science. You don't just stick a couple
of electrodes into a solution of electrolyte and consider that your
work is done. With the same two metals and the same electrolyte, you
could make batteries that would run the gamut from terrible to
excellent. Some of 'em, maybe, wouldn't hold a charge more than an
hour, while others would have a shelf-life, fully charged, of as much
as a year. Batteries don't work according to theory. If they did,
potassium chlorate would be a better depolarizer than manganese
dioxide, instead of the other way around. What you get out of a
voltaic cell depends on the composition and strength of the
electrolyte, the kind of depolarizer used, the shape of the
electrodes, the kind of surface they have, their arrangement and
spacing, and a hundred other little things."

"I've heard that," Siegel said.

* * * * *
* * * * *

[Illustration]

Thorn smoked in silence. He had heard Sorensen's arguments before.
Sorensen didn't mind discussing his battery in the abstract, but he
was awfully close-mouthed when it came to talking about it in concrete
terms. He would talk about batteries-in-general, but not about
this-battery-in-particular.

Not that Thorn blamed him in the least. Sorensen was absolutely
correct in his statements about the state of the art of making voltaic
cells. If Sorensen had something new--and Thorn was almost totally
convinced that he did--then he was playing it smart by not trying to
patent it.

"Now then," Sorensen went on, "let's suppose that my battery is made
up of lead and lead dioxide plates in a sulfuric acid solution, except
that I've added a couple of trifling things and made a few small
changes in the physical structure of the plates. I'm not saying that's
what the battery is, mind you; I'm saying 'suppose'."

"O.K., suppose," said Siegel. "Couldn't you patent it?"

"What's to patent? The Pb-PbO_2-H_2SO_4 cell is about half as old as
the United States Patent Office itself. Can't patent that. Copper
oxide, maybe, as a depolarizer? Old hat; can't patent that. Laminated
plates, maybe? Nope. Can't patent that, either."

Siegel looked out at the hundred glowing light bulbs. "You mean you
can't patent it, even if it works a hundred times better than an
ordinary battery?"

"Hell, man," Sorensen said, "you can't patent performance! You've got
to patent something solid and concrete! Oh, I'll grant that a
top-not