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Don A. Stuart



The mass of the machine crouched in hulked, latent energy, the massive conductors leading off in gleaming ruddy columns, like the pillars of some mighty temple to an unknown, evil god, pillars fluted, and capped at base and capital with great socket-clamps. Around it huge tubes glowed with a dull bluish light, so that the faces of the half-dozen students looked distorted and ghastly.

A boredly smiling engineer watched them, and the patient professor instructing them, rather bored, not overhopeful himself that he could make these students understand the wonder and the magnitude of the process going on within the great machine.

"The power," he said, really trying intensely to make them understand the grandeur of the thing, "comes, of course, from the release of the energy of atoms. It is frequently referred to as the energy of the atom, but that is an inane viewpoint to take, for in each single second, over fifty-five duodecillion atoms are destroyed. Not truly destroyed; that has not yet been done; but broken up, and the^nergy of the parts absorbed, and carried away by the conductors. The fuel is water-that simplest and cheapest of all substances-hydrogen and oxygen.

"Each atom," he went on, "lasts for only one million-billionth of a second before its energy is released and the parts are discharged. There is a further energy level left in these ultraminute parts that, we believe, is even greater than the energy released in breaking the parts free of each other."

So he explained the thing, and the students looked at the great machine and realized that from the streaming energy released by it came the power which cooked their food and kept them warm, for it was winter just then.

They had seen the plant and the roaring machines which had other duties, such as ventilating the great maze of subsurface tunnels, and were about to leave, when there was a sudden momentary halt in the steady throb of the great pumps. The voices of engineers rang out, cursing and excited for a few seconds. Then all went on as before for a few minutes. A new sound rose in pitch as they listened, more interested. The professor hurried them swiftly into the main power room, speaking excitedly as he did:

"You are fortunate-most fortunate. In the last eleven years, only eight times has such a thing happened. They must start the engines again!"

They hastened into the power room.

"No one knows," the instructor explained swiftly, "why these breaks occur, but once in every year or so something goes wrong, and the generators strike a bit of fuel which simply doesn't break down. No one understands why. Just that the generators stop abruptly and cannot be restarted till they are cleared of the charge contained. Perhaps some single drop of water is the cause of the trouble, a drop in no way different, save that it simply will not break.

"You are most fortunate-"

His voice was drowned by the sudden explosion of titanic discharges rushing into the generator. For scarcely a thousandth of a second it continued, before the process, restarted, backed up and stopped the discharge into it. The generator functioned perfectly.

"Most fortunate," he went on as the sound died. "The drop which caused the trouble has been ejected, the generator cleared, and now it will function for another period of a year or more unhindered, in all probability."

"What happened to the drop of water which would not break?" asked a student. "Was it saved for investigation?"

"No," replied the instructor, shrugging his shoulders. "That was done once or twice. Since then, though we of science would like it, that we might work with these strange drops, it is not done because it is so costly to dismantle and reassemble the generator. It was simply ejected. The drops which have been investigated do become susceptible after a year or two and disappear, but before that time, even high-intensity generators will not touch them, beyond reducing their outmost fringes somewhat."

"Ban" Torrence was a physicist to the core, and, like any good physicist, he was terribly concerned when perfectly sound laws of science began to have exceptions. Just now he was most worried in appearance. "Tad" Albrite, engineer, didn't seem so worried, but he was interested.

"But," objected Tad, "I don't see any vast importance in the defection of a voltmeter. You say the voltage of the cell has increased one one hundredth of a volt in a week, according to that meter. All right, what of it?"

"You yap, the thing is it hasn't increased. I measured it against a potentiometer hook-up. Now a potentiometer is a regular arm-and-pan balance for Metrical voltages, as you ought to know, even if you are a civil engineer. You take a standard "cell, an outside current, and standardize the thing, then substitute your unknown voltage. The system will measure a ten thousandth of a volt if you do it correctly. The point is that a potentiometer uses nothing but electrical balances. It balances a fixed current through a resistance against an electrical potential."

"The galvanometer is a magnetic device using a string, which is what you object to," said Tad.

"And when the potentiometer is balanced, the galvanometer isn't working at all, and therefore doesn't count in the circuit.

"Now by the potentiometer, the voltage of that cell last week was 1.2581. By the potentiometer this week-to-day-it is 1.2580. It has, as is quite normal, fallen one ten-thousandth of a volt. It's been doing that for a period of two months-eight weeks. That's a grand-total drop of .0008 volts. But the voltmeter in the meantime has shown a rise of .0003 volts.

