This means our atomicar announcement will have to be postponed, and I won’t even be able to use the special lab for the next few days.”
The young inventor was not deterred from work by the accident. He decided, for the balance of the afternoon, to use one of the smaller labs and try some further communications experimenting with his zircon-arc powered ruby maser.
“Want to watch?” he invited Bud.
“Sure. I haven’t seen this gadget of yours yet.”
The boys entered the lab, and Bud took a close look at his friend’s device.
“Hmm, looks like a fancy searchlight-set on an oversized pistol. Okay, Prof.
Give me a breakdown of what’s what.”
Tom grinned and pointed to the larger end of the cone-shaped metal contrivance’s housing. “Inside this part is a powering light reflector, flash lamp, and condenser for the powering light.” Tom’s finger moved to the narrowed “neck” of the device. “In here is the ruby rod itself.”
The smaller end of the maser contained the focusing output lenses.
AROUSED SUSPICIONS 35
“And what are these for?” Bud inquired, pointing to two flexible tubes leading into the ruby-rod section.
“They’re for cooling the rod-which is silvered at both ends-by a flow of fluid through them. This third tube powers the flash lamp.”
“And what’s this part that reminds me of a gun trigger?”
“It’s a hand mount. And the ‘trigger’ here is the switch for turning on the power.”
On top of the ruby-rod section was a control for focusing, and underneath the base of the maser was a mount for tripod operation.
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