The Black Star Passes

J >> John W Campbell >> The Black Star Passes

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Arcot strode to the middle of the room, and then Morey turned the
reflector of the beam set on him. There was a low snap as Arcot turned
on his set, then he was gone, as suddenly as the coming of darkness when
a lamp is extinguished. He was there one moment, then they were staring
at the chair behind him, knowing that the man was standing between them
and it and knowing that they were looking through his body. It gave them
a strange feeling, an uncomfortable tingling along the spine. Then the
voice--it seemed to come from the air, or some disembodied ghost as the
invisible man called to Morey.

"All right, Bob, turn her on slowly."

There was another snap as the switch of the disrupter beam was turned
on. At once there was a noticeable fogginess in the air where Arcot had
been. As more and more power was turned into the machine, they saw the
man materialize out of thin air. First he was a mere shadowy outline
that was never fully above the level of conscious vision. Then slowly
the outlines of the objects behind became dimmer and dimmer, as the body
of the man was slowly darkened, till at last there was only a wavering
aura about him. With a snap Morey shut off his machine and Arcot was
gone again. A second snap and he was solid before them. He had shut off
his apparatus too.

"You can see now how we intend to locate our invisible pirate. Of course
we will depend on directional radio disturbance locating devices to
determine the direction for the invisibility disrupter ray. But you are
probably marvelling at the greatness of the genius who can design and
construct this apparatus all in one day. I will explain the miracle. I
have been working on short wave phenomena for some time. In fact, I had
actually made an invisibility machine, as Morey will testify, but I
realized that it had no commercial benefits, so I didn't experiment with
it beyond the laboratory stunt stage. I published some of the theory in
the Journal of the International Physical Society--and I wouldn't be
surprised to learn that the pirate based his discovery on my report.

"I am still working on a somewhat different piece of apparatus that I
believe we will find very relevant to this business. I'll ask you to
adjourn after tonight's meeting for another twenty-four hours till I can
finish the apparatus I am working on. It is very important that you be
here, Fuller. I am going to need you in the work to follow. It will be
another problem of design if this works out, as I hope it will."

"I'll certainly make every effort to be here, Arcot," Fuller assured
him.

"I can promise you a tough problem as well as an interesting one." Arcot
smiled. "If the thing works, as I expect it to, you'll have a job that
will certainly be a feather for your cap. Also it will be a change."

"Well, with that inducement, I'll certainly be here. But I think that
pirate could give us some hints on design. How does he get his glider
ten miles up? They've done some high-altitude gliding already. The
distance record took someone across the Atlantic in 2009, didn't it? But
it seems that ten miles straight up is a bit too steep for a glider.
There are no vertical air currents at that height."

"I meant to say that his machine is not a true glider, but a
semi-glider. He probably goes up ten miles or more with the aid of a
small engine, one so small it probably takes him half a day to get
there. And it would be easy for a plane to pass through the lower
traffic lanes, then, being invisible, mount high and wait for the air
liner. He can't use a very large engine, for it would drag him down, but
one of the new hundred horsepower jobs would weigh only about fifty
pounds. I think we can draw a pretty good picture of his plane from
scientific logic. It probably has a tremendous wingspread and a very
high angle of incidence to make it possible to glide at that height, and
the engine and prop will be almost laughably small."

* * * * *

The next evening the men got together for dinner, and there was
considerable speculation as to the nature of the discovery that Arcot
was going to announce, for even his father had no knowledge of what it
was. The two men worked in separate laboratories, except when either had
a particularly difficult problem that might be solved by the other. All
knew that the new development lay in the field of short wave research,
but they could not find out in what way it concerned the problem in
hand.

At last the meal was over, and Arcot was ready to demonstrate.

"Dad, I believe that you have been trying to develop a successful solar
engine. One that could be placed in the wings of a plane to generate
power from the light falling on that surface. In all solar engines what
is the greatest problem to be solved?"

