With No Strings Attached - Randall Garrett

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
With no strings attached by David Gordon, the United States
submarine Ambitious Brille slid smoothly into her berth in the
Brooklyn Navy Yard after far too many weeks at sea,
as far as her crew were concerned. After all the
necessary preliminaries had been waded through, the majority of that
happy crew went ashore to enjoy a well earned and

(00:21):
long anticipated leave in the depths of the brick and
glass Canyons of Gomorah on the Hudson. The trip had
been uneventful in so far as nothing really dangerous or
exciting had happened, nothing indeed that could even be called
out of the way, except that there was more brass
aboard than usual, and that the entire trip had been
made under water, with the exception of one surfacing for

(00:42):
a careful position check in order to make sure that
the ship's instruments gave the same position as the stars gave.
They had all was well. That is not to say
that the crew of the Ambitious Brill were entirely satisfied
in their own minds about certain questions that had been
puzzling them. They weren't, but they knew better than to
ask questions even among themselves, and they said nothing whatever

(01:05):
when they got ashore. But even the novices among submarine
crews know that while the nuclear powered subs like George Washington,
Patrick Henry or Benjamin Franklin are perfectly capable of circumnavigating
the globe without coming up for air, such performances are
decidedly rare in a presumably diesel electric vessel such as
the US S Ambitious Brill. And those few members of

(01:28):
the crew who had seen what went on in the
battery room were the most secretive and the most puzzled
of all. They and they alone knew that some of
the cells of the big battery that drove the ship's
electric motors had been removed to make room for a big,
steel clad box hardly bigger than a foot locker, and
that the rest of the battery hadn't been used at all.
With no one aboard with the duty watch, and no

(01:50):
one in the battery room at all, Captain Dean Lacy
felt no compunction whatever in saying, as he gazed the
steel clad, sealed box, what a battery. The vessel's captain,
Lieutenant Commander Newton Wayne, looked up from the box into
the pentagon representative's face. Yes, sir, it is. His voice
sounded as though his brain were trying to catch up

(02:11):
with it and hadn't quite succeeded. This certainly puts us
well out of the Russians. Captain Lacy returned the look
all right, you are, commander. This means we can convert
every ship in the Navy in a tenth the time
we had figured. Then they both looked at the third man,
a civilian. He nodded complacently, and at a tenth the costs, gentlemen,
he said mildly. North American carbide in medals can produce

(02:33):
these units cheaply and at a rate that will enable
us to convert every ship in the Navy within the year.
Captain Lacy shot a glance at Lieutenant Commander Wayne. All
this is strictly top secret. You understand, Yes, sir, I understand,
said Wain very well. He looked back at the civilian.
Are we ready, mister Thorn, any time you are, Captain.

(02:54):
The civilian said, fine, you have your instructions, Commander, carry on,
I sir, said Lieutenant Commander Wayne. A little less than
an hour later, Captain Lacey and mister Thorne were in
the dining room of one of the most exclusive clubs
in New York. Most clubs in New York are labeled
as exclusive because they exclude certain people who do not

(03:15):
measure up to the standards of wealth. A man who
makes less than, say, one hundred thousand dollars a year,
would not even qualify for scrutiny by the executive committee.
There is one club in Manhattan which reaches what is
probably close to the limit on that kind of exclusiveness.
Members must be white Anglo Saxon Protestant Americans who can
trace their ancestry as white Anglo Saxon Protestant Americans back

(03:38):
at least as far as the American Revolution without exception,
and who are worth at least ten million dollars, and
who can show that the fortune came into the family
at least four generations back. No others need apply. It
is said that this club is not a very congenial
one because the two members hate each other. The club

(03:59):
in which Lacyans thorn ate their dinner is not of
that sort. It is composed of military and naval officers
and certain civilian career men in the United States government.
These men are professionals, not one of them would ever
resign from government service. They are dedicated heart, body, and
soul to the United States of America. The life, public
and private of every man Jack of them is an

