumatra (also spelled Sumatara and Sumatera) is the sixth largest island of the world (approximately 470,000 km²) and is the largest part of Indonesia. ... General Name, Symbol, Number oxygen, O, 8 Chemical series nonmetals Group, Period, Block 16, 2, p Appearance colorless Atomic mass 15. ...

The five of them wait out the Earth's passage through the band as they watch the world outside die, and machines run amuck. (In an interesting display of Victorian values - or, at least, Doyle's take on them - Challenger does not even consider including his servants; they are left outside the room to die, and continue to perform their duties until the ether overtakes them.) Finally, the last of their oxygen cylinders runs dry, and they open a window, ready to face death. To their surprise, they do not die, and they wander through the dead countryside in Challenger's car, eventually making it to London. They encounter only one survivor, who is an elderly, bed-ridden woman prescribed oxygen for her health. Earth, also known as the Earth, Terra, and (mostly in the 19th century) Tellus, is the third-closest planet to the Sun. ...

After going to London and back, they make plans for the fate of the world at their hands--when suddenly, people start to wake up again. The effect of the ether turns out to be temporary, and the world wakes up again after a little over a day in a coma, with no knowledge that they have lost any time at all. Eventually Challenger and his companions manage to convince the world what happened - a task made easier by the tremendous amount of death and destruction caused by runaway machines and fires that took place while the world was asleep - and humanity is shocked into placing a higher value on life, and how well we spend what little time we are given. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

The tone of the book is very similar to H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, written 15 years earlier, but the "death" of humanity comes with even less warning and even less hope of escape. There are no aliens to fight, no tripods to run from, and no time to search for a solution. In fact, there is no solution; at any time, the Earth could pass through a similar belt, one that could be infinitely broad, and so cause the complete destruction of humanity. Whereas The War of the Worlds ends by stating that any future attackers would suffer the same fate as the Martians, Doyle's story ends with the message to value the brief time you are given to live, because it could be snuffed out - without warning - at any time. H. G. Wells at the door of his house at Sandgate Herbert George Wells (September 21, 1866 - August 13, 1946) was an English writer best known for his science fiction novels such as The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine. ... The War of the Worlds is a novel written by H.G. Wells in 1898 depicting an alien invasion of the earth. ... IS may mean: Iceland (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code). ...

External links

• Free eBook of The Poison Belt at Project Gutenberg