“Well. They’ve got radio. That implies vacuum tubes at least, right?” “No,” George disagreed. “Vacuum tubes were actually kind of a fluke. You could just as easily go straight to solid state. But they would have to understand electricity.” There was a short pause, everyone chewing on the ideas, the only sound that of the music as Emilio slowed it down and repeated sections, correcting his notes. “And chemistry, for sure,” George continued. “They’d have to know something about metals and nonmetals, conductors. Microphones need carbon or some kind of variable resistor. Batteries—zinc and lead.”
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