are you, man? Nice to see you."
Callahan was a big man, heavy-set, with bright blue eyes, and a shock oflight-brown hair. For all his bulk he moved lightly as befitted a formerstroke on the Penn crew. I was fond of Callahan, even with all thetrouble his inventions caused me; I knew he couldn't help it. I said,"Hello Henry. How have you been?" And we exchanged some more amenities.
Finally he said, "Carl, we have quite a problem here, and we don't knowwhat to do about it. Here's the situation."
I swallowed, and took out my notebook and pencil, and laid my pocketslide rule in front of me. I always put the slide rule out where theinventor can see it to remind him that he is talking to anothertechnical man, not just a lawyer. This helps make him stick to thefacts. I didn't need the rule with Callahan, but habit is hard to break.
Callahan said, "Some time ago I made a polyester, used adipic acid andan amino alcohol. On a hunch I dropped in an aluminum alkyl, and thenpushed the polymerization along with both ultraviolet and heat. Got astiff gel out of the pot and drew it into a quarter of a pound offibers. I only had time to determine that the fibers were amorphous--notime to draw them further to see if they would develop crystallinity. Iput them in an open-mouth jar which I later found had been used to storemercury. One evening I took them out and found they had developedcrystallinity on standing. Furthermore, the fibrous ends had split, andthe split ends seemed to be tacky--seemed a natural to me to make asheet of paper out of it."
I nodded as I worked furiously on my notes. All of Marchare's peopletalked that way. They did the most fantastic things sometimes, and thentalked about them as if anyone would have done the same thing. I hadcomplained about this oddity to Mr. Spardleton when I first came to workfor him; I was used to inventions that were made in understandable ways.He had smiled and asked me to quote the last sentence of 35 U.S.C. 103,the statute that set forth the conditions for patentability. It was agood thing I had memorized the statute. I recited the last sentence,"Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which theinvention is made." Well, here it was again.
I asked Callahan, "Did you make a sheet of paper out of it?"
"Sure did. Made a hand sheet in a twelve-by-twelve inch mold. Pressed itout, dried it, then got busy again so I couldn't test it for a week.When I did I started working nights to see if I could duplicate myresults. Just finished this morning. Here's the hand sheet, the secondone."
He handed me a sheet of paper, snow-white in color. I put aside mypencil and notebook to examine it. As I took it in my hand it wasobvious that it was something unusual. It was softer than a cleansingtissue, and probably even more flexible. I rubbed it between my fingers,and it had the most remarkable feel of any paper I had ever felt--softand clinging and cool, and exceedingly pleasant. I knew the paperchemists called this property "hand." Callahan's paper had the mostremarkable hand I had ever seen.
"Tear it in half," Callahan said.
* * * * *
I took the sheet between my thumbs and forefingers and gingerly pulled,expecting the light and soft sheet to part easily. Nothing happened. Ipulled harder, and still nothing. I smiled at Callahan, got a bettergrip, and gave it a yank. Then I twisted opposite corners around myfingers and frankly pulled at it. The absurd sheet refused to tear, andI realized how ridiculous I must look to Callahan to be unable to tear aflimsy sheet of paper. I suppose I lost my temper a little. I gatheredas much of the paper as I could in each hand, bent over to put my handson the inside of my knees, and pulled until I heard my back musclescrack. I let out my breath explosively and looked helplessly atCallahan.
He said, "Don't feel bad, Carl. Nobody has been able to tear it."
"You mean it?" I asked. I found myself puffing; I had not realized I wasstraining so hard.
"Yup. That paper has a tensile of 2,800 pounds per square inch, and atear strength equally unbelievable."
I looked at the little sheet and great possibilities began to occur tome. "Clothing," I said. "Great heavens, think what this will do for theclothing industry. No more weaving. Just run this stuff off on a papermachine at five hundred feet per minute." I stopped and looked atCallahan and said, "You will be able to make it on a paper-makingmachine, won't you?"
