<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></SPAN>CHAPTER V<br/> American Ultronic Science</h2>
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">Our</span> own engineers, working in
shielded laboratories far underground,
had established such
control over the "de-atomized"
electrons as to dissect them in
their turn into <i>sub-electrons</i>.
Moreover, they had carried
through the study of this "order"
to the point where they
finally "dissected" the <i>sub-electron</i>
into its component <i>ultrons</i>,
for the fundamental laws underlying
these successive orders are
not radically dissimilar. And as
they progressed, they developed
constructive as well as destructive
practice. Hence the great triumphs
of ultron and inertron,
our two wonderful synthetic elements,
built up from super-balanced
and sub-balanced ultronic
whorls, through the <i>sub-electronic</i>
order into the <i>atomic</i> and
<i>molecular</i>.</p>
<p>Hence also, come our relatively
simple and beautifully efficient
ultrophones and ultroscopes,
which in their phonic and visual
operation penetrate obstacles of
material, electronic and sub-electronic
nature without let or
hindrance, and with the consumption
of but infinitesimal
power.</p>
<p>Static disturbance, I should
explain, is negligible in the sub-electronic
order, and non-existent
in the ultronic.</p>
<p>The pioneer expeditions of our
engineers into the ultronic order,
I am told, necessitated the
use of most elaborate, complicated
and delicate apparatus, as
well as the expenditure of most
costly power, but once established
there, all necessary power
is developed very simply from
tiny batteries composed of thin
plates of <i>metultron</i> and <i>katultron</i>.
These two substances, developed
synthetically in much
the same manner as ordinary ultron,
exhibit dual phenomena
which for sake of illustration I
may compare with certain of the
phenomena of radioactivity. As
radium is constantly giving off
electronic emanations and changing
its atomic structure thereby,
so <i>katultron</i> is constantly giving
off <i>ultronic</i> emanations, and so
changing its <i>sub-electronic</i> form,
while <i>metultron</i>, its complement,
is constantly attracting and absorbing
<i>ultronic</i> values, and so
changing its sub-electronic nature
in the opposite direction.
Thin plates of these two substances,
when placed properly in
juxtaposition, with insulating
plates of inertron between, constitute
a battery which generates
an ultronic current.</p>
<hr />
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">And</span> it is a curious parallel
that just as there were many
mysteries connected with the nature
of electricity in the Twentieth
Century (mysteries which, I
might mention, never <i>have</i> been
solved, notwithstanding our penetration
into the "sub-" orders)
so there are certain mysteries
about the ultronic current. It
will flow, for instance, through
an ultron wire, from the <i>katultron</i>
to the <i>metultron</i> plate, as
electricity will flow through a
copper wire. It will short circuit
between the two plates if the inertron
insulation is imperfect.
When the insulation is perfect,
however, and no ultron metallic
circuit is complete, the "current"
(apparently the same that would
flow through the metallic circuit)
is projected into space in an absolutely
straight line from the
<i>katultron</i> plate, and received
from space by the <i>metultron</i>
plate on the same line. This line
is the theoretical straight line
passing through the mass-center
of each plate. The shapes and
angles of the plates have nothing
to do with it, except that the
perpendicular distance of the
plate edges from the mass-center
line determines thickness of the
beam of parallel current-rays.</p>
<p>Thus a simple battery may be
used either as a sender or receiver
of current. Two batteries
adjusted to the same center line
become connected in series just
as if they were connected by ultron
wires.</p>
<p>In actual practice, however,
two types of batteries are used;
both the <i>foco</i> batteries and
<i>broadcast</i> batteries.</p>
<p><i>Foco</i> batteries are twin batteries,
arranged to shoot a positive
and a negative beam in the same
direction. When these beams are
made intermittent at light frequencies
(though they are not
light waves, nor of the same order
as light waves) and are
brought together, or focussed, at
a given spot, the space in which
they cross radiates alternating
ultronic current in every direction.
This radiated <i>ultralight</i>
acts like true light so long as
the crossing beams vibrate at
light frequencies, except in three
respects: first, it is not visible
to the eye; second, its "color" is
exclusively dependent on the frequency
of the <i>foco</i> beams, which
determine the frequency of the
alternating radiation. Material
surfaces, it would appear, reflect
them all in equal value, and the
color of the resultant picture depends
on the color of the <i>foco</i>
frequencies. By altering these, a
reddish, yellowish or bluish picture
may be seen. In actual practice
an orthochromatic mixture
of frequencies is used to give a
black, gray and white picture.
