Anyway, Smith told me to sign some papers for the three ideas I was giving to the government to patent. Now, it's some dopey legal thing, but when you give the patent to the government, the document you sign is not a legal document unless there's some exchange, so the paper I signed said, "For the sum of one dollar, I, Richard P. Feynman, give this idea to the government. . ."

I sign the paper. "Where's my dollar?"

"That's just a formality," he says. "We haven't got any funds set up to give a dollar."

"You've got it all set up that I'm signing for the dollar," I say. "I want my dollar!"

"This is silly," Smith protests. "No, it's not," I say. "It's a legal document. You made me sign it, and I'm an honest man. There's no fooling around about it."

"All right, all right!" he says, exasperated. "I'll give you a dollar, from my pocket!"

"OK."

I take the dollar, and I realize what I'm going to do. I go down to the grocery store, and I buy a dollar's worth -- ­­which was pretty good, then -- of cookies and goodies, those chocolate goodies with marshmallow inside, a whole lot of stuff.

I come back to the theoretical laboratory, and I give them out: "I got a prize, everybody! Have a cookie! I got a prize! A dollar for my patent! I got a dollar for my patent! "

Everybody who had one of those patents­­ -- a lot of people had been sending them in -- ­­everybody comes down to Captain Smith: they want their dollar!

He starts shelling them out of his pocket, but soon realizes that it's going to be a hemorrhage! He went crazy trying to set up a fund where he could get the dollars these guys were insisting on. I don't know how he settled up.

I've thought about this exchange a few times when I've signed over patents where the document claims they gave me "good and valuable consideration" when they really didn't. Maybe if I could actually have bought something for a dollar I would have demanded it.