(04:21):
open book to every other member. Of the three living
men who have held and the one who at present
holds the title of President of the United States, only
one was a member of the club before he held
that high office. As an exclusive club, they rank well
above England's House of Peers and just a shade below
the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church. Captain

(04:42):
Lacy was a member. Mister Richard Thorne was not, but
he was among those few who qualify to be invited
as guests. The carefully guarded precincts of the club were
among the very few in which these two men could
talk openly and at ease. After the duck came the brandy,
both men having to declim dessert and over the brandy,
that ultra rare five star Hennessy, which is procurable only

(05:05):
by certain people and is believed by many not to
exist at all. Captain Lacy finally asked the question that
had been bothering him for so long. Thorn, he said,
three months ago that battery didn't exist. I know it,
and you know it. Who was the genius who invented it?
Thorn smiled, and there was a subtle ryhness in the smile.

(05:26):
Genius is the word. I suppose, now that the contracts
of the navy had been signed, I can give you
the straight story. But you're wrong in saying that the
thing didn't exist three months ago. It did. We just
didn't know about it, that's all. Lacey raised his bushy,
iron gray eyebrows. Oh, and how did it come to
the attention of North American carbide in metals. Thorn puffed

(05:48):
out his cheeks and blew out his breath softly before
he began talking, as though he were composing his beginning
sentences in his mind. Then he said, the first I
heard about it was four months ago. Considering what's happened
since then, it seemed a lot longer. He inhaled deeply
from his brandy sniffer before continuing. As head of the
development labs for NAC and M, I was asked to

(06:11):
take part as a witness to a demonstration that had
been arranged through some of the other officers of the company.
It was to take place out on Salt Lake Flats,
where there was no chance of hanky panky. Richard Thorn,
who held a PhD from the finest technological colleges in
the East, but who preferred to be addressed as mister,
was in a bad mood. He had flown all the

(06:31):
way out to Salt Lake City after being given only
a few hours notice, and then had been bundled into
a jeep furnished by the local sales office of NAC
and M and scooted off to the blinding gray white
glare of the Salt Flats. It was hot, and it
was much too sunshiny for Thorn, but he had made
the arrangements for the test himself, so he couldn't argue

(06:52):
or complain too loudly. He could only complain mildly to
himself that the business office of the company which had
made the final arrangements, had, and his opinion, been a
little too much in a hurry to get the thing
over with. Thorn himself felt that the test could have
at least waited until the weather cooled off. The only
consolation he had was that out here the humidity was
so low that he could stay fairly comfortable in spite

(07:14):
of the heat, as long as there was plenty of
drinking water. He had made sure to bring plenty. The
cavalcade of vehicles arrived at the appointed spot umpteen miles
from nowhere and pulled up in a circle. Thorn climbed
out wearily and saw the man who called himself Sorenson
climb out of the second jeep. From the first time
he had seen him, Thorn had tagged Soreson as an

(07:36):
angry old man, not that he was really getting old.
He was still somewhere on the brisk side of fifty.
But he wore a perpetual scowl on his face that
looked as though it had been etched there by too
many years of frustration, and his voice always seemed to
have an acid edge to it, like that of an
old man who was decided, after decades of observation, that
all men are fools. And yet Thorn thought it occasionally

(07:58):
caught a glimpse of mocking humor in the pale blue eyes.
He was lean and rather tall, with white hair that
still showed traces of blonde, and he looked as Scandinavian
as his name sounded. His accent was pure Minnesota American,
as he climbed out of the jeep. Sorenson brought with
him the black suitcase. Ever since he had first seen it,

(08:19):
Thorn had thought of it as the black suitcase, and
after he had seen some of the preliminary tests, he
had subconsciously put capitals to the words. But Richard Thorn
was no fool. Too many men had been suckered before,
and he Richard Thorn did not intend to be another sucker,
no matter how impressed he might be by the performance
of an invention. If this was a con game, it

