"Frederik Pohl - Wapshot's Demon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pohl Frederick)

dozen times"
"Forget the desk clerk! What's the difference between
what you said and fortune-telling?"
He took a deep breath. "I swear, Mr. Barclay," he said
sadly, "I don't think you listen. I went all through this in
your office."
"Do it again."
He shrugged. "Well," he said, "you start with Clerk
Maxwell. He was a man who discovered a lot of things,
and one of the things he discovered he never knew about"
I yelled, "Now, how could he"
"Just listen, Mr. Barclay. It was something that they
call 'Maxwell's Demon.' You know what hot air is?"
I said, meaning it to hurt, "I'm learning."
"No, no, not that kind of hot air. I mean just plain
hot air, like you might get out of a radiator. It's hot be-
cause the molecules in it are moving fast. Understand?
Heat is fast molecules, cold is slow molecules. That's the
only difference." He was getting warmed up. "Now,
ordinary air," he went on, "is a mixture of molecules at
different speeds. Some move fast, some move slow; it's
the average that gives you your temperature. What Clerk
Maxwell said, and he said it kind of as a joke, you know
except a genius never really jokes, and never really
makes a mistake; even the things he doesn't really mean
sometimes turn out to be true Anyway, what Clerk
Maxwell said was, 'Wouldn't it be nice if we could train
a little demon to stand in the window of a house. He
could direct the fast-moving molecules inside, giving us
heat, and direct the slow-moving ones into, say, the
kitchen refrigeratorgiving us cold.' You follow me so
far?"
I laughed. "Ha-ha. But I'm not a fool, Mr. Wapshot,
and I have had a certain amount of education. I am
aware that there is a law of entropy that"
"Ha-ha," he interrupted. "Hold on for a minute, Mr.
Barclay. I heard all about the law of entropy, which says
that high and low temperatures tend to merge and average
out, instead of separating. I heard about it, you heard
about it, and even Maxwell heard about it. But there was
a German fellow name of Hilsch, and he didn't hear about
it. Because what he did, Mr. Barclay, was to invent some-
thing called the 'Hilsch Tube,' and all the Hilsch tube is
is Maxwell's demon come to life. Honest. It really works.
You blow into itit's a kind of little pipe with a joint
sticking out of it, the simplest-looking little thing you ever
sawand hot air comes out of one end, cold air comes
out of the other. Don't take my word for it," he said hur-
riedly, holding up his hand. "Don't argue with me. After
World War II, they brought back a couple of those things