Changes

== The Xylophone ==

== The Xylophone ==

The instrument known as the Xylophone used Robert Stadler's principles of sonic physics, but in a manner that he never intended. Under the direction of Dr. [[Floyd Ferris]], the Associate Director (and in fact the ''actual'' director), the State Science Institute built an instrument capable of flattening any structure, from a [[trestle]] strut to a building, within a hundred miles.

The instrument known as the Xylophone used Robert Stadler's principles of sonic physics, but in a manner that he never intended. Under the direction of Dr. [[Floyd Ferris]], the Associate Director (and in fact the ''actual'' director), the State Science Institute built an instrument capable of pulverizing any structure, from a [[trestle]] strut to a building, within a hundred miles. This was no means of communication or information storage. This was, quite simply, a weapon.

In the last year of the strike (probably 1929), the Xylophone was completed. That the instrument had no greater range than a hundred miles was due entirely to the refusal by [[Henry Rearden]] to fulfil a peremptory order for Rearden Metal to use to build the Xylophone. The builders presumably had to use ordinary [[steel]], supplied by the Associated Steel Company, owned by Orren Boyle. This fact might also have caused a crucial delay in the building of the project, because Associated Steel was notoriously unreliable in the fulfillment of its orders.

In the last year of the strike (probably 1929), the Xylophone was completed. That the instrument had no greater range than a hundred miles was due entirely to the refusal by [[Henry Rearden]] to fulfil a peremptory order for Rearden Metal to use to build the Xylophone. The builders presumably had to use ordinary [[steel]], supplied by the Associated Steel Company, owned by Orren Boyle. This fact might also have caused a crucial delay in the building of the project, because Associated Steel was notoriously unreliable in the fulfillment of its orders.