"Here's where we open a psychopathic ward," said Arden sadly. "So far, Venus Equilateral is the only community that hasn't had a village idiot. But no longer are we unique. Seriously, Walt?"
"Sure enough," said Channing. "He's got an idea here that may work with a little tinkering."
"Brother Edison, we salute you," said Arden. "How does it work?"
"Poorly. Punk. Lousy."
"Well, sound recording has come a long way from the tinfoil cylinder that scratches out: 'Mary had a little lamb!' And transportation has come along swell from the days of sliding sledges. You may have the nucleus of an idea, Walt. But I meant its operation instead of its efficiency."
"We have an electron gun of super size," explained Walt. "The cathode is a big affair six feet in diameter and capable of emitting a veritable storm of electrons. We accelerate them by means of properly spaced anodes of the proper voltage level, and we focus them into a nice bundle by means of electrostatic lenses—"
"Whoa, Tillie. You're talking like the Venerable Buck himself. Say that in language, please."
"Well, we work at swords' points whenever we try to accelerate electrons to high speeds and focus them at the same time," said Walt. "A voltage gradient will cause electrons to change their course like a lens, and with the usual trouble with inanimate things, it works the wrong way. In order to accelerate the electrons emitted from the cathode, they are subjected to the attraction of an anode which is operating at a high positive potential. The electrons leave the cathode, and as they are attracted by the positive anode, they begin to move.
"Now it is common to speak of the velocity of an electron by stating the quantity of volts that the electron has fallen through. The higher the voltage difference between cathode and anode, the faster the electron will go.
"But the stream of electrons will be diverged if it falls through a field of increasing positive potential. In order to bring the stream to a focus, we must follow the first anode with another anode of a potential less than the first anode but still higher than the cathode. That bollixes up the works. It focuses the stream and slows it at the same time. So we follow this anode with another high positive electrode and speed them up again, and then focus them and so on until we get the required velocity. These anodes are shaped like rings so that their electrostatic effect will exist in the center of them; the beam passes through this center."