The Italian Navigator Lands The chain reaction took place precisely as Fermi had surmised. After twenty-eight minutes he curtailed the experiment, giving a signal to replace the final control rod. The normally reserved scientists, unable repress their excitement, let out a tremendous cheer and gathered around Fermi to shake his hand. Although it was the time to celebrate, some of the men remarked soberly that "The world would not be the same again". On December 2, 1942, the news of Fermi's achievement was relayed in a cryptic telephone message: "The Italian navigator has reached the new world." "How did he find the natives?" "very friendly." The atomic age was inchoate--but truly here. to keep the pot boiling--Dickens kept the pot boiling by ending each chapter on a note of an uncertainty and suspense. (to see that interest doesn't die down)