"Well, the more I investigate the thing, the more I wonder which is the
greatest. There are a surprising number of annoying problems to be met.
I should say, though, that the one big trouble with all solar engines,
eliminating the obvious restriction that they decidedly aren't
dependable for night work, is the difficulty of getting an area to
absorb the energy. If I could get enough area, I could use a very low
efficiency and still have cheap power, for the power is absolutely free.
The area problem is the greatest difficulty, no doubt."

"Well," Arcot junior said quietly, "I think you have a fairly good area
to use, if you can only harness the energy it absorbs. I have really
developed a very efficient solar engine. The engine itself requires no
absorbing area, as I want to use it; it takes advantage of the fact that
the Earth is absorbing quintillions of horsepower. I have merely tapped
the power that the Earth has already absorbed for me. Come here."

He led the way down the corridor to his laboratory, and switched on the
lights. On the main laboratory bench was set up a complicated apparatus
of many tubes and heavy bus bar connectors. From the final tube two thin
wires ran to a long tubular coil. To the left of this coil was a large
relay switch, and a rheostat control.

"Turn on the relay, Dad, then slowly rotate the controller to the left.
And remember that it is rather powerful; I know this doesn't look like a
solar engine, and nine o'clock at night seems a peculiar hour to
demonstrate such a thing, but I'll guarantee results--probably more than
you expect."

Dr. Arcot stepped up to the controls and closed the switch. The lights
dimmed a bit, but immediately brightened again, and from the other end
of the room came a low, steady hum as the big transformer took up the
load.

"Well, from the sound of that ten K.W. transformer there, if this engine
is very efficient we ought to get a terrific amount of power out of it."
Dr. Arcot was smiling amusedly at his son. "I can't very well control
this except by standing directly in front of it, but I suppose you know
what you're doing."

"Oh, this is a laboratory model, and I haven't gotten the thing into
shape really. Look at the conductors that lead to the coil; they
certainly aren't carrying ten K.W."

Dr. Arcot slowly rotated the rheostat. There was a faint hum from the
coil; then it was gone. There seemed to be no other result. He rotated
it a bit more; a slight draught sprang up within the room. He waited,
but when nothing more startling occurred, he gave the rheostat a sharp
turn. This time there was absolutely no doubt as to the result. There
was a roar like a fifty-foot wind tunnel, and a mighty blast of cold air
swept out of that coil like a six-inch model of a Kansas cyclone. Every
loose piece of paper in the laboratory came suddenly alive and whirled
madly before the blast of air that had suddenly leaped out. Dr. Arcot
was forced back as by a giant hand; in his backward motion his hand was
lifted from the relay switch, and with a thud the circuit opened. In an
instant the roar of sound was cut off, and only a soft whisper of air
told of the furious blast that had been there a moment before.

The astonished physicist came forward and looked at the device a moment
in silence, while each of the other men watched him. Finally he turned
to his son, who was smiling at him with a twinkle in his eye.

"Dick, I think you have 'loaded the dice' in a way that is even more
lucrative than any other method ever invented! If the principle of this
machine is what I think it is, you have certainly solved the secret of a
sufficiently absorbing area for a solar engine."

"Well," remarked the elderly Morey, shivering a bit in the chill air of
the room, "loaded dice have long been noted for their ability to make
money, but I don't see how that explains that working model of an Arctic
tornado. _Burr_ it's still too cold in here. I think he'll need
considerable area for heat absorption from the sun, for that engine
certainly does cool things down! What's the secret?"

"The principle is easy enough, but I had considerable difficulty with
the application. I think it is going to be rather important though--"

"Rather important," broke in the inventor's father, with a rare display
of excitement. "It will be considerably more than that. It's the biggest
thing since the electric dynamo! It puts airplanes in the junk heap! It
means a new era in power generation. Why, we'll never have to worry
about power! It will make interplanetary travel not only possible, but
commercially economical."

Arcot junior grinned broadly. "Dad seems to think the machine has
possibilities! Seriously, I believe it will antiquate all types of
airplanes, prop or jet. It's a direct utilization of the energy that the
sun is kindly supplying. For a good many years now men have been trying
to find out how to control the energy of atoms for air travel, or to
release the energy of the constitution of matter.