(08:40):
was going to have to be a good one to
get by. Richard Thorn PhD. He walked across a few
feet of hard salt white ground that separated him from Sorenson,
standing beside the second jeep with the black suitcase in
his hand. It was obvious to anyone who watched the
way Sorenson handled the thing that was heavy. Seventy five pounds?
Are better? Need help? Thorn asked, knowing what the answer

(09:02):
would be. Nope, Swornson said, I can handle it. The
suitcase wasn't really black. It was a dark cord of
in brown, made even darker by long usage, which had
added oily stains to the well used leather. But Thorn
thought of it as the black suitcase simply because it
was the perfect example of the proverbial little black box,

(09:22):
the box that did things. As a test question in
an examination, the little black box performs a useful function.
The examiner draws a symbolic electronic circuit somewhere in the circuit.
Instead of drawing the component that is supposed to be there,
he draws the little black box. Then he defines the waveform, voltage,
and ambridge entering the circuit and defines whatever is coming out.

(09:44):
Question what is in the little black box? Except in
the simplest of cases, there is never an absolute answer.
The question is counted as correct if the student puts
into the little black box a component or sub circuit
which will produce the effect desired. The value of the
answer depends on the simplicity and relative controllability of the
component drawn in the place of the little black box.

(10:08):
Sorenson's black suitcase was still a problem to Thorn. He
couldn't quite figure out what was in it. Hotter and
Billy blue blazes, Sorenson said. As he put the black
suitcase down on the gleaming white ground, he grinned a little,
which dispelled for a moment his angry old man expression,
and said, you're ready to go, mister Thorn. I'm ready
anytime you are, Thorn said grumpily. Sorenson looked at the

(10:31):
NAC and m scientist's sideways. You don't sound any happier
than I am, mister Thorn. Thorn looked at him and
thought he could see that flash of odd humor in
his light blue eyes. Thorn exhaled a heavy breath. I'm
no happier than you are to be out in this heat.
Let's get on with it. Sorenson's chuckle sounded so out
of place that Thorn was almost startled. You know the

(10:54):
difference between you and me, mister Thorn, Sorenson asked. He
didn't wait for an answer. You think this test is
probably a waste of time. Me, on the other hand,
I know it is. Let's get on with it, Thorn repeated.
It took two hours to set up the equipment, in
spite of the fact that a lot of the circuits
had been prefabricated before the caravan had come out from

(11:16):
Salt Lake City. But Richard Thorn wanted to make certain
that all his data was both correct and recorded. Sorenson
had nothing to do but watch. He had no hand
in setting up the equipment. He had brought the black suitcase,
and that was all he was going to be allowed
to do. From the top of the black suitcase projected
two one inch copper electrodes fourteen inches apart. The North

(11:39):
American carbided Metals technicians set up the circuits that were
connected to the electrodes without any help from Sorenson, But
just before they started to work, Sorenson said, there's just
one thing I think you ought to know to warn
those men about, mister Thorn. What's that? Thorn asked, If
any of them tries to open that suitcase, they're likely
to get blown sky high, and I don't want him

(12:00):
getting funny with me either. He had his hand in
his trouser pocket, and Thorn was suddenly quite certain that
the man was holding a revolver. He could see the
outlines against the cloth. Thorn sighed, don't worry, mister Sorenson,
we don't have any ulterior designs on your invention. He
did not add that the investigators of NACNM had already

(12:21):
assumed that anyone who was asking one million dollars for
an invention which was in effect a pig in a
poke would be expected to take drastic methods to protect
his gadget. But there'd be no point in telling Sorenson
that his protective efforts had already been anticipated, and that
the technicians had already been warned against touching the blat
suitcase any more than necessary to connect the leads. Giving

