"William Morrison - Disappointment" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morrison William)

walkie-talkies, and atomic power, it ought to be an easy one. I'll give you five hundred dollars to solve it.
I regard the money as practically a gift. All the same, do a good job, and there'll be more such gifts
coming."
"I don't understand, Father. What problem did you say?"
"The nut-salting problem. We have found it impossible to salt nuts and have the salt remain properly
distributed. Those cashews have been shaken in a box, so that most of the crystals have fallen to the
bottom, and the top nuts taste flat. Of course, the salt sticks better on some nuts than on others. Some
are more oily, others are dry.
"We find, in many cases, the problem is an annoying one, and I'm anxious to have it solved. I want
you, Payne, to devise a method of keeping the salt evenly distributed over every kind of nut, so that a
train or truck ride doesn't shake it down. If you're as good a scientist as Angela thinks you areтАФ"
"Better," interrupted Angela.
"Then the job shouldn't take you more than a week. And five hundred dollars isn't bad for a week's
work. Is it a deal?"
Payne didn't answer directly. He was talking absently to himself, and Perry could catch only a few
phrases. "Sodium ion," "chloride ion," "adsorption in nionomolecular layers," "orientation of unsaturated
paraffin chain in triglycerides," and "possibly of utilizing eketric dipoles" struck his ear.
It was Angela who spoke up briskly, "It's a deal, Father. Stewart will do the job in a week."
"Good. Bring me your formula for the process, and you can get married."
"Oh, no, Father, we're getting married anyway."
"I refuse to give you my permission until Payne has solved this problem."
"Then we'll get married without it."
Perry glowered at her as she led the still thinking scientist from the room. That gentleman was talking
to himself of van der Waals forces and potential barriers as he passed through the doorway. Perry
muttered an oath to the empty room. Trust his daughter to pick a nincompoop like that, who would
condemn her to live out her days in poverty тАФand probably enjoy herself in the process.
Then, with the efficiency for which he was famed in the nut business, he put his daughter and her
fiance out of his mind, and turned his full attention first to the mysterious spotting of a cargo of worrisome
walnuts, and after that to the more congenial problem of how to do "Norton Nuts," his hated rival out of
an important order.

IT was two weeks later, on the very eve of his wedding, that Stewart Payne called his
father-in-law-to-be. "I think I've solved your problem for you, Mr. Perry," he began modestly.
Perry clutched the phone tighter. "Fine. How did you do it?"
"Well, if we coat the nut with a solution of sodium chloride in a suspension of a certain chrysanthrene
derivativeтАФ
"How much does this stuff cost?"
"Oh, a dollar or two a pound," replied the scientist vaguely. "Or possibly five dollars a pound. It
doesn't matter greatly. We wouldn't use much of it."
"How much would it cost to dry the nuts after coating them?"
"A fraction of a cent per pound. Of course, expensive machinery could be requiredтАФ" Suddenly
Payne's voice died away to a mumble.
"What was that?"
"It has just struck me thatтАФyes, I think that would be an objection."
"What has struck you? What's the objection ?"
"Merely that some of the fused ring anthracene derivatives are carcinogenic."
"What does that mean in English?"
"That they are cancer-producing."
 "You mean that people who ate the nuts you treated would get cancer ?"
Payne said absently, and as if he had lost interest, "Yes, there is that possibility." He added, as if to