He pointed.
On a very slowly moving band a rack-full of test-tubes was entering a large metal box, another, rack-full was emerging.
Machinery faintly purred.
It took eight minutes for the tubes to go through, he told them.
Eight minutes of hard X-rays being about as much as an egg can stand.
A few died; of the rest, the least susceptible divided into two; most put out four buds; some eight; all were returned to the incubators, where the buds began to develop; then, after two days, were suddenly chilled, chilled and checked.
Two, four, eight, the buds in their turn budded; and having budded were dosed almost to death with alcohol; consequently burgeoned again and having budded-bud out of bud out of bud-were thereafter-further arrest being generally fatal-left to develop in peace.
By which time the original egg was in a fair way to becoming anything from eight to ninety-six embryos- a prodigious improvement, you will agree, on nature.
Identical twins-but not in piddling twos and threes as in the old viviparous days, when an egg would sometimes accidentally divide; actually by dozens, by scores at a time.
"Scores," the Director repeated and flung out his arms, as though he were distributing largesse.
"Scores."
But one of the students was fool enough to ask where the advantage lay.
"My good boy!"
The Director wheeled sharply round on him.
"Can't you see?
Can't you see?"
He raised a hand; his expression was solemn.
"Bokanovsky's Process is one of the major instruments of social stability!"
Major instruments of social stability.
Standard men and women; in uniform batches.
The whole of a small factory staffed with the products of a single bokanovskified egg.
"Ninety-six identical twins working ninety-six identical machines!" The voice was almost tremulous with enthusiasm.
"You really know where you are.
For the first time in history."
He quoted the planetary motto. "Community, Identity, Stability."
Grand words.
"If we could bo-kanovskify indefinitely the whole problem would be solved."
Solved by standard Gammas, unvarying Deltas, uniform Epsilons.
Millions of identical twins.
The principle of mass production at last applied to biology.
"But, alas," the Director shook his head, "we can't bokanovskify indefinitely."
Ninety-six seemed to be the limit; seventy-two a good average.
From the same ovary and with gametes of the same male to manufacture as many batches of identical twins as possible-that was the best (sadly a second best) that they could do.
And even that was difficult.
"For in nature it takes thirty years for two hundred eggs to reach maturity.
But our business is to stabilize the population at this moment, here and now.
Dribbling out twins over a quarter of a century-what would be the use of that?"
Obviously, no use at all.
But Podsnap's Technique had immensely accelerated the process of ripening.
They could make sure of at least a hundred and fifty mature eggs within two years.
Fertilize and bo-kanovskify-in other words, multiply by seventy-two-and you get an average of nearly eleven thousand brothers and sisters in a hundred and fifty batches of identical twins, all within two years of the same age.
"And in exceptional cases we can make one ovary yield us over fifteen thousand adult individuals."
Beckoning to a fair-haired, ruddy young man who happened to be passing at the moment. "Mr. Foster," he called.
The ruddy young man approached.
"Can you tell us the record for a single ovary, Mr. Foster?"
"Sixteen thousand and twelve in this Centre," Mr. Foster replied without hesitation. He spoke very quickly, had a vivacious blue eye, and took an evident pleasure in quoting figures.
"Sixteen thousand and twelve; in one hundred and eighty-nine batches of identicals.
But of course they've done much better," he rattled on, "in some of the tropical Centres.
Singapore has often produced over sixteen thousand five hundred; and Mombasa has actually touched the seventeen thousand mark.
But then they have unfair advantages.