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He strode toward the door; the soldiers parted deferentially. As Amalfi's hand
reached for the button to let him out, the big man whirled. "And you need not
attempt to trip any hidden alarms," he growled. "Your city has already been
boarded in a dozen places and is under the guns of four cruisers."
"Do you think you can win technical information by force?" Amalfi said.
"Oh yes," said the Margraf, his eyes shining dangerously. "We are-experts."
Carrel, Hazleton's protege1, was a very plausible lecturer, and seemed
completely at home in the echoing, barbaric gorgeousness of the Margraf s
Council Chamber. He had attached his charts to the nearest tapestry and had
propped his blackboard on the arms of the great chair in which, Amalfi
supposed, the Margraf usually sat; his chalk traced swift symbols on the slate
and squeaked deafening-ly in the groined vault of the room.
The Margraf himself had left; five minutes of Carrel's talk had been enough to
arouse his impatience. The Graf
Nand6r was still there, wearing the suffering expression of a man delegated to
do the dirty work. So were four or five other nobles. Three of these were
chattering in the back of the room with muffled sniggers, and a raucous laugh
broke in upon Carrel's dissertation every so often. The remaining peacocks,
evidently of subordinate ranks, were seated, Sstening with painful,
brow-furrowing concentration, like ham actors overregistering Deep Thought.
"This will be enough to show the analogy between atomic and molecular binding
energies," Carrel said smoothly. "The Hamiltonians"-he had seen that the word
annoyed the peacocks and used it often-"the Hamiltonians have shown, not only
that this binding energy is responsible for the phenomena of cohesion,
adhesion, and friction, but also that it is subject to a relationship
analogous to valence."
The appearance of concentration of the nobles became so grave as to be
outright grotesque. "This phenomenon of molar valence, as the Hamiltonians
have aptly named it, is intensified by the friction-fields which they have
designed into a condition analogous to ionization.The surface layers of
molecules of two contiguous surfaces come into dynamic equilibrium in the
field; they change places continuously and rapidly, but without altering the
status quo, so that a shear-plane is readily established between the roughest
surfaces. It is evident that this equilibrium does not in any sense do away
with the binding forces in question, and that a certain amount of drag, or
friction, still remains-but only about a tenth of the resistance which obtains
even with the best systems of gross lubrication."
The nobles nodded together. Amalfi gave over watching them; the Hruntan
technicians worried him most. There were an even dozen of them, a number of
which the Margraf seemed fond. Four were humble, frightened-looking creatures
who seemed to regard Carrel with more than a little awe. They scribbled
frantically, fighting to take down every word, even material which was of no
conceivable importance, such as Carrel's frequent pats on the back of the
Hamiltonians.
All but one of the rest were well-dressed, hard-faced men who treated the
nobles with only perfunctory deference, and who took no notes at all. This
type was also quite familiar in a barbarian milieu: head scientists, direc-
tors, entirely committed to the regime, entirely aware of how crucial they
were to its successes, and already infected with the aristocratic virus of
letting lesser men dirty their hands with actual messy laboratory experiments.
Probably some of them owed their positions as much to a ruthless skill at
court intrigue as to any great scientific ability.
But the twelfth man was of a different order altogether. He was tall, spare,
and sparse-haired, and his face as he listened to Carrel was alive with
excitement. An active brain, this one, doubtless politically unconscious,
hardly caring who ruled it as long as it had equipment and a free hand. The [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl wyciskamy.pev.pl
He strode toward the door; the soldiers parted deferentially. As Amalfi's hand
reached for the button to let him out, the big man whirled. "And you need not
attempt to trip any hidden alarms," he growled. "Your city has already been
boarded in a dozen places and is under the guns of four cruisers."
"Do you think you can win technical information by force?" Amalfi said.
"Oh yes," said the Margraf, his eyes shining dangerously. "We are-experts."
Carrel, Hazleton's protege1, was a very plausible lecturer, and seemed
completely at home in the echoing, barbaric gorgeousness of the Margraf s
Council Chamber. He had attached his charts to the nearest tapestry and had
propped his blackboard on the arms of the great chair in which, Amalfi
supposed, the Margraf usually sat; his chalk traced swift symbols on the slate
and squeaked deafening-ly in the groined vault of the room.
The Margraf himself had left; five minutes of Carrel's talk had been enough to
arouse his impatience. The Graf
Nand6r was still there, wearing the suffering expression of a man delegated to
do the dirty work. So were four or five other nobles. Three of these were
chattering in the back of the room with muffled sniggers, and a raucous laugh
broke in upon Carrel's dissertation every so often. The remaining peacocks,
evidently of subordinate ranks, were seated, Sstening with painful,
brow-furrowing concentration, like ham actors overregistering Deep Thought.
"This will be enough to show the analogy between atomic and molecular binding
energies," Carrel said smoothly. "The Hamiltonians"-he had seen that the word
annoyed the peacocks and used it often-"the Hamiltonians have shown, not only
that this binding energy is responsible for the phenomena of cohesion,
adhesion, and friction, but also that it is subject to a relationship
analogous to valence."
The appearance of concentration of the nobles became so grave as to be
outright grotesque. "This phenomenon of molar valence, as the Hamiltonians
have aptly named it, is intensified by the friction-fields which they have
designed into a condition analogous to ionization.The surface layers of
molecules of two contiguous surfaces come into dynamic equilibrium in the
field; they change places continuously and rapidly, but without altering the
status quo, so that a shear-plane is readily established between the roughest
surfaces. It is evident that this equilibrium does not in any sense do away
with the binding forces in question, and that a certain amount of drag, or
friction, still remains-but only about a tenth of the resistance which obtains
even with the best systems of gross lubrication."
The nobles nodded together. Amalfi gave over watching them; the Hruntan
technicians worried him most. There were an even dozen of them, a number of
which the Margraf seemed fond. Four were humble, frightened-looking creatures
who seemed to regard Carrel with more than a little awe. They scribbled
frantically, fighting to take down every word, even material which was of no
conceivable importance, such as Carrel's frequent pats on the back of the
Hamiltonians.
All but one of the rest were well-dressed, hard-faced men who treated the
nobles with only perfunctory deference, and who took no notes at all. This
type was also quite familiar in a barbarian milieu: head scientists, direc-
tors, entirely committed to the regime, entirely aware of how crucial they
were to its successes, and already infected with the aristocratic virus of
letting lesser men dirty their hands with actual messy laboratory experiments.
Probably some of them owed their positions as much to a ruthless skill at
court intrigue as to any great scientific ability.
But the twelfth man was of a different order altogether. He was tall, spare,
and sparse-haired, and his face as he listened to Carrel was alive with
excitement. An active brain, this one, doubtless politically unconscious,
hardly caring who ruled it as long as it had equipment and a free hand. The [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]