🚀 go-pugleaf

I am typing in this extract from the New Scientist magazine (without
their permission, although the managers of such an excellent magazine
would surely approve) because it reminded me of what I am not reading
in this group:

"... The experiment resumed at 2:30 pm. Fermi again instructed the pile to
be operated with a single conrol rod, as he calculated what the neutron
count would be when the rod was withdrawn by another foot....

"The neutron counter was eventually overwhelmed, and everyone's attention
turned to the chart recorder, its pen scratching out a continuous ascent.
Fermi spent several minutes carefully checking that the rise was
exponential, that is, rising by the same factor in each successive time
interval -- evidence that the chain had been established. He put away his
slide rule and broke into a broad smile, announcing: 'the reaction is
self-sustaining'. The reactor was working at half a watt."
					     ^^^^^^^^^^^
Obfusion: the New Scientist recently lam-(ever so slightly)-pooned Frank
Close in a jokey almanac for 1993. Something about his hat.

Dick Jackson