(12:42):
Sorenson that information might make him even more touchy. Thorn
only hoped that the bomb or whatever it was that
Sorenson had put in the suitcase was well built, properly fused,
and provided with adequate safeties. When everything was set up,
Sorenson walked over to his device and turned it on
by shoving the blame of a heavy duty switch into place. Okay,

(13:03):
he said. One of the technicians began flipping other switches,
and a bank of ordinary incandescent light bulbs came on
for at a time. Finally there were one hundred of
them burning, each one a hundred watt bulb that glowed
brightly but did not appear to be contributing much to
the general brightness of the Utah sun. The technicians checked
their recording vault meters and ant meters and reported that,

(13:25):
sure enough, some ten kilowats of power at a little
less than one hundred and fifteen vaults dc was coming
from the black suitcase. Sorenson and Thorn sat in the tent,
which had been erected to ward off the sun's rays.
They watched the lights shine. One of the technicians came in,
wiping his forehead with a big blue bandana. Well there

(13:47):
she goes, mister Sorenson. That thing is dangerous. Hadn't we
better back off a little way from it? Hey, it
isn't dangerous, Soreson said, nothing's going to happen. The technician
looked unhappy. Then, I don't see why we couldn't have
tested the thing back in the shop. Would have been
a lot easier there, to say, nothing more comfortable. Thorn
lit a cigarette in silence. Thornton nodded and said, yes,

(14:11):
mister Siegel, it would have been. Siegel sat down on
one of the campstools and lit a cigarette. Mister Sorenson,
he asked, in all innocence, have you got a patent
on that battery? The humorous glint returned to Sorenson's eyes
as he said, nope, I didn't patent the battery in
that suitcase. That's why I don't want anybody fooling around

(14:31):
with it. How come you don't patent it, Segel asked.
Nobody could steal it if you patent it, couldn't they?
Sorenson asked, with a touch of acid in his voice.
Do you know anything about batteries, mister Siegel? A little.
I'm not an expert on him or anything like that.
I'm an electrician, but I know a little bit about him.

(14:52):
Sorenson nodded. Then you should know, mister Siegel, that battery
making is an art, not a science. You don't just
stick a couple of electrodes in a solution of electrolyte,
and consider that your work is done with the same
two metals and the same electrolyte. You could make batteries
that would run the gamut from terrible to excellent. Some
of them maybe won't hold a charge more than an hour,

(15:12):
while others would have a shelf life fully charge of
as much as a year. Batteries don't work according to theory.
If they did, potassium chlorate would be a better depolarizer
than manganese dioxide instead of the other way around. What
you get out of a oldtay excel. Depends on the
composition and strength of the electrolyte, the kind of deeppolarizer used,

(15:33):
the shape of the electrode, the kind of surface they have,
their arrangement and spacing, and a hundred other little things.
I've heard that, Siegel said. Thorn smoked in silence. He
had heard Sorenson's arguments before. Sorenson didn't mind discussing his
battery in the abstract, but he was awfully close mouthed
when it came to talking about it in concrete terms.

(15:54):
He would talk about batteries in general, but not about
this battery in particular. Not that Thorn blamed him in
the least. Sorenson was absolutely correct in his statements about
the state of the art of making voltaic cells. If
Sorenson had something new, and Thorn was almost totally convinced
that he did, then he was playing it smart by
not trying to patent it. Now. Then Sorenson went on,

(16:18):
Let's suppose that my battery is made up of lead
and lead dioxide plates in a sulphuric acid solution, except
that I've added a couple of trifling things and made
a few small changes in the physical structure of the plates.
I'm not saying that's what the battery is, mind you.
I'm saying, suppose O K Suppose said Segel, couldn't you
patent it? What's the patent? The p B P O

(16:40):
two H two s O force sells about half as
old as the United States Patent Office itself. Can't patent
that copper oxide? Maybe is a depolarizer old hat. Can't
patent that laminated plates? Maybe? Nope, can't patent that either.
Segel looked out at the hundred going light bulbs. You
mean you can't handed even if it works one hundred

