Australia, in Japan are not exactly dozing. We are awash in samples, and we would happily yield to the temptation to throw them away or return them to the sender, were it not for the consideration that our own products suffer the same fate, becoming, in their turn, marvelous, being shrewdly seized and smuggled out by the agents of our competitors, scrutinized, analyzed, and copied: some badly, others wellâby the addition, that is, of a particle of originality and genius. Thus begins an endless network of espionage and cross-fertilization, which, illuminated by solitary creative flashes, constitutes the foundation of technological progress. In short, the samples of the competition cannot be thrown out with the dregs: one must see whatâs there, even if the professional conscience puts up a struggle.
The paint that came from Naples, at first glance, did not display any special property: appearance, odor, drying time were those of a common clear acrylic enamel, and the whole business stank of a hoax. I telephoned Di Prima, who was indignant: he was not the type to send samples around just for fun, and that one in particular had cost him time and troubleâthe product was extremely interesting and in his market he was having incredible success. Technical documentation? It didnât exist, there was no need for it, the effectiveness of the product spoke for itself. A fishing boat had been coming back with empty nets for three monthsâthey had painted its hull and ever since it had been netting spectacular catches. Atypographer had mixed the paint with printing ink: the ink didnât go as far, but the typographical errors had disappeared. If somehow we were unable to use it, we should tell him immediately; otherwise, we should get busy with it. The price was 7,000 lire a kilo, which seemed to him a good profit margin, and he would undertake to sell at least twenty tons a month.
I talked about it with Chiovatero, who is a serious and capable fellow. At first he turned up his nose, then he thought about it, and proposed starting simply; that is, trying the paint on cultures of
E. coli
bacteria. What did he expect? That the cultures would multiply more than the controls or less? Chiovatero was annoyed, and told me that it was not his habit to put the cart before the horse (implying, by this, that it was
my
habit, which, for goodnessâ sake, is absolutely not true), that it remained to be seen, that you had to start somewhere, and that âthe load adjusts along the way.â He obtained the cultures, painted the outside of the test tubes, and we waited. None of us were biologists, but no biologist was needed to interpret the results. After five days, the effect was obvious: the protected cultures had developed in size at three times the rate of the controls, which we had coated with an acrylic ostensibly similar to the one from Naples. We had to conclude that this paint âbrought good luckâ even to microorganisms: an irritating conclusion, but, as has been authoritatively stated, facts are obstinate. A more thorough analysis was required, but everyone knows what a complex and uncertain enterprise the examination of a paint is: almost like that of a living organism.All those fantastic modern devicesâthe infrared spectrum, the gas chromatograph, NMRâare helpful to a point but leave many angles unexplored; and if you arenât lucky enough to have a metal as the key component, all you can do is use your nose, like a dog. But in this case there
was
a metal: an unusual metal, so unusual that no one in the laboratory knew from experience how it reacted. We had to burn almost the entire sample to obtain a quantity sufficient for identification; but finally we did and it was duly confirmed, with all its characteristic reactions. It was tantalum, a very respectable metal, with a name full of meaning, never before seen in paint, and thus surely responsible for the property that we were looking
The paint that came from Naples, at first glance, did not display any special property: appearance, odor, drying time were those of a common clear acrylic enamel, and the whole business stank of a hoax. I telephoned Di Prima, who was indignant: he was not the type to send samples around just for fun, and that one in particular had cost him time and troubleâthe product was extremely interesting and in his market he was having incredible success. Technical documentation? It didnât exist, there was no need for it, the effectiveness of the product spoke for itself. A fishing boat had been coming back with empty nets for three monthsâthey had painted its hull and ever since it had been netting spectacular catches. Atypographer had mixed the paint with printing ink: the ink didnât go as far, but the typographical errors had disappeared. If somehow we were unable to use it, we should tell him immediately; otherwise, we should get busy with it. The price was 7,000 lire a kilo, which seemed to him a good profit margin, and he would undertake to sell at least twenty tons a month.
I talked about it with Chiovatero, who is a serious and capable fellow. At first he turned up his nose, then he thought about it, and proposed starting simply; that is, trying the paint on cultures of
E. coli
bacteria. What did he expect? That the cultures would multiply more than the controls or less? Chiovatero was annoyed, and told me that it was not his habit to put the cart before the horse (implying, by this, that it was
my
habit, which, for goodnessâ sake, is absolutely not true), that it remained to be seen, that you had to start somewhere, and that âthe load adjusts along the way.â He obtained the cultures, painted the outside of the test tubes, and we waited. None of us were biologists, but no biologist was needed to interpret the results. After five days, the effect was obvious: the protected cultures had developed in size at three times the rate of the controls, which we had coated with an acrylic ostensibly similar to the one from Naples. We had to conclude that this paint âbrought good luckâ even to microorganisms: an irritating conclusion, but, as has been authoritatively stated, facts are obstinate. A more thorough analysis was required, but everyone knows what a complex and uncertain enterprise the examination of a paint is: almost like that of a living organism.All those fantastic modern devicesâthe infrared spectrum, the gas chromatograph, NMRâare helpful to a point but leave many angles unexplored; and if you arenât lucky enough to have a metal as the key component, all you can do is use your nose, like a dog. But in this case there
was
a metal: an unusual metal, so unusual that no one in the laboratory knew from experience how it reacted. We had to burn almost the entire sample to obtain a quantity sufficient for identification; but finally we did and it was duly confirmed, with all its characteristic reactions. It was tantalum, a very respectable metal, with a name full of meaning, never before seen in paint, and thus surely responsible for the property that we were looking
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