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Textbook Thermoelectric Materials and Devices Iris Nandhakumar Ebook All Chapter PDF
Textbook Thermoelectric Materials and Devices Iris Nandhakumar Ebook All Chapter PDF
Textbook Thermoelectric Materials and Devices Iris Nandhakumar Ebook All Chapter PDF
Iris Nandhakumar
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Editor-in-Chief:
Professor Laurence M. Peter, University of Bath, UK
Published on 22 September 2016 on http://pubs.rsc.org | doi:10.1039/9781782624042-FP001
Series Editors:
Dr Heinz Frei, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA
Dr Roberto Rinaldi, Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, Germany
Professor Tim S. Zhao, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology,
Hong Kong, China
Edited by
Iris Nandhakumar
University of Southampton, UK
Email: iris@soton.ac.uk
Neil M. White
University of Southampton, UK
Email: nmw@ecs.soton.ac.uk
Stephen Beeby
University of Southampton, UK
Email: spb@ecs.soton.ac.uk
Published on 22 September 2016 on http://pubs.rsc.org | doi:10.1039/9781782624042-FP001 View Online
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of research for non-commercial purposes or for
private study, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003, this publication may not
be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior
permission in writing of The Royal Society of Chemistry, or in the case of reproduction
in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency in the
UK, or in accordance with the terms of the licences issued by the appropriate
Reproduction Rights Organization outside the UK. Enquiries concerning reproduction
outside the terms stated here should be sent to The Royal Society of Chemistry at the
address printed on this page.
The RSC is not responsible for individual opinions expressed in this work.
The authors have sought to locate owners of all reproduced material not in their own
possession and trust that no copyrights have been inadvertently infringed.
Printed in the United Kingdom by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY, UK
Published on 22 September 2016 on http://pubs.rsc.org | doi:10.1039/9781782624042-FP005
Preface
v
View Online
vi Preface
Bismuth telluride and lead telluride have been the core materials used for
commercial TE generators targeted at low and medium power generation
and refrigeration since the 1950s and new materials are clearly needed to
disrupt the sustainability issues associated with tellurium as well as to
Published on 22 September 2016 on http://pubs.rsc.org | doi:10.1039/9781782624042-FP005
address the toxicity of lead telluride. The first three chapters provide an
excellent overview of recent developments in materials synthesis that in-
clude zintl phases (Kauzlarich et al.), thermoelectric oxides (Freer et al.) and
novel metal chalcogenides (Powell et al.) that hold great promise for future
thermoelectric applications on the basis of their enhanced thermoelectric
performance and being composed of abundant and sustainable elements.
A fundamental and detailed theory of how nanostructures affect the
electric conductivities, thermal conductivities and Seebeck coefficients in
nanostructures is presented in Chapter 4 (Paul) that also focuses on how
enhanced performance can be achieved through low dimensional structures.
The importance of the complexity of the phenomenon and the uncertainties
associated with existing thermoelectric measurement methods is high-
lighted in Chapter 5 (Cuenat et al.), which is followed by a description
of novel high-throughput thermoelectric measurement techniques in
Chapter 6 (Gao et al.) that enable rapid characterization of thermoelectric
materials and devices. Stobart et al. provide a comprehensive assessment of
all aspects associated with the practical design considerations of thermo-
electric generators, starting from models based on the physical parameters
and empirical correlations for the heat exchange processes to provide a re-
liable basis for design choices that lead on to numerical models supported
by experimental validation to provide the next level of refinement in the
formulation of design guidelines. Naylor et al. illustrate how electrochemical
deposition methods can be employed as a low temperature and low-cost
route without the need for a vacuum or extensive equipment for the
fabrication of thermoelectric materials, in contrast to commonly employed
high-cost approaches such as MBE and MOCVDE. The final chapter by
Simpson et al. discusses the tremendous opportunities for thermoelectric
devices in automotive power-harvesting applications with a particular em-
phasis on systems for electrical energy generation from automobile
exhaust gases.
I would like to thank the authors of this book and my co-editors Professors
Neil White and Stephen Beeby who have contributed to the making of this
book, which was an elaborate and time-consuming process. I would wish for
this book to become an important landmark in the thermoelectrics field that
goes well beyond a ‘laboratory handbook’ but provides a fresh perspective of
this important research field that deserves to be mainstream.
