take a job with Lafe Rude
Consultants, Inc., up in Boston. The technician is an ethical man, and
all 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 my
technicians, John Bostick, on the process to make certain he can repeat
my work. But that's all we can do for a few months around here. The
laboratories 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 right
away. 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 you
really need mercury vapor? Will some other metallic vapor do? What about
temperature 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 improve
them? What about the sheet-making conditions? Does oxygen in the air
catalyze...?"

Callahan held up his hands and said, "O.K., O.K., we don't know anything
about it. But we're not going to find out these things until we open a
research 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 until
I asked, "All the information in your notebooks, Henry?"

He nodded, and I continued, "Well, I'll be back tomorrow to talk to you
and Bostick. We'll just have to file a patent application on what we
have."

We chatted a while about his work on the West Coast, and then we shook
hands and I left. I had a few moments to think in the cab before I
talked with Mr. Spardleton. Here I was in that situation that a patent
attorney dreads. I had an incomplete invention, one that required a
great deal of work before it could be filed, yet I had to file now in
the incomplete condition. With it all, here was a most significant
invention, one that would make the world take notice. This was one of
the rare ones, I could feel it in my bones. It was obviously an
industry-founder, a landmark invention on a par with the greatest, even
in its incomplete condition. By golly, I was going to do a job on this
one.

* * *

Mr