Chapter 24 The fourth big professor-3

When I was teaching at Cornell, I would go back to my hometown in Far Rockaway every so often. Once when I was at home, the phone rang: long distance from California! Long distance calls in those days meant something big had happened, especially from a place as magical as California. The guy on the other end said, "Are you Professor Feynman from Cornell University?" "That's right." "This is the ××× of ××× Aircraft Company." It was a large aircraft company in California, but unfortunately I forgot its name.The man continued: "We plan to set up a laboratory to study nuclear-powered aircraft. Our annual budget is so many millions of dollars..." Astronomical figures!

I said, "Wait a minute, sir, I don't understand why you're talking to me about these things." "Let me say," he said, "let me get this out of the way first, and please let me do it my way." So he went on, saying how many people and how many PhDs there would be in the lab level researchers…. "I'm sorry, sir," I said, "but I think you've got the wrong guy." "Aren't you Richard Feynman?" "Yeah, that's right, but you're..." "Please let me finish my speech first, and then we can discuss it."

"Okay!" I sat down, with half-closed eyes, and listened to him tell me a whole lot of details about the plan; but I still couldn't understand why he was telling me these things. Finally he explained, "I told you the plan because we wanted to know, would you like to be the director of the laboratory?" "Are you really looking for the right person?" I said, "I'm a professor of theoretical physics. I'm not a rocket engineer, and I'm not an aircraft engineer." "We're pretty sure we've got the right guy." "Where did you find my name? Why did you find me?"

"You are the patentee for nuclear rocket-propelled aircraft, sir." "Oh," I just remembered why my name was registered as the owner of this patent.I told the guy, "I'm sorry, I just want to stay on as a professor at Cornell." The course of the matter is like this.During the war there was an official patent office at Los Alamos, and the man in charge, Captain Smith, was a good man. Once he issued a notice to everyone, to the effect that "the patent office intends to apply for a patent in the name of the United States government for every idea you are working on. Anything that you think everyone knows or doesn't know about nuclear energy or its applications If you have any ideas, please come to the patent office and tell us."

I bumped into Smith at lunch and we headed back to the Tech Zone.On the way I told him, "It's kind of crazy that you sent out a circular asking us to tell you every idea." We continued to exchange ideas, and before we knew it, we had reached his office. I said, "There are so many ideas about nuclear energy, so obvious, I can't tell you all day." "Like what?" "No big deal!" I said, "Example: nuclear reactor...the bottom of the water...water goes in here...steam goes out there...that's a submarine. Or: nuclear reactor...air rushes in from the front...the nuclear reaction puts it Heating...out the back...through the air - this is an airplane. Or: Nuclear Reactor...Hydrogen through...Long! This is a rocket. Or:

Nuclear reactors... use uranium added with beryllium oxide instead of ordinary uranium, and the efficiency is improved at high temperatures... This is a power plant.There are literally millions of ideas! " As I said that, I walked out of the office. Everything is calm as usual. About three months later, Smith called me and said, "Feynman, the submarine has been claimed, but the other three are yours." So when the guys from the aircraft company in California planned the design lab, They want to know who is an expert in rockets and things, and they use this simple method: "Look who has registered a patent on this!"

Anyway, Smith asked me to sign some papers promising to pass those 3 ideas on to the government.It's a legal process, but when you're handing over a patent to the government, the law says there have to be certain "deals" in it, or the document doesn't work. So the document I signed said, "I, Richard Feynman, would like to assign this patent to the government for a dollar..." I signed this document. "Where's my dollar?" "That's just a formality," he said. "We're not budgeting for this." "You have been messing around for a long time, asking me to sign this thing for a dollar,"

I said, "Pay me back one dollar!" "This is so boring!" Smith protested. "No, it's not boring," I said, "it's a legal document. You want me to sign it, and I'm an honest man, and I mean it!" "Okay, okay!" He said angrily, "I'll give you a dollar out of my own pocket!" "OK." I took a dollar and thought of a great idea.I went to the grocery store, bought a dollar of cookies and candy (one dollar was a lot in those days), ran back to the theory group and offered everyone to eat, and I said, "I'm making a fortune, everyone! Please have a cookie! My patent sold for a dollar! The patent sold for a dollar!"

Everyone with a registered patent--many of whom signed the papers--run to Captain Smith at once: they wanted that dollar! At first he paid out of his own pocket, but soon found himself on the brink of bankruptcy!He was insane, desperately trying to find some funds to pay the money back.I don't know how he evened it out afterwards!