Islands of Space

Beside the table stood a Munson-Bradley integraph calculator which one of the men was using to check some of the equations he

the team of Arcot, Wade, and

zzed, interrupt

ed over and lifted the

ke and determined. "Dr. Arcot, Mr. Fuller is here.

the Interplanetary Chairman or the elder Mr. Morey. If they come, don't bother to

be bothered

ircuit and the

or. Arcot touched the release, and the door slid aside. H

at did you do-take a plane? It took y

rin, Fuller bowed low. "Besides, I think it would do your royal highness good to be kept waiting for a while. You're paid a couple of million a year to putter around in a lab while honest people work for a living. Then, if yo

it will do your maje

f at the table and shuffled calmly thro

owful expression, he walked to the window and looked out at the

ntless machines we see have come from one idea of his. Just an idea, mind you! And who

he were playing King Lear. "And what do I get for it?" He pointed an accusing finger at Arcot. "What do I get? He is called 'Earth's most brilli

e news said that Arcot was the 'System's most brilliant physicist', and that you were the 'brilliant mathematical assistant who show

d tell me why you called a hard-working man away from his drafting table to c

etelguese, or Polaris looked like at close range. And, if we don't get too bored, we might run over to the giant model nebula in Andromeda, or one of the

sounded like he meant it. Fuller said: "Look, teacher, a man named Einstein said that the velocity of light was tops o

gesture of importance. "Arcot just decided he

uller. "The velocity of lig

uller. The velocity of light, just as Einstein said, is

ed. "Change

. Why are they bent? Because as each wave front moves from air to water, it slows down. The electromagnetic and gravitational fields b

nding you, you could get any velocity you wanted. But what about acceleration? It

ously. By changing the space around a spaceship, you instantaneously change the velocity of the ship to a comparable velocity in that space. And

in his eyes. "I suppose you've figured out where you

Arcot isn't the type to forge

ive," sa

pe, joining Wade in an attempt to f

ded two things: a tremendous sour

controllable enough and uranium isn't something we could ca

had succeeded in making a current flow for four hours in a closed circuit. It was just a ring of lead, but the resistance was so low th

ause they didn't have the insulation necessary to keep down the corona effect; in a

using lux metal as an in

errupted. "What, may

"You remember those two substances we f

ct reflector. You said they were made of light-photons so greatly c

vity of 103.5, light-metal was certainly not a light metal! So Wade coined a couple of words.

"but so does every coined word when you

thousand amps through a little piece of lead wire, and t

on a sub-nucleonic level. As a result, about half of the lead fed into the chamber became contraterrene lead! The atoms just turned themselves inside out, so

traterrene lead atoms met the terrene lead atoms, m

chanism itself; the rest is useful energy. We've go

was well beginning to believe that these three

aid, a way to store the energy so that it could b

to store energy. It's an old method; induction coils, condensers, and even gravity itself

hnut' coil, has a perfectly enclosed magnetic field. We built an enclosed coil, using Morey's

it cost us a hundred and fifty dollars at a quarter of a cent per kilowatt hour.

ore power and plenty of it, and

s of what we have to offer. We give you the job of figuring out the stresses and strai

?" Fuller asked sarcastically. "You sure believe in big orders!

trouble is, he's also my father. When he hears that I want to go gallivanting off all over the Universe with you guys, he is very likely to turn thu

e won't," agreed

as heavy as the pall of pipe smoke the air con

lars was well beyond anything the four men could get by themselves. Their inventions were the property of Transco

acular exhibition; something really impressive. We'll point out all the advantages and use

f the city to do it. We can go up to my place in Vermont. We can use the lab up the

which we can indulge in a little ata

Here in the city it's only eighty-five because the aircars are soaking up hea

ains, then! L