"E.Voiskunsky, I.Lukodyanov. The Crew Of The Mekong (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

"You can increase the tension by passing an electric current through
the mercury. Don't you remember reading about that old 'mercury heart'
experiment?"
"Why, that's right. Thanks for recalling it, Yura."
Yura made a regal gesture. "Think nothing of it."
"We'll set mercury aside for the time being," said Nikolai. "Now
consider the following. Have you noticed the way water runs along telegraph
wires in the rain?"
"An intriguing sight, isn't it?"
"The flow has a droplet-like cross-section," Nikolai went on. "Suppose
we use an electric ray instead of a wire. The ray creates a field. The field
increases the surface tension, and the cross-section builds up."
"Better not tangle with fields, old man. You and I don't know much
about them."
"We won't really tangle with them. All we need is a high-frequency
generator."
"Let's have a look at those papers," said Yura after a pause. "What
does this diagram represent?"
Nikolai sat down on the sofa beside him.
"Look here," he said. "We'll string up an inclined wire and send water
down it to a vessel at the bottom. Since we know the time and the amount of
water we'll be able to calculate the speed at which it moves. We'll measure
the cross-section of the droplets and calculate their surface tension. Then
we'll put a spiral round the wire-"
"I get the point-a resonance circuit and superimposed frequencies."
Yura sprang to his feet. "Give me some wire!"
Nikolai's grey eyes wrinkled in a smile. Once Yura was hooked on an
idea his energy knew no bounds.
Yura pulled off his shirt, tossed his hair back off his forehead and
produced a screwdriver from his pocket. It was his favourite screwdriver,
for which he had made a hollow plastic handle, with a neon indicator lamp
inside it, in his student days. He carried the screwdriver everywhere he
went. Like Roland's sword, it had a name of its own. It was called Durandal.
"We'll disembowel your radio set for a start," Yura said. "But don't
worry, we'll only remove the input circuit. And the heterodyne." He turned
the set Over on its side and went at it with his screwdriver. "We'll take
out the giblets. Don't just stand there, Nick. Go out on the gallery and put
the wire up."
Working away busily, Yura went on. "A great man once said the true
experimenter can set up any kind of experiment with three sticks, a piece of
rubber, a glass tube, and some of his own saliva."


CHAPTER FIVE


IN WHICH THE READER GETS TO KNOW ANATOLE BENEDICTOV BETTER


Anatole Benedictov switched on the motor. The belt drive made a