aches 99%. I want a perfect reflector
that I can put behind a source of wild, radiant energy so I can focus
it, and put it where it will do the most good."

"Ninety-nine percent. Sounds pretty good. That's better efficiency than
most anything else we have, isn't it?"

"No, it isn't. The accumulator is 100% efficient on the discharge, and a
good transformer, even before that, ran as high as 99.8 sometimes. They
had to. If you have a transformer handling 1,000,000 horsepower, and
it's even 1% inefficient, you have a heat loss of nearly 10,000
horsepower to handle. I want to use this as a destructive weapon, and if
I hand the other fellow energy in distressing amounts, it's even worse
at my end, because no matter how perfect a beam I work out, there will
still be some spread. I can make it mighty tight though, if I make my
surface a perfect parabola. But if I send a million horse, I have to
handle it, and a ship can't stand several hundred thousand horsepower
roaming around loose as heat, let alone the weapon itself. The thing
will be worse to me than to him.

"I figured there was something worth investigating in those fields we
developed on our magnetic shield work. They had to do, you know, with
light, and radiant energy. There must be some reason why a metal
reflects. Further, though we can't get down to the basic root of matter,
the atom, yet, we can play around just about as we please with molecules
and molecular forces. But it is molecular force that determines whether
light and radiant energy of that caliber shall be reflected or
transmitted. Take aluminum as an example. In the metallic molecule
state, the metal will reflect pretty well. But volatilize it, and it
becomes transparent. All gases are transparent, all metals reflective.
Then the secret of perfect reflection lies at a molecular level in the
organization of matter, and is within our reach. Well--this thing was
supposed to make that piece of silver reflective. I missed it that
time." He sighed. "I suppose I'll have to try again."

"I should think you'd use tungsten for that. If you do have a slight
leak, that would handle the heat."

"No, it would hold it. Silver is a better conductor of heat. But the
darned thing won't work."

"Your other scheme has." Faragaut laughed. "I came out principally for
some signatures. IP wants one hundred thousand tons of mercury. I've
sold most of mine already in the open market. You want to sell?"

"Certainly. And I