Машина ужаса(Фантастические произведения)
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The professor silently shrugged his shoulders.
At the table, Eitel began telling his father, who was listening very absent-mindedly, about his service, about the horses at the squadron- stables and about his fellow-soldiers, and he spoke with high esteem of his Colonel.
“By the way, he spoke of you with great respect; he said that Germany is much indebted to you and is expecting still more from you.”
The professor smiled. Queer though it was, yet it was pleasant to hear such recognition of his merits from the lips of a Hussar Colonel.
“But, what I was going to ask you, father,” he continued, “is to give me a general outline of your latest work. It seems to me that every Tom, Dick and Harry in our Casino knows more about it than I do.”
Flinder smiled again.
“I think you are right, my son. I shall do my best to enlighten you… Do you realize that man’s greatest problem on Earth is the struggle for energy, which he draws from nature in manifold forms?”
The Hussar shook his head.
“Each new explosive, each newly constructed machine, is a new, more convenient, cheaper, or more expedient method of pumping out new energy from the earth — that energy which moves our ships and trains, works our factories and mills, carries in the air our airplanes, drives our dirigibles, and hurls our projectiles over ranges of scores of miles. But the supply of the Earth’s coal is constantly diminishing; besides they have taken our coal away from us; nor have we oil… At the same time inexhaustible sources of energy are scattered all about us in abundance.”
“Where are they?”
“Everywhere; in this piece of iron lying on the table; in the puddles of filthy water in the streets; in the road- dust beneath our feet— wherever you turn your eyes.” “I do not understand.”
“Well — do you know what an atom is?”
Eitel smiled.
“I have heard something about it. I think it is something very small.”
“That’s right,” said the professor with an involuntary smile, “and in those infinitesimally small bricks, of which all bodies of the universe are made, all those colossal supplies of energy are stored. Atoms consist of concentrated, condensed electricity. They resemble an endless mass of miniature, tightly coiled springs, or, better still, little charges of powerful explosive matter. And when we learn to release the detent of those springs, to explode those charges and to control them and their energy, we will usher in a new era in the history of mankind; we shall enlist in our work the dormant power that lies about us; we shall flood the world with cheap and inexhaustible energy; we shall free mankind from the curse of unequal and strength- sapping toil; we shall direct it into new channels; we…”
“We shall first feed up our war weapons with that new power and dictate our terms to Paris and London…” interrupted Eitel, standing in the center of the room, with glittering eyes, threatening with his fists some region in space.
FLINDER turned on the current and shut the door of the laboratory behind him. A flood of light illumined the familiar picture, at once arresting one’s attention with the serenity and peacefulness of a working atmosphere. Wires in rigid lines stretched all over the walls; porcelain insulators, like ivory fingers, protruded here and there and between them; on the — tables and shelves sparkled glass utensils; brass parts of the apparatus glittered in yellow reflections; a marble switch board with its appliances and colored lamps, added a cold, yet solemn appearance to the spacious room.
Upon a large marble-top table, at the rear wall, stood a mechanical appliance, from which the work was to start. Flinder stopped before it with a feeling of inward satisfaction and throbbing expectation. Everything he saw before him was the reflection and incarnation of his thoughts. Each lever, each screw, each contact of the wires — everything to the minutest detail — up of atoms, by means of bombarding them with grains of helium, that are discharged by radioactive matter, he added the action of the electromagnetic field of high tension. This enhanced the speed of flight and the power of explosion of the miniature charges. And to-day he intended to test the influence of some admixtures upon activated nitrogen, admixtures that are dissolved in the tube with gas and represent minutest molecules.
He examined carefully the scheme of arrangement of the appliances and focused the microscope over the fluorescene stage over which the explosions were to register the path of the fragments of the atoms, and turned on the switch. A deep, heavy buzz of the transformer filled the room, as if a giant drone from out the wilderness of the night, beat his wings and whizzed upon the window-sill, shaking the concrete walls with his blows.
The professor turned off the light and looked into the microscope. There was the usual scene: like falling stars on a calm August night, flashes of racing atoms glimmered in the dark field, left and right, in the direction of the current; paths of light intersected the field of sight, crossing in places, indicating colliding, extinguishing and flashing up again, and strange seemed the silence in which this fiery rain was pouring down. Then, turning a small stop-cock, Flinder admitted into the tube of the apparatus a tiny cloud of dust, which was to serve as a stimulator and augmenter of the process. And at once the picture in the dark field changed. Into the pattern of fiery lines, broke in a volley of rays, scattering themselves in all directions like explosions of miniature charges. These' were no longer integral; the atoms were being scattered into tens and hundreds of fragments by the force of the bombardment. Microscopic worlds were being destroyed, silently rumbled the catastrophies, one after another splashing flashes of rays followed one another.
And now dead silence reigned as before, broken only by the monotonous humming of the transformer.
Flinder almost doubted his own eyes. This meant, that the problem was solved at last. The key to the mysterious treasure was found; an unparalleled victory was won.
Impotently and slowly he dropped into his armchair, in a sense shocked by the achievement. After ten years of persistent work, he had apparently reached his goal. It was difficult for him to realize it all at once. He sat steeped in a confused state of semi-forgetfulness and semidelirium.
The door clicked; apparently, Hinez, one of the assistants, finished his work and left. Flinder did not notice him. He remained under the influence of the excitement that possessed him, trying to visualize the dizzy perspectives that were being opened to mankind. An insignificant dot of matter will yield enough energy to drive ocean liners, and ponderous trains, for many hours. Millions of millions of horse-power! The end of the struggle for energy! We are the masters of energy!
Thus, for about a half an hour Flinder remained in his semi- dreaming state, which completely enthralled his mind. When he finally bent over the eyeglass of the microscope again, that which he saw there was so unexpected, that he uttered a cry.
He no longer saw the separate fiery lines or the volleys of rays; but the Whole circle was enveloped in a raging sea of fire; flaming vortices circled and danced right and left and all along the current stream. Flinder instinctively grabbed hold of the current control lever and shut off the power. The transformers stopped and the dead silence that hovered in the room, filled his heart with a longing premonition.
The scene under the microscope had changed very little. The fiery sea continued its rage, but no longer in one direction. The whirls rotated, collided and scattered in all directions in utter chaos. Flinder stretched out his hand to the switch and lighted up the laboratory. Everything stood in its place; the apparatus, the retorts, the flasks and the insulators with their ivory fingers, and the switches stuck out from the walls and ceiling; the windows were darkened by night shadows and at the right stood a bright, reddish star, apparently, Arcturus. Everything about was simple, familiar and comprehensible.
What was it, then, that had frightened him so? The foolish play of his high-strung nerves. Simply, looking down upon this phenomenon, still new to him, he recalled Deriugin’s recent phrase, in the words of Aston: “The research work into the inner-atomic energy, is like playing with fire on top of a barrel of gun-powder.” And it appeared to him, that this very minute the force he himself had just freed, would crush into fragments the laboratory and everything about it. What nonsense! Here he has stopped the work of the apparatus and nothing at all happened. Apparently, the process, once begun, continues by itself. So far, so good! The only question to be decided on now is, how to utilize this new energy without wasting it without purpose?