Iris Nandhakumar
Southampton
Published on 22 September 2016 on http://pubs.rsc.org | doi:10.1039/9781782624042-FP007
Contents
1.1 Introduction 1
1.1.1 Definition of Zintl Phases 1
1.1.2 Charge Counting/Formal Valence Rules 2
1.1.3 Thermoelectric Zintl Compounds 4
1.2 Thermal Properties 7
1.2.1 Theory behind Low kL in Complex Materials 8
1.2.2 Case Studies 11
1.3 Electronic Transport 13
1.3.1 Controlling and Optimizing Carrier
Concentration 14
1.3.2 Limits to Controlling Carrier Concentration 15
1.3.3 Band Structure Requirements 16
1.3.4 Carrier Relaxation Time 18
1.4 Future Opportunities for Zintl Thermoelectric
Materials 19
Acknowledgements 19
References 19
2.1 Introduction 27
vii
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viii Contents
2.2 Synthesis 30
2.3 Low-dimensionality in Chalcogenides 32
2.3.1 Layered Dichalcogenides 32
2.3.2 Intercalated Phases 35
Published on 22 September 2016 on http://pubs.rsc.org | doi:10.1039/9781782624042-FP007
3.1 Introduction 60
3.2 Manufacture 63
3.3 Composition and Atomic Structure 67
3.3.1 Strontium Titanate Based Materials 67
3.3.2 Cobaltites 70
3.3.3 Calcium Manganate Based Materials 73
3.3.4 Zinc Oxide 74
3.4 Microstructure 74
3.5 Module Manufacture 76
3.6 Conclusions 77
References 78
4.1 Introduction 83
4.2 Low-dimensional Electrical Conductivity 85
4.3 The Seebeck Coefficient and Low-dimensional
Modifications 92
4.4 Thermal Conductivity 93
4.5 Potential Improvements to Thermoelectrics from
Nano- and Micro-structures 97
4.6 Micro-fabrication of Thermoelectric Generators 102
4.7 Conclusions 107
References 107
View Online
Contents ix
x Contents
Contents xi
CHAPTER 1
1.1 Introduction
1.1.1 Definition of Zintl Phases
The term Zintl phase was first used by F. Laves1 to indicate a subset of
compounds within the general class of intermetallics, named after Eduard
Zintl, a German scientist who was the first to systematically prepare and
structurally characterize these phases.2 Zintl’s interest was in determining
what combination of elements would form salt-like structures, focusing
on the heavier elements of group 13, 14 and 15. During this time,
1
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2 Chapter 1
metallic structures became less clear, this definition proved to be too lim-
iting. Schäfer, Eisenmann, and Müller3 proposed a more general definition
where electron transfer is essentially complete between the alkali or alkaline
earth cation and the electronegative elements that utilize the electrons such
that they achieve a filled valence either by covalent bonding or by the
formation of lone pairs of electrons. Therefore, these phases exhibit salt-like
characteristics from the ionic bonding between the cation and the anionic
unit. The anionic unit can be isolated anions; if there are not enough elec-
trons for a filled octet, then they form covalent bonds and polyanionic
units.4 The Zintl concept provides a simple idea concerning ionic and
covalent bonding within intermetallic phases, allowing for a simple de-
scription of bonding that provides insight into the structure and properties
of intermetallic phases.3,5,6 One simple way to define a Zintl phase was ar-
ticulated by Nesper7 and Miller8 as the following: there exists a well-defined
relationship between chemical and electronic structures in a Zintl phase
and a chemist can understand the structure by using simple electron
counting rules.
shell) for the x X atoms, e(A) and e(X) are the number of valence electrons of
A and X.
