“This is preposterous!” he exclaimed. “Absolutely preposterous! I assure you, gentlemen, that Dr. Einstein would not have his name profaned by being mentioned in connection with this... this mercenary attempt to —”
Chairman Cogswell rapped loudly with his gavel. “If you please! You will be called and allowed to give testimony when the time comes. At the moment we are hearing Dr. Nagle. You will please take your seat and refrain from further interruptions of this kind.”
“I have only one more major point I wish to make at this time,” said Mart. “Mention has been made of the nation’s need of scientific talent of the highest order, the need of new and basic discoveries. I wish to add my observation that this is indeed true. Our need is critical.
“But basic scientific work is not being done in adequate quantity because the material rewards to the individual researcher and his sponsoring agency are not great enough.
“I have shown what happens in the case of a man like Dr. Einstein. But consider the corporation that employs large numbers of men for the specific purpose of inventing and discovering new principles. Consider Gigantic Electric Corporation. It assumes a burden of five million dollars worth of basic, theoretical research per year. The results happen to be some basic laws of chemistry and fluid flow. Due to the patent situation these laws cannot be protected but they are highly welcome at Mammoth Chemical and Altitude Aircraft, whose engineers get large numbers of patents on the devices they develop out of the principles discovered at Gigantic.
“Next year, Gigantic’s research produces a semipermeable membrane theory. Mammoth Chemical thanks them kindly, does some development work, and obtains patents on methods of extracting fresh water from the sea at a dollar per cubic mile or so. The AEC improves the filters at Oak Ridge. Somebody else gets patents on separating useful hydrocarbons from petroleum by-products for plastic manufacture.
“Gigantic Electric gets nothing. Their stockholders howl. Gigantic drops the big theoretical research program. Nobody dares take it up because, under our present Patent System, there’s no return in money from theoretical research on an adequate scale to supply the needs of the nation.
“There’s your problem, gentlemen, it’s not the question of Dr. Martin Nagle being a dog in the manger with respect to the few things he has available. It’s a major problem that affects every sincere, responsible scientist of top-drawer caliber in the nation. It affects the scientific welfare of the whole country. I call upon you to give us the solution we need!”
There was a small dinner party that night at the hotel with a couple dozen of his closest friends. Keyes was there and Jennings, and Don Wolfe. They invited Dykstra just for the hell of it, but the professor had urgent business elsewhere.
Mart kept the talk away from the hearing, and from the general subject of his discoveries. It kept spilling over into their conversation, but he had no intention of letting it be aired at the dinner table. All they had to say now was for the Committee. Only Jennings broke through with one piece of information pertinent to Mart’s work. He reported that Goodman had acquired one of the tavern-size Volcanoes and was working out a system to beat the game.