Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, No. 56 — page 73: what you’re looking at

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

POCKET LABORATORIES I have set the best of our technicians to work making test tubes, thermo- meters, fractionating columns, electro- lytic cells, furnaces and such which can only be useful when observed micro- scopically. A lapidiarist is making for me an exquisite little synthetic diamond milling machine for preliminary crush- ing of dust particles. An ultrasonics expert is making a little resonance case in which the crushed dust can be further reduced to particles so fine that by comparison a wisp of cigarette smoke is a hundredweight of coke. Finally, I shall have a dozen or so pocket cases each of which is a laboratory in itself. These will be for my Own purposes purely as a research chemist. The air tests will be for the welfare of my fellow explorers and for the success of the expedition. In similar manner, on landing, I shall have to make my first tasks those that are necessary for our immediate progress. WATER—IF ANY I have requested that any water that may be found shall be left for me to analyse in situ. I shall have been in- formed already by the physicist of any radioactivity in excess of safety inten- sity. I shall not, however, consider the water safe to handle until I have seen its effects on living creatures. I shall take with me from earth some of its denizens: fish, moulds, mice, birds and bacteria. It will be most important to ensure that none of these escape to spoil the planet’s balance of species. Having assured myself that the water is not dangerous, I shall get a sample back to the ship and reach for Box Laboratory Number One. The water will be put into a pea-sized jar with a - stopper which looks like a head of groundsel seed. Each fibre-like tube from the jar is already connected to one or other of many bare'y visible test cells, each of which can be brought under microscopic, spectroscopic, colorimetric or other appropriate scrutiny. Within five minutes of opening the box, I shall know the acidity or alkalinity of the water to three places of decimals. I shall also know the boiling point under any pressure, the concentration of all metals which may be present in solution, what other elements are combined with the metals, the degree of hardness of the water— indeed, all the things needed to deter- mine how it can or cannot be used. Another five minutes at my leisure will give me information of more academic interest, such as the proportion of deuterium with the normal hydrogen of the water, or if you like, the amount of heavy water present. Box Laboratory Number Two will be likewise equipped to give the answer to as many questions as I can remember to ask about sample upon ing of the planet’s soil or surface ust. Box Laboratory Number Three is the prettiest of all. Its little distillation chambers alone are a _ wonderful achievement comparable with some of the precision of nature in such organs as a humming bird’s balance mechan- isms. With this 1 hope to be able to discover much about the new colouring matters I shall find in plants and ani- mals that have developed under another sky than ours. A list of the purposes of my several boxes would be as tedious reading as a manufacturing chemist’s catalogue. In the main I have tried to plan each box to do a job best done quickly. Analysis of things for use at once, of things that are unstable and might not last out the return journey, and of things that might act as guides to where to look for other things. COMIC OOOKS.COM |