Felix Hoenikker

Dr. Felix Hoenikker (d. December 24, 1957) was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist often credited as one of the primary contributors to the atomic bomb. He later developed ice-nine, a form of water with a melting point of 114.4F, which ultimately led to a global catastrophe.

Biography

Hoenikker's father was a tailor, and he had a twin brother, Rudolph, who became a music-box manufacturer in Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a sister named Celia who raised giant schnauzers on Shelter Island, New York, which she put on the front of her annual Christmas cards. Not noted as a reader or game-player, Hoenikker did make a hobby of collecting photographs of how cannonballs were stacked. His wife, Emily, was a life-long musician and stated she married Hoenikker because "his mind was tuned to the biggest music there was, the music of the stars." They had three children: Angela, Franklin, and Newton, who would later say that his father was not interested in people, and a year before his own death could not say much about his deceased wife. On the day Felix and Emily left for Sweden to collect his Nobel Prize, she made breakfast for him and he left her a tip as if she were a waitress. Hoenikker once abandoned his large Marmon automobile in the middle of traffic and Emily had to retrieve it. However, not being used to driving it, she got into a bad accident on her way home which damaged her pelvis. This resulted in her death while giving birth to her final child.

He spent his entire professional life in the Research Laboratory of the General Forge and Foundry Company of Ilium, New York and would only work there. He was often allowed to stay home whenever he wanted. In addition to his highest annual salary of $28,000 annually, he received a $45 bonus for each patent resulting from his work, the same as other employees. He ate alone at the company cafeteria every day and was not to be disturbed so as not to interrupt his thinking. In addition to his work on the atomic bomb, he was often directed toward military projects by high-ranking officials. He shopped at ten-cent stores and performed many experiments with material that cost less than a dollar, including cheap toys. His nominal supervisor, whose salary was $10,000 per year more, was Dr. Asa Breed although he did not seek to control Hoenikker who was engaged in "pure research." Breed was engaged to Emily before her marriage to Hoenikker. It was a common rumor in Ilium that Breed was Emily's lover during her marriage and that he was the biological father of her children. Hoenikker failed to show up as commencement speaker for his son Frank's graduating class at Ilium High School and was replaced on short notice by Breed. Breed described Hoenikker as "playful" and "a good explainer" who "always approached old puzzles as though they brand new." Other than Ilium, the only place Hoenikker would go was a cottage on Cape Cod he bought with Nobel Prize money, where he would die on Christmas Eve. At his own request in his will, his tombstone was a marble cube forty centimeter to a side.

The development of ice-nine was instigated by a general in the Marines, who suggested a small substance that would solidify mud. Contemplating the problem, Hoenikker determined that the same types of atoms can crystallize in ways with diverse properties. A "seed"—a tiny grain of the crystal pattern—could then induce atoms in different ways, much as the first layer of a stack of cannonballs determines how layers above it will be structured. Water on Earth, for example, may only freeze as a form that can be called "ice-one." Other forms, he theorized, could have higher melting points, greater hardness, or other distinct properties. Neglecting to produce any documentation, Hoenikker borrowed equipment from around the Research Laboratory to develop ice-nine in secret. During a Christmastime visit to his Cape Cob cottage, Hoenikker experimented in melting and re-freezing ice-nine in his kitchen at his Cape Cod home when he died while taking a rest in his wicker chair. His children, who had been out on a walk on the beach, found his body and the ice-nine, which they then divided between the three of them.

Quotes

"I never stopped dawdling like an eight-year-old on a spring morning on his way to school. Anything can make me stop and look and wonder, and sometimes learn. I am a very happy man." Nobel Prize speech

"What is sin?" When told that the atom bomb meant "Science has now known sin."