"But why do it at all? The sun is doing it already, and on a scale so
gargantuan that we could never hope nor desire to approach it. Three
million tons of matter go into that colossal furnace every second of
time, and out of that comes two and a half decillion ergs of energy.
With a total of two and a half million billion billion billions of ergs
to draw on, man will have nothing to worry about for a good many years
to come! That represents a flood of power vaster than man could
comprehend. Why try to release any more energy? We have more than we can
use; we may as well tap that vast ocean of power.

"There is one thing that prevents us getting it out, the law of
probability. That's why Dad mentioned loaded dice, for dice, as you
know, are the classical example of probability when they aren't loaded.
Once they are loaded, the law still holds, but the conditions are now so
changed that it will make the problem quite different."

Arcot paused, frowning, then resumed half apologetically, "Excuse the
lecture--but I don't know how else to get the thought across. You are
familiar with the conditions in a liter of helium gas in a container--a
tremendous number of molecules, each dashing along at several miles a
second, and an equal number dashing in the opposite direction at an
equal speed. They are so thickly packed in there, that none of them can
go very far before it runs into another molecule and bounces off in a
new direction. How good is the chance that all the molecules should
happen to move in the same direction at the same time? One of the old
physicists of Einstein's time, a man named Eddington, expressed it very
well:

'If an army of monkeys were playing on typewriters they
might write all the books in the British Museum. The
chance of their doing so is decidedly more favorable
than the chance that all the molecules in a liter of
gas should move in the same direction at the same
time.'

The very improbability of this chance is the thing that is making our
problem appear impossible.

"But similarly it would be improbable--impossible according to the law
of chance--to throw a string of aces indefinitely. It is
impossible--unless some other force influences the happening. If the
dice have bits of iridium stuck under the six spots, they will throw
aces. Chance makes it impossible to have all the molecules of gas move
in the same direction at the same time--unless we stack the chances. If
we can find some way to influence them, they may do so.

"What would happen to a metal bar if all the molecules in it decided to
move in the same direction at the same time? Their heat motion is
normally carrying them about at a rate of several miles a second, and if
now we have them all go in one way, the entire bar must move in that
direction, and it will start off at a velocity as great as the velocity
of the individual molecules. But now, if we attach the bar to a heavy
car, it will try to start off, but will be forced to drag the car with
it, and so will not be able to have its molecules moving at the same
rate. They will be slowed down in starting the mass of the car. But
slowly moving molecules have a definite physical significance. Molecules
move because of temperature, and lack of motion means lack of heat.
These molecules that have been slowed down are then cold; they will
absorb heat from the air about them, and since the molecule of hydrogen
gas at room temperature is moving at about seven miles a second, when
the molecules of the confined gas in our car, or the molecules of the
metal bar are slowed down to but a few hundred miles an hour, their
temperature drops to some hundreds of degrees below zero, and they
absorb energy very rapidly, for the greater the difference in
temperature, the greater the rate of heat absorption.

"I believe we will be able to accelerate the car rapidly to a speed of
several miles a second at very high altitudes, and as we will be able to
use a perfectly enclosed streamlined car, we should get tremendous
speeds. We'll need no wings, of course, for with a small unit pointed
vertically, we'll be able to support the car in the air. It will make
possible a machine that will be able to fly in reverse and so come to a
quick stop. It will steer us or it will supply us with electrical power,
for we merely have to put a series of small metal bars about the
circumference of the generator, and get a tremendously powerful engine.

"For our present need, it means a tremendously powerful engine--and one
that we can make invisible.

"I believe you can guess the source of that breeze we had there? It
would make a wonderful air-conditioning unit."

"Dick Arcot," began Morey, his voice tight with suppressed excitement,
"I would like to be able to use this invention. I know enough of the
economics of the thing, if not its science, to know that the apparatus
before us is absolutely invaluable. I couldn't afford to buy the rights
on it, but I want to use it if you'll let me. It means a new era in
transcontinental air travel!"

