Jackson glanced at Jolene and spoke.
'What you say about the bull, lion and man is interesting. I am thinking in astrological terms and the relationship with Taurus and Leo - obviously the bull and the lion - but also Aquarius which was associated with man. They are three of the so-called fixed signs of astrology but of course, there is one missing, the sign of Scorpio which is also associated with the eagle, representing freedom and power. All four signs are embodied within the Lamassu, a mythical beast attributed to the ancient Assyrians and a kind of protecting gatekeeper. I wonder if that fits in anywhere?'
Jackson was lost in his own thoughts and suddenly caught himself.
'Sorry, a bit of a tangent, you were saying that the Bell was a weapon?'
'No, not as such,' Igor explained patiently, 'it came under the auspices of the 'lantern carrier' project and from the beginning of 1944 was used purely to derive experimental data and explore the postulated physical phenomena. It provided the foundation for further exploitative research in the specific fields of propulsion, weapons and energy within Chronos. It was vital in proving the theoretical side by manifestation of the predicted empirical effects which could then be categorised as useful within one or more of the exploitation projects.'
Jolene sat back in her chair and crossed her arms.
'What was it though? What did it look like, this Bell?'
'Well, outwardly, the Bell looked just like its name might suggest, appearing as a kind of dome topped cylinder around eight feet tall and five feet wide. I have no doubt that the name was originally given based purely on its resemblance to a church bell; however, it was also somewhat prophetic in terms of its performance which I'll expand upon in a moment. The outer casing was a ceramic shell housing the main components which basically consisted of two large cylinder drums aligned on a single axis one above the other. The inside of the drums was coated in a thin layer of mercury and they were rotated in opposite directions at fantastic speeds - in the order of tens of thousands of revolutions per minute - with the whole unit fixed to a heavy pedestal containing the drive unit.'
Aware of how simple it sounded, Igor's tone became slightly reticent.
'It doesn't sound much but the whole thing represented the product of some very exacting engineering, at the rotational speeds I'm talking about even minor variations in the quality of machining would have caused vibrations that could have ripped the whole thing apart.'
He was relaxing into his subject now and he started to become excited as he relayed further details.
'The centre axis itself was a hollow tubular core of around eight inches diameter into which a long ceramic flask was inserted, filled with a strange jelly-like metallic substance of a violet-gold hue. After the flask was loaded, the bell casing would be clamped into placed and internally super cooled using liquid nitrogen before operation would commence. Once the power had been switched on, it gave off a sound which was described by the operations staff as similar to the humming of bees trapped in a bottle which led to the underground test chamber being unofficially nicknamed
der Bienenstock
, the 'Hive'. The sound was given off by the switches that continuously fired pulses of electrical energy into the machine. It must have been one hell of a sight and sound, apparently creating a phosphorescent aura during operation.'
Jackson nodded, picturing the machine.
'Alright, so what did it do that was so fantastic?'
'Well,' Igor began slowly, 'that is why I mentioned that the name was so prophetic. You see, when a bell is struck it vibrates, resonating at a certain frequency and sending off waves through the air that we hear as the chime. In this case, the Bell device caused an emanation from the Aether itself, causing a powerful resonance that radiated out and affected the particles that make up our universe, having a direct impact on atomic structures within the physical world and producing incredible effects.'
'Such as?' Jolene quickly asked, realising that there was a possible application to weapons of mass destruction.
Igor thought for a moment.
'Well, for one thing, during operation it generated extremely powerful magnetic fields and sometimes catastrophic surges in unshielded electrical equipment placed within range. Worst than that, it also gave off deadly blasts of radiation and several project scientists are reported to have died during the earliest tests. It became a top priority for the
Laternenträger
project to limit the side effects as at one point they had lost so many personnel that they had to dissolve the original research team and start all over again.'
Jackson regarded radioactive and electro-magnetic effects as relatively mundane and his tone betrayed his wariness.
'- is that all? I mean that doesn't sound particularly incredible.'
'Oh, that was the least of it,' defended Igor, 'in terms of the hypothesised operational characteristics it had a profound effect on organic materials, quite distinct from the damage caused by earlier lethal radiation doses that had been given off. It became apparent that the Bell emitted a field which could alter the chemical composition of plants and animals. Further experimentation revealed that the effect could be tuned to specific compositions and molecules, for instance water could be converted directly into Hydrogen and Oxygen. The field effects could be used to break down organic matter into constituent molecules, however, it was determined that the same process could be applied to non-organic materials, even to transmute substances from one form to another.'
'Transmutation?' Jolene queried before thinking for a moment, 'You're not talking about alchemy are you?'
Igor grinned to himself as he answered.
'Oh, you are good; you've obviously been reading up! That is exactly what I am talking about! After a long period of research to tune the Bell appropriately, a test was performed which was aimed at removing just three protons from the lead element, thereby causing the material to jump from the atomic number of 82 to the atomic number of 79. All evidence suggests that the test was a success - they had successfully converted lead into gold!'
There was a brief silence before Jackson spoke.
'Alright, I can see the obvious benefit to the Reich in filling their coffers with lead turned into gold and the possible application for weapons development, but what about advances in propulsion and energy?'
'Ahhh,' Igor pronounced sagely, 'this was all just the tip of the iceberg. You see, their experiments in transmutation led them to a startling conclusion, they had hypothesised that the protons removed from the lead atoms were not simply released as part of a standard atomic reaction, but were actually returned to the Aether itself. This led them to conclude that if they could dissimilate particles such as protons back to the Aether, then maybe they could assimilate particles from it as well.'
