The beam tubes were fired up, and the smell of ozone began to make itself prominent. Channing cranked up the air-vent capacity to remove the ozone more swiftly. The men applied themselves to the detector circuits, and Wes, who recognized the results, said: "This hunk works. About as good as the whole coil."
Channing replaced the first coil with the second. Wes inspected the results and said: "Not quite as good, but it does work."
Walt nodded, and said: "Maybe it should be incandescent."
"That's a thought. Our solar beam uses an incandescent dynode." Channing removed the second coil and handed it to Freddy. "Take this thing down to the metallurgical lab and tell 'em to analyze it right down to the trace of sodium that seems to be in everything. I want quantitative figures on every element in it. Also, cut off a hunk and see if the crystallographic expert can detect anything peculiar, that would make this hunk of copper wire different from any other hunk. Follow?"
"Yup," said Freddy. "We'll also start making similar alloys with a few percent variation on the composition metals. Right?"
"That's the ticket. Wes, can we evacuate a tube with this wire in it and make it incandescent?"
"Let's evacuate the room. I like that stunt."
"You're the engineer on this trick. Do it your way."
"Thanks. I get the program, all right. Why not have Charley build us a modulator for the driver tube? Then when we get this thing perfected, we'll have some way to test it."
"Can do, Charley?"