Typically, it is assumed that there are no bonds between A atoms and that X
can have X–X bonds that are considered to be two-centre, two-electron
bonds, and that the octet rule is satisfied for both elements. If this is the
case, then the number of the valence electron count per formula unit of AaXx
(VEC) is:
a
ðVECÞ ¼ a eðAÞ ¼ x eðXÞ ¼ x eðAÞ þ eðXÞ : (1:2)
x
While this equation provides the VEC for the compound formula, the term
in the parentheses represents the average number of valence electrons per
anion, Nx. In general, this results in the classical valence rule for
insulators—the 8 N rule proposed by Mooser and Pearson—which pro-
vides the number of covalent bonds required to satisfy the anion valence.12
W. Klemm proposed an additional nuance where the more electronegative
partner is described as an element with the same number of electrons: a
pseudoatom concept.3 Consider the charged XðaeA = xÞ unit: if Nx is non-
integral, then a set of pseudoatoms is required to describe the observed
coordination environments. For example, heteroanions with tetrahedral
units can be described as the analogous orthooxosilicate or germanate
anions: [SiP4]8, [SiAs4]8 or [GeP4]8 and [GeAs4]8 where the large formal
charge is balanced by means of the alkaline earth metal cation. The com-
bination of Zintl’s original proposal and Klemm’s pseudoatom description
is now called the Zintl–Klemm concept. Based on this electron counting
model, these compounds should all be semiconductors. However, the
difference between insulators and semiconductors is somewhat arbitrarily
based on the bandgap and there are suggestions in the literature of either
2.5 eV10 or 2.0 eV.7 Because of the simple electron counting scheme, the
Zintl–Klemm concept is a powerful tool for the assessment of complex
main group solids and there are a number of groups working to put this on
firm theoretical grounds.13–18
The incorporation of transition metals into these structures adds
complexity and has expanded the original criteria.9,19–23 Some of the first
research in this area focused on transition metal containing compounds that
are isostructural to known main group Zintl compounds.9,20,24 Analogous to
main group compounds, these compounds contained anionic units that
showed isoelectronic relationships with transition metal halides and chal-
cogenides. The Zintl–Klemm idea of bonding has been successfully used to
probe changes in electronics and bonding within the ThCr2Si2 structure
type.19,25–28 Using the Zintl concept, totally new compounds have been
prepared and novel properties obtained.9,29–32 The addition of both transi-
tion metals and rare earth ions have expanded this area considerably.33–37
View Online
4 Chapter 1
better than metals or insulators. Also, a large unit cell, heavy atoms, and
structural complexity generally result in good thermoelectric (TE) efficiency.
Many Zintl materials fulfill these qualifications; however, relatively few
were investigated for their thermoelectric properties until the last few
years.38–40 Since these compounds are valence precise and possess the
requisite small band gap as well as having complex structures, it is expected
that new thermoelectrics with high efficiency may be discovered. The po-
tential of this area for further research is demonstrated so far with a few
structure types that will be described below.
Figure 1.1 Views of the Ca14AlSb11 structure type down the (a) [001] and (b) [101]
direction. Ca, Al, and Sb are indicated by the green, blue and gold
spheres, respectively, and the tetrahedron is shaded.
View Online
6 Chapter 1
Published on 22 September 2016 on http://pubs.rsc.org | doi:10.1039/9781782624042-00001
Figure 1.2 A view of the structure of YbZn2Sb2 (CaAl2Si2 structure type) showing the
unit cell. Yb, Zn, and Sb are indicated by sky blue, blue and gold spheres,
respectively.
Figure 1.3 Views of Sr3GaSb3, showing (a) the unit cell and (b) the connectivity of
the chain. The Sr, Ga, and Sb atoms are represented by blue, green and
gold spheres, respectively.
Figure 1.4 Views of Ca5Al2Sb6 showing (a) the unit cell and (b) the connectivity of
the chains. Ca, Al, and Sb atoms are represented by blue, green and gold
spheres, respectively. The tetrahedral polyhedra are shaded.
8 Chapter 1
Published on 22 September 2016 on http://pubs.rsc.org | doi:10.1039/9781782624042-00001
Figure 1.5 The experimental kL for many Zintl compounds is much lower than that
observed in the heritage SiGe material used in radioisotope thermo-
electric generators.
Figure 1.5 shows that the lattice thermal conductivity, kL, for many Zintl
compounds is significantly below that of heritage Si0.8Ge0.2.117,126–131 Near
room temperature, many of these materials show a decaying lattice thermal
conductivity due to increased phonon–phonon scattering, while others ex-
hibit thermal conductivity values with little temperature dependence. The
latter behaviour will be explored below. Many of these materials display a
slight upturn in thermal conductivity near their maximum measurement
temperature. At these high temperatures, minority carrier contributions to
the conductivity become significant, leading to a bipolar contribution.132
The standard Wiedemann–Franz approach to removing the electronic con-
tribution does not capture this contribution.
Figure 1.6 Alloying has a profound effect on the room temperature thermal
conductivity of Yb1xCaxZn2Sb2; the effect is less pronounced at high
temperature due to increased Umklapp scattering.
