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289
Astounding Stories of Super-Science, August 1930
·
Various
241
----AND
OTHERS!]
The
Flying
City
By
H.
Thompson
Rich
[Sidenote:
From
Space
came
Cor's
disc-city
of
Vada--its
mighty,
age-old
engines
weakening--its
horde
of
dwarfs
hungry
for
the
Earth!]
In
the
burning
solitude
of
the
great
Arizona
desert,
some
two
miles
south
of
Ajo,
a
young
scientist
was
about
to
perform
an
experiment
that
might
have
far-reaching
results
for
humanity.
The
scientist
was
Gordon
Kendrick--a
tall,
tanned,
robust
chap
who
looked
more
like
a
prospector
in
search
of
gold
than
a
professor
of
physics
from
the
State
University
of
Tucson.
Indeed,
he
was
in
a
way,
a
prospector,
since
it
was
gold
he
sought--some
practical
method
of
tapping
the
vast
radio-energetic
treasure
of
the
sun--and
it
was
an
apparatus
designed
to
accomplish
just
this
that
he
was
about
to
test.
The
primary
unit
of
the
mechanism
comprised
a
spheroidal
vacuum-tube
measuring
a
little
over
a
foot
across
its
long
axis,
mounted
in
a
steel
bracket
that
held
it
horizontal
with
the
ground.
Down
through
its
short
axis
ran
a
shaft
on
which
was
centered
a
light
cross
of
aluminum
wire,
carrying
four
vanes
of
mica,
one
face
of
each
coated
with
lampblack.
A
flexible
cable
led
from
the
bottom
of
this
shaft
to
the
base
of
the
bracket,
where
it
was
geared
to
a
small
electric
motor
driven
by
two
dry
cells.
A
rheostat-switch
for
delivering
and
controlling
the
current
was
mounted
nearby.
At
the
wide
arc
of
the
egg-shaped
tube
was
a
concave
platinum
cathode,
at
the
narrow
arc
a
nib
of
some
sort,
ending
in
a
socket.
From
this
socket,
two
heavy
insulated
wires
extended
sixty
feet
or
so
across
the
sand
to
the
secondary
unit
of
the
mechanism,
which
was
roughly
a
series
of
resistance
coils,
resembling
those
in
an
ordinary
electric
heater.
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