Wild Thyme and Violets and Other Unpublished Works by Jack Vance

Wild Thyme and Violets and Other Unpublished Works by Jack Vance

Author:Jack Vance [Vance, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781619470644
Publisher: Spatterlight Press, Oakland, California


Four days later Meth Cagno summoned the Seven to his workshop. “You will now see electricity produced.”

“What? In that device?” Sklar Hast inspected the clumsy apparatus. To one side a tube of hollow stalk five inches in diameter and twenty feet high was supported by a scaffold. The base was contained at one end of a long box holding what appeared to be wet ashes. The far end of the box was closed by a slab of compressed carbon, into which were threaded copper wires. At the opposite end, between the tube and wet ashes was another slab of compressed carbon.

“This is admittedly a crude device, unwieldy to operate and of no great efficiency,” said Meth Cagno. “It does however meet our peculiar requirements: which is to say, it produces electricity without metal, through the agency of water pressure. Brunet describes it in his Dicta. He calls it the ‘Rous machine’. The tube is filled with water, which is thereby forced through the mud, which is a mixture of ashes and sea-slime. The water carries an electric charge which it communicates to the porous carbon as it seeps through. By this means a small but steady and quite dependable source of electricity is at our hand. As you may have guessed, I have already tested the device, and so can speak with confidence.” He turned, snapped his fingers, and his helpers mounted the scaffold carrying buckets of water which they poured into the tube. Meth Cagno connected the wires to a coil of several dozen revolutions. He brought forward a dish. On a cork rested a small rod of iron.

“I have already magnetized this iron,” said Cagno. “Note how it points to the north? Now — I bring it near the end of the coil. See it jerk! Electricity is flowing in the wire!”

The other members of the Seven were impressed. “And this iron needle will now serve to guide Henry Bastaff?”

“So I believe. But the Rous machine provides an even more dramatic possibility. With electricity we can disassociate sea-water to produce, after certain operations, the acid of salt, and a caustic of countering properties as well. The acid can then be used to produce more highly concentrated streams of electricity — if we are able to secure more metal. There is iron in our blood: I ask myself, where does the iron originate? Which of our foods contains the iron? I plan to reduce each of our foods under the lens, as well as any other distinctive substance which might yield a concentration of metal.” He turned, went to the table, returned with a glistening object. “Look. A bottle of glass. Bolin Hyse has produced this bottle. He fashioned a tube of copper, fixed it to a longer tube of withe, dipped the copper into molten glass and blew. The result —” Meth Cagno inspected the object critically “— is not beautiful. The glass is gray and streaked with ash. The shape is uncertain. Nevertheless — here is a glass bottle, produced from ash and sea-ooze.



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