The Prize

acknowledged him by adjusting his bifocals and nodding.

‘Herr Professor,’ the reporter began, ‘so far we have been discussing discoveries and inventions in general, and of the past, and I should like to bring the interview to a specific point and to the present-’

‘Jawohl,’ Stratman agreed.

‘You have been awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for the “discovery and invention of a photochemical conversion and storage system for solar energy” and for the “practical application of solar energy to produce synthesized solid rocket propellants”. Except for reading, everywhere, that you have harnessed the rays of the sun, found a way to stock it and transport it, and proved that this kind of energy can help turn out rocket fuels, making obsolete the energy derived from coal and other fossil sources, I nowhere have read or been able to learn precisely what you have done.’

There was appreciative laughter in the room, and even Stratman responded with an understanding smile.

The Dagens Nyheter reporter earnestly continued. ‘I am not alone in wanting to know your process, your instrument or container, the means exactly for which you are being honoured. I have asked the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, and they cannot-or will not-tell me. Will you?’

Stratman peered impishly over his bifocals. ‘They cannot tell you, because they do not know- exactly.’

‘Herr Professor, I have no intention of being disrespectful-but how could they honour you for an invention about which they know so little?’

‘Because, I am told, your Swedish investigators came to the United States and learned from my government and my colleagues what I had done. They were shown proof of what I have done. They were shown results at our fuel plant in the Mojave Desert. But, for reasons of national security, they could not be shown the means, the process, the storage system.’

A woman from United Press International called out, ‘Professor Stratman, can you give us any detail of your actual discovery?’

He shook his head. ‘No. I am sorry, no.’

‘Not so much as a hint? Something to write about?’

‘Not even so much. I apologize deeply. It is highly classified military information.’

The Neues Deutschland man, who was from East Berlin, spoke up. ‘I am surprised they let you out of the country.’

Stratman smiled. ‘Because they saw I was an old man who needed a holiday. Besides, they agreed that I was an absent-minded professor who would never remember the formula, anyway.’ Suddenly, he was serious. ‘It is an unhappy state of the world, to have this censorship, I agree. It is not an exclusive symptom of my adopted homeland. Secrecy, in certain circles, is a way of life, an attitude towards survival, in your Sweden, your England, your Russia, too, I assure you. No longer can the scientist think of himself as a citizen of the world. The frontiers of his mind, once boundless, are now constricted by nationalist barriers. The fraternity of the past, exchanging ideas and findings, co-operating, is no more, to the detriment of humanity. But that is the fact of the situation. When there is a common effort to halt competition and erase fear from all minds, the international fraternity of science will meet and come to order again. Then, all men and all nations will profit. It is the day I hope to see, still in my lifetime.’

There was a spattering of applause among the reporters, and someone shouted, ‘Hear, hear,’ and Stratman seemed surprised and pleased.

‘Herr Professor,’ said the reporter from Svenska Dagbladet, ‘if you cannot give away the secrets of your invention, maybe you can tell us something useful in a general way. Why did you interest yourself in solar energy? What is the value in harnessing the sun’s rays?’

The press waited, as Stratman weighed his reply. At last, his dome of a head bobbed in the affirmative. ‘Ja, the questions are fair. It would be wrong to send you back to your editors empty- handed. So-the questions. I will try to avoid the lecture room, but speak in such a way that you will understand, at least, what the motive behind my work was, and what it has accomplished.’ He pointed his meerschaum towards the windows. ‘Out there is the sun. It is ninety-three million miles away, yet sun’s outer atmosphere engulfs our earth, and its rays of atomic energy-hydrogen atoms converted into helium atoms-dominate our daily lives. What kind of potential energy, in earth terms, does this sun offer our tiny planet? If our entire earth were covered with an ice layer four hundred and twenty-five feet thick, and if it could be melted-which it could not-the sun’s rays would melt all of it, every inch of it, in twelve months. It would take twenty-one billion tons of coal to match the solar energy that covers the earth every sixty minutes. In the Sahara Desert alone, the solar energy imparted in one day-one single day-is three times as much as all the coal used in the world in three hundred and sixty-six days. In any two days of the year, sunshine offers more energy than may be found in all the coals and other fossil fuels yet untouched beneath the earth’s crust. Potential power fantastic-ja-but how to enslave it?’

Stratman paused, allowing the interviewers time to absorb and record his remarks. When the heads began to look up, he went on.

‘Many men tried to enslave the sun power, and to small degrees, some succeeded. In 1864, a French physicist, Professor Augustin Mouchot, constructed a power boiler that was heated to run by sunrays instead of coal. The sun was funnelled through a truncated cone to the boiler, and it developed steam for use in irrigation. In 1870, a Swedish-American, John Ericsson, who had built the Monitor to fight the Merrimac, constructed a solar plant of mirrors, but the expense became prohibitive for the horsepower generated, and Ericsson quit. Persistent men, some dreamers, some practical, took up the work. The list is too long to recite-Eneas in 1901, Shuman in 1907, and since the First World War, Dr. C. G. Abbot, and a hundred more, with their parabolic mirrors and flat-plate collectors.

‘The major problem was always the same-it was intermittence of supply. By that I mean, the sun shone only in the day, and then not every day at that. How could one depend on such erratic power? The solution, of course, was not to depend directly on each new day of sunlight, but to collect the light, convert it into energy, returning more than thirty per cent efficiency, and then store the energy away for use whenever needed. But how to store solar energy? It would take me many hours to relate all the methods that have been tried. Men worked with thermocouples, and with photo-electric cells, and chemical cells. All of these were successful, but efficiency was far too low. Of one hundred per cent sunlight, only ten per cent could be saved and used. The pioneer work was dramatic, challenging, and I could not resist it. I entered the field. I concentrated on the means by which green leaves-plant organisms-flora-store carbohydrates. I wondered if the same process of nature could be simulated mechanically and in closed vessels. By chance, I was fortunate. I was able to improve the known methods of collecting and converting solar energy, both nature’s and man’s methods. More difficult and more important, I was able to find the means to store successfully and cheaply this energy for use when needed. My government colleagues assisted me in applying my findings to manufacturing solid fuels for heavy rocket propulsion.’

A hand shot up. It belonged to the representative of Berliner Morgenpost. ‘Professor Stratman, do you intend to continue to work in the field?’

‘Definitely. We have not even scratched the surface.’

‘What more can be done?’ asked the journalist from Jerusalem Post.

‘Infinite possibilities. We want to learn how to run factories with solar energy, and give inexpensive power and heat to homes through cheap roof collectors and individual power suppliers. We want to irrigate deserts with it, and illuminate entire cities by night. There is no end, and it all lies ahead. We are at the primitive beginning.’

The reporter from the Oslo Aftenposten made himself heard. ‘Does Soviet Russia have a similar invention?’

Stratman shook his head. ‘No comment.’ Then he added quickly, ‘Of course, they have been in the solar energy field since 1933. It is known that they built a power plant in the Uzbeck Soviet Republic. Today, they have a Russian Solar Power Institute. They have made great advances all along the line. As to their possessing what is now in our possession-of this I cannot speak further.’ He scanned the room. ‘I prefer not to discuss national policies. I will be co-operative in answering all general questions about science-or myself.’

‘Herr Professor.’ It was the Stockholm Expressen journalist. ‘You were at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin throughout the Second World War, were you not?’

‘That is true.’