The Magnificent Possession
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| Author | Isaac Asimov |
|---|---|
| Country |  USA |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | science fiction short story |
| Released in | Future Fiction |
| Publisher | Double Action Magazines |
| Media Type | Magazine |
| Released | July 1940 |
The Magnificent Possession is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the July 1940 issue of Future Fiction and reprinted in the 1972 collection The Early Asimov. It was the ninth story written by Asimov, and the seventh to be published. The author recalls that the story, an attempt at humour, was embarrasing to read later, and that he was glad that his long-time editor, John W. Campbell, never saw it, as he would certainly have rejected it.
Asimov was majoring in chemistry at the time he wrote the story in late November 1938. After the story, originally titled "Ammonium", was rejected by Thrilling Wonder Stories, Asimov became discouraged and retired it. When Future Fiction accepted his story "Ring Around the Sun", he dug out "Ammonium" and submitted it as well. The title was changed by Future Fiction's editor, Charles D. Hornig.
Walter Sills, a struggling New York consulting chemist, is developing a method of plating metal with pure ammonium, which would be cheaper than using traditional plating metals such as nickel or chromium. Despite not having properly tested the plating process, he obtains some publicity for his discovery, which leads him into all sorts of problems with gangsters who want to steal his formula and crooked politicians who seek to exploit him.
He hopes to sell the process to a steel magnate, but discovers at the last moment that the process generates an extremely foul smell which lasts almost indefinitely, making it commercially unviable.
| The Early Asimov |
| The Callistan Menace | Ring Around the Sun | The Magnificent Possession | Trends | The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use | Black Friar of the Flame | Half-Breed | The Secret Sense | Homo Sol | Half-Breeds on Venus | The Imaginary | Heredity | History | Christmas on Ganymede | The Little Man on the Subway | The Hazing | Super-Neutron | Not Final | Legal Rites | Time Pussy | Author! Author! | Death Sentence | Blind Alley | No Connection | The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline | The Red Queen's Race | Mother Earth |
