"A. C. Doyle - The Disintegration Machine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Doyle Arthur Conan)

'You will realize that the experimental plant which I have erected here in my laboratory is a mere model,
though within its limits it acts most admirably. There would be no possible difficulty, for example, in
disintegrating you and reassembling you, but it is not for such a purpose as that that a great Government is
prepared to pay a price which runs into millions. My model is a mere scientific toy. It is only when the same
force is invoked upon a large scale that enormous practical effects could be achieved.'

'May we see this model?'

'You will not only see it, Professor Challenger, but you will have the most conclusive demonstration possible
upon your own person, if you have the courage to submit to it.'

'If!' the lion began to roar. 'Your "if," sir, is in the highest degree offensive.'

'Well, well. I had no intention to dispute your courage. I will only say that I will give you an opportunity to
demonstrate It. But I would first say a few words upon the underlying laws which govern the matter.

'When certain crystals, salt, for example, or sugar, are placed in water they dissolve and disappear. You
would not know that they have ever been there. Then by evaporation or otherwise you lessen the amount of
water, and lo! there are your crystals again, visible once more and the same as before. Can you conceive a
process by which you, an organic being, are in the same way dissolved into the cosmos, and then by a subtle
reversal of the conditions reassembled once more?'

'The analogy is a false one,' cried Challenger. 'Even if I make so monstrous an admission as that our
molecules could be dispersed by some disrupting power, why should they reassemble in exactly the same
order as before?'

'The objection is an obvious one, and I can only answer that they do so reassemble down to the last atom of
the structure. There is an invisible framework and every brick flies into its true place. You may smile,

The Disintegration Machine and Other Stories 4
 The Disintegration Machine and Other Stories


Professor, but your incredulity and your smile may soon be replaced by quite another emotion.'

Challenger shrugged his shoulders. 'I am quite ready to submit it to the test.'

'There is another case which I would impress upon you, gentlemen, and which may help you to grasp the
idea. You have heard both in Oriental magic and in Western occultism of the phenomenon of the apport when
some object is suddenly brought from a distance and appears in a new place. How can such a thing be done
save by the loosening of the molecules, their conveyance upon an etheric wave, and their reassembling, each
exactly in its own place, drawn together by some irresistible law? That seems a fair analogy to that which is
done by my machine.'

'You cannot explain one incredible thing by quoting another incredible thing,' said Challenger. 'I do not
believe in your apports, Mr. Nemor, and I do not believe in your machine. My time is valuable, and if we are
to have any sort of demonstration I would beg you to proceed with it without further ceremony. '

'Then you will be pleased to follow me,' said the inventor. He led us down the stair of the flat and across a
small garden which lay behind. There was a considerable outhouse, which he unlocked and we entered.