Working Properly

The twin-cylinder engine fired on its very first trial.

It did not cough. It did not backfire through the copper atomizing pipe. When the starting crank was hauled through the top dead center with the battery circuit closed, the two cylinders caught with a clean, deep, double-beat resonance that sounded less like a carbine and more like the rhythmic chattering of a heavy loom:

Tup-tup-tup-tup-tup-tup-tup!

The entire test bench vibrated, but it was an entirely different character of vibration. Where the single-cylinder engine had jerked and bucked against its anchor bolts like an unbroken colt, the twin-cylinder unit settled into a rapid, humming pulse.

On the wooden bench six inches from the crankcase sat a full glass tumbler of water.

The surface of the liquid did not spill. It formed a fine, crystalline pattern of standing ripples, shimmering cleanly under the gaslight.