He turned sharply to Fuller. "Fuller, I want you to help Arcot with the
ship to chase the Pirate. You'll get the contract to design the new
airliners. Hang the cost. It'll run into billions--but there will be no
more fuel bills, no oil bills, and the cost of operation will be
negligible. Nothing but the Arcot short wave tubes to buy--and each one
good for twenty-five thousand hours service!"

"You'll get the rights on this if you want them, of course," said Arcot
quietly. "You're maintaining these laboratories for me, and your son
helped me work it out. But if Fuller can move over here tomorrow, it
will help things a lot. Also I'd like to have some of your best
mechanics to make the necessary machines, and to start the power units."

"It's done," Morey snapped.

III

Early the next morning Fuller moved his equipment over to the laboratory
and set up his table for work. There Arcot and Morey joined him, and the
designing of the new machine was started.

"First, let's get some idea of the most advisable shape," Fuller began
methodically. "We'll want it streamlined, of course; roughly speaking, a
cylinder modified to fit the special uses to which it will be put. But
you probably have a general plan in mind, Arcot. Suppose you sketch it
for us."

The big physicist frowned thoughtfully. "Well, we don't know much about
this yet, so we'll have to work it out. You'll have plenty of fun
figuring out strains in this machine, so let's be safe and use a factor
of safety of five. Let's see what we'll need.

"In the first place, our machine must be proof against the Pirate's gas,
for we won't be riding a beam with instruments to guide us safely, if we
pass out. I've thought that over, and I think that the best system is
just what we used in the sample bottles--a vacuum. His gas is stopped by
nothing, so to speak, but there is no substance that will stop it! It
will no doubt penetrate the outer shell, but on reaching the vacuum, it
will tend to stay there, between the inner and outer walls. Here it will
collect, since it will be fighting air pressure in going either in or
out. The pressure inside will force it back, and the pressure outside
will force it in. If we did not pump it out, it would soon build up
pressure enough to penetrate the interior wall. Now, since the stuff can
leak through any material, what kind of a pump shall we use? It won't be
pushed by a piston, for it will leak through either the cylinder walls
or the piston. A centrifugal pump would be equally ineffective. A
mercury vapor pump will take it out, of course, and keep a high vacuum,
but we'd never make any progress.

"Our new machine gives us the answer. With it we can just have a number
of openings in the wall of the outer shell, and set in them one of these
molecular motion directors, and direct the molecules into the outside
air. They can't come in through it, and they will go out!"

"But," Morey objected, "the vacuum that keeps out the gas will also keep
out heat, as well! Since our generator is to run on heat energy, it will
be rather chilly inside if we don't remedy that. Of course, our power
units could be placed outside, where the blast of air will warm them,
but we really won't have a very good streamline effect if we hang a big
electric generator outside."

"I've thought of that too," Arcot answered. "The solution is obvious--if
we can't bring the generator to the air, we must bring the air to it."
He began sketching rapidly on the pad before him, "We'll have all the
power equipment in this room here in the back, and the control room up
in front, here. The relays for controlling will be back here, so we can
control electrically the operation of the power equipment from our warm,
gas-tight room. If it gets too warm in there, we can cool it by using a
little of the heat to help accelerate the ship. If it is too cold, we
can turn on an electric heater run by the generator. The air for the
generator can come in through a small sort of scoop on top, and leave
through a small opening in the rear. The vacuum at the tail will assure
us a very rapid circulation, even if the centrifugal pump action of the
enclosed generator isn't enough."

His thoughts began moving more rapidly than his words. "We'll want the
generator greatly over power to run tests over a greater range. Won't
need more than one hundred kilowatts altogether, but should install
about a thousand--A.C., of course. Batteries in the keel for starting
the generator.... Self-supporting when it's rolling....

"But let's set down some actual figures on this."

For the rest of the day the three men were working on the general plan
of the new ship, calculating the strengths needed, supplementing
mathematics with actual experiments with the machines on hand. The
calculating machines were busy continuously, for there were few rules
that experience could give them. They were developing something entirely
new, and though they were a designing staff of three of the foremost
mathematicians in the world, it was a problem that tested their
ingenuity to the utmost.