Reprinted with permission from E. S. Toberer, A. F. May and G. J. Snyder,
Chem. Mater., 2010, 22, 624–634.122 Copyright (2010) American Chemical
Society.
View Online
10 Chapter 1
Figure 1.7 Structural complexity, as estimated from the number of atoms in the
primitive cell, is a good indicator for low phonon group velocity, and
thus low thermal conductivity materials.
Adapted with permission from E. S. Toberer, A. F. May and G. J. Snyder,
Chem. Mater., 2010, 22, 624–634.122 Copyright (2010) American Chemical
Society.
View Online
Figure 1.8 The experimental kL can be readily predicted (within a factor of 2) from
knowledge of speed of sound, Grüneisen parameter, atomic density, cell
volume and average atomic mass. The current approach thus success-
fully captures the underlying relevant physics.
12 Chapter 1
Published on 22 September 2016 on http://pubs.rsc.org | doi:10.1039/9781782624042-00001
Figure 1.9 The minimum optical mode contribution to the thermal conductivity of
structurally simple SrZn2Sb2 and complex Yb14MnSb11 (five and 104
atoms in the primitive cell, respectively) is shown in orange. The corres-
ponding maximum possible acoustic contribution (modeled as Umklapp
scattering-dominated with a T1 dependence) is shown in green. The
sum of the acoustic and optical contributions are shown in blue. While
acoustic modes are typically considered the primary vehicle for thermal
conduction, the optical modes represent the dominant source of thermal
conduction at high temperature in structurally complex materials.
conductivity. In the case of SrZn2Sb2, which has only five atoms in the
primitive cell, the optical contribution is fairly minor compared to the ex-
perimental kL. In contrast, Yb14MnSb11 has 104 atoms in the primitive cell
and a corresponding large relative optical contribution. At high tempera-
tures, the optical contribution accounts for more than half of the total
thermal conductivity. We emphasize that this model predicts the minimum
contribution from the optical modes and is likely an underestimate. From
this understanding, the maximum acoustic contribution can be estimated,
assuming Umklapp scattering dominates the phonon transport. As shown in
Figure 1.9, kL in the relatively simple SrZn2Sb2 is comprised primarily of the
acoustic contribution, while in Yb14MnSb11 the acoustic contribution be-
comes almost insignificant, particularly at very high temperatures. Thus,
there is much greater reduction potential available for scattering the
acoustic phonons of SrZn2Sb2 than in more structurally complex solids like
Yb14MnSb11.
Figure 1.10 (a) The lattice thermal conductivity of SrZnSb2 is significantly lower
than SrZn2Sb2 (left). Bright-field TEM indicates planar defects in
SrZnSb2 (right) but not in SrZn2Sb2 (not shown). (b) This difference in
kL can be successfully modeled using a Debye–Callaway approach that
includes both Umklapp and boundary scattering of the acoustic
branches. Here, the boundary scattering is limited by grain boundaries
(B1 mm) for SrZn2Sb2 and stacking faults (B100 nm) for SrZnSb2.
14 Chapter 1
new Zintl thermoelectric material by predicting the effective mass and band
degeneracy. However, prediction of the electron relaxation time remains a
significant challenge.
Published on 22 September 2016 on http://pubs.rsc.org | doi:10.1039/9781782624042-00001
Figure 1.11 (a) Doping Ca5In2Sb6 with Zn21 on the In31 site leads to an increase
in p-type carrier concentration and (b) a transition from non-degenerate
to degenerate semiconducting behaviour. Dashed lines were generated
using an SPB model with m* ¼ 2me and mo ¼ 6.9 cm2 V1. (c) This leads
to an increase from a peak zT of 0.2 to zT ¼ 0.7 in extrinsically doped
samples. (d) The optimum carrier concentration predicted using a SPB
model at 700 K corresponds to x ¼ 0.05.
16 Chapter 1
Published on 22 September 2016 on http://pubs.rsc.org | doi:10.1039/9781782624042-00001
semi-metallic Zintl phases have also been reported (Ego0 eV).162 Good
thermoelectric performance is most often found in phases with band gaps in
the range of 0.2 and 0.6 eV.
