This was a short story in an anthology. I read it in the 1970s in a hardback copy checked out of a library. At that time, I was reading many SF anthologies, such as the Spectrum series, the various Best of F&SF volumes, and many others. This was probably far from new when I read it, I rather suspect it of being from the 1950s, but I am not at all sure. I don't recall anything about the cover or the author's name.
This was a puzzle story, with stock if not cardboard characters, as I recall. The story was in English, and had something of a 1950s SF magazine style, or I think it did.
The plot as I recall it:
Before the story opens there was some kind of disaster in a secret (perhaps government sponsored) lab. The lab has been destroyed, and all the scientists and technicians working there killed. All the lab notes and records were also destroyed, so no one knows just what the lab was trying to do. Nearby buildings have also been destroyed or seriously damaged.
The disaster has left behind what seems to be a local space warp or wormhole (I am sure the term "wormhole" was not used) in the form of a sphere about 1-2 feet in diameter. Air rushes into this sphere and vanishes, creating strong winds nearby.
Characters are concerned that this warp will eventually render Earth airless. So, they hire a man who has a reputation for quenching oil-rig fires by "blowing them out" with explosive charges. He is hired to place such a charge near the warp with the idea that the explosion will disrupt the warp. The story is told entirely from this man's point of view. He does so, and the charge is detonated, but the warp is unaffected. I think there was a second attempt, using a larger, "shaped" charge intended to send a jet of hot gas right at the warp locus. The warp is unaffected. Several other things are tried, with the oil-fire man as an interested spectator. Then he is engaged for a third attempt. This time he uses a tracked vehicle (like a military tank, but with manipulator arms) and the charge to be placed is a tactical nuke.
I recall a vivid description of driving the tracked vehicle over the rubble left by the initial disaster and the previous explosions.
The nuke is set and triggered, but after things are cool enough to check, the warp is unchanged.
Then the VP character has an idea. He tells those in charge that he thinks he knows how to solve the problem. His fee, if he succeeds, will be full title to the lab site, plus expenses. They agree.
He drives the vehicle in again, this time taking a contraption he has made consisting of two steel hemispheres, hinged together, on a base. He carefully places the base just below the warp locus. Then the hemispheres are unlocked and swing together, with the warp locus inside. The warp is still there, but Earth's air can't get into it. I also recall a mention that the vehicle stalled, because of broken-off reinforcing rod sticking up from concrete rubble getting stuck in the tread, just as the correct position was achieved.
The winds are calm, the problem is solved. One of the people in charge asks the VPC what he will do with the land. He points out that the containment device has a spigot, and says that he plans to sell high-quality vacuum, in whatever quantity a customer might want.
That was the "twist ending" and the end of the story.
I don't recall any descriptive phrase to search on, nor the name of any characters.