"As far as I know."
"Good," I said. "When can we try it in the pilot plant."
"Well, that's where the problem comes in, Carl. I have to leave for theWest Coast tomorrow, and I'll be gone for six months. There's nobodyelse around here to take it through the pilot plant. What's worse, oneof my technicians left this morning to take a job with Lafe RudeConsultants, Inc., up in Boston. The technician is an ethical man, andall that, but I'm afraid the word will be out on this paper now."
My heart sank. Callahan said, "I've already started another of mytechnicians, John Bostick, on the process to make certain he can repeatmy work. But that's all we can do for a few months around here. Thelaboratories have never been so busy. What do you think we ought to do?"
The answer was obvious. "We've got to file a patent application rightaway. It isn't ready to file, but we've got to do it anyway."
Callahan said, "Oh, we're in good shape. We _know_ it works."
I nodded and said, "What acids other than adipic will work?"
"Oh, azoleic, sebacic, a few others, I suppose."
"What else other than amino alcohols? What other catalysts? Do youreally need mercury vapor? Will some other metallic vapor do? What abouttemperature variations in making the polyester? How long a cure time?How much ultraviolet? Will the fibers be better if you draw them more?Can you get those tacky fiber ends in any other way? Can you improvethem? What about the sheet-making conditions? Does oxygen in the aircatalyze...?"
Callahan held up his hands and said, "O.K., O.K., we don't know anythingabout it. But we're not going to find out these things until we open aresearch program, and we can't open a program for at least six months.In the meantime that technician may ..."
I held up my hands this time, and he fell quiet. We stood silently untilI asked, "All the information in your notebooks, Henry?"
He nodded, and I continued, "Well, I'll be back tomorrow to talk to youand Bostick. We'll just have to file a patent application on what wehave."
We chatted a while about his work on the West Coast, and then we shookhands and I left. I had a few moments to think in the cab before Italked with Mr. Spardleton. Here I was in that situation that a patentattorney dreads. I had an incomplete invention, one that required agreat deal of work before it could be filed, yet I had to file now inthe incomplete condition. With it all, here was a most significantinvention, one that would make the world take notice. This was one ofthe rare ones, I could feel it in my bones. It was obviously anindustry-founder, a landmark invention on a par with the greatest, evenin its incomplete condition. By golly, I was going to do a job on thisone.
* * *
Mr. Spardleton was in a bad mood when I entered his office. I didn'thave a chance to say a thing before he bellowed at me, "Mr. Saddle, doyou know what a plasticizer is?"
"Why, ah, yes. It is a material, generally a solvent, that softens andrenders another material more flexible."
"That's right." His fist banged on the desk. "Yet here," he waved anOffice Action at me, "is an Examiner who says that the term'plasticizer' is indefinite, and I must give a list of suitableplasticizers when he knows that Rule 118 forbids me to put in such alist. Can you imagine? He is saying in effect that a chemist who workswith synthetic resins does not know what a plasticizer is, and I musttake him by the hand and teach him something he learned in freshmanchemistry. It has nothing to do with the invention, either. I amclaiming a new kind of lens holder, and I point out that the interior ofthe holder may be coated if desired with a plasticized synthetic resincoating. My, I don't know what the Office is coming to. The PatentOffice is the only institution in the world that does not know themeaning of the phrase 'room temperature'. Some day.... What's thematter, Mr. Saddle?"
I
had pulled up a chair and hunched down in it. Mr. Spardletonrecognized the symptoms. He put down the offending Office Action andsettled back and waited for me to tell him my troubles.
I said, "I've got a hot invention. It is a paper that will replacecloth, strong, flexible, cheap too. We've only made one version of it,though, and I have to file an application right away because one ofCallahan's technicians left, and we can't risk waiting."
He nodded, and I went on, describing to him all the details of theinvention and the situation. When I finished I stared morosely at thefloor. Mr. Spardleton said, "What's the problem? File a
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