While a band gap is the only strictly necessary band structure criterion,
the band mass and the number of bands involved in transport (band
degeneracy, Nv) also play an important role in determining thermoelectric
performance. In the optimization of thermoelectric materials, the
effective mass presents a fundamental conflict: while a light inertial effective
mass (m*I) along the direction of transport is desired for high mobility, a
heavy ‘density of states effective mass’ (m*DOS) is necessary for a high Seebeck
coefficient. The density of states effective mass is related to the band
2=3
degeneracy and the inertial effective mass by m*DOS ¼ m*i Nv . Thus, when Nv
*
is large and mi is small, a high Seebeck coefficient and high mobility can be
obtained simultaneously.163 When electrons are scattered primarily by
acoustic phonons, as is the case in most known thermoelectric materials, the
improvement in m conferred by a light band mass outweighs the detrimental
effect on a.
The presence of Nv and m*i in the thermoelectric quality factor highlights
the value of calculated electronic structures. The electronic densities of
states of many Zintl compounds have been reported, providing estimates of
the magnitude of Eg. However, the electronic band structures from which
both Nv and m*i can be obtained are often omitted in published computa-
tional studies. To date, band structures have been published for only a
handful of Zintl compounds, including Ca14MnBi11, Ca5M2Sb6 (M ¼ Al, Ga,
In), Sr3GaSb3, Ca3AlSb3, and several AZn2Sb2 compounds (A ¼ Sr, Ca, Yb, Eu).
Among these reported band structures, the number of bands involved
in p-type transport is typically between one and three. This is far less than
that of PbTe and its alloys, which have up to Nv ¼ 16.163 This disparity is
partly explained by the higher symmetry of the latter compounds, which
leads to multiple symmetrically equivalent carrier pockets.164 However, there
is no theoretical limitation on Nv in Zintl compounds, suggesting that a
computational survey may reveal Zintl phases with high Nv.
Because electronic mobility is higher in covalent materials than in ionic
materials, it is often assumed that charge transport in Zintl compounds
occurs preferentially through the anionic framework. This is supported by
the influence that the dimensionality and orientation of the covalently
bonded substructure appears to have on the anisotropy of the electronic
band structure in some Zintl phases. For example, in Ca5Al2Sb6, transport
parallel to the chains of corner-linked AlSb4 tetrahedra exhibits the lightest
band mass.117 In AZn2Sb2, the lightest bands correspond to the directions
within the plane of the covalent Zn2Sb2 slabs.146 In contrast, Ca14MnBi11,
which is characterized by isolated MnBi4 tetrahedra, has a relatively isotropic
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“But Jimmy where are you going?” asked Roy. “Isnt this
something new?”
“Hasnt Helena got something to say about that?” put in Alice.
Herf turned red. “Why should she?” he said sharply.
“I just found there was nothing in it for me,” he found himself
saying a little later.
“Oh we none of us know what we want,” burst out Martin. “That’s
why we’re such a peewee generation.”
“I’m beginning to learn a few of the things I dont want,” said Herf
quietly. “At least I’m beginning to have the nerve to admit to myself
how much I dislike all the things I dont want.”
“But it’s wonderful,” cried Alice, “throwing away a career for an
ideal.”
“Excuse me,” said Herf pushing back his chair. In the toilet he
looked himself in the eye in the wavy lookingglass.
“Dont talk,” he whispered. “What you talk about you never do....”
His face had a drunken look. He filled the hollow of his two hands
with water and washed it. At the table they cheered when he sat
down.
“Yea for the wanderer,” said Roy.
Alice was eating cheese on long slices of pear. “I think it’s
thrilling,” she said.
“Roy is bored,” shouted Martin Schiff after a silence. His face with
its big eyes and bone glasses swam through the smoke of the
restaurant like a fish in a murky aquarium.
“I was just thinking of all the places I had to go to look for a job
tomorrow.”
“You want a job?” Martin went on melodramatically. “You want to
sell your soul to the highest bidder?”
“Jez if that’s all you had to sell....” moaned Roy.
“It’s my morning sleep that worries me.... Still it is lousy putting
over your personality and all that stuff. It’s not your ability to do the
work it’s your personality.”
“Prostitutes are the only honest ...”
“But good Lord a prostitute sells her personality.”
“She only rents it.”
“But Roy is bored.... You are all bored.... I’m boring you all.”
“We’re having the time of our lives,” insisted Alice. “Now Martin
we wouldn’t be sitting here if we were bored, would we?... I wish
Jimmy would tell us where he expected to go on his mysterious
travels.”
“No, you are saying to yourselves what a bore he is, what use is
he to society? He has no money, he has no pretty wife, no good
conversation, no tips on the stockmarket. He’s a useless fardel on
society.... The artist is a fardel.”
