"I Know My Vectors and Alphas"

"Static."
By "Eando Binder" (Otto Binder, 1911-74).
First appearance: Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1936.
Short short story (5 pages).
Online at The Luminist Archives (HERE). Go down to text page 37.

"They Thought They Could Conquer Civilization with Professor Hobson's Invention—but One Unexpected Spark Upset Their Cunning Plans!"

So you really want to take over the world, do you? Kill millions with the flick of a switch? That's basically what two men brandishing guns aim to do when they surprise Professor Hobson:

   "I represent a foreign power. To be melodramatic, I am a spy. In the traditional spy manner, I came in through an open window."

One thing's for sure, though, he won't be leaving that way . . .

Resources:
- Read about "static" (HERE) on Wikipedia. Like Professor Hobson in our story, many scien-tists, including the controversial Nikola Tesla (HERE), dreamed of creating a system to broad-cast electrical energy through the air ("wireless power transfer"), discussed in detail on Wiki-pedia (HERE).

The bottom line: "Electricity is really just organized lightning."
— George Carlin