"Go on. I'm interested even though I do not climb the chandelier and scream, beating my manly chest."
"Oil switches are cumbersome. Any other means of breaking contact is equally cumbersome if it is to handle much power. My alloy is non-arcing. It will not sustain an arc, even though the highest current and voltage are broken."
"Now I am really interested," admitted Channing. "Oil switches in a spaceship are a definite drawback."
"I know. So—here we are."
"What's the rest of this stuff?" asked Channing, laying a hand on the glassware.
"Be careful!" said Farrell in concern. "That's hot stuff."
"Oh?"
"In order to get some real voltages and currents to break without running the main Station bus through here, I cooked this stuff up. The plate-grilleworks in the large tubes exhibit a capacity between them of about one microfarad. Empty, that is, or I should say precisely point nine eight microfarads in vacuuo. The fluid is of my own devising, concocted for the occasion, and has a dielectric constant of thirteen times ten to the sixth power. It—"
"Great Howling Rockets!" exploded Channing. "That makes the overall capacity equal to thirteen farads!"
"Just about. Well, I have the condenser charged to three kilovolts, and then I discharge it through this switch made of the non-arcing alloy. Watch! No, Don, from back here, please, behind this safety glass."