“That’s not so Martin.... You’re talking through your hat.”
Martin waved an arm across the table. Two wineglasses upset. A
scaredlooking waiter laid a napkin over the red streams. Without
noticing, Martin went on, “It’s all pretense.... When you talk you talk
with the little lying tips of your tongues. You dont dare lay bare your
real souls.... But now you must listen to me for the last time.... For
the last time I say.... Come here waiter you too, lean over and look
into the black pit of the soul of man. And Herf is bored. You are all
bored, bored flies buzzing on the windowpane. You think the
windowpane is the room. You dont know what there is deep black
inside.... I am very drunk. Waiter another bottle.”
“Say hold your horses Martin.... I dont know if we can pay the bill
as it is.... We dont need any more.”
“Waiter another bottle of wine and four grappas.”
“Well it looks as if we were in for a rough night,” groaned Roy.
“If there is need my body can pay.... Alice take off your mask....
You are a beautiful little child behind your mask.... Come with me to
the edge of the pit.... O I am too drunk to tell you what I feel.” He
brushed off his tortoiseshell glasses and crumpled them in his hand,
the lenses shot glittering across the floor. The gaping waiter ducked
among the tables after them.
For a moment Martin sat blinking. The rest of them looked at each
other. Then he shot to his feet. “I see your little smirking supercil-
superciliosity. No wonder we can no longer have decent dinners,
decent conversations.... I must prove my atavistic sincerity, prove....”
He started pulling at his necktie.
“Say Martin old man, pipe down,” Roy was reiterating.
“Nobody shall stop me.... I must run into the sincerity of black.... I
must run to the end of the black wharf on the East River and throw
myself off.”
Herf ran after him through the restaurant to the street. At the door
he threw off his coat, at the corner his vest.
“Gosh he runs like a deer,” panted Roy staggering against Herf’s
shoulder. Herf picked up the coat and vest, folded them under his
arm and went back to the restaurant. They were pale when they sat
down on either side of Alice.
“Will he really do it? Will he really do it?” she kept asking.
“No of course not,” said Roy. “He’ll go home; he was making fools
of us because we played up to him.”
“Suppose he really did it?”
“I’d hate to see him.... I like him very much. We named our kid
after him,” said Jimmy gloomily. “But if he really feels so terribly
unhappy what right have we to stop him?”
“Oh Jimmy,” sighed Alice, “do order some coffee.”
Outside a fire engine moaned throbbed roared down the street.
Their hands were cold. They sipped the coffee without speaking.
Francie came out of the side door of the Five and Ten into the six
o’clock goinghome end of the day crowd. Dutch Robertson was
waiting for her. He was smiling; there was color in his face.
“Why Dutch what’s ...” The words stuck in her throat.
“Dont you like it...?” They walked on down Fourteenth, a blur of
faces streamed by on either side of them. “Everything’s jake
Francie,” he was saying quietly. He wore a light gray spring overcoat
and a light felt hat to match. New red pointed Oxfords glowed on his
feet. “How do you like the outfit? I said to myself it wasnt no use tryin
to do anythin without a tony outside.”
“But Dutch how did you get it?”
“Stuck up a guy in a cigar store. Jez it was a cinch.”
“Ssh dont talk so loud; somebody might hear ye.”
“They wouldnt know what I was talkin about.”
Mr. Densch sat in the corner of Mrs. Densch’s Louis XIV boudoir.
He sat all hunched up on a little gilt pinkbacked chair with his
potbelly resting on his knees. In his green sagging face the pudgy
nose and the folds that led from the flanges of the nostrils to the
corners of the wide mouth made two triangles. He had a pile of
telegrams in his hand, on top a decoded message on a blue slip that
read: Deficit Hamburg branch approximately $500,000; signed
Heintz. Everywhere he looked about the little room crowded with
fluffy glittery objects he saw the purple letters of approximately
jiggling in the air. Then he noticed that the maid, a pale mulatto in a
ruffled cap, had come into the room and was staring at him. His eye
lit on a large flat cardboard box she held in her hand.
“What’s that?”
“Somethin for the misses sir.”
“Bring it here.... Hickson’s ... and what does she want to be buying
more dresses for will you tell me that.... Hickson’s.... Open it up. If it
looks expensive I’ll send it back.”
The maid gingerly pulled off a layer of tissuepaper, uncovering a
peach and peagreen evening dress.
