Tom Swift and His Space Solartron Read Online Free PDF

began switching on the various components of the solartron assembly. "Well, you remember what we discovered deep down in the ground in Antarctica, don’t you, Chow?"
    The Texan nodded tentatively. He had been a part of Tom’s historic drilling operation at the South Pole, where Tom had drilled for molten iron with his atomic earth blaster. "You mean that element stuff?"
    Tom looked up and nodded. "Right. We found evidence of higher-element fusion going on in the earth’s mantle, which was completely unexpected."
    "I’ll say!" muttered Ted. "I could hardly believe it when I read the news reports—and I’m an engineer, not a physicist."
    "The physicists were baffled too, believe me," Tom said. "It was inexplicable, like something from a whole new kind of physics. Naturally it became a subject of intense investigation and debate around the world.
    "The question had a practical side, too," the young inventor continued. "It was quickly pointed out that whatever strange things were going on under the South Pole might be an important clue to cold fusion, a potential source of almost unlimited clean electrical power. We found some more clues to what was going on under Mount Goaba in Africa. There’s a relationship between the fusion phenomenon, antiproton gas, and the ‘non-matter matter’ we call Inertite."
    Ted looked thoughtful but seemed to grasp the idea. "So your solartron is sort of the next step?"
    "It will be if it works," Tom responded wryly. "That conical assemblage of disks above the main chassis acts like a series of lenses, focusing a space-wave matrix field to—well, calling it a pinpoint would be at least a trillion trillion times too large! According to our mathematical models, the effect of the field is to lower the energy gradient of the strong nuclear force, which surrounds the nucleus of the hydrogen atom like a shell, and ‘stretch’ it outward. This allows the incoming protons to overcome the repulsion of the nucleus; it amounts to low-energy proton tunneling, a phenomenon which ordinarily—"
    Tom paused, noting that Chow’s bulging eyes were beginning to assume a somewhat glazed appearance. He didn’t want to embarrass the cowpoke, but fortunately Ted rode to his rescue. "Proton tunneling—must be like electron tunneling. Particles jumping ‘over’ an energy barrier that they wouldn’t be able to penetrate head-on, right, Tom?"
    "That’s the idea," Tom confirmed. "They jump the barrier, and we trap ’em! In theory we’ll be able to take atoms of hydrogen, atomic number 1 with one proton apiece, and overlay them—I won’t say ‘fuse’—to form higher, heavier elements. The goal today is to produce atoms of oxygen, which has atomic number 8. If the solartron can do that, it should also be able to generate the lighter elements in-between like helium, nitrogen, and carbon."
    "Wa-aal now! That there weren’t s’hard," said Chow with pride. "You jest take the raw material an’ pile it up and make stuff out of it, right, boss?"
    The young inventor laughed affectionately. "Right, pard. Nothing to it!"
    "What’s fantastic," remarked Ted with awe, "is that you’ve found a way to do this at such low energy levels. In the big accelerators, you have to get the particles racing around at close to light-speed, with a huge energy cost."
    Tom shrugged. "But don’t forget—nature got there first!"
    While Tom had been explaining his invention and activating it, Chuck Thornton and the other two technicians that had assisted with the solartron had quietly filed into the lab. "We saw you and figured you were about to put Matty to the test," Chuck explained.
    "Nice job you fellows did," Tom congratulated them after again thanking Chuck for the preceding day’s rescue.
    The young inventor reached for the master power switch. "Maybe we’d better stand well back—just in case," Bud said half-jokingly.
    "Suit yourself." Tom smiled. "Here goes!" He flipped the switch, feeding power to the machine, and