"Now that voltmeter checks with every other one in the place; it's a five-hundred-and-forty-two-dollar standard instrument, and it's so big and massive and sensitive, I move it around on little wheels on a cart, as you see. Don't you see what I'm getting at?"

"The Leeds and Northrup Co. gypped you apparently," decided Tad judiciously.

"They didn't. I've made other tests. In the first place, that company doesn't. In the second place, it is the tiny spring that the voltage-torque is measured against that has weakened, and every single spring I can find has weakened in like amount."

"How could you determine it?"

"Now, Tad, here's the important part of it all," replied Ban very softly. "I naturally tried weighing the standard gram weights, and the springs checked-they checked absolutely right. Until I used not a gram weight but a gram moss."

Tad stared at him blankly. "What the heck's the difference?"

"Weight is the product of mass times the acceleration of gravity. Mass-is just plain mass. Mass can be measured by inertia, and that doesn't depend on gravity. So I set up a very simple little thing, so simple it couldn't go wrong-an inverted pendulum-a little lump of metal on the end of a steel spring, and I measured its period, not with an ordinary clock, but with an electric timer that didn't have a

spring or pendulum in it, and-in the two months the period of that pendulum has increased, because the spring has weakened."

"Why not-they do, you know."

"Because when I measured the strength of that spring against gravity, you see," Ban said very, very softly, "it was just-as-strong-as-ever."

Tad looked at him silently for some seconds. "What in the name of blazes does that indicate?" he asked at last, explosively.

"Gravity has weakened to exactly the same extent the spring has. Every spring I have has weakened. And gravity has weakened."

"Gravity weakened!" gasped Albrite. "You're cockeyed-it's impossible. Why-why the whole solar system would be thrown out of gear-the astronomers would have spotted it."

"Jack Ribly will be here at two forty," replied Torrence quietly. "You know they wouldn't proclaim news like that right off, particularly because the weakening is very slight, and they do have observational errors."

"But, good Heavens, man, it-it couldn't happen."

Ban's face was suddenly drawn and tense. "Do you think for a moment, Tad, that I was quick to accept that? I've checked and counterchecked, and**echecked. And I've found out something. That's why I called you-and Jack Ribly. You're a civil engineer, and, if I'm right, you'll see the things happening soon. And Ribly's an astronomer, and he'll see them.

"You see, whatever it is that's affecting gravity, must be affecting the strength of springs in the same degree. So I tried the compressibility of liquids. Water will compress-damn little, of course, but it will-and it's changed. It compresses more. So I tried gas. That's unchanged. Pressure of gas depends solely on mass, kinetic energy, and not on intermolecular bonds. There aren't any in gas. The molecules are perfectly free to move about. In solids they're bound so tightly they can't even slide. In water they slide, but can't separate. But they have-a little.

"And the bonds are weakening. That's why springs-solids, of course-haven't the old strength. Molecular bonds are infinitesimally weaker. But the weakening is progressive. But electric and magnetic fields are untouched. So voltmeters read high. Interatomic and intra-atomic forces in general are unchanged, but everything bigger than a single molecule is different.

"I've checked it a thousand ways, Tad. I even repeated Millikan's old measurement of the mass of an electron-which measured the mass by gravitative effect on the oil droplets-and the answer was different. Magnets lift more.

"Great Heaven, Tad, the-the universe will fly to pieces!"

"What will happen?" asked Tad, awestruck now.

"Accidents-horrible accidents here on Earth first. That is, so far as we will first detect. The Sun will be retreating. The Moon flying off, too, you see, because centrifugal force is based only on mass and inertia, and it isn't weakened, but we won't notice that at first. But automobiles-they'll weigh less and less, so they won't fall apart. Men won't notice it, because they'll be getting weaker, too.

"But the inertia of the automobile will remain the same. So when they put on the brakes, the weakened material will crack. And the engines will fly to pieces as the undiminished power of the explosions blows them open. Bridges-lighter, but weaker. The wind will be strong, though. Things blowing up in the air. The air getting thinner, as it escapes against the diminishing gravity-"

"Great Heaven!" said Tad softly. Because he believed now.

The bell rang, and Ban went downstairs and opened the door. Jack Ribly was with him when he came back. He looked curiously at their solemn faces, Ban's

dark, seamed face, showing his thirty-five years, but in that ageless way that made him seem eternally thirty-five. Tad Albrite looking younger than his thirty-two.

