Transcribe
Translate
Tesseract, v. 2, issue 1, January 1937
9
More information
digital collection
archival collection guide
transcription tips
INTO THE UNKNOWN by Russell A. Leadabrand Jones is an ordinary name, but Edwin Jones was far from an ordinary person. His ideas were years ahead of time. Even now he was working on his pet brainchild, a so-called "death-ray". His version of this now popular term used the principle of a number of quartz rods arranged in a circle and connected to the wiring with platinum-tungsten electrodes. It had a reflector similar to a search light but lined with lead instead of polished steel. The whole thing was mounted on a wheeled platform similar to a tea wagon. Jones thought the ultra-sonic vibrations set up would excite the molecules in an organism to such an extent that the protoplasm in which they were contained would explode, thus killing the plant or animal. He had hardly finished the ray-projector before he decided to give it an immediate trial. He heeled it to the window and pointed the reflector at a cat perched precariously on an antennae post in his backyard. Coldbloodedly he closed the switch. A faint haze obscured the puss from his view for almost ten seconds, then, with a roaring flash the projector exploded - blowing itself to bits and hurling Jones to the floor. Stunned he rose and gazed at the wreckage of the machine. he limped to the window, looked out and was dumbfounded to see that where the cat had been there now was absolutely nothing. The first idea that popped into his head was to call Stan, who was professionally known as Stanley W. Gardner, Ph.D. Thi he hastily did and then returned to the window. He noticed a pale glimmering circle which he figured would be the boundary of the beam. When Gardner arrived Jones quickly led him into the back yard where the phenomenon was and exclaimed brokenly, "That's just what I said - there is nothing there." "Tell me just exactly what happened", said the professor gazing thoughtfully at the glowing halo. "I had just finished the ray - you know - the one I was working on?" The physicist nodded. "Well, I pointed it out the window at a cat on the aerial post and turned it on - for a second everything was OK - then blooie [underlined]! the machine exploded. I got up to see what had happened and there wasn't anything there, tha cat and the top of the pole were gone. Then I called you and have been watching that halo ever since. Say, do you hear that sighing noise?" "yes, I hear it," answered the doctor. "I wonder what it is?" He picked up a long stick and pocked the end thru the ring - when he lowered it he found the end neatly lopped off and the stub crumbly to the touch. In the days that followed Jones and Gardner were constantly watching the ring for future developments. The halo was gradually enlarging! Gardner explained his theory to Jones, "When you made teh beam projector you expected it to annihilate life but instead it destroyed the dimensional barrier and penetrated the fourth dimension. the sighing noise is the air escaping into this dimensional unknown. The increase in size is due to the force of the escaping air - it's like a river that finds a small hole in it's bank. At first only a trickle runs thru but as the water pressure builds up around the hole it enlarges - the same with this only instead of water it is air. Do you understand?" Jones nodded and answered, "Then the earth will become devoid of air and all life will die." "Yes," the physicist's voice was thotfull. "Unless we can find a way to stop it." Days passed - the halo grew to amazing proportions, the lowest part only a few feet off the ground. The noise was practically unbearable. Gardner and Jones were the only ones allowed inside the 50 mile circle barricaded by the National Guard. They had cotton in their ears in an attempt to deaden the sound but even then it deafened them. With pencils and paper they scrawled brief messages. The whole world had begun to notice the slack in air pressure. It was impossible to walk briskly, let alone run. On the 10th day after the Jones experiment the air had practically left the earth - thousands were dead and hundreds were dying each minute. The noise of escaping
Saving...
prev
next
INTO THE UNKNOWN by Russell A. Leadabrand Jones is an ordinary name, but Edwin Jones was far from an ordinary person. His ideas were years ahead of time. Even now he was working on his pet brainchild, a so-called "death-ray". His version of this now popular term used the principle of a number of quartz rods arranged in a circle and connected to the wiring with platinum-tungsten electrodes. It had a reflector similar to a search light but lined with lead instead of polished steel. The whole thing was mounted on a wheeled platform similar to a tea wagon. Jones thought the ultra-sonic vibrations set up would excite the molecules in an organism to such an extent that the protoplasm in which they were contained would explode, thus killing the plant or animal. He had hardly finished the ray-projector before he decided to give it an immediate trial. He heeled it to the window and pointed the reflector at a cat perched precariously on an antennae post in his backyard. Coldbloodedly he closed the switch. A faint haze obscured the puss from his view for almost ten seconds, then, with a roaring flash the projector exploded - blowing itself to bits and hurling Jones to the floor. Stunned he rose and gazed at the wreckage of the machine. he limped to the window, looked out and was dumbfounded to see that where the cat had been there now was absolutely nothing. The first idea that popped into his head was to call Stan, who was professionally known as Stanley W. Gardner, Ph.D. Thi he hastily did and then returned to the window. He noticed a pale glimmering circle which he figured would be the boundary of the beam. When Gardner arrived Jones quickly led him into the back yard where the phenomenon was and exclaimed brokenly, "That's just what I said - there is nothing there." "Tell me just exactly what happened", said the professor gazing thoughtfully at the glowing halo. "I had just finished the ray - you know - the one I was working on?" The physicist nodded. "Well, I pointed it out the window at a cat on the aerial post and turned it on - for a second everything was OK - then blooie [underlined]! the machine exploded. I got up to see what had happened and there wasn't anything there, tha cat and the top of the pole were gone. Then I called you and have been watching that halo ever since. Say, do you hear that sighing noise?" "yes, I hear it," answered the doctor. "I wonder what it is?" He picked up a long stick and pocked the end thru the ring - when he lowered it he found the end neatly lopped off and the stub crumbly to the touch. In the days that followed Jones and Gardner were constantly watching the ring for future developments. The halo was gradually enlarging! Gardner explained his theory to Jones, "When you made teh beam projector you expected it to annihilate life but instead it destroyed the dimensional barrier and penetrated the fourth dimension. the sighing noise is the air escaping into this dimensional unknown. The increase in size is due to the force of the escaping air - it's like a river that finds a small hole in it's bank. At first only a trickle runs thru but as the water pressure builds up around the hole it enlarges - the same with this only instead of water it is air. Do you understand?" Jones nodded and answered, "Then the earth will become devoid of air and all life will die." "Yes," the physicist's voice was thotfull. "Unless we can find a way to stop it." Days passed - the halo grew to amazing proportions, the lowest part only a few feet off the ground. The noise was practically unbearable. Gardner and Jones were the only ones allowed inside the 50 mile circle barricaded by the National Guard. They had cotton in their ears in an attempt to deaden the sound but even then it deafened them. With pencils and paper they scrawled brief messages. The whole world had begun to notice the slack in air pressure. It was impossible to walk briskly, let alone run. On the 10th day after the Jones experiment the air had practically left the earth - thousands were dead and hundreds were dying each minute. The noise of escaping
Hevelin Fanzines
sidebar