The third difference is this: rays
pulsating in line toward any ultron
object connected with the
rear plates of the twin batteries
through rectifiers cannot be reflected
by material objects, for it
appears they are subject to a
kind of "pull" which draws them
straight through material objects,
which in a sense are "magnetized"
and while in this state
offer no resistance.</p>
<p>Ultron, when so connected
with battery terminals, glows
with true light under the impact
of <i>ultralight</i>, and if in the form
of a lens or set of lenses, may be
made to deliver a picture in any
telescopic degree desired.</p>
<hr />
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">The</span> essential parts of an ultroscope,
then, are twin batteries
with focal control and frequency
control; an ultron shield,
battery connected and adjustable,
to intercept the direct rays
from the "<i>glow-spot</i>," with an
ordinary light-shield between it
and the lens; and the lens itself,
battery connected and with more
or less telescopic elaboration.</p>
<p>To look through a substance at
an object, one has only to focus
the <i>glow-spot</i> beyond the substance
but on the near side of
the object and slightly above it.</p>
<p>A complete apparatus may be
"set" for "penetrative," "distance"
and "normal vision."</p>
<p>In the first, which one would
use to look through the forest
screen from the air, or in examining
the interior of a Han ship
or any opaque structure, the
<i>glow-spot</i> is brought low, at only
a tiny angle above the vision
line, and the shield, of course,
must be very carefully adjusted.</p>
<p>"Distance" setting would be
used, for instance, in surveying
a valley beyond a hill or mountain;
the <i>glow-spot</i> is thrown
high to illuminate the entire
scene.</p>
<p>In the "normal" setting the
<i>foco</i> rays are brought together
close overhead, and illuminate
the scene just as a lamp of super
brilliancy would in the same position.</p>
<p>For phonic communication a
spherical sending battery is a
ball of metultron, surrounded by
an insulating shell of inertron,
and this in turn by a spherical
shell of katultron, from which
the current radiates in every direction,
tuning being accomplished
by frequency of intermissions,
with audio-frequency
modulation. The receiving battery
has a core pole of katultron
and an outer shell of metultron.
The receiving battery, of course,
picks up all frequencies, the undesired
ones being tuned out in
detection.</p>
<p>Tuning, however, is only a
convenience for privacy and elimination
of interference in ultrophonic
communication. It is not
involved as a necessity, for untuned
currents may be broadcast
at voice-controlled frequencies,
directly and without any carrier
wave.</p>
<p>To use plate batteries or single
center-line batteries for
phonic communication would require
absolutely accurate directional
aligning of sender and receiver,
a very great practical difficulty,
except when sender and
receiver are relatively close and
mutually visible.</p>
<hr />
<p class="cap"><span class="dcap">This</span>, however, is the regular
system used in the Inter-Gang
network for official communication.
The senders and receivers
used in this system are set only
with the greatest difficulty, and
by the aid of the finest laboratory
apparatus, but once set,
they are permanently locked in
position at the stations, and barring
earthquakes or insecure
foundations, need no subsequent
adjustment. Accuracy of alignment
permits beam paths no
thicker than the old lead pencils
I used to use in the Twentieth
Century.</p>
<p>The non-interference of such
communication lines, and the
difficulty of cutting in on them
from any point except immediately
adjacent to the sender or
receiver, is strikingly apparent
when it is realized that every
square inch of an imaginary
plane bisecting the unlocated
beam would have to be explored
with a receiving battery in order
to locate the beam itself.</p>
<p>A practical compromise between
the spherical or universal
broadcast senders and receivers
on the one hand, and the single
line batteries on the other, is the
<i>multi-facet battery</i>. Another, and
more practical device particularly
for distance work, is the <i>window-spherical</i>.
It is merely an
ordinary spherical battery with
a shielding shell with an opening
of any desired size, from
which a directionally controlled
beam may be emitted in different
forms, usually that simply of an
expanding cone, with an angle
of expansion sufficient to cover
the desired territory at the desired
point of reception.</p>
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