1 2 3 ATOMIC POWERDon A. StuartThe mass of the machine crouched in hulked, latent energy, the massive conductors leading off in gleaming ruddy columns, like the pillars of some mighty temple to an unknown, evil god, pillars fluted, and capped at base and capital with great socket-clamps. Around it huge tubes glowed with a dull bluish light, so that the faces of the half-dozen students looked distorted and ghastly.A boredly smiling engineer watched them, and the patient professor instructing them, rather bored, not overhopeful himself that he could make these students understand the wonder and the magnitude of the process going on within the great machine."The power," he said, really trying intensely to make them understand the grandeur of the thing, "comes, of course, from the release of the energy of atoms. It is frequently referred to as the energy of the atom, but that is an inane viewpoint to take, for in each single second, over fifty-five duodecillion atoms are destroyed. Not truly destroyed; that has not yet been done; but broken up, and the^nergy of the parts absorbed, and carried away by the conductors. The fuel is water-that simplest and cheapest of all substances-hydrogen and oxygen."Each atom," he went on, "lasts for only one million-billionth of a second before its energy is released and the parts are discharged. There is a further energy level left in these ultraminute parts that, we believe, is even greater than the energy released in breaking the parts free of each other."So he explained the thing, and the students looked at the great machine and realized that from the streaming energy released by it came the power which cooked their food and kept them warm, for it was winter just then.They had seen the plant and the roaring machines which had other duties, such as ventilating the great maze of subsurface tunnels, and were about to leave, when there was a sudden momentary halt in the steady throb of the great pumps. The voices of engineers rang out, cursing and excited for a few seconds. Then all went on as before for a few minutes. A new sound rose in pitch as they listened, more interested. The professor hurried them swiftly into the main power room, speaking excitedly as he did:"You are fortunate-most fortunate. In the last eleven years, only eight times has such a thing happened. They must start the engines again!"They hastened into the power room."No one knows," the instructor explained swiftly, "why these breaks occur, but once in every year or so something goes wrong, and the generators strike a bit of fuel which simply doesn't break down. No one understands why. Just that the generators stop abruptly and cannot be restarted till they are cleared of the charge contained. Perhaps some single drop of water is the cause of the trouble, a drop in no way different, save that it simply will not break."You are most fortunate-"His voice was drowned by the sudden explosion of titanic discharges rushing into the generator. For scarcely a thousandth of a second it continued, before the process, restarted, backed up and stopped the discharge into it. The generator functioned perfectly."Most fortunate," he went on as the sound died. "The drop which caused the trouble has been ejected, the generator cleared, and now it will function for another period of a year or more unhindered, in all probability.""What happened to the drop of water which would not break?" asked a student. "Was it saved for investigation?""No," replied the instructor, shrugging his shoulders. "That was done once or twice. Since then, though we of science would like it, that we might work with these strange drops, it is not done because it is so costly to dismantle and reassemble the generator. It was simply ejected. The drops which have been investigated do become susceptible after a year or two and disappear, but before that time, even high-intensity generators will not touch them, beyond reducing their outmost fringes somewhat.""Ban" Torrence was a physicist to the core, and, like any good physicist, he was terribly concerned when perfectly sound laws of science began to have exceptions. Just now he was most worried in appearance. "Tad" Albrite, engineer, didn't seem so worried, but he was interested."But," objected Tad, "I don't see any vast importance in the defection of a voltmeter. You say the voltage of the cell has increased one one hundredth of a volt in a week, according to that meter. All right, what of it?""You yap, the thing is it hasn't increased. I measured it against a potentiometer hook-up. Now a potentiometer is a regular arm-and-pan balance for Metrical voltages, as you ought to know, even if you are a civil engineer. You take a standard "cell, an outside current, and standardize the thing, then substitute your unknown voltage. The system will measure a ten thousandth of a volt if you do it correctly. The point is that a potentiometer uses nothing but electrical balances. It balances a fixed current through a resistance against an electrical potential.""The galvanometer is a magnetic device using a string, which is what you object to," said Tad."And when the potentiometer is balanced, the galvanometer isn't working at all, and therefore doesn't count in the circuit."Now by the potentiometer, the voltage of that cell last week was 1.2581. By