Appleton, Victor – Tom Swift Jr 22 – And His Repelatron Skyway

That afternoon Bud found Tom in the hangar machine shop, at work on the road-laying gear.

“What cooks, genius boy?” Bud inquired.

Tom explained that he was installing an extrusion die at each side of the pouring slot. “They’ll form a small channel along each side of the highway. And as the road is laid, a continuous length of wire will be inserted in each channel, to provide the highway with guardrails.”

“Guardrails! For what-ants?” Bud stared at his friend. “One wire on each side-and not even raised above the road surface. How can that protect anything from falling off?”

Tom chuckled. “Don’t jump to conclusions, fly-boy. The wires won’t be the guardrails-they’ll provide the guardrails.”

Tom took a pencil and sketched out his idea.

SUPERWORMS 119

“You see, those wires will be transmitting antennas, connected to a repelatron generator for each side of the highway. The wires will project a curtain of repelatron rays upward from the road surface on each side. And since they’ll be full-spectrum rays, capable of repelling all forms of matter, no vehicle or pedestrian will be able to break through the curtain.”

The following week Kwanu and a number of other Ngombian officials arrived for the demonstration. They gasped as the highway took shape in mid-air, in the wake of Tom’s skimming graphicopter. A sloping approach was laid at both ends of the span. Then the guardrail antenna wires were installed.

Next, a fleet of cars and trucks was driven over the skyway. Several of the drivers deliberately tried to ram their vehicles off the edge of the span-much to the Ngombians’