(17:01):
times better than ordinary battery. Hell Man Swornsen said, you
can't patent performance. You've got the patent something solid and concrete. Oh.
I'll granted the top notch patent attorney might be able
to get me some kind of patent on it, but
I wouldn't trust it standing up in court if I
had to try to question an infringement. Besides, even if
I had an ironbound patent, what good would it do me? Ever,

(17:23):
hear of a patent pool, No sit single. What's a
patent pool. I'll give you an example. If all the
manufacturers of a single product got together and agree the
form of patent pool. It means that if one company
buys a patent, all of them can use it. Say
the automobile companies have one. That means if you invent
a radical new design for an engine one maybe that

(17:45):
would save them millions of dollars. You'll be offered a
few measly thousand for it. Why should they offer more?
Where else are you going to sell it? If one
company gets it, they all get it. There's no competition.
And if you refuse to sell it all they just
wait a few years until the patent runs out and
use it for free. That may take a little time,
but a big industry has plenty of time. They have

(18:06):
a longer life span than human beings. North American carbide
in Metals said Thorn quietly, is not a member of
any patent pool. Mister Sorenson, I know. Sorbson said agreeably.
Battery patents are trickier than not a motive of machinery patents.
That's why I'm doing this my way. I'm not selling
the gadget as such, I'm selling results for one million

(18:30):
dollars tax paid. I'll agree to show your company how
to build a device that will turn out electric power
at such and such a rate, and then we'll have
so and so characteristics, just like it says in the
contract you read, I guarantee that it can be made
at the price I quote. That's all. He looked back
out of the bank of light bulbs. They were still burning.
They kept burning. They kept burning for ten solid hours,

(18:54):
said Thorn. Then he went out and shut off his battery.
Captain Lacy was scowling. That's damn funny, he muttered. What
is asked Thorn, wondering why the naval officer had interrupted
his story. What you've been telling me, Lacy said, I'll
swear I've heard. He stopped and snapped his fingers. Suddenly,
sure by golly, he stood up from the table. Would

(19:16):
you excuse me for a minute. I want to see
if a friend of mine is here. If he is,
he has a story you ought to hear. Damn funny coincidence,
And he was off in a hurry, leaving Thorn staring
somewhat blankly after him. Three minutes later, while Thorn was
busily pouring himself a second helping of five star Hennessy,
Captain Lacy returned to the table with an army officer
wearing the insignia of a bird, Colonel Colonel Dower. The

(19:40):
Captain said, I'd like you to meet a friend of mine,
mister Richard Thorn, the top research man with North American
carbide and medals. Mister Thorn, this is Colonel Edward Dower.
The men shook hands. A third brandy sniffer was brought
and a gentleman's petation was poured for the Colonel. Ed
said Captain Lacy. As soon as it fell officer had
inhaled a goodly lungful of the heady fumes. Do you

(20:04):
remember you were telling me a couple of years ago
about some test you were in on o the hobby desert.
Colonel Dower frowned. Test something to do with cars. No,
not that one, something to do with the power supply.
Power supply. Oh, his frown fading became a smile. You
mean the crackpot with his little suitcase. Thorn looked startled,

(20:25):
and Captain Lacy said that's the one, sure I remember,
said the colonel. What about it? Oh, nothing, Lacy said,
with elaborate unconcern. I just thought, mister Thorn, here might
like to hear the story, that is, if it isn't classified.
Colonel Dower chuckled, nothing classified about it, just another crackpot

(20:46):
inventor had a little suitcase that he claimed was a
marvelous new power source. Wanted a million dollars cash for
a tax free, no strings attached, but he wouldn't show
us what was in it. Not really very interesting, Go ahead,
colonel said Thorn. I'm interested, really I am. Well, as
I said, there is nothing much to it, the colonel said,
he showed us a lot of impressive looking stuff in

