Quickly he was immersed in the data. Each left-hand column listed dates, plantings and when the samples were counted. Next to them were the raw numbers that represented pea plants analyzed, and in the final columns, the ratios. It was these ratios that were important. All of the rest of the data were, in themselves, unintelligible. No two numbers were the same, and almost all of them listed totals in the hundreds. After each cluster of values, he had performed a simple mathematical calculation; the larger number had been divided by the smaller number to give a ratio. A simple enough calculation, but one which brought the jumble of data into crisp clarity. From all the hundreds of pea plants analyzed, one ratio stood out over and over again; 3:1. Out of every four plants checked that fall, three showed one clear characteristic and the fourth showed a different characteristic. He sighed again; how could he make his colleagues in the Society understand the significance of these ratios.
"Mendel," said a brisk voice behind him. Brother Gregory jumped. "What do you think?" Facing the monk was a tall, heavily built man of middle years. "Came in from the Americas just this morning." To emphasize his curious remark, the tall man waved a cigar under Mendel's nose. "Best quality. Got through the Union blockage three weeks ago."
"Ah," said Mendel, "the cigar." Like the industrialist who stood before him, Mendel loved cigars. It was his vice. Every day, Mendel smoked at least twenty cigars, but ones of good quality had become very expensive during the American civil war, and the Union blockage of the southern states. "Indeed, it burns well," he continued, sniffing the smoke enviously.
"Finest leaf," agreed the German, "Connecticut grown from Havana Seeds. Absolutely the best." In the early 1800's the finest Havana tobacco seeds had been introduced into the United States. Wrapper leaves were grown in Florida and Connecticut, but the best came from the Northern States of the Union. Cigar wrappers were the most difficult and costly to grow and these shade grown leaves had come from the Connecticut Valley, where the plants had been raised totally under cheese cloth. The filler tobacco, however, was grown in Georgia and Florida, states that the German considered rebels. Getting the two types of leaves together in time of war was not easy, and the supply of fine American cigars had fallen off dramatically.
A resident of Brno, the cigar fancier, was a second generation German industrialist who had made several fortunes manufacturing textiles and selling cloth to the Prussian army. He had a weaving plant and textile factory in Namest, a small town to the north-west of Brno, where an industrial base had been developing rapidly since 1766. Over twenty modern cloth factories now earned Brno the nickname 'rakousky Manchestr' (Austrian Manchester), after the famous English town that had pioneered the use of machines to weave cheap cloth.
He could afford the best. But when he wasn't supplying Bismark's military machine with woven wool, the industrialist Grunewald was also a keen physicist and mathematician.
"The supplier had interesting news of the Americas," he went on contentedly. "The war is almost over. Jefferson Davis has appointed Lee the Commander-in-Chief of all the Confederate forces, but Richmond is doomed. The North is ravaging the Confederacy from top to bottom. My supplier, a British merchant, said that Sherman has inflicted such damage on the south it will take generations to recover."
"Ah," said Mendel again. He had only understood one word in three of Grunewald's news, not being a person who kept himself current with overseas events.
"I hope you have something interesting to tell us tonight," Grunewald went on, ignoring Mendel's discomfiture. "Brother Timothy tells me you have been digging away in your garden like a badger." Unlike Secretary Schwippel, the industrialist rather liked Brother Timothy.
"Indeed," coughed Mendel, "my work does require a lot of digging. But its significance lies in the mathematical treatment of the data."
"Excellent," beamed the industrialist, "numbers, data, facts, Mendel; remember that. Keep to the facts. Avoid all that mushy plant stuff. No one wants to hear about bugs and beetles. Keep to the facts." He puffed out his remarks in a cloud of aromatic smoke.
"I'll try," Mendel responded as best he could. As one of the richer founding members of their society, Grunewald felt he could dictate policy to the rest of the seminar committee. His opinions weighed heavily in the choice of topics for their meetings.
"Good, good." The German stamped his feet, not in anger but at the cold striking up through the tiled floor of the Realschule. "I'll bring you a box or two." He waved the cigar again, and switched the subject of his conversation once more. "I have a couple of business friends staying with me at the moment. I told them of your talk, but they had other plans for today, however they want to meet you. I'll bring them by the Monastery tomorrow and I'll bring you some cigars."
Colleagues often had a hard time keeping up with the rapid changes that accompanied talks with Herr Grunewald.
"I would be glad to meet your friends, and very grateful for the cigars," said Mendel sincerely, his needs were modest, but his weakness for cigars was well known among his science friends, inside and outside of the Monastery.
"Oh, Romer came with me, he wants to hear your talk and tell you more about his hybrids," Grunewald went on, ignoring Mendel's response. C. Romer was a clerk in Grunewald's factory, and an enthusiastic collector of plants and plant hybrids from around the Brno area.
"Herr Romer's work is always interesting," said Mendel politely. "I would be glad to discuss his current findings."
"Can't stand his twitterings myself," said Grunewald, bluntly. "Also, he never does anything with his collections, just labels them and puts them away in drawers. What good it that I ask you?" He did not expect a reply and did not wait for one. "Remember when Theimer bored us to tears with his 'hybrid forms' in '62?" Mendel nodded, remembering quite well Carl Theimer's very interesting talk. It had been given shortly after the breakaway Society had begun its own meetings. But it was no good trying to change Grunewald's impression. Any type of science without numbers in it did not interest the industrialist weaver.