The magnificent possession

A determined laboratory chemist isolates a previously elusive metallic form of ammonium and devises methods to produce it cheaply, imagining commercial and aesthetic uses that promise wealth. He and a friend move to capitalize on the discovery, but publicity triggers alarm among established industrialists and opportunists, stirring political and social reactions. The narrative follows the technical process, ensuing scramble for control, and the mounting complications caused both by human greed and by the new substance's chemical instability, exploring technological disruption and satirizing public and corporate responses.