(21:07):
his laboratory, but it didn't mean a thing. He had
the suit cases. I told you they're a couple of
thick copper electrodes coming out of the sight of it,
and he claimed that they could be tapped for tremendous
amounts of power. Well, we listened and we watched his
demonstrations in the lab. He ran some heavy duty motors
off it and a few of the things like that,
I don't remember what all, and he wanted to sell

(21:30):
it to you sight unseen. Thorn asked, that's right, said
the colonel. Well, actually he wasn't trying to sell it
to the army, as you know, we don't buy ideas.
All we buy is hardware, the equipment itself or the components.
But the company he was trying to sell as gadget
To wanted me to take a look at it as
an observer. I've had experience with that sort of thing,
and they wanted my opinion. I see Thorn said, what happened, Well,

(21:54):
said the colonel. We wanted him to give us a
demonstration out in the Mojave Desert. Out in the Mojave Desert,
The inventor asked, whatever for, Colonel Dower. We just want
to make sure you haven't got any hidden power sources
hooked up to that suit case of yours. We know
a place out in the Mojave where there aren't any
power lines for miles will pick the place. The inventor

(22:18):
frowned at him out of pale blue eyes. Look he
gestured at the suitcase sitting on the laboratory table. You
can see there's nothing faked about that. Colonel Dower shook
his head. You won't tell us what's in that suit case.
All we know is that it's supposed to produce power
from what how You won't tell us. Did you ever
hear the Kili motor. No, what was the Keeley motor?

(22:42):
Something along the lines of what you have here, the
colonel said dryly, except that Keighley at least had an
explanation for where he was getting his power back. Around
eighteen seventy four, a man named John Keeley claimed he
had invented a wonderful new power source. He called it
a breakthrough in the field of perpetual motion, an undiscovered
source of power, he said, controlled by harmony. He had

(23:04):
a machine in his lab which would begin to turn
a flywheel when he blew a chord on a harmonica.
He could stop it by blowing a sour note. He
claimed that this power was all around, but that it
was easiest to get it out of water. He claimed
that a pint of his charged water would run a
train from Philadelphia to New York and back and only
cost a tenth as much as coal. The inventor folded

(23:27):
his arms across his chest and looked grimly at Colonel Dower.
I see, go on, Well, he got some wealthy men interested.
A lot of them invested money, big money in the
Kiley Motor Company. Every so often he'd bring them down
to his lab and show them what progress he was making,
and then tell them how much more money he needed.
He always got them to shell out, and he was

(23:48):
living pretty high on the hog. He kept at it
for years. Finally, in the late nineties, the Scientific American
exposed the whole hoax. Keighley died and his lab was
giving a thorough going over. It turned out that all
his marvelous machines were run by compressed air cleverly channel
through the floor and the legs of tables. I see,

(24:09):
repeated the inventor, narrowing his eyes, and I suppose my
invention is run by compressed air. I didn't say your
invention was a phony, Colonel Dowers said, placatingly. I merely
mentioned the Kili motor to show you why we want
to test it out somewhere away from your laboratory. Are
you willing to go any time you are, Colonel. A
week or so later, they went out into the Mahave

(24:31):
and set up the test the suit case. The suitcase
said the colonel was connected up to a hundred hundred
watt light bulbs. He let the thing run for ten
hours before he shut it off. He chuckled. He never
would let us look into that suit case. Naturally, we
wouldn't buy picking a poke, as the saying goes. We
told him that any time we could be allowed to

(24:51):
look at his invention, we'd be glad to see him again.
He left in a huff, and that was the last
we saw of him. How do you explain, Thorn said, carefully,
the fact that his suit case did run all those lights.
The colonel chuckled again. Hell, we had that figured out.
He just had a battery of some kind in the
suit case. No fancy gimmick for driving power from perpetual

(25:15):
motion or anything like that. No, just a battery, that's all.
Captain Dean Lacey was grinning hugely. Thorn said, tell me, Colonel,
what was this fellow's name. Oh, I don't recall, big
blond Chap had a Swedish name, or maybe Norwegian Sanderson, No,
something like that, though Sorensen. Thorn asked, that's it Sorenson.

