The Shape of Steel to Come

The dome was destroyed. Arcot tried something else. He put on his control machine the equation of a hyperboloid of two branches, and changed the constants gradually till the two branches came close. Then he forced them against each other. Instantly they fought, fought terribly for existence. A tremendous blast of light and heat exploded into being. The energy of two tons of lead attempted to maintain those two branches. It was not, fortunately, explosive, and it took place over a relux floor. Most of the energy escaped into space. The vast flood of light was visible on Venus, despite the clouds.

[in INVADERS FROM THE INFINITE by JOHN W. CAMPBELL, 1961 + First Hyperboloid Tower by VLADIMIR SHUKHOV, 1896]

Vladimir Shukhov