"Appleton, Victor - Tom Swift Jr 05 - And His Atomic Earth Blaster" - читать интересную книгу автора (Appleton Victor)

"Well, to begin with," Tom said, "scientists are agreed that the center of the
earth is molten iron."
"The entire core of the earth is molten iron, isn't it?" Uncle Ned asked.
"No one knows for sure," Tom replied. "However, my own hunch is that the
inner core is solid iron, with a layer of molten liquid in between that and the
earth's outer crust. I base my theory on the shape of the earth and the fact that it
rotates on a fairly stable axis."
"You may be right," Mr. Swift agreed thoughtfully. "That theory agrees with
most estimates of heat at the earth's core."
"Anyhow," Tom went on, "it's certain that if we burrow down below the earth's
crust, we'll strike molten iron."
"Goodness, it sounds as if you'd have to go miles down!" his mother
exclaimed.
Tom nodded. "That's true. But there's one place where I believe the molten
iron is much closer to the surface than anywhere else on earth."
"Where's that?" Sandy asked. She was listening eagerly, her chin cupped in
her hands and her eyes wide with interest.
26 TOM SWIFT AND HIS ATOMIC BLASTER
"At the South Pole," Tom replied.
There was a stir of surprise as the young inventor went on to explain his
reasons.
"For one thing, it shows up in the ground temperature. You see, up in the
north polar regions, the soil is covered with a solid layer of permafrost all year
round. But down south, in the Antarctic, you find spots that are warm and free
from snow.
"Also, magnetic flux lines enter the earth near the South Pole."
"Those are pretty good arguments," Mr. Swift conceded. "But your mother is
still right. Even at the South Pole, that molten iron must be several hundred miles
down. And that would take a lot of digging, even for your atomic earth blaster."
"It would leave quite a pile of dirt, too, I should think," put in Sandra with a
laugh.
Mr. Swift pulled a small slide rule out of his pocket and did some hasty
figuring.
"Suppose you dug a pit three feet in diameter," he said. "For every hundred
miles you went down, you'd haul up enough dirt to cover six square city blocks
and piled three times as high as the Empire State Building!"
"Golly!" Sandy gasped, and for the first time expressed some doubts about
her brother's plan.
But Tom had a solution. "We could get around that by changing the design of
the earth blaster."
DANGER SIGNAL 27
"How?" his father asked.
"Instead of using the atomic energy to grind up the dirt and rocks, we could
use it to power an electric smelter. This would release gaseous oxygen from the
melted rock. And the gas in turn would billow up the shaft, carrying the particles
of ore dust with it, so we wouldn't need a conveyor."
Mr. Swift tugged at his lower lip and nodded thoughtfully. But Uncle Ned
shook his head.
"Even if your idea is sound, think of the tremendous expense involved. I'm
afraid we could never finance such a venture."