ABSTRACT
This story started a few weeks before I got the telephone call from Roger Riehl, which got us into the watch/calculator business. Joseph’s secretary came to my office and said that a lady was calling Joseph Lindmayer, who was not yet in, but she sounded that what she wanted to discuss was very urgent, so she would connect her to me.I picked up the phone and the lady said she wanted to talk to Joseph. I told her that he was not yet in and I did not know when he would arrive. This was on a Friday, a nice fall day in mid-October, 1974. I told her that maybe I could help her as I was the co-founder of Solarex.She said she just would like to ask me to tell Joseph Lindmayer that she enjoyed his statements the day before at
the congressional hearing and she briefly talked to Joseph after his talk and he told her that Solarex could provide her with a small box which would demonstrate the utilization of solar energy by having a solar cell, and when it is exposed to light, a little fan, a propeller, would start to spin.I did not know what Joseph had told her, because we did not have anything like that. I thought I will ask Joseph what he
had told her and postponed the issue by telling her that I was going to tell Joseph about her telephone call and either Joseph or I was going to call her back on Monday. She also said that she would like to have five pieces and how much would that cost? I told her that we were going to call her back.Shortly after this telephone call Joseph arrived and came to my office and said to go out for lunch, which we did a few times a week, where we were not disturbed and could discuss our business matters. After we sat down, I told Joseph about the lady’s telephone call and what was that he mentioned she could buy to demonstrate the utilization of solar energy.After thinking it over he said that he vaguely remembered that from the crowd a woman asked him how could one demonstrate the electricity generated by a solar cell and he answered that one could take a solar cell, connect it to a little electric motor to which one attaches a propeller. One can see that the propeller starts to spin when the solar cell is exposed to light, and its speed will vary according to the intensity of the light, but he did not tell her that we had anything like that in the office and certainly not that she could buy one.
