“Quite a puzzle,” Mr. Swift murmured.
“My guess is that the rocket’s built of a radiosensitive alloy which enables it to be moved by remote control,” Tom said. “Same as the space ark.”
His father nodded. “Yes, I remember your report. Seems to be the only possible explanation. Well, let’s put a sample under the spectrograph and see what we can learn.”
The Swift spectrograph, an amazing invention which Tom Sr. and Tom Jr.
had worked out together, combined features of both the mass spectroscope and optical types. It could analyze any substance into its chemical components and identify each element or its various isotopes.
Tom began the test by cutting out a small piece of the missile’s fuselage.
This proved to be twin-walled with a strange mudlike insulation hje-tween the two thin layers of metal. The spectro-THE ROCKET’S SECRET 137
graph showed that the metal itself, as Tom had guessed, was an alloy of several elements-one of them totally unknown to the Swifts!
“Now let’s analyze the stuff that’s packed in between,” Tom said.
Smearing some on a slide, Mr. Swift peered at it through a microscope. The “mud” contained a crystalline grit. It was embedded in a dark sticky binder, which turned out to be a claylike silicate. But the spectrograph showed that the crystals were the same mysterious element that Tom had found in the metal alloy. In crystalline form, however, the metal was radioactive!
“Dad!” Tom cried excitedly. “Maybe we can make this element synthetically in an atomic reactor and use it in our rocket ships!”