'Create matter?' Jackson asked with a slightly incredulous tone.
'Exactly!' stated Igor.
'They were trying to create matter and energy and effectively from nothing, the two states of physical existence essentially being interchangeable but always in balance.'
Jolene looked at Jackson as she spoke.
'Did they succeed?'
A long pause followed before Igor replied.
'Yes, I believe so. I believe that they managed to create surplus energy from their power input, although admittedly, only in an experimental form.'
Jolene shook her head.
'Surely it just isn't possible? Everything we know about physics tells us that you can't get something for nothing.'
'Agreed!' the voice from the speaker cried.
'As an example, within the context of the law of conservation of energy a perpetual motion device can only work if it delivers no energy to its surroundings, dissipation of heat through friction for instance. However, that relates to a closed system. What we're talking about here is a different concept of physics and the theory is that excess energy could be drawn from the Aether itself, an idea that modern physics completely rejects. Admittedly, they had a huge power plant operating the Bell, but the energy input was simply being used to maintain an open pipe to let free energy to flow out. Now, I'm not saying that was the reality, I'm just saying that it appears to have worked for the Bell research scientists in the 1940's!'
Jolene thought for a moment and made sure that she sounded excited.
'Alright, excellent, that links in directly to our article. This is great, but what about the weapons and propulsion developments?'
Igor hummed slowly, as if deliberating on the poor working practises of the German scientists.
'The propulsion developments kind of came about by accident, you see, the research team was now concentrating on tuning the field effect to confirm their Aether energy release and to produce specific physical phenomena in subject materials within the test chamber.
'During one such experiment the whole test chamber started to shake and rattle and for a moment the operators believed that the allies had located their base and that a surprise heavy bombing raid was under way right over their heads. The truth was even more unexpected in that the Bell itself was causing the vibrations; however, it wasn't through engineering defects in the drums or central axis. This was vividly demonstrated when the whole apparatus suddenly ripped itself free from the concrete floor and levitated right up to the top of the Hive.
'Of course, the thing wasn't designed to fly and after the power cables were torn free the device just dropped like a stone and smashed back down before finally spinning to a halt. Although they had to completely rebuild the Bell, they now had another avenue of research!'
'That must have been impressive,' Jackson stated dourly, trying not to sound too credulous.
'What about the weapons development though? Surely they didn't succeed in creating anything useful or the Swastika flag would still be flying over the whole of Europe?'
'Yes, you're absolutely right,' conceded Igor, 'but the lack of a deployable weapons capability is an example of the wider issue that the Bell scientists faced. Remember that this device was an experimental model that simply exhibited certain effects. Although the effects had been hypothesised and predicted by The Vril Society in their earliest submissions to Himmler, it was essentially a shot in the dark that miraculously came close to the bullseye.
'Their energy experiments required a huge power input which yielded measurable although comparatively minuscule excess power output, the point being that they believed that their theory had been proven but the apparatus was not yet in a form whereby Germany could cease to worry about the chronic fuel shortage. The propulsion system had clearly if accidentally been demonstrated, but again, there was no way a craft could be built that would house the required power source, even taking into consideration the possibility of harnessing free energy. Even though this was at the forefront of experimental technology, the Bell represented an old coal fired steam engine in comparison to a modern nuclear power plant even though they basically work on the same principle to deliver power generation.'
'So where does that leave us?' asked Jolene, keen to get a summary of what the Germans had allegedly achieved and aware that Igor Farley's knowledge of events did not include the classified references to 'Foo Fighters' and levitation beams that Jackson had turned up from the archives.
'In chronological terms, it only takes us up to around the end of 1944,' Igor said, smacking his lips, 'the Bell was still a purely experimental device although some witnesses claim that the propulsion effects were actually harnessed and a prototype craft developed; there are tales of what were described as 'flying barrels' at a test site near Schloss Fürstenstein located in the province of Lower Silesia, Poland. The whole area was under German control at the time as one of the eastern territories of the Reich and was home to a secret underground laboratory built into a disused coal mine.
'The Bell itself remained at another larger compound only twenty miles away, utilising the old Wenceslas Mine close to a village now called Ludwikowice Klodzkie near the Czech border. Even today there are structures still in place that may have been used for testing the propulsion capabilities and certainly, the mine itself is filled with cavernous galleries.'
'- and the weapons?' Jolene prompted.
'By all accounts they largely remained on the drawing board as the experimental Bell was effectively useless in any strategic or tactical military sense since it could only produce a localised field effect; however, it appears that there were plans to create a series of projection cannons that would have focussed the raw effects of the Bell into a beam that could be directed at enemy installations, men and equipment. This project attracted the name of
Holzbläser
- meaning 'woodwind'- due to the cannon designs bearing a resemblance to certain musical instruments. The largest cannon was actually called
Wunderfagott
and was strategic in nature, the idea was to destroy entire cities with it. The next was a tactical battlefield weapon designated
Allheilklarinette
and aimed for use against enemy installations and massed armour. The smallest device was envisaged as a kind of small-arms weapon to be used against light vehicles and infantry, the
Zauberflöte
. In English, the names basically translate to Wonder-Bassoon, Panacea-Clarinette - or as near as dammit - and Magic-Flute respectively. Quite ironic I've always thought.'