Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 46 — page 117: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION vited to attend his lecture, turned from the study of the apparatus that filled nearly all of the rostrum, towering high on either side with banks of dials and cathode-ray tubes, to greet his entrance. The white wall of daily newspapers that hid the back rows flut- tered in unison and dropped momentarily, to be lifted again more discreetly. Albert quitted his post, and the lecture began. “This morning,” said the Professor, apparently address- ing the projector in the centre of the audience, eight rows back, “‘I am going to demon- strate an impossible experi- ment to you.” If he had hoped to get a reaction from his listeners, he was disappointed. A few polite smiles from those. nearest to him were all that greeted his opening statement. He con- tinued: “It concerns a branch of applied mathematics with which you are all familiar to a greater or lesser degree; a branch which has been given the name of Topology.” An earnest-looking student in the front row twisted a strip of mauve blotting paper into the form of a Moebius band, in an absent-minded fashion. 116 The remainder of the audience was by now beginning to detect a pleased ring in his voice, and a number of those in the centre rows put down their crosswords and prepared to listen with more or less attention. “As you see,” he went on, ‘the demonstration apparatus is fairly complex. On my right’’—he waved in the direc- tion of an assembly of wires and enamelled boxes—“you will see the power supply to a pair of plates, one of which is imbedded in the floor directly in front of me, and the other in the ceiling above.” He pointed with a piece of chalk, and about half of the audience followed the gesture. The plates were about three feet square, made of copper, and slightly hollowed towards their centres. *‘When the power supply is switched on, there is formed between the plates, as you can readily imagine, an electrical field of no little strength.” Here, a number of the oc- cupants of the back rows put down their papers, too. The possibility of electrocution may have entered their heads. In any case, the old boy sounded more promising than usual. The Professor crossed to the blackboard. connicloooks.comhn