human
You see, said Templeton in his most earnest manner,
gpt
chuckled Eves.
human
You remember old Dicky Bird setting that as an essay theme?
gpt
Yes; he sent mine up for good.
human
He jawed me: sarcastic owl! He was always asking for homely illustrations, as he called them, and when I gave him one he snapped my head off. I wrote, ’An excellent example of the application of this philosophical maxim in practical life is afforded by the navvy, who, as the most casual observer will often have noticed, dispenses with a handkerchief when he has a cold in the head.’ A jolly good sentence, what?
gpt
But I don’t see——
human
Oh, it’s not worth explaining; it was the explanation that rattled the Dicky Bird. What were you saying?
gpt
I was saying we ought to get a hint from Nature. What’s the object of the smoke machine?
human
To make a deuce of a smother, of course.
gpt
Yes, to enable a vessel to hide itself from a submarine. Well, what’s the nearest thing in Nature?
human
Give it up; I’m no good at conundrums.
gpt
This isn’t a conundrum; it’s a scientific fact. You alarm a cuttle-fish, and it squirts out an inky fluid that conceals it from its enemy.
human
You don’t say so! Jolly clever of it. Ought to be called the scuttle-fish. But how does that help you? You want your cloud in the air, not in the water.
gpt
Of course. The idea is to produce a large volume in a short time, of great opacity, yet spreading rapidly over a large area. What’s the nearest parallel in Nature?
human
Human nature?
gpt
I said Nature.
human
Well, human nature’s a part of Nature; and, if you ask me, I should say a careless cook and a foul kitchen chimney—the fire engine up, and a month’s notice.
gpt
I do wish you’d be serious. But you’ve hit it all the same. Half-consumed carbon——
human
You mean soot?
gpt
Soot is half-consumed carbon. That’s the stuff we want. It’s the very thing, because a steamship produces loads of it every day. All you want is a suitable apparatus and what you may call a firing charge. I’ll just make a note.