Page:R U R Rossum s Universal Robots.pdf/30

10 That depends on how much of the factory you show me.

Oh, hang the factory. Oh, no, no, you shall see everything, Miss Glory. Indeed you shall. Won't you sit down?

[Crossing to couch and sitting]: Thank you.

But first would you like to hear the story of the invention?

Yes, indeed.

[Observes with rapture and reels off rapidly]:

It was in the year 1920 that old Rossum, the great physiologist, who was then quite a young scientist, took himself to this distant island for the purpose of studying the ocean fauna, full stop. On this occasion he attempted by chemical synthesis to imitate the living matter known as protoplasm until he suddenly discovered a substance which behaved exactly like living