The Scientific Method

Thomas Alva Edison's Laboratory Complex, West Orange, NJ

1. Chemistry Laboratory

Test tubes and retorts, powders

in stoppered bottles, some bright blue.

Chemistry proceeds in increments,

we try this, fail, try that.

From stoppered bottles, some bright blue

powder of nickel citrate

—try this, wrong amount. Try that:

the pure color of a robin’s egg.

Powder of nickel citrate

waits to reveal its secrets.

The colors, burnt orange, robin’s egg,

bloom in the high-pressure distill.

To reveal a thing’s secrets,

patience and precision are required.

To bloom in a high-pressure distill

demands just the smallest change.

Patience and repetition are required.

Watch your test tubes and retorts, your powders,

for just the smallest change, proof

of how chemistry proceeds. In increments.

2. Stockroom

The new supplies have just arrived.

Rhinoceros horn and elephant hide

catalogued and shelved, wait mutely

for some mucker to decide

that their covalent dipeptide

might serve some unaccustomed duty.

When blizzards locked two men inside

Fessenden and Ayls survived

three days on items picked astutely

from the new supplies.

Wayward innovation thrives

as muckers wander down the aisles

buggered by the absolutely

varied proofs of worldly beauty

fresh applications might devise.

Eccentric fancy is their guide

through the new supplies.