After Chow had left for the plant kitchen to prepare lunch for the boys, Tom went back to his work on the new earth blaster. Leaving the structural details for the time being, the young inventor turned his attention to some chemical experiments.
“What cooks, chum?” inquired Bud. “I mean, besides lunch.”
Tom was now mixing several chemicals in a large flask.
“I’m trying to find a new plasticizer for asbestalon,” he explained.
“A new which-icizer?”
“Plasticizer.” Tom laughed. “That’s something you put into plastics to make them tough and pliable.”
“What’s the matter with the one you have now?” Bud asked. “The plastic coating you slapped on the earth blaster seemed like pretty good insulation.”
Tom shook his head. “It’s all right for insulating the machine against the heat of the atomic pile inside. But think what would happen when we get down in those frigid temperatures at the South Pole!”
“Well, don’t keep me in suspense,” Bud pursued. “What would happen?”
“The asbestalon we have now would probably
A PERILOUS EXPERIMENT 39
turn brittle and crack in the extreme cold. So I’m trying to work out some new stuff that will be suitable for both high and low temperatures.”
Bud watched in silence as Tom stirred the mixture, then added a drop from another container.
“What’s that?” Bud demanded.
“Boron fluoride etherate.”
“Come again?”
“I’m using it as a catalyst to make the chemical reaction come off. It plays no part in the reaction itself, but it sort of sparks things for the other ingredients.
Gives them a chemical hotfoot, you might say.”
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