question:  How does the Cosmic Express Ray work?
context: When the vogue for science-fantasy altered to super science, he created the memorable super lock-picker Giles Habilula as the major attraction in a rousing trio of space operas , The Legion of Space, The Cometeers and One Against the Legion. The Cosmic Express is of special interest because it was written during Williamson's A. Merritt "kick," when he was writing little else but, and it gave the earliest indication of a more general capability. The Cosmic Express." And Millikan's old proof that his Cosmic Ray is generated when particles of electricity are united to form an atom." "But the method, in the new Cosmic Express, is simply to convert the matter to be carried into power, send it out as a radiant beam and focus the beam to convert it back into atoms at the destination." The Express Ray is an electromagnetic vibration of frequency far higher than that of even the Cosmic Ray, and correspondingly more powerful and more penetrating." "The beam is focused, just like the light that passes through a camera lens. The photographic lens, using light rays, picks up a picture and reproduces it again on the plate—just the same as the Express Ray picks up an object and sets it down on the other side of the world. You know that by means of the scanning disc, the picture is transformed into mere rapid fluctuations in the brightness of a beam of light. In a parallel manner, the focal plane of the Express Ray moves slowly through the object, progressively, dissolving layers of the thickness of a single atom, which are accurately reproduced at the other focus of the instrument—which might be in Venus! For no receiving instrument is required, as in television. The object is built up of an infinite series of plane layers, at the focus of the ray, no matter where that may be. Such a thing would be impossible with radio apparatus because even with the best beam transmission, all but a tiny fraction of the power is lost, and power is required to rebuild the atoms.
output:  Matter is converted into power and sent out as a radiant beam. The beam is then focused to convert it back into atoms at the destination.
options:  Matter is converted into power and sent out as a radiant beam. The beam is then focused to convert it back into atoms at the destination.  A photographic lens picks up an object in one place and reproduces it in a different place using light rays.  A radiant beam converts matter into power in order to be sent and then converted back into atoms at a new destination.  Particles of electricity are united to form an atom.