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THE LUCIFER DEVICE

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robunos:
Next part, I apologise, it's rather long . . .



TWO: THE NATURE OF THE DEVICE


H.G.Wells registered the faint look of surprise on the Prime Minister's face as he entered the room.
"I can see that the 'Mr. Wells' you were expecting to see was not I"
"Er . . . no . . .", Lloyd George replied, the great Welsh orator momentarily lost for words.
"That is to be expected", Wells continued, "but as I am sure you will appreciate, as a so-called 'wordsmith", and also being somewhat versed in matters scientific, I will, I am sure, be able to assist you in coming to an understanding of the facts and concepts I am about to explain to you."
"Very well", replied the Prime Minister, his demeanour restored, "please begin."
Wells reached into his waistcoat pocket, and produced a small, square, flat, leather covered box, exactly like like a coin case. Deftly, Wells opened it with one hand. Inside, cushioned by black velvet, lay a gold Sovereign coin, except this Sovereign was a deep gray colour, but with an odd purplish red tinge, as it's surfaces caught the sunlight from the office window.
"Is that a Sovereign ?", asked Lloyd George, struggling to comprehend why the coin he could see was not the bright yellow gold of all the previous sovereigns he had seen.
"It is indeed a Sovereign," replied Wells, however, it is not legal tender, for it is not made from gold, but rather from Carolinum . . ."
"And what, may I ask, is Carolinum ?" Lloyd George enquired.
"Are you familiar with the Periodic Table of the Elements ?" asked Wells.
"I am disappointed to say that I am not . . .", replied Lloyd George, somewhat sheepishly.
"That is understandable, but not insurmountable." Wells intoned . . .
Over the span of the following hour or so, Wells explained to the Prime Minister that the Periodic Table was effectively a list of the various  chemical elements found in nature, the atoms of which made up all the matter that physically existed in the world, the iron and steel of His Majesty's battleships, the water that made up the seas upon which they floated, the lead of the bullets currently being fired on the Western Front, the wood from which the aeroplanes that flew over that Front were built, indeed, even the air that these craft flew in. Everything that existed on the Earth, in the universe, even, was comprised of the chemical elements found in nature.
 He then explained that these elements were not the only ones that were actually capable of existing. That they did not exist, was because, either they were unstable, and quickly broke down, or were incapable of being produced by natural processes. However, Man's ingenuity had once again triumphed, and some of these 'new' elements had been produced. Most were, indeed, highly unstable, disintegrating within minutes or even seconds of being made, leaving behind only common materials such as Carbon or Lead. One element, however was different. Carolinum, as it was named, proved to be exactly the opposite. Once produced, it was stable, and behaved like any other ordinary metal, hence the coin.
"Look for yourself," Wells said, proffering the coin to Lloyd George. Lloyd George took the coin. His first thought was how heavy it was. "One and a half times as heavy as lead, but not quite as hard, " said Wells, " we had quite the game striking that coin ! Work started into seeing if the stuff could be used for bullets,or shells, or bombs, and that's when it happened . . ."
"When what happened ?"
"When exposed to a  combination of certain industrial chemical substances, and Oxygen, Carolinum spontaneously disintegrates. This disintegration is utter and complete, yielding only gaseous substances, Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Hydrogen, along with some Carbon. This process is also hugely energetic, indeed violently so . . .
"In other words, an explosive, a bomb." interjected Lloyd George.
"We prefer to call it a 'Device', in fact we call it the 'Lucifer Device'." Churchill declared, cutting off Lloyd George in mid-sentence . . .




TO BE CONTINUED.


cheers,
Robin.

apophenia:
Love it  :-*  So, poor old Charles Baskerville is vindicated!  Bring on the berzelium bomb  :smiley:

robunos:
Yes, it's my take on H.G.Wells' 'The World Set Free', ported across into the world of the Great War, and after . . .  ;)




cheers,
Robin.

robunos:

