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to a condition where the ship was getting more work out of the fuel than was
originally in it.
It had originally been shown to the physicists of Earth in this form: A ship
moving one mile a second relative to Earth is, at the same time, moving ten
miles a second relative to Mars. It accelerates at a velocity of one mile a
second, and so moves two miles a second relative to Earth, and eleven miles a
second relative to Mars. How much work has it done? They knew how to calculate
kinetic energy: K E = ¥2 MV2. But if they calculated the work with respect to
Earth, it was three units, while calculated with respect to Mars, the. ship
had done twenty-one units of work!
In hopeless mathematical confusion, they were forced to admit that the rocket
cannot be justly related to anything, until it actually comes in contact with
it. Then, and then only, can it be calculated on.
So rockets had sailed through space, super-efficient engines landing with more
energy than they began with.
And Corliss, remembering that rankling statement of his that they needed an
engine more than 100% efficient -had built one! The first Corliss Energy
Generator. In principal it replaced Earth with one electrode, where power was
fed in the rocket ship by a charged atom that dissipated its charge in
propelling itself, and Mars with a.second electrode that absorbed the kinetic
energy of the moving atom to electric power.
The first engine wasn't completed till nearly nightfall of the third Jovian
day, twenty-four hours after they started. They had swallowed a few tablets
and cubes of the compressed food, and worked steadily.
They opened the locked door finally, and called the others in. Corliss was
laughing, almost insanely. Riley was standing with blurry eyes looking at it
and shaking his head. Neither one would talk sensibly. The others came in and
stared and wondered what the thing was all about, and looked at the roaring
three-inch arc that thundered and thudded and threw out heat that warmed the
whole room. Corliss actually told more in his laughter than Riley in his dumb
incomprehension of his own handiwork.
"It's super-efficient-super-efficient!" Corliss chortled.
"The dry-cell there is running it-a thousand amperes at twenty thousand volts
from a six-volt dry cell! The current goes in, and it is multiplied, because
the thing's more than 100% efficient; then it is sent in again, and through
again, and each time, because this model is 198% efficient, it gets nearly
twice as powerful-and finally it's that!"
Lombard gave Corliss some amytaline to make him sleep, and Riley got some
more, and the others sat and stared at the instrument, afraid to shut it off,
and afraid to let it run, for fear it would burn itself out, so it ran on, and
thundered and roared, and they sat and gaped at it. Presently they took off
their heated suits because it was getting too warm! And the beads of ice on
the walls had accumulated till they became a layer of clear slippery ice a
half inch thick, and a wet, dank layer on the floor, began to melt and run
down. And the flame roared on and on.
They called the "Corliss Two," and told them about the flame, and worried, and
ran around helplessly because they were afraid the power would be used up! The
inexhaustible, everlasting, infinite power of the first Corliss Energy
Generator!
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Corliss Woke finally, to a ship that was stifling hot, and stank with the
sharp, biting tang of ozone. He woke, forgetful of what had happened the
previous "day," and heard the roar of the arc, and almost ran to the motors
room. The arc roared on, the terminals glowing almost white hot, a fearful
heat flooding out, for the tungovan terminals were radiating at a temperature
close to that of the sun's surface.
"Thank God-Bar!" said Martin. "Can you shut it off?"
"Certainly," said Bar, remembering suddenly. And he opened the circuit to the
little dry cell. Instantly the arc stopped, and their ears, deafened by hours
of the noise, rang in the silence that followed. "The battery ran it," he
explained. Then, slowly, as the enormous thought of it came home to him. "The
battery-ran that! How long?"
"Thirteen and a half hours, Bar," said Lombard softly. "The ice outside the
ship is melted for two feet around."
"We'll melt it!" Corliss almost shouted. "We'll melt it for a thousand feet
around-we'll drill our way out of here!"
"Can we, Bar," begged Martin, "can we? We can't work outside. Even with power,
we can't work outside."
"We will, now. Somehow we will," said Corliss. "But first we've got to make a
bigger generator. By Great Jupiter, it is a generator-the first, for it
generates energy!"
Martin and Riley and Corliss started making it, and they started telling the
men in "Corliss Two" how to make one, and in five more days, they had it
finished. They ripped out the old steam "generating" plant, and cut it up to
make the-new power plant. Then they connected it, one great lead to the stern
rocket tube, and one great lead to the nose of the ship. One million amperes
they pounded through it, till the leads turned dull red, and the skin of the
ship grew warm to the touch.
And the power came from a storage battery! They charged the battery from the
power lines, and Corliss roared in laughter as he saw the impossible being
done! They charged a storage battery from the power it generated, and heated
the whole ship so hot, the water outside melted the ice. And they ran the pump
as fast as they could, with two motors, and pumped out the biter-hull. They
lightened the ship by that much, and slowly it floated up, up, up through the
ice and water.
In two days it worked its way through the ice ball that held it, and rose
slowly, grandly, nearly two hundred feet till it struck a balance again. They
were free! Free-and with power unlimited, and infinite.
"We'll work the rockets-gently, very gently-oh so inefficiently-and we won't
give one single little hoot in all Hades how inefficient they may be! And
we'll reach the Two'!
"And in the meantime, damned if I can't work out some way to use the power
we've got now." Corliss laughed in vast triumph as he looked at the little
twelve-volt storage battery that was emergency power for the radio set-turning
out a power that fused a great block of ice, and raised the ship-running a
hundred and fifty horsepower of motors as a minor job.
Oxygen was pouring in again from Thrumann's apparatus. Corliss walked slowly
through the ship, looking vaguely about him, seeking, seeking, seeking ... an
inspiration. Riley watched him steadily, saying nothing. Corliss looked, and
finally spoke, half to himself. "We could get out-we could make a diving bell- [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]