By the evening of the first day, however, they had been able to give the
finished designs for the power units to the mechanics who were to make
them. The order for the storage battery and the standard electrical
equipment had been placed at once. By the time they had completed the
drawings for the mail casting, the materials were already being
assembled in a little private camp that Morey owned, up in the hills of
Vermont. The giant freight helicopters could land readily in the wide
field that had been cleared on the small plateau, in the center of which
nestled a little blue lake and a winding trout brook.

The mechanics and electrical engineers had been sent up there
already--officially on vacation. The entire program could be carried out
without attracting the least attention, for such orders from the great
Transcontinental lines were so frequent that no importance was attached
to them.

Four days after the final plans had been completed the last of the
supplies were being assembled in the portable metal shed that was to
house the completed machine. The shining tungsto-steel alloy frame
members were rapidly being welded in place by cathode ray welding
torches in the hands of skilled artisans.

Already at the other end of the shop the generator had been arranged for
use with the molecular motion power units. The many power units to drive
and support the ship were finished and awaiting installation as the crew
quit work on the fourth evening. They would be installed on the frame in
the morning, and the generator would be hoisted into place with the
small portable crane. The storage batteries were connected, and in place
in the hull. The great fused quartz windows rested in their cases along
one wall, awaiting the complete application of the steel alloy plates.
They were to be over an inch thick, an unnecessary thickness, perhaps,
but they had no need to economize weight, as witnessed by their choice
of steel instead of light metal alloys throughout the construction.

The three men had arrived late that afternoon in a small helicopter, and
had gone directly to the shops to see what progress had been made. They
had been forced to remain in New York to superintend the shipment of the
necessary supplies to the camp site, and since no trouble was
anticipated in the making of the steel framework, they had not felt it
necessary to come. But now they would be needed to superintend the more
delicate work.

"She's shaping up nicely, isn't she?" Arcot gazed at the rapidly
rounding frame with a critical eye. Unhindered as they were by the
traditional shapes, by wings or other protuberances, they had been able
to design a machine of striking beauty. The ship was to retain its
natural metallic sheen, the only protection being a coat of "passivity
paint"--a liquid chemical that could be brushed or sprayed on iron,
chromium, nickel or cobalt alloys, rendering them passive to practically
all chemical agents. The new "paint" left the iron or steel as
brilliantly glossy as ever, but overcast with a beautiful iridescence,
and immune to the most powerful reagents.

The three men walked around the rapidly growing hull, and looked with
excited interest at the heavy welded joints and the great beams. The
ship seemed capable of withstanding a fall of several hundred feet with
little damage. The location of the power units was plainly visible and
easily recognized, for at each point there came together four or five
great beams, welded into one great mass of tough metal, and in it there
were set heavy tungsten bolts that would hold the units in place.

They inspected each joint minutely for signs of flaws, using a small
portable X-ray fluoroscope to see the interior of the metal. Each joint
seemed perfect. They retired, satisfied that everything was ready for
the work of the next day.

The morning began early with a long swim in the lake, and a hearty
breakfast of country cured ham and eggs. Then the work on the great
framework was continued, and that day saw the power units bolted in
place, removable if change was thought advisable. Each power unit was
equipped with long streamlined copper fins lying close to the rounded
hull, that they might absorb heat more rapidly.

Day by day the structure drew nearer completion, and, with the large
crew of highly skilled workers, the craft was practically complete
within a week. Only the instruments remained to be installed. Then at
last even these had been put in place, and with the aid of Fuller, Morey
junior, and his own father, Arcot had connected their many complicated
circuits.

"Son," remarked Arcot senior, looking critically at the great
switchboard, with its maze of connections, its many rheostats and
controls, and its heavy bus bar connectors behind it, "no one man can
keep an eye on all those instruments. I certainly hope you have a
good-sized crew to operate your controls! We've spent two days getting
all those circuits together, and I'll admit that some of them still have
me beat. I don't see how you intend to watch all those instruments, and
at the same time have any idea what's going on outside."

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