THREE: MORE OF THE DEVICE, AND OF IT'S MISSION


"Just how powerful is this 'Device' ?" asked Lloyd George, a nimbus of understanding crossing his face.
"Very powerful, "replied Wells. "When disintegrated in the manner described above, the coin in your hand releases the same amount of energy as a standard No.5 Mills Bomb. A pound of Carolinum has the explosive power of an 8-inch Naval shell, and a hundredweight, that of a battleship salvo. We have not dared to test a ton of the stuff. . . ", Wells continued, " There is one further property of Carolinum that you should be aware of. The disintegration process is not instantaneous, but continuing, the half-life is roughly 31 days . . ."
"Half-life ?" Lloyd George interjected again. He pu the coin down, somewhat nervously. "I'm afraid I'm also not familiar with that term. "
" I'm sorry," replied Wells, "I should have explained it to you earlier on in our exposition. 'Half-Life' refers to the amount of time for half of the mass of one of our artificial elements to disintegrate, or 'decay', as we term it. For most of the elements we have manufactured, the half-life is of the order of a few second, or less. For Carolinum, it is 31 and a half days. This means that, suppose we take a pound of Carolinum, and induce it to decay, after 31 1/2 days, we will still have half a pound remaining. After a second 31 1/2 days a quarter of a pound, and so on.
"In other words," Lloyd George said, his rising voice betraying his understanding of the enormity of what had just been explained to him, "the explosion continues, until the vast majority of the Carolinum is gone !"
"Exactly !" Wells pronounced. "The more Carolinum you have to begin with, not only the larger the 'Explosion' will be, but the longer it will continue for."
"And can this process be stopped ?" Lloyd George asked, still somewhat excited.
"As far as we can ascertain, no. " Wells replied. The disintegration continues until every last atom of Carolinum has decayed. Of course, once only a tiny quantity remains, the 'explosion' will be little more than a nuisance, but it will not cease until all of the Carolinum is utterly destroyed."
"Ahh, now I understand," the Prime Minister said, calming down somewhat, "so what you are  proposing is . . ."
"To drop a large Carolinum aerial bomb into Zeebrugge harbour, as close to the lock gates as we can," said Churchill beating him to the punch. " a large enough device will produce enough explosive force to destroy the lock, and the continuing explosion should act to prevent any attempt at repairs. One of our Handley-Pages will be able to carry a suitable Device."
"I can see how this will end the immediate U-Boat menace, " Lloyd George replied, somewhat puzzled, "but I fail to see how this could end the War ?"
Churchill looked the Prime Minister full in the face. "As you well know, the Headquarters of the  German Army, and the Kaiser, are situated at Spa, in Belgium, which is also within flying distance for our Handley-Pages . . ."


 TO BE CONTINUED


cheers,
Robin.

robunos:

FOUR: ORFORD NESS


"Lovely morning, welcome to Orford Ness." Wells addressed the Prime Minister. It was 8'o'clock. The air was still chilly, but the temperature would soon rise as the sun climbed into the blue, cloudless sky above the Suffolk coast. Lloyd George mumbled something anodyne in response. As far as he was concerned, it most definitely was NOT a 'lovely morning'.  He had been unable to sleep on the overnight train to Ipswich, and the car journey from there to the RAF Station at Orford Ness had been anything but comfortable. And he still hadn't had any breakfast.
"I apologise for the early hour", Wells continued, "but we like to set these things off early, before too many of the locals are out and about." Lloyd George surveyed the scene. Apart from the huts and hangars of the experimental station, there was no other sign of human habitation. "We're going to go up into the dunes for the actual demonstration, then it's back to the Officer's Mess for breakfast". Lloyd George's ears pricked up at the mention of breakfast. "It's in the nearby Hotel", Wells continued, referring to the Mess. "They've retained the Chef's services, he's excellent!", Wells kept speaking, as he moved off towards a squad of armed airmen, "Do keep up, or we won't get to see the fireworks!". Feeling a little brighter now, Lloyd George followed  closely behind him.
Walking briskly, the two men followed the quartet of armed guards across the corner of the shingle beach airfield, towards the barbed wire perimeter fence. As they approached the fence, a waiting sentry opened a gate in the fence, allowing access to a narrow track leading into the coastal dunes. The track was narrow, only wide enough for single file, and threaded it's way between the taller dunes. Two of the guards led the way, followed by Wells, and then the Prime Minister, the remaining two guards bringing up the rear. As they went, Lloyd George noticed that some of the dunes seemed to be emitting purplish grey smoke from their crests. Drawing Wells' attention to this, Wells replied "Old tests. When we've made all our measurements, recorded all our data, and the explosion's died down a bit, we fill the pits in, and let the Carolinum decay away. The sand contains these things remarkably well. Good job too, otherwise it would be like Hades hereabouts!".
Presently, rounding a large dune, they came across a large, freshly excavated pit, about 100 yards across, and 30 yards deep, resembling a shell crater. Stationed around the crater rim were several heavily built steel boxes, about the size of a large garden shed, with a door on the side facing away from  the crater, and vision slits in the side facing towards it.
The leading guards approached the nearest shed, and one of them opened the door.
 "In 'ere, if you please, gents,", he said, in his best posh East End accent. Wells and the Prime Minister entered, the friendly guard clanging the steel door shut behind them. With a metallic 'clunk', the door was fastened shut. Before Lloyd George could speak, a sliding shutter in the door opened, and our friend the guard addressed the two 'prisoners'."We'll soon be ready for the orf, gents." he said, cheerily, "make yourselves at home!".
"Thank you, Doolittle", replied Wells, as the shutter clicked shut again.


TO BE CONTINUED.


cheers,
Robin.

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