Science fiction -- Periodicals; Science fiction, American -- Periodicals
Lees and his detectives were fighting with no respect for the rules.
Lees managed to get his two hands on the bull-neck of Jouret just as one
detective connected a duet of blows to the man's wind.
Lees' hands closed in a steely grip, and soon Jouret was limp and
helpless.
They held him there. An ambulance arrived. A few minutes later a police
auto with reserves came on the scene. The police shackled Jouret.
The car that had been hit by the phantom was a light sedan. It was
occupied by two women. Their bodies were drawn from the wreckage. Both
were dead--innocents sacrificed to the blood madness of a maniac.
Jouret was right about himself. He was a paranoic with a strongly
developed homicidal mania.
In the wreckage was found a package containing $200,000 and also two
twisted and broken mechanisms. One of these was about the size of an
ordinary kitchen coffee-mill, and the other slightly larger.
* * * * *
Regarding these machines, Lees wrote in a report:
"While making a fourth search of Darrow's laboratory, I found the
equations, specifications and what I believe to be the full plans for
the last invention of the ingenious Darius Darrow.
"Many of the most astounding inventions and discoveries have resulted
from theories which were laughed to scorn at the time they were
advanced. Roebling's plans for the Brooklyn Bridge resulted in a meeting
of the foremost engineers of the day. All agreed that the plans were
built on a false premise. They argued that the bridge would fall of its
own weight. Then they all had a good laugh. The bridge still stands.
"Watching smoke float over a hill from army camp fires caused an early
French scientist to dream of filling a bag full of smoke and riding with
it over the hill. The first balloon was the answer to this dream.
"James Watt is said to have gotten his idea for a steam engine from
watching a lid on a tea-kettle dance under steam pressure.
"When Langley was flying his man-carrying kites the Wright brothers
dreamed of hitching an engine and a propeller to a giant kite. The
airplane was the result of these experiments.
* * * * *
"Darrow got his idea from watching a rapidly revolving wheel. He noticed
that the spokes and rim blended into a blurred disc when a certain speed
was reached. The entire wheel was practically invisible, under certain
lighting conditions, when a higher speed was attained.
"Darrow went further and reached the conclusion that there was a rate of
vibration that would produce invisibility. This was accepted in
practically all engineering research plants, long before it was
perfected by Darrow.
"The facts are that any rapidly vibrating object becomes more and more
difficult to outline as its rate of vibration increases. All that was
left for Darrow was to arrive at the exact mathematical time, tone, or
rate of vibration producing invisibility and to construct a vibrator
tuned to produce this condition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account