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micro-analysis.
While he was doing the necessary figuring, he listened sympatheticallyto the technician. The young man was complaining bitterly about thingsin general, and chemistry in particular. Chemical reference books camein for a special roasting, because: "either that lousy book isincomplete, or this structural formula is out of this world."
That did it.
Brinton got out a scratch pad and drew a little diagram.
Then he went to talk to Dr. Ferber.
"Would it be possible that Harrison started with a multi-ringedphenol?" he asked. Dr. Ferber nodded. Dr. Brinton showed him thedrawing. "Does that remind you of any geometrical figure?"
Dr. Ferber looked. There was a pause, then his eyes lit up.
"Of course," he said. "Since formulae are usually drawn in one plane, Idoubt if anyone ever noticed that before. And when it comes understress by compression, it's only natural that it should fold." Hepaused and looked at the calendar, "Four weeks?" he asked.
"That'll do fine," said Dr. Brinton. "I'll arrange the details. Youlook after the fuel. Harrison can give us the details of this one, butthere are probably any number of fuels based on this principal. Somewill be even more efficient, too."
He excused himself, went to a phone, and asked for a Washington number.The call was answered.
"Hello, Senator MacNeill?" he said. "How would you like to be guest ofhonor at a party?"
* * * * *
Brinton peered through the ring of reporters over to the head tablewhere Senator MacNeill was speaking, and speaking, and speaking.
"He's on his home state," Dr. Brinton said. "About half an hour to go.Now, gentlemen, you were asking about the new fuel. You all receivedpress handouts containing the information. You will probably receivecopies of the Senator's speech. And the broadcast from our first men onthe Moon went out over several networks hours ago. It seems to me thatyou have enough for several stories."
One of the reporters asked bewilderedly, "What is a tesseract? I readthe handout twice and I still don't understand."
"A mathematician would be better qualified to explain," said Dr.Brinton, "but I'll try. A tesseract is a fourth dimensional cube. Aline has one dimension, a square has two, a cube has three, and atesseract has four. A cube can be unfolded into six squares, and atesseract unfolds to eight cubes. The new fuel had a molecularstructure resembling an unfolded tesseract. When pressure is applied,it folds up into a tesseract so that it takes up less room and relievesthe pressure.
"The practical application is that we can get eight pounds of it into aone pound can. The other seven pounds of it are riding around in thefourth dimension. As soon as it starts to burn, the structure isdestroyed, so that it comes back out of the fourth dimension. Severalpeople have assured me that it can't work. They're probably right,except that it does. Oh, I'll be back in a minute."
He went over to another group and spoke to one of its members. The manaddressed nodded his head and left. Dr. Brinton returned.
"If there are no more questions, I suggest we do some serious drinking.I am now out of a job and I want to celebrate."
* * * * *
Promptly at seven-thirty, a relay clicked and the alarm clock went intoits usual daily routine with the chimes, window, lights, and bathwater.
Dr. Brinton woke up enough to reach out a lazy arm and flip a newlyinstalled toggle switch beside his bed. Everything returned to normal.The light and the chimes both faded away, the window reopened, and asoft gurgling came from the bathroom.
A slight gurgling also came from the bed, where Dr. Brinton, with ahappy little smile on his face, had gone peacefully back to sleep,perfectly satisfied that he had worked himself into unemployment byfinding the fuel that would power spaceships to--and from--any part ofthe Solar System.
--=JACK McKENTY=
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Transcriber's Notes
This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction October 1952.Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyrighton this publication was renewed.
Italicized text is shown within _underscores_.
Bold text is shown within =equal signs=.
Thought breaks are shown by 5 asterisks:
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