Islands of Space | Page 9

the path of the projector was a large lux metal
crucible surrounded by a ring of relux, and a series of points of relux
aimed into the crucible. These points and the ring were grounded.
Inside the crucible was a small ingot of coronium, the strong, hard,
Venerian metal which melted at twenty-five hundred degrees

centigrade and boiled at better than four thousand. The crucible was
entirely enclosed in a large lux metal case which was lined, on the side
away from the projector, with roughened relux.
Arcot moved a switch on the control panel. Far below them, a heavy
relay slammed home, and suddenly a solid beam of brilliant bluish light
shot out from the projector, a beam so brilliant that the entire screen
was lit by the intense glow, and the spectators thought that they could
almost feel the heat.
It passed through the lux metal case and through the coronium bar, only
to be cut off by the relux liner, which, since it was rough, absorbed over
ninety-nine percent of the rays that struck it.
The coronium bar glowed red, orange, yellow, and white in quick
succession, then suddenly slumped into a molten mass in the bottom of
the crucible.
The crucible was filled now with a mass of molten metal that glowed
intensely white and seethed furiously. The slowly rising vapors told of
the rapid boiling, and their settling showed that their temperature was
too high to permit them to remain hot--the heat radiated away too fast.
For perhaps ten seconds this went on, then suddenly a new factor was
added to the performance. There was a sudden crashing arc and a blaze
of blue flame that swept in a cyclonic twisting motion inside the
crucible. The blaze of the arc, the intense brilliance of the incandescent
metal, and the weird light of the beam of radiation shifted in a fantastic
play of colors. It made a strange and impressive scene.
Suddenly the relay sounded again; the beam of radiance disappeared as
quickly as it had come. In an instant, the blue violet glare of the relux
plate had subsided to an angry red. The violent arcing had stopped, and
the metal was cooling rapidly. A heavy purplish vapor in the crucible
condensed on the walls into black, flakey crystals.
The elder Arcot was watching the scene in the screen curiously. "I
wonder--" he said slowly. "As a physicist, I should say it was

impossible, but if it did happen, I should imagine these would be the
results." He turned to look at Arcot junior. "Well, go on with your
exhibition, son."
"I want to know your ideas when we're through, though, Dad," said the
younger man. "The next on the program is a little more interesting,
perhaps. At least it demonstrates a more commercial aspect of the
thing."
The younger Morey was operating the controls of the handling robots.
On the screen, a machine rolled in on caterpillar treads, picked up the
lux case and its contents, and carried them off.
A minute later, it reappeared with a large electromagnet and a relux
plate, to which were attached a huge pair of silver busbars. The relux
plate was set in a stand directly in front of the projector, and the big
electromagnet was set up directly behind the relux plate. The magnet
leads were connected, and a coil, in the form of two toruses intersecting
at right angles enclosed in a form-fitting relux case, had been connected
to the heavy terminals of the relux plate. An ammeter and a heavy coil
of coronium wire were connected in series with the coil, and a
kilovoltmeter was connected across the terminals of the relux plate.
As soon as the connections were completed, the robot backed swiftly
out of the room, and Arcot turned on the magnet and the ray projector.
Instantly, there was a sharp deflection of the kilovoltmeter.
"I haven't yet closed the switch leading into the coil," he explained, "so
there's no current." The ammeter needle hadn't moved.
Despite the fact that the voltmeter seemed to be shorted out by the
relux plate, the needle pointed steadily at twenty-two. Arcot changed
the current through the magnet, and the reading dropped to twenty.
The rays had been on at very low power, the air only slightly ionized,
but as Arcot turned a rheostat, the intensity increased, and the air in the
path of the beam shone with an intense blue. The relux plate, subject
now to eddy currents, since there was no other path for the energy to

take, began to heat up rapidly.
"I'm going to close the switch into the coil now," said Arcot. "Watch
the meters."
A relay snapped, and instantly the ammeter jumped to read 4500
amperes. The voltmeter gave a slight kick, then remained