"Simple. Y'see, I had to make a profit. I used a few thousand dollars worth of radon gas. Radon gas and beryllium produce lots and lots of neutrons. Neutrons can bombard elements; I had one of your boys prepare one of the short-term elements for me and put it in my little lead box. One of the five-minute half lives that would activate the counters and then die out in the half hour it took to run through the measurements. By being sloppy in my analysis, I convinced Velikof that his equipment could be made to actually work if he figured out how wrong to set his dials!"
Newton waved the envelope at Mangler. "So from here on, you stay at your end of the hall and run the gadgets, and I'll stay at my end and run the business. And if you are a good gadgeteer, I'll put through your request—not order—for tectroscopes. I guess we can afford it, now."