"E. E. Doc Smith - Skylark 1 - Skylark of Space " - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

`Oh, no, doctor, not murder. Accidents.!

'I call things by their right names. I'm not squeamish. But what I'm here about is that
Seaton, of our division, has discovered, more or less accidently, total conversion atomic
energy.'

`And that means?'

`To break it down to where you can understand it, it means a billion kilowatts per plant at
a total amortized cost of approximately one one-hundredth of a mil per KW hour.'

`Huh?' A look of scornful disbelief settled on Brookings' face.

`Sneer if you like. Your ignorance doesn't change the facts and doesn't hurt my feelings a
bit. Call Chambers in and ask him what would happen if a man should liberate the total
energy of a hundred pounds of copper in, say, ten microseconds.!

'Pardon me, doctor. I didn't mean to insult you. I'll call him in.'

Brookings called, and a man in white appeared. In response to the question he thought
for a moment, then smiled.

`At a rough guess, it would blow the whole world into vapor and might blow it clear out of
its orbit. However, you needn't worry about anything like that happening, Mr. Brookings.
It won't. It can't.'

`Why not?'

`Because only two nuclear reactions yield energy - fission and fusion. Very heavy
elements fission; very light elements fuse; intermediate ones, such as copper, do neither.
Any possible operation on the copper atom, such as splitting, must necessarily absorb
vastly more energy than it produces. Is that all?'

-18-
`That's all. Thanks.!

'You see?' Brookings said, when they were again alone, `Chambers is a good man, too,
and he says it's impossible.'

`As far as he knows, he's right. I'd have said the same thing this morning. However, it
has just been done.'

`How?'

DuQuesne repeated certain parts of Seaton's story.

`But suppose the man as crazy? He could be, couldn't he?'

`Yeah, he's crazy - like a fox. If it were only Seaton, I might buy that; but nobody ever
thought M. Reynolds Crane had any loose screws. With him backing Seaton you can bet