(25:40):
Do you know him. We've done business with him, said
Thorn dryly. He didn't balm his phony machine off on you,
did he, the colonel asked, with a light laugh. No, no,
Thorn said, Nobody sold us a battery disguise as a
perpetual motion device. Our relations with him have been quite profitable.
Thank you. I'd say you still ought to watch him,

(26:02):
said Colonel Dower. Once a con man, always a con man,
is my belief. Captain Lacy rubbed his hands together. Ed
tell me something. Didn't it ever occur to you that
a battery which could do all that, a battery which
would hold a hundred kilowat hours of energy in a
suit case, would be worth a million? He was asking
for it. Colonel Dower looked startled. Why why, No, the

(26:25):
man was obviously a phony. He wouldn't tell us what
the power source was he Colonel Dower stopped. Then he said,
as John went on, besides, if it were a battery,
why didn't he say so? A phony like that shouldn't
be He stopped again, looking at the naval officer. Lacy
was still grinning. We have discovered, ed, he said, in
a normalst sweet voice, that Sorenson's battery will run a submarine.

(26:49):
With all due respect to your rank and ability, Captain
Thorn said, I have a feeling that you'd have been
skeptical about any such story too. Oh, I'll admit that,
Lacy said, But I would have been impressed by the performance.
Then he looked thoughtful. But I must admit that it
lowers my opinion of your inventor to hear that he
tells all these cock and bull stories. Why not just

(27:10):
come out with the truth. Evidently he's learned something, Thorn said,
let me tell you what happened after the contracts had
been signed. The contracts had been signed after a week
of negotiation, Thorn was, he admitted to himself, a little nervous.
As soon as he had seen the test out on
salt flats, he had realized that Sorenson had developed a

(27:30):
battery that was worth every cent he had asked for it.
Thorn himself had pushed for the negotiations to get them
through without too much friction. A million bucks was a
lot of loot, but there was no chance of losing it. Really,
as Sorenson said, the contract did not call for the
delivery of a specific device. It called for a device
that would produce specific results. If Sorenson's device didn't produce

(27:53):
those results, or if they couldn't be duplicated by Thorn
after having had the device explain to him, then the
contract wasn't fulfilled and the ambitious mister Sorenson wouldn't get
any million dollars. Now the time had come to see
what was inside that mysterious little black suitcase. Sorenson had
obligingly brought the suitcase to the main testing and development

(28:14):
laboratory of North American car Biden Metals. Sorenson put it
on the lab table, but he didn't open it right away. Now,
I want you to understand, mister Thorn. He began that,
I myself don't exactly know how this thing works. That is,
I don't completely understand what's going on inside there. I've
built several of them, and I can show you how

(28:35):
to build them, but that doesn't mean I understand them completely.
That's not unusual in battery work, Thorn said, we don't
completely understand what's going on in a lot of cells.
As long as the thing works according to the specifications
in the contract, will be satisfied. All right, fine, but
you're going to be surprised when you see what's in here.

(28:57):
I probably will. I've been expecting a surprise, Thorn said.
What he got was a real surprise. There was a
small pressure tank of hydrogen inside, one of the little
ones that are sometimes used to fill toy balloons. There
was a small batch of electronic circuitry that looked as
though it might be the insides of an f M
a M radio. All the rest of the space was

(29:19):
taken up by batteries, and every single one of the
cells was a familiar little canister. They were small, rechargeable
nickel cadmium cells, and every one bore the trademark of
North American carbide in metals. One of the other men
in the labs said, what kind of joke is this?
Do you mean? Mister sorensen Thorn asked with controlled precision,

(29:43):
that your million dollar process is merely some kind of
gimmickry with our own batteries. No, said Soreson. It's wait
a minute, said one of the others. Is it some
kind of hydrogen fuel cell in a way? Soreison said, yes,
in a way. It isn't as a fish as I'd like,
but it gets his power by converting hydrogen to helium.

