Egholm took his washing-basin across to the studio, which had been
fitted up at one end of the carpenter’s store shed. The jelly-fish he
placed for the present as far in under the table as possible.
First of all, he must get some work done. There were Sunday’s negatives
to develop--he could be thinking a bit while he was doing that. Egholm
found the new dark-room an excellent place for thought, free from all
disturbance.
Yes, he would think over that turbine.
That jelly-fish soap business was merely an idea--quite possibly,
indeed probably, a good idea. But the turbine, the _reversible
steam-turbine_, was the child of his heart, born of him, conceived by
him in a length of sleep-forsaken nights. Once brought forth to the
world, it would be greeted with acclamation.
It was imminent, it was hovering in the air, this question of something
to replace the more complicated steam-engine. The English had come very
near to a solution already.
But, for all that, it might perhaps be reserved for himself, for
Egholm the Dane, to show them how to make their turbine reverse.
He could think of more than one thing at a time. As long as he could
cast out sufficient ballast, he could always find a new direction of
the wind to carry his thought. Nearest earth was the current connected
with his work, but even that was no less erratic than those of the
higher strata.
Might as well try the new developer to-day, he thought to himself, and
set out his dishes all ready. Then he went into the studio again, and
began studying the recipes he had scrawled up from time to time on the
plank wall of the dark-room. Already there were so many of them that
the list reached to the floor. He had to go down on his knees to see
if it said 25 gr. or 35 gr. Suddenly he forgot what he was there for,
and remained lying prone, thinking only of his steam-turbine; it seemed
to him the axle bearings ought to be made with a little more stability
yet. The slightest oscillation, of course, would mean an escape of
steam--waste of power. Then, becoming aware of his posture, he wondered
how he had got there, but, finding himself on his knees, he at once, as
a practical man, decided to utilise the opportunity, and started off
on a long and earnest prayer to God for the furtherance of his idea.
It was, indeed, not merely a point of honour with him that it should
succeed, but also, he might as well confess, a hoped-for way out of
his present difficulties.
The photography business had turned out a desperate failure--there was
no denying it.
The only people who came at all were the peasants who came into town
on Sundays. Of these, quite a good number patronised the studio,
but, unfortunately, they did not always come for the photos they had
ordered. They were not impressed by his skill when they found the
studio situate in a woodshed at the back of Andreasen’s, with the
camera perched on a cement barrel instead of a tripod.
The fine folk of the place, in accordance with an established
tradition, always went over to the neighbouring town for their
photographs. It didn’t seem to count, somehow, unless they did.
They were just as superficial in their judgment as the peasants, and
paid more heed to a smart shop than to the artistic execution of the
pictures.
Here Egholm laughed to himself. The photographs he turned out could
hardly be included under the heading of art at all, and he knew it.
But was there anything surprising in that? In the first place, how
could anyone help becoming dulled by so much adversity, and in the
second--oh, well, in the second place, why the devil should _he_ put
himself out for all and sundry, when it was only a question of time
before he threw aside his mask and revealed himself as a world-renowned
inventor?
Smilingly he set to rocking his plates in their bath, and as the work
went on, he bored out, in his mind, the steam channels of his turbine,
and decided on the cogwheel transference.
He held a negative up to the light, and recognised three of his
customers grouped about the little round table. Yes, it was those three
that had taken such particular care to have the labels on their beer
bottles facing neatly front, towards the observer.
Ho, ho! And that was the sort one had to bow and scrape to!
Unfortunately, this business of the turbine was not a matter to be
settled in a moment. Rothe, the ironfounder, had promised to make him
the larger parts, and Krogh, the smith, who had at first answered
gruffly and bent farther over his intricate lock work, had been
completely won over as an adherent. The next thing was to procure a
boat into which the turbine could be built.
Now, where on earth could he get a boat for no money at all? Well,
never mind; imagine the boat was there. Then the upright boiler would
have to be set in _there_, a trifle aft of midships, so that the man
at the helm could stoke as well. As for the screw, that would require
special treatment in these waters, where there was so much weed about.
He would have to go into that.
Egholm’s mind was so keen that he saw every detail. Difficulties were
disposed of as fast as they appeared.
Not till the last of the plates glided into the fixing solution did
he come to himself, and then to find his heart pumping like the
steam-turbine at full speed. It was always like that when he had been
long at work in the dark-room. He threw open the door and went out, but
the light and the fresh air turned him dizzy and blind for the moment;
he staggered to a bench, and had to sit there some time before he
recovered.