Appleton, Victor – Tom Swift Jr 05 – And His Atomic Earth Blaster

Next, he picked up the telephone and dialed one of the inside numbers at Swift Enterprises.

“Have the tractor truck with the experimental blaster driven around to my lab, please,” he ordered.

When the truck arrived, Tom began making blueprints for the new blaster.

From time to time, he would refer to the experimental model or remove one of the inner parts for close inspection and testing.

After a hasty lunch, the young inventor put in a call to Uncle Ned Newton at the Swift Construction Company.

“What’s up, Tom?”

“Uncle Ned, how soon can you start building my new blaster at the construction plant?”

“Do you have any working drawings for us?”

“Yes, the design is pretty well jelled. I can send over the drawings later this afternoon and meet with your engineers tomorrow.”

“Fast work, Tom! Glad to hear it. I’ll assign a team for the project immediately. By the way, what kind of steel will you need?”

“The best. I’ll need a high-strength alloy that will stand up at high temperatures and have strong resistance to corrosive gases.”

“All right,” Uncle Ned replied. “I have a batch of chrome-nickel-moly that should fill the bill. And

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we’ll look for those drawings before quitting time today!”

In midafternoon, as Tom was finishing the last of his sketches, Chow Winkler dropped in to discuss food supplies needed for the South Pole expedition.

“That sure is a mean-lookin’ contraption you got parked outside!” the cook added. “Is that what you’re diggin’ through to China with?”

“Not exactly.” Tom grinned. “That’s only my experimental model. The blaster we take down to the South Pole will be somewhat different.”