"We have a detector. It is about as efficient as a slab of marble; only more so. We can get a tinkle of about ten micromicroamps at twenty feet distance from a driver tube using eight KVA input, which if we rate this in the usual spaceship efficiency, comes to about one-half G. That's about standard, for driver tubes, since they run four to a ship at 2-G total.
"Now, that is peanuts. We should be able to wind a megameter around the peg at twenty feet. Why the red ionization comes out of the tube and hits our so-called detector, and the amount of ozone it creates is terrific. Yet we can't get a good reading out of it."
Walt asked: "Wes, what worked, finally?"
"A four-turn coil on a ceramic form, in series with a twenty micromicrofarad tuning condenser. I've been using a circular plate as a collector."
"Does it tune?"
"Nope. Funny thing, though, it won't work without a condenser in the circuit. I can use anything at all there without tuning it. But, darn it, the coil is the only one that works."
"That's slightly ridiculous. Have you reconstructed all factors?"
"Inductance, distributed capacity, and factor 'Q' are all right on the button with two more I made. Nothing dioding."
"Hm-m-m. This takes the cake. Nothing works, you say?"
"Nothing in my mind. I've tried about three hundred similar coils, and not a wiggle since. That's the only one."