the potentiometer this week-to-day-it is 1.2580. It has, as is quite normal, fallen one ten-thousandth of a volt. It's been doing that for a period of two months-eight weeks. That's a grand-total drop of .0008 volts. But the voltmeter in the meantime has shown a rise of .0003 volts."Now that voltmeter checks with every other one in the place; it's a five-hundred-and-forty-two-dollar standard instrument, and it's so big and massive and sensitive, I move it around on little wheels on a cart, as you see. Don't you see what I'm getting at?""The Leeds and Northrup Co. gypped you apparently," decided Tad judiciously."They didn't. I've made other tests. In the first place, that company doesn't. In the second place, it is the tiny spring that the voltage-torque is measured against that has weakened, and every single spring I can find has weakened in like amount.""How could you determine it?""Now, Tad, here's the important part of it all," replied Ban very softly. "I naturally tried weighing the standard gram weights, and the springs checked-they checked absolutely right. Until I used not a gram weight but a gram moss."Tad stared at him blankly. "What the heck's the difference?""Weight is the product of mass times the acceleration of gravity. Mass-is just plain mass. Mass can be measured by inertia, and that doesn't depend on gravity. So I set up a very simple little thing, so simple it couldn't go wrong-an inverted pendulum-a little lump of metal on the end of a steel spring, and I measured its period, not with an ordinary clock, but with an electric timer that didn't have aspring or pendulum in it, and-in the two months the period of that pendulum has increased, because the spring has weakened.""Why not-they do, you know.""Because when I measured the strength of that spring against gravity, you see," Ban said very, very softly, "it was just-as-strong-as-ever."Tad looked at him silently for some seconds. "What in the name of blazes does that indicate?" he asked at last, explosively."Gravity has weakened to exactly the same extent the spring has. Every spring I have has weakened. And gravity has weakened.""Gravity weakened!" gasped Albrite. "You're cockeyed-it's impossible. Why-why the whole solar system would be thrown out of gear-the astronomers would have spotted it.""Jack Ribly will be here at two forty," replied Torrence quietly. "You know they wouldn't proclaim news like that right off, particularly because the weakening is very slight, and they do have observational errors.""But, good Heavens, man, it-it couldn't happen."Ban's face was suddenly drawn and tense. "Do you think for a moment, Tad, that I was quick to accept that? I've checked and counterchecked, and**echecked. And I've found out something. That's why I called you-and Jack Ribly. You're a civil engineer, and, if I'm right, you'll see the things happening soon. And Ribly's an astronomer, and he'll see them."You see, whatever it is that's affecting gravity, must be affecting the strength of springs in the same degree. So I tried the compressibility of liquids. Water will compress-damn little, of course, but it will-and it's changed. It compresses more. So I tried gas. That's unchanged. Pressure of gas depends solely on mass, kinetic energy, and not on intermolecular bonds. There aren't any in gas. The molecules are perfectly free to move about. In solids they're bound so tightly they can't even slide. In water they slide, but can't separate. But they have-a little."And the bonds are weakening. That's why springs-solids, of course-haven't the old strength. Molecular bonds are infinitesimally weaker. But the weakening is progressive. But electric and magnetic fields are untouched. So voltmeters read high. Interatomic and intra-atomic forces in general are unchanged, but everything bigger than a single molecule is different."I've checked it a thousand ways, Tad. I even repeated Millikan's old measurement of the mass of an electron-which measured the mass by gravitative effect on the oil droplets-and the answer was different. Magnets lift more."Great Heaven, Tad, the-the universe will fly to pieces!""What will happen?" asked Tad, awestruck now."Accidents-horrible accidents here on Earth first. That is, so far as we will first detect. The Sun will be retreating. The Moon flying off, too, you see, because centrifugal force is based only on mass and inertia, and it isn't weakened, but we won't notice that at first. But automobiles-they'll weigh less and less, so they won't fall apart. Men won't notice it, because they'll be getting weaker, too."But the inertia of the automobile will remain the same. So when they put on the brakes, the weakened material will crack. And the engines will fly to pieces as the undiminished power of the explosions blows them open. Bridges-lighter, but weaker. The wind will be strong, though. Things blowing up in the air. The air getting thinner, as it escapes against the diminishing gravity-""Great Heaven!" said Tad softly. Because he believed now.The bell rang, and Ban went downstairs and opened the door. Jack Ribly was with him when he came back. He looked curiously at their solemn faces, Ban'sdark, seamed face, showing his thirty-five years, but in that ageless way that made him seem eternally thirty-five. Tad Albrite looking younger than his thirty-two.