Você provavelmente está pensando em "The Wailing Asteroid" (1960), de Murray Leinster. Uma das minhas favoritas quando criança, apenas no ano passado eu encontrei o filme baseado nela: "The Terrornauts" (1967) (adaptação de John Brunner)
Now, very reflectively, he plugged in a metal lathe and carefully turned out a very tiny specimen of the peculiarly-shaped magnetic core. He wound it by hand, very painstakingly. It was a tricky job. It was six o'clock Saturday morning when the specimen was finished. He connected the leads to a storage battery and threw the switch. The small object tore itself to bits, and the core landed fifteen feet from where it had been. Burke beamed.