(30:03):
I need those batteries to start the thing after it
gets going. These leads here from the reactor sell keep
the batteries charged. The He was interrupted by five different voices,
all trying to speak at once. He could hardly. He
could hardly get a word in edgewise at first, said Thorn.
He was enjoying the look of shocked amazement on Colonel
Dower's face. When Sorenson finally did get it, explained, we

(30:27):
still didn't know much, but we built another one and
it worked as well as the one he had, and
the contract didn't specifically call for a battery. He had
us good, he did. Now, wait, Colonel Dower said, you
mean to say it wasn't a battery after all? Of
course not. Then why all the folder all, Colonel Thorn said.

(30:47):
Sorenson patented that device nine years ago. It only has
eight years to run. But he couldn't get anyone at
all to believe that it would do what he said
it would do. After years of beating his head against
a stone wall, years of trying to convince people who
wouldn't even look twice at his gadget, he decided to
get smart. He began to realize that everybody knew that

(31:07):
hydrogen fusion wasn't that simple. It was his theory that
no one would listen to. As soon as he told
anyone that he had a hydrogen fusion device that could
be started with a handful of batteries and could be
packed into a suitcase. He was instantly dismissed as a nut.
I did a little investigating after he gave us a
full information in what he had done. Incidentally, he signed

(31:29):
over the patent to us, which was more than the
contract called for, and returned for a job with their
outfit so that he could help develop the fusion device.
As I said, he finally got smart. If the theory
was what was making people give them the cold shoulder,
he'd tell them nothing. You know the results of that,
Colonel Dower, at least he got somebody to test the machine.

(31:50):
He managed to get somebody to look at what it
would do, But that wasn't enough. He didn't have, apparently
any legitimate excuse for keeping it under wraps that way,
so everyone was suspicious. But why tell you it was
a battery, asked Captain Lacy. That was probably suggested by
Colonel Dower's reaction to the tests he saw. Thorn said somebody.

(32:12):
I think it was George Gummow, but I'm not certain.
Once said that just having a theory isn't enough. The
theory has to make sense well. Sorenson's theory of hydrogen
fusion producing electric current didn't make sense. It was true,
but it didn't make sense. So he came up with
a theory that did make sense. If everyone wanted to
think it was nothing but a battery, then by heaven,

(32:34):
he'd sell it as a battery. And that, gentlemen, was
a theory we were perfectly willing to believe. It wasn't true,
but it did make sense. As far as I was concerned,
it was perfectly natural for a man who had invented
a new type of battery to keep it under wraps
that way. Naturally, after we had invested a million dollars
in the thing, we had to investigate it. It worked,

(32:55):
and we had to find out why and how. Naturally,
said Colonel Dower, looking somewhat uncomfortable. I presume this is
all under wraps, eh. What about the Russians? Couldn't they
get a hold of the patent papers? They could have
thorn admitted, but they didn't. They dismissed him as a
crackpot too, if they heard a bottom at all. Certainly

(33:15):
they never requested a copy of his patent. The patent
number is now top secret, of course, and if anyone
does write in for a copy. The Patent Office will
reply that there are temporarily no copies available, and the
FBI will find out who is making the request. Well,
said Colonel Dower. At least I'm glad to hear that
I was not the only one who didn't believe him.

(33:36):
Captain Lacy chuckled, and mister Thorn here believed a lie
only because it made more sense than the truth. Thorn said,
and he had that you shouldn't laugh, Captain. Remember, we
suckered the Navy in almost the same way, with no
strings attached. By David Gordon