TILE - Event horizon 11

"Bismuth? What on earth was he doing investigating that metal? Gosh but that's a really strange one, most people are unaware of it, though Frank Whittle may know more than I do, I believe it was tried out for low temperature casting of turbine blades but that's just a guess, I vaguely recall its being mentioned." remarked Bob Watt.

They were poring over Charles notes and especially his eccentric diagrams which were more informative than at first appeared. Funny little figures (like those that were common to illustrated bibles of the middle ages) pointed to small banners inscribed in miniscule lettering that seemed to be a mere doodle at first sight but on closer examination were additional information relevant to some part of the drawing.

"You know it almost looks like some sort of a cavity magnetron but without the electrode, well if that's what he's suggesting bismuth be used for you wouldn't need the internal magnet because the external magnetic field will induce a reverse field in the diamagnetic bismuth casting. I say George, this has tremendous potential if it works!"

"Its all that science fiction he read, gave him half baked notions derived from the misunderstood use of terms that sound mysterious yet valid since they are derived from science papers often used by these pulp writers as a flimsy excuse for a fictional tale!" snorted George.

"That's rather bloody rude of you George since I'm one of those pulp writers you dismiss so cavalierly and I think many terms or ideas my colleagues and I use to gain the readers interest are valid to extrapolate from, if only to suggest a possibility." Arthur replied wearily having had to hear similar objections from other fellow scientists though there were exceptions.

"we'll find out soon enough, now we've reset the equipment and repaired it, checked that everything is exactly in the same position as before and correctly wired up, what say to a static test to see if the equipment functions safely? Without that bismuth resonator it should be harmless," George concluded

"So I'll start on the power supply's lowest setting" he activated the electrical supply and apart from a very low humming from the transformer coils, nothing else occurred.

"Pity we can't see the magnetic fields being produced and especially their interaction" said Bob

"We can, how could I have forgotten about that ? You chaps help me carry that framework and Perspex case over to here and then a handful of iron filings should do the trick." said George enthusiastically "You know Charles loved to play with this setup and various magnets.

I built the Perspex box to hold water thickened with corn starch because he wanted to see if the filings could be persuaded to show the fields in three dimensions but try as we might, we never found a fluid to do the trick.

Sometimes when I wasn't busy with my own research, the two of us would try all sorts of magnet combinations,
I wish I'd spent more time with him, maybe I'd have been able to keep him safe from whatever it was that made him disappear."

"Its my opinion that humanity is like a lion in a parkland zoo like Whipsnade, We are kept within a spatial region large enough to satisfy our curiosity but kept safely away from the rest of the universe for their sake as much as our own safety." Arthur stated with conviction.

"They took your son because he had unwittingly crossed some line that if left untrammeled might well have eventually spelled humanity's doom. Not that nuclear weapons might not do that anyway but they probably caught them unaware, possibly even caused the interdiction or quarantine I believe we are under."