Future History II: "Let There Be Light" Quiz

Answer: The Man Who Sold the Moon

Rated by many as one of the best Science Fiction books of 1950, "The Man Who Sold The Moon" contained a number of stories from the Future History collection, including the title story ("The Man Who Sold The Moon"), "Let There Be Light", "The Roads Must Roll", and "Life-Line", the subject of my first Future History quiz.

"Let There Be Light" was originally published in 1940 in the magazine "Super Science Stories". In the magazine version, Heinlein used the pseudonym Lyle Monroe.

Answer: Martin's figure ("like a dancer")

He looks up Martin in "Who's Who of Science" after the annoying telegram. Martin has "enough degrees for six men" (he opines), is director of Guggenheim Orinoco Fauna Survey, and author of "Co-Lateral Symbiosis of the Boll Weevil". He decides that Dr. Martin is "a heavyweight".

He also assumes Dr. Martin is a man.

Answer: In a restaurant

Dr. Douglas sees a beautiful woman enter the restaurant, where he is dining alone. Believing he has correctly sensed a "come-hither look" from her, he sends an invitation to the woman, also dining alone, written on the back of a menu. She returns the menu, having written: "Thanks for the kind offer, but I am otherwise engaged."

It never occurs to him at this time that the woman he is trying to flirt with is the man he believes Dr. M. L. Martin to be.

Answer: Cold Light

Dr. Martin, primarily working in biology, is researching (in her words) "how a lightning bug does the trick". When she reads a paper by Dr. Douglas on cold light, she thinks this very well might be the answer, since fireflies (according to her) have a 96% effective lighting mechanism. She begins looking into the problem and decides to join with Dr. Douglas in his research.

The idea behind cold light is best understood by looking at the opposite. An incandescent light bulb receives energy and converts a small portion of that energy into light. The problem is that the rest of the energy is wasted in the form of heat. Touch a light bulb that has been on for a while if you don't believe it! (On second thought, don't do that!) The net result is that a massive amount of energy is wasted.

The idea of cold light is to reduce the amount of energy wasted as heat and put as much of it into making light. Thus, light bulbs can be much more efficient and use less energy, while providing the same amount of light.

Fluorescent lighting is a modern example of cold light, in that it uses less energy to produce more light without wasting so much energy on heat.

Answer: Using crystals to limit the wavelength

After Dr. Martin's suggestion, Dr. Douglas is depicted as reading aloud what he finds in an old handbook on the matter of using crystals to limit the wavelengths of radio waves. Afterwards, he says: "That's it, kid, that's it! Now if we can find a crystal that can be cut to vibrate at the frequency of visible light, we've got it-a way to turn electrical energy into light without heat losses!"

Answer: The lab will have to be shut down

Dr. Douglas shows off the model cold light device to his father, who is impressed but unable to hide his dismay. He breaks the news that his company is being squeezed by power companies after a controversial law passed over the governor's veto. As his father explains:

"This bill pretended to equalize power rates according to circumstances. What it actually did was to permit the commission to discriminate among consumers as they saw fit. You know what that commission is-I've always been on the wrong side of the fence politically. Now they are forcing me to the wall with power rates that prevent me from competing."

He tells Martin and Douglas that he cannot support their research any longer and may in fact have to close his factory entirely.

We are never told what the business of the factory is, but we do know that Douglas and Martin are working in the building.

Answer: Find a new way to create power

Dr. Martin scolds him further: "What's the problem? Power! They're squeezing you for power. You're a physicist. Dope out some way to get power without buying from them."

They spend all night working on converting their energy-saving light source into something that could actually CREATE power; i.e. "solar energy", although the term is never actually mentioned in the story. Solar power was, at most, in its infancy during the time this story was written.

This is also the night of their first tentative kiss.

Answer: The device is still set to filter non-visible light

The original device was invented to provide cold light, and in order to achieve this, they used a crystal to filter out infrared and ultraviolet light. This filter still existed in the modified version, and so Douglas saw it as a very simple task indeed to remove the filter so that all light in the visible and non-visible spectrum could be absorbed.

Answer: Increase the output of atomic piles by expanding the number of free neutrons

Dr. Douglas works out their calculations for creating cold-light in reverse, and realizes the full potential. As he tells Dr. Martin: "It was already implied in our earlier experiments, but we were so busy trying to build a screen that wouldn't vibrate at random, we missed it. I ran into something else, too."

He further explains: "We can build screens to radiate in the infrared just as easily as cold light screens. Get it? Heating units of any convenient size or shape, economical and with no high wattage or extreme temperatures to make 'em fire hazards or dangerous to children. As I see it, we can design these screens to, one, take power from the Sun at nearly one-hundred-percent efficiency; two, deliver it as cold light; or three, as heat; or four, as electrical power. We can bank 'em in series to get any required voltage; we can bank in parallel to get any required current, and the power is absolutely free, except for the installation costs."

He marvels at the possibilities of free power for all.

Answer: Making public how his device works and collecting royalties

Dr. Martin suggests that Dr. Douglas publishes his discoveries, which he does. He still owns the patent and can charge royalties, but the power companies can no longer contain the vast momentum of Progress.

While they do not elope, Archibald Douglas and Mary Lou Martin do enter the courthouse to get their marriage license at the end of the story.