"E. E. Doc Smith - Spacehounds Of IPC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith E. E. Doc)

saloon
speakers sounded a warning:
"For a short time, while we are pulling clear of the gravitational field
of the Earth,
walking will be somewhat difficult, as everything on board will apparently
increase in
weight by about one-fifth of its present amount. Please remain seated, or move
about
with caution. In about an hour weight will gradually return to normal. We
start in one
minute."
"Hipe!" barked the chief pilot as a flaring purple light sprang into
being upon his
board, and the assistants came to attention at their stations. "Seconds! Four!
Three!
Two! One! LIFT!" He touched a button and a set of plunger switches drove home,
releasing into the forty-five enormous driving projectors the equilibrium
powerтАФthe
fifteen-thousand-and-odd kilofranks of energy that exactly counterbalanced the
pull of
gravity upon the mass of the cruiser. Simultaneously there was added from the
potentiometer, already set to the exact figure given by the computer, the
plus-
equilibrium power тАФ which would not be changed throughout the journey if the
ideal
acceleration curve were to be registered upon the recordersтАФand the immense
mass of
the cruiser of the void wafted vertically upward at a low and constant
velocity. The
bellowing, shrieking siren had cleared the air magically of the swarm of
aircraft in her
path, and quietly, calmly, majestically, the Arcturus floated upward.
Sixty seconds after the initial lift Breckenridge actuated the system of
magnetic
relays which would gradually cut in the precisely-measured "starting power,"
which it
would be necessary to employ for sixty-nine minutesтАФfor, without the
acceleration
given by this additional power, they would lose many precious hours of time in
covering
merely the few thousands of miles during which Earth's attraction would
operate
powerfully against their progress.
Faster and faster the great cruiser shot upward as more and more of the
starting
power was released, and heavier and heavier the passengers felt themselves
become.
Soon the full calculated power was on and the acceleration became constant.
Weight
no longer increased, but remained constant at a value of plus twenty three and