"Campbell, John W. - The Moon is Hell" - читать интересную книгу автора (Campbell John W Jr)

Dark, flickering shadows. We cannot use more mantles, as they require the oxygen of six men, give little light, and the water is recovered in only a very small proportion.

No photo-cells today. I sat up and watched the storerooms for three hours, but could not remain awake longer. No food was taken.

August 5.

The suit batteries are giving out now. The men complain their batteries will not stay charged. They are being used in relays, charged from the generator for half a day, used the other half. Eventually we will be forced to stop work at night.

No lectures. It is too unpleasant sitting in the dark after all day in the dark. It is amazing the effect light has on us.

August 6.

Sunlight! The cells are all set up, the various machines humming, and power flowing in. The furnaces are going full force. The sun is life itself to us!

Rice's engine is progressing. I am becoming more and more hopeful, and the men also, though they still kid Rice about it. It is a sorry looking piece of apparatus, with tin cans and oxygen tanks, pipes for valve cylinders, and welded cables stiffened into a solid framework for support, Twenty-three cells made today. Moore is at work on his explosives and has the process almost entirely auto- matic. King brought nearly three hundred pounds of sulphide ore for him.

August 7.

I have set a trap that will work eventually. We can wait now for our food thief, inasmuch as he is storing it! I hope he returns!

Moore's explosive in action. It has doubled the mine production, and King and Reed are hard put to even keep up. They have enlisted Bender to aid them and their crew of two, Tolman and Whisler, to aid in constructing a new furnace. They demand power.

August 8.

New furnace completed, and power in demand. I have advised storing water, and electrolyzing none till power equipment is made. Moore's explosive wonderfully efficient. We cannot realize its power here. I believe it will astound Earth. A tiny capsule breaks the rock so finely that little or no crushing need be done for the furnaces.

The thief has returned. He has stolen my bait. We need only wait, and let nature take her well-known course.

The men have openly accused Moore, Bender making the accusation as spokesman. But four men backed him, however. Moore smiled at the accusation, and refused to explain his eating beyond saying he was chewing some chemicals. I believe him right, and my guess becomes an hypothesis.

August 9. * Engine being assembled. It is a weird thing! I wonder if it will work for more than a turn or two, despite the marvelous skill Rice has shown in working with it. He welded a piston ring about each can, after building up the inside with silver plating. The inside of the oxygen tanks were similarly treated.

Another bank of photo-cells built, and set up. Our clockwork that keeps the cells facing the sun is overloaded. Rice to the rescue--with an electric torque amplifier. I believe that Rice is an assumed name. The man must certainly be an inventor of note, else necessity is a mother like unto a termite queen, laying her egg each second.

August 10.

Moore deathly sick tonight. He barely succeeded in attracting our attention. Dr. Hughey gave him an emetic, and he seems better. My bait contained an emetic. Now was Moore the thief, and was he made sick by that? I doubt it. My hypothesis advanced to a theory, though hope does not rise.

Explosive making entirely automatic, and Moore works practically all day on his experiments. But one-half pound of explosive used each day. There will be a generous supply tonight, for one pound a day turned out. It is amazing what man can do in the face of such an environment. Engine largely assembled. Tests tomorrow.

August 11.

The critics were dumbfounded today. I include myself. Rice's engine was the event of the evening. It is really an internal combustion engine of a sort, as the hydrogen flame which runs it burns in the water of the boiler. It is 100% efficient thus far, and the real test came when the pressure mounted. We all expected a terrible creaking and groaning and hissing of escaping steam. It ran with the smoothness of a sixteen-cylinder automobile, with scarcely a quiver, and without more than a faint hiss of valving steam. It develops nearly twenty horsepower.

Another cell bank installed, for the furnaces. The mines demand more power, and get the next. Moore now has sufficient power.

August 12.

Engine placed, and set up complete with dynamo, a converted motor, in the battery house. The batteries will still be used, with some alterations and repairs, to level out line surges, Rice says, as they might well be serious. Also, in case of temporary breakdowns, exceedingly convenient.