Page 68 - Astounding Pulp V2

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68 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FI-CTION

" Brugh . had ac_cepted Dixon's idea. h And with it,_ the newly createcl man's
How about gettmg yourself added to opes went fly1t1g out i nto nothi1wness
our staff in a few years? It would mean h But somehow he felt much bette; tha . 1nnnsmurn1mn, 1939 ~
a lot to science. and the board of direc- e should .. He handed it back fo B rngt
tors couldn't refuse the appointment if :nd the sigh he achieved was halt
you'd force a little thought into their 1earted. Kitty's eyes noticed I . f' ~ Bg Jff CK Hff TCHfR
11111
empty heads." the first time. . . , 0 1
Hermes had . b~en considering it, and She squeaked delightedly /'OI
·
1, ·w 1at
the prospect appealed to him. But a pretty 1 n,an · , WI 1at's your name?" 1
1
H
Tanya wouldn't like it, prooably. H e'd ermes heart went out to her I-{
have to see ' her before he could make
stooped and picked her up in his ;tron;
any decision. Of course, now that he youn~ arms, strokin·u her hair "I'
was a real man instead of a rubber the little aod Kt O • • • 111
• t:> ' 1 ty. I m you1· Hermes
statue, she couldn't refuse him.
~n a new body. Do you iike it i>" .
She snuggled up "U 1 · · .
THERE WAS an interruption from the nice." Th · m- imm. I t 's
door, a small child's voice. "Daddy in . ere was no surprise for her The modern scientist bas Jong known the alchemist pursued a hopeless
anythmg Hennes might do H
daddy, are Y?U there?" The doer swun~ dream. But, strangely, that modern scient-ist j s hotter on the trail
tu~·,ned back to the three men the.n. e
op~n ~nd Kitty Brugh came tripping in. of that not-so-hopeless dream than ever was the alchemist of old J
Dr. Brugh. I've decided to accept
Kitty, you don't belong here." your _offer._ I'd like nothing better than
Brugh faced her with a scowl of ancoy- w~~lang w_1th all of you here at Corton." "TODAY I made some cadmium!" If recipe would suffice for making gold if
ance. "I'm busy." Phi Iii pus Aerolus Paracelsus Theo- · platinum is used in place of silver, but
. Splendid, my boy. Splendid
"B . I H1ram ?" · E l 1 , phrastus E remhite von Hohenheim had that would hardly be r1;uch help, either;
ut. mamma sent me." Her voice
was plaintive. "She gave me th'is tele- h. They crowded arouncl him, shaking been able to write that in his diary! But how about the old tnck of gold from
gram to bring you." to us it was only a routine lecture ex- mercury? VI e can clo that, loo, nowa-
~s handJ and he_ thoroughly enjoyed days ; in fact, we can make almost any-
Br~gh ~ook it an,? read it through, his t e flattery of their respect . B t periment for the freshmen, that took ten
face l1ghtrng up. Great luck," he told fh" · · u most minutes. For demonstration purposes thing out of anything else! But let us
o is thoughts were centered on Kitt go back to the beginning of things.
Hermes, handing it over. "I never we used a very pretty paraffin sphere as
~fter all; she ·was the only woman--1'; In 500 B. C., Democratus had a rough
thought Tanya would chose so well." gtrl-:-who. had treated him \.vith any the philosopher's stone, but Paracelsus idea of atoms and molecules as indi-
The telegram was as simple as most cons1derat1011, and her little mind was might well have used a common bucket visible units of matter, but by Paracel-
telegrams are : · open and honest. S he'd make a won- of water. The recipe is siO'lple enough: sus' time most of the Greek knowledge
derful woman in ten more years.
HA VE MARRIED WILL YOUNG Ten more years; and he wasn't so J small pinch powdered boron. was lost, and one substance, be it ele-
AND ON HONEYMOON IN MILLS- J small bubble radon, or small pinch ment compound, or mixture, was as
1
BURG STOP EVER SO HAPPY very old himself. There migh·t be hope radium. Mix well, and seal in good' as anoth~r-wi~h t) e possible ex-
STOP LOVE TANYA there yet. a capsule. - ception of a shght bias 111 favor of the
1 piece silver. more malodorous compounds. W hen
Place the silver and the capsule Boyle finally defined a~1 "element," and
111 the early nine-
Dalton and Avagadro
in the center of the bucket. of
QUESTION! water, and the silver will be teenth century laid the foundations for a
precise formulation o( the atomic theory,
transmuted to cadmium.
I it was implicit in their work that an
I
Which are the I Perhaps Paracelsus wouldn't have "atom" was not only the smallest, but
I
I an ind,ivisible unit. of matter. And so
only cough drops I liked the last ingredient-after all, why it was, until Faraday, Maxwell, and the
I
I 1 tal<e silver at 50¢ an ounce, and turi:i-
I rest developed the practice and theories
containing I it into cadmium, worth about 50¢ a of electricity which provided the energy
I pound? Paracelsus want€<l gol<!, not
Vitamin,A? j ca<lmium- not· even the rare isotope of to pull an atom apart.
{CAR.01ENEJ cadmium we made. \Veil, the same Cavendish. Rutherford, J. J, Thom-
•