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"I'm LeeAnn Sanderlin," the bag lady said. "I work over at the recycling center. You're Ed Barger, right?
I have some questions for you."
Okay,Ed thought,I have seen her over at Public Works before. So she's not really a bag lady. Still,
her worn and stained coat, the shapeless knit hat covering her frizzy hair, and the big roller bag she was
pulling sure made her look the part. Ed couldn't help reacting to her that way. "I . . . uh . . . I really don't
have any time right now."
"This won't take long," the bag lady said, moving in closer. "I just have some questions about springs,
and I remember reading what you told the paper when you-all were pushing for people to turn in their
cars for tax deductions, about how the springs and things were needed for the railroad and other
equipment." Ed had been moving back away from her as she spoke, but she kept moving forward after
him, and now he was trapped against the wall. He glanced quickly to both sides, but couldn't see a way
to escape.
"Now," the bag lady continued, grinning up at him, "I heard this morning that we couldn't make coil
springs anymore, and I want to know why."
Maybe if I humor her, she'll go away,Ed thought.It's that or call for a cop. "Uh . . . well. It's not that
we couldn't make them if we had the steel to do it with. It's easy to draw the wire and wind the coils.
Heck, Europeans were drawing and winding iron wire for centuries before the Ring of Fire dropped us
on them; it's how they made chain mail." It looked like the bag lady understood, because she asked an
intelligent question.
"But we're starting to make good steel now. I know that Public Works sells some of the steel we get at
the recycling center to be remelted. Why don't they make coil springs out of that?"
"Some crucible steel is being produced. But . . . uh . . . that's just high carbon steel at best, and even
wire made from that won't work for coil springs. It weakens quickly and the spring becomes useless.
You need a special kind of alloy for reliable coil springs. It will be years before we can get the elements
for the alloys in large enough quantities to be able to produce much of it. That's why we needed the
cars most all the coil springs from their suspensions can be used as-is for all the equipment and railroad
suspension elements where coil springs are critical."
The bag lady thought that over for a bit. "What else are coil springs critical for?"
"Uh . . . let's see. Lots of things, I guess. I think I heard that some medical equipment uses them. I don't
know much about that. But, I know that modern gun designs use coil springs a lot. They power the firing
pins and return the bolt after ejecting the empty case in semiautomatic pistols and rifles. And they make
the tubular magazines in shotguns work. We can't duplicate any of those kinds of guns until we're able to
make reliable springs."
"Thanks. I appreciate your time," she said.
Ed sighed with relief as the bag lady ended the interrogation and moved off. He continued on his way
home, shaking his head about the difference between her appearance and her apparent intelligence.
* * *
Walking back home under the low overcast, the cold and rainy spring weather made LeeAnn feel every
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one of her sixty-seven years. And something was still bothering her she couldn't quite pin it
down something about this whole spring thing just didn't make sense, and she couldn't get it out of her
mind. She trundled her work clothes and towels along behind her in her priceless roller bag. She needed
to swap them out for a clean set tomorrow, and get to the Laundromat before the end of the week. She
looked up in disgust as she passed the Hoffman house two doors down from hers. The brats were out
again.
The four Hoffman children were all in the front yard, and all concentrating on her. They stared at her the
whole time she walked by, waving their hands and fingers at her in hex signs, and all the time jabbering on
in high-pitched German. LeeAnn sighed in relief as their mother came to the door and shooed them [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
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