Chapter 4

MIT offered Charlie a position on the faculty, an annual salary of one hundred fifty thousand dollars, and a million more to equip a lab in any way he wanted. Tulane topped that offer. Tulane would spend ten million dollars to equip Charlie's lab, and would assign ten post docs to work for him. And Charlie would have complete autonomy for five years.

Charlie and his lawyer met with Tulane's President, the head of the Material Science Department, and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Charlie addressed the three. "Single-walled nano tubes can be either conductors or semiconductors. When they are conductors, they can conduct large currents with very little heating. The conductive property of single-walled nano tubes is determined by their diameter and the way they are wound into tubes. The challenge is to control these properties during the manufacture of nano tubes.

My paper defined the likely properties of sheets of nano tube assemblies. If Tulane and I had the technology to manufacture such sheets, we would have every semiconductor manufacturer lining up to buy our products. We would have orders for five billion dollars worth of sheets of carbon nano tube every year.

My employment contract calls for Tulane to get half of any revenue from any patents that I am granted while at Tulane. I want to modify that contract.

I propose that Tulane and I share all nano sheet technology per the existing contract. But I want to develop continuous carbon nano tube fiber technology on my own, in my own facilities, on my own time. I want Tulane to acknowledge that if I do so develop nano continuous fiber technology, that Tulane will not challenge my ownership of the resulting patents."

The meeting went on for three hours. One month later, Charlie had his contract. Six months later, Charlie and his postdocs discovered how to manufacture carbon nano tube sheets with any properties they desired. Within the year, Tulane and Charlie sold his half ownership in the technology to IBM for two billion dollars.

Boeing representatives met with Charlie the next day. They knew that Charlie had a PHD in physics and was an expert in carbon nano tube technology. Boeing agreed to build a lab in Seattle where Charlie would develop carbon nano tube continuous filaments. Charlie would own the rights to any such technology but, if successful, he would sell Boeing a non-exclusive license to the process.

In six months, Charlie perfected the manufacture of carbon nano tube assemblies of continuous fibers. In another two months, Charlie had developed the technology to manufacture a structural material whose strength to weight ratio exceeded anything known to mankind.

Boeing and Charlie then formed a joint venture. A factory to manufacture structural parts for Boeing's airplanes would be built in Nevada on one thousand acres that Charlie owned.

Elon Musk called Charlie. SpaceX wanted to use Charlie's technology to build rockets and space capsules. Boeing objected, but Charlie owned the technology. And Charlie was going to space.

Musk and Charlie built a new factory in Texas, next to a SpaceX facility, along with a twenty thousand square foot underground lab. The factory would, of course, build carbon nano tube assemblies for SpaceX. Charlie was one step closer to building his spaceship.

Musk had contracts with NASA to deliver supplies to the international space station. Boeing had contracts with NASA to build a Commercial Crew Vehicle. Both of these companies were building spaceships. Charlie intended to build his own, even more advanced spaceship, on the sly. And since the best place to hide something is in plain sight, Charlie would build his spaceship out in the open.

Now, it was time to bring Worel back.

Two years after Worel had become a cave dweller, he climbed into a helicopter. Worel met Charlie at an underground lab in Nevada. And they talked through the night.