The Vortex Blaster

MP3 Audio CD. The Vortex Blaster

Safety devices that do not protect.

The "unsinkable" ships that, before the days of Bergenholm and of atomic
and cosmic energy, sank into the waters of the earth.

More particularly, safety devices which, while protecting against one
agent of destruction, attract magnet-like another and worse. Such as the
armored cable within the walls of a wooden house. It protects the
electrical conductors within against accidental external shorts; but,
inadequately grounded as it must of necessity be, it may attract and
upon occasion has attracted the stupendous force of lightning. Then,
fused, volatilized, flaming incandescent throughout the length, breadth,
and height of a dwelling, that dwelling's existence thereafter is to be
measured in minutes.

Specifically, four lightning rods. The lightning rods protecting the
chromium, glass, and plastic home of Neal Cloud. Those rods were
adequately grounded, grounded with copper-silver cables the bigness of a
strong man's arm; for Neal Cloud, atomic physicist, knew his lightning
and he was taking no chances whatever with the safety of his lovely wife
and their three wonderful kids.

He did not know, he did not even suspect, that under certain conditions
of atmospheric potential and of ground-magnetic stress his perfectly
designed lightning-rod system would become a super-powerful magnet for
flying vortices of atomic disintegration.