A bike is widespread on the Internet about a scientist who allegedly could return a complex mechanism to work, just hitting the right place with a hammer and with the right force. We checked how much this story is true.

IN Blogs And social networks, on popular science sites and in press Many times a remarkable story is retold about the Nobel laureate Peter Kapitsa. Its plot in general form is this: one foreign company invited a scientist as a consultant - to help deal with a breakdown of a car for a significant fee. Kapitsa agreed, for some time he silently studied the faulty car, and then simply took a hammer and delivered one blow, after which the car earned. In the count, set by the owners of the company, Kapitsa appreciated his services as follows: “A hammer hit - 1 pound. Know where to hit is 9999 pounds. ” Depending on the source, some details of the story may differ: Kapitsa repaired the car either at the exhibition or directly in the workshop, customers call the British, Americans or Germans, the company has a name in some versions, the fee was in pounds, stamps or dollars, its size was slightly different, etc.

Many different legends and jokes told about such a bright man as Kapitsa. One example is as a scientist I got it For internship to Rutherford. At first he did not want to take Kapitsa, citing the fact that he had no places in his laboratory. In response, the Soviet physicist asked what error in the experiments Rutherford considers normal. Hearing the answer - 3%, - Kapitsa said that adding another to 30 employees will be put into this error. Rutherford appreciated the joke, and Kapitsa Remained In England for 13 years.

The bike about Kapitsa and the hammer became known in the XX century. She is, for example, in the book of Gennady Ivanov "Formulas of creativity", Published in Moscow in 1994. In July 1974, in the magazine "Ogonyok" was published Big article In honor of the anniversary of the scientist, and its author Evgeny Dobrovolsky tells this story as follows:

It is said that there was such a case when the famous company, it seems, “Siemens and Shuckert,” asked Kapitsa to consult - why the electric motor of a very important car does not work. The amount for the consultation was appointed very solid - 10,000 marks. Peter Leonidovich examined the car, then took a hammer and hit the indigenous bearing: the engine earned.
The company became insulting to pay that kind of money, and she asked the scientist to compose something like written calculation. He composed: "One hammer is with a hammer - 1 brand, 9999 marks - for knowing where to hit."
The point here, of course, is not in “Russian eccentricity”, but in a brilliant engineering calculation.

This is not the first time in the Ogrook, Dobrovolsky published this story. In his book "Capita's handwriting”, Published in 1968, the same story is given - however, with a reservation at the end:“ No one could confirm to me whether there was such a case with Kapitsa. ”

Outside the Russian -language segment of the Internet, the prevalence of this story is incomparably less: There is Just a few publications, and they, apparently, are translated from Russian. But there is a lot of jokes with the same plot, but with other actors: the role of the Kapitsa in them is played by nameless Engineers And Mechanics, inventors Charles Steinmetz And Nikola Tesla, and in the role of an amazed payer in a row - Henry Ford And General George Patton.

Researchers of The Quote Investigator project discovered This bike in the sources, which were dated 1908. Kapitsa was then only 14 years old, and he was obviously not mentioned in those publications. However, why, in the end, this story in the post -Soviet space so firmly glued to it?

It can be assumed that Kapitsa, who was inclined to joke and tell some amazing story, in one of the public speeches was told by this joke, which could hear in England, but with the subsequent spread of the bike was transformed into case from his own life.

This hypothesis is confirmed: in the book "Everything is simple - true ... Aphorisms and thoughts P. L. Kapitsa", Released by the MIF Publishing House in 1994, among the stories and jokes, told at different times by the Capita, a text called" Hammer Bun "is given:

The case took place at one factory in England, where some large machine was built, it seems, a special type of blower. The plant could not use it in any way. The engineers fought for her for a long time, the workshops stood, and the blower did not work.
Finally, the director of the plant decided that he had to resort to the forces from the outside, and invited a major specialist to consult. The director did not decide on this step right away, since he was a jail and did not want to spend extra money on the invitation of large professors who had to pay large amounts for consultation in England. The professor arrived, looked at the car, asked for a hammer or a sledgehammer and hit the car’s body several times. Some parts inside must have moved, came to the place, and the car earned. The workshops went in, the plant came to life. The professor returned home and, according to English custom, sent a score of £ 100, the amount is considerable. The director was upset and indignant. “What is it-a person came who hit two or three times with a hammer and left, and I have to pay 100 pounds for this. It is necessary to bring down the arrogance from this professor, ”he decided and sent a letter to the scientist, in which he in delicate form asked to give a more accurate rating of his work.
He received such an answer to this: “For arrival at the factory and a hammer,” the professor wrote, “I am supposed to be 1 pounds, and because I knew where to hit with a hammer, I should pay the remaining 99 pounds.”

The text is given - 1944. The short searches allowed to find the source: it was a fragment of Kapitsa’s speech before a group of party and economic leaders in 1944. The full text of his speech, entitled “On the role of science in the Patriotic War”, was published, in particular, in 1985 in May number magazine "Science and Life", dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War. When exactly and on what occasion this speech of the Soviet physicist took place could not be established.

Thus, the story of Kapitsa and a hammer is a kind of city legend, which is in many options in different languages and appeared even before the Nobel laureate began its academic career. Apparently, Kapitsa publicly told this story he heard during his work in England, but with the further distribution of the bike, the narrator turned into a hero.

Photo on the cover: Fotograaf Onbekend / Anefo Via Wikimedia Commons