Power Play Read Online Free

it?” he asked.
    “That’s the rig,” Rogers said genially. Pointing, he explained, “Powdered coal and liquid oxygen in at this end, they’re burned in the combustion chamber, the plasma shoots through the channel inside the magnet there and produces a dozen kilowatts or so.”
    “Fourteen, this morning,” one of the technicians called from the other side of the generator.
    “You said plasma?”
    “Ionized gas,” Rogers answered. “It’s hot enough for some of the atoms to have their electrons knocked off them, so the gas becomes electrically conducting.”
    “I’m an astronomer. I know what plasma is,” Jake said. “The stars are plasma. Most of the universe is plasma.”
    Roger chuckled good-naturedly. “Yeah, right. But the plasma we get from burning coal is only lightly ionized.”
    Younger spoke up. “We add potassium to the mix in the combustion chamber to increase the ionization.”
    “And the plasma gives up electrical energy as it goes through the magnetic field?” Jake asked.
    Rogers said, “Right. The plasma’s our armature, like the coil of copper wire in a normal power generator.”
    Jake looked from Rogers’s friendly smile to Younger’s cantankerous scowl. “An armature,” he said, questioningly.
    Patiently, Rogers explained, “In a conventional power generator, you spin a bundle of copper wires in a magnetic field. The copper conducts electricity, and as it spins through the magnetic field it generates an electrical current.”
    “Faraday figured that out in the eighteen-thirties,” Younger added.
    “And the bundle of copper wires is the armature,” Jake said, a little uncertainly.
    “Right,” Rogers agreed. “In the MHD generator, though, the stream of hot plasma is the armature.”
    With growing understanding, Jake said, “I get it. But the conductivity of the plasma must be a lot lower than the conductivity of copper wire.”
    “Yeah, but the plasma blows through the magnetic field at supersonic speed,” Younger said, jabbing a forefinger at Jake’s chest.
    “Like the exhaust from a rocket engine,” said Rogers.
    “Damned sight faster than any copper armature,” Younger emphasized.
    “I see,” Jake replied.
    “MHD generators are a lot more efficient than the generators that the electric utility companies run,” Rogers said.
    Younger huffed. “They’re using the same technology Edison used, for crap’s sake. Forty percent efficiency. Same as Edison got, within a couple of percentage points.”
    “This little baby,” Rogers said, glancing at the MHD generator, “runs between sixty and sixty-five percent. And she’s only a little experimental job. The bigger an MHD generator is, the more efficient.”
    “Wait a minute,” said Jake. “You’re telling me that this experimental rig is already fifty percent more efficient than the generators our utility companies use?”
    Rogers nodded, smiling. Younger’s face twitched into an expression that was as close to a smile as he could get.
    “How’d you like to have your electricity bill cut in half?” Younger asked.

PROFESSOR ARLAN SINCLAIR
    His head spinning from the facts and figures that the two men were throwing at him, Jake said, “Look, I’m supposed to have lunch with Professor Sinclair. Why don’t you come along?”
    Younger frowned. “I bring my lunch and eat here. I’ve got no time to go out to the cafeteria and socialize.”
    “I’ll go with you,” said Rogers. “I need to talk to the prof anyway.”
    As they walked along the low-ceilinged tunnel that connected to the main building of the electrical engineering department, Rogers said gently, “Don’t get the wrong impression about Tim. He’s a typical Yankee sourpuss, but he’s a good man.”
    “If you say so,” Jake replied.
    “He was in charge of the rig when it blew up last year. Killed one of the technicians. Knocked the roof off the shed. They found pieces all over the campus.”
    “Geez!”
    “We were lucky nobody else