Read Online Tom Swift and His G-Force Inverter by Victor Appleton II - Free Book Online
Authors: Victor Appleton II
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nervous."
Bud nodded. "If he’s smart, he noticed khaki guy Rodriguez and was suddenly struck by the thought we might be undercover agents looking to protect the tourist trade." Then the San Franciscan flashed a grin. "But he doesn’t realize the situation is worse than that— way undercover agents Swift and Barclay are hot on the trail!"
Tom grinned back, though wanly. "And the trail he’s left is a fresh one. I’ve already scooped up a few new scent-profiles. Look, flyboy, let’s come back in the evening when the crowds have thinned out. Then we can really do the bloodhound routine."
Waiting impatiently in their hotel room, Tom made one of his twice-daily calls back to Shopton by means of the Private Ear Radio—which the eyes of airport security had seen as an innocent if bulky walkie-talkie. "No explosions or kidnappings so far, Tom," reported Mr. Swift with a smile in his voice. "No threats, subtle or unsubtle, from Asa Pike."
"How about the GDI project?"
"Rafael tells me he’s making real progress with the rebuilt—what are you calling it now?—G-force inverter. He says to tell you he’s been successful in refocusing the rotation forcers and suppressing those secondary vortexes. A matter of keeping things carefully tuned. He’s certain he rotated some air molecules through."
"History’s first ingravitized matter!" Tom exulted, thrilled. "I should go away more often!"
"No, son," retorted Mr. Swift soberly. "We need you here and safe."
Killing time as the hours passed, Tom told Bud of his plan to use the Grand Canyon project to demonstrate to the public the uses of ingravitized matter in construction and engineering. "I don’t get that, genius boy," said the young pilot. "Isn’t it obvious that antigravity is the biggest of big deals?"
Tom shrugged. "You’d think so, but not everyone thinks in terms of possibilities. This isn’t the sort of thing most people envision as sci-fi ‘antigravity.’ It’s not some sort of magic beam that makes you take off for Jupiter when it falls on you."
"Hey— could you ingravitize a human body?"
"Depends on whether you want the body alive or dead," was the wry response. "Though the basic structure and properties remain unchanged through the i -axis rotation—chemical reactions go on as before—normal gravitation plays more of a role in our life processes than people realize. Dr. Kupp thinks ingravitization might affect ion-exchange at the nerve synapse, for a start—"
"And a finish!" interrupted Bud hastily. "So how about a car? Can we make TSE TSE FLY really fly?" This was Bud’s beloved, much abused scarlet convertible.
"Not without some further breakthroughs, chum. We’re pretty near the theoretical limit of the field capacity—it can’t be made much bigger without an exponential increase in power. And the exponent is four!"
"Er—four, huh." Bud didn’t entirely catch the significance of Tom’s statement. "So you’re limited to a few molecules at a time? That’s not much of a demonstration project, Tom."
The young inventor chuckled. "No, it isn’t. But the situation isn’t quite that bad. When the inverter is fully functioning, we plan to send small metal pellets through the vortex in a steady stream, enough to create substantial weights—if you can call it ‘weight’ when the force is upward. In other words, anti-ballast ."
Bud nodded as he looked at Tom’s sketches in his notebook. "It’ll take a lot of upside-down weight to lift this ‘sky train’ of yours."
The young inventor’s sketches pictured a sleek, passenger-carrying monorail train suspended high over the vast gulf of the Grand Canyon. Its single track would float in the air without any support structure to obscure the view. "For this purpose, this ‘Monoswift’—let’s say it honors the family, not me personally!—is better than something along the lines of the repelatron skyway," Tom went on. "No repelatron towers on the ground, no visible roadway to block the
Bud nodded. "If he’s smart, he noticed khaki guy Rodriguez and was suddenly struck by the thought we might be undercover agents looking to protect the tourist trade." Then the San Franciscan flashed a grin. "But he doesn’t realize the situation is worse than that— way undercover agents Swift and Barclay are hot on the trail!"
Tom grinned back, though wanly. "And the trail he’s left is a fresh one. I’ve already scooped up a few new scent-profiles. Look, flyboy, let’s come back in the evening when the crowds have thinned out. Then we can really do the bloodhound routine."
Waiting impatiently in their hotel room, Tom made one of his twice-daily calls back to Shopton by means of the Private Ear Radio—which the eyes of airport security had seen as an innocent if bulky walkie-talkie. "No explosions or kidnappings so far, Tom," reported Mr. Swift with a smile in his voice. "No threats, subtle or unsubtle, from Asa Pike."
"How about the GDI project?"
"Rafael tells me he’s making real progress with the rebuilt—what are you calling it now?—G-force inverter. He says to tell you he’s been successful in refocusing the rotation forcers and suppressing those secondary vortexes. A matter of keeping things carefully tuned. He’s certain he rotated some air molecules through."
"History’s first ingravitized matter!" Tom exulted, thrilled. "I should go away more often!"
"No, son," retorted Mr. Swift soberly. "We need you here and safe."
Killing time as the hours passed, Tom told Bud of his plan to use the Grand Canyon project to demonstrate to the public the uses of ingravitized matter in construction and engineering. "I don’t get that, genius boy," said the young pilot. "Isn’t it obvious that antigravity is the biggest of big deals?"
Tom shrugged. "You’d think so, but not everyone thinks in terms of possibilities. This isn’t the sort of thing most people envision as sci-fi ‘antigravity.’ It’s not some sort of magic beam that makes you take off for Jupiter when it falls on you."
"Hey— could you ingravitize a human body?"
"Depends on whether you want the body alive or dead," was the wry response. "Though the basic structure and properties remain unchanged through the i -axis rotation—chemical reactions go on as before—normal gravitation plays more of a role in our life processes than people realize. Dr. Kupp thinks ingravitization might affect ion-exchange at the nerve synapse, for a start—"
"And a finish!" interrupted Bud hastily. "So how about a car? Can we make TSE TSE FLY really fly?" This was Bud’s beloved, much abused scarlet convertible.
"Not without some further breakthroughs, chum. We’re pretty near the theoretical limit of the field capacity—it can’t be made much bigger without an exponential increase in power. And the exponent is four!"
"Er—four, huh." Bud didn’t entirely catch the significance of Tom’s statement. "So you’re limited to a few molecules at a time? That’s not much of a demonstration project, Tom."
The young inventor chuckled. "No, it isn’t. But the situation isn’t quite that bad. When the inverter is fully functioning, we plan to send small metal pellets through the vortex in a steady stream, enough to create substantial weights—if you can call it ‘weight’ when the force is upward. In other words, anti-ballast ."
Bud nodded as he looked at Tom’s sketches in his notebook. "It’ll take a lot of upside-down weight to lift this ‘sky train’ of yours."
The young inventor’s sketches pictured a sleek, passenger-carrying monorail train suspended high over the vast gulf of the Grand Canyon. Its single track would float in the air without any support structure to obscure the view. "For this purpose, this ‘Monoswift’—let’s say it honors the family, not me personally!—is better than something along the lines of the repelatron skyway," Tom went on. "No repelatron towers on the ground, no visible roadway to block the
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