Mr. Densch got to his feet spluttering, “She must think the war’s
still on.... Tell em we will not receive it. Tell em there’s no such party
livin here.”
The maid picked up the box with a toss of the head and went out
with her nose in the air. Mr. Densch sat down in the little chair and
began looking over the telegrams again.
“Ann-ee, Ann-ee,” came a shrill voice from the inner room; this
was followed by a head in a lace cap shaped like a libertycap and a
big body in a shapeless ruffled negligée. “Why J. D. what are you
doing here at this time of the morning? I’m waiting for my
hairdresser.”
“It’s very important.... I just had a cable from Heintz. Serena my
dear, Blackhead and Densch is in a very bad way on both sides of
the water.”
“Yes ma’am,” came the maid’s voice from behind him.
He gave his shoulders a shrug and walked to the window. He felt
tired and sick and heavy with flesh. An errand boy on a bicycle
passed along the street; he was laughing and his cheeks were pink.
Densch saw himself, felt himself for a second hot and slender
running bareheaded down Pine Street years ago catching the girls’
ankles in the corner of his eye. He turned back into the room. The
maid had gone.
“Serena,” he began, “cant you understand the seriousness...? It’s
this slump. And on top of it all the bean market has gone to hell. It’s
ruin I tell you....”
“Well my dear I dont see what you expect me to do about it.”
“Economize ... economize. Look where the price of rubber’s gone
to.... That dress from Hickson’s....”
“Well you wouldnt have me going to the Blackhead’s party looking
like a country schoolteacher, would you?”
Mr. Densch groaned and shook his head. “O you wont
understand; probably there wont be any party.... Look Serena there’s
no nonsense about this.... I want you to have a trunk packed so that
we can sail any day.... I need a rest. I’m thinking of going to
Marienbad for the cure.... It’ll do you good too.”
Her eye suddenly caught his. All the little wrinkles on her face
deepened; the skin under her eyes was like the skin of a shrunken
toy balloon. He went over to her and put his hand on her shoulder
and was puckering his lips to kiss her when suddenly she flared up.
“I wont have you meddling between me and my dressmakers.... I
wont have it ... I wont have it....”
“Oh have it your own way.” He left the room with his head
hunched between his thick sloping shoulders.
“Ann-ee!”
“Yes ma’am.” The maid came back into the room.
Mrs. Densch had sunk down in the middle of a little spindlelegged
sofa. Her face was green. “Annie please get me that bottle of sweet
spirits of ammonia and a little water.... And Annie you can call up
Hickson’s and tell them that that dress was sent back through a
mistake of ... of the butler’s and please to send it right back as I’ve
got to wear it tonight.”
S
eeping in red twilight out of the Gulf
Stream fog, throbbing brassthroat that
howls through the stiff-fingered streets,
prying open glazed eyes of skyscrapers,
splashing red lead on the girdered thighs of
the five bridges, teasing caterwauling
tugboats into heat under the toppling
smoketrees of the harbor.
Spring puckering our mouths, spring
giving us gooseflesh grows gigantic out of
the droning of sirens, crashes with
enormous scaring din through the halted
traffic, between attentive frozen tiptoe
blocks.
r. Densch with the collar of his woolly ulster up round his ears
M and a big English cap pulled down far over his eyes, walked
nervously back and forth on the damp boat deck of the
Volendam. He looked out through a drizzly rain at the gray wharf
houses and the waterfront buildings etched against a sky of
inconceivable bitterness. A ruined man, a ruined man, he kept
whispering to himself. At last the ship’s whistle boomed out for the
third time. Mr. Densch, his fingers in his ears, stood screened by a
lifeboat watching the rift of dirty water between the ship’s side and
the wharf widen, widen. The deck trembled under his feet as the
screws bit into the current. Gray like a photograph the buildings of
Manhattan began sliding by. Below decks the band was playing O
Titin-e Titin-e. Red ferryboats, carferries, tugs, sandscows,
lumberschooners, tramp steamers drifted between him and the
steaming towering city that gathered itself into a pyramid and began
to sink mistily into the browngreen water of the bay.
Mr. Densch went below to his stateroom. Mrs. Densch in a cloche
hat hung with a yellow veil was crying quietly with her head on a
basket of fruit. “Dont Serena,” he said huskily. “Dont.... We like
Marienbad.... We need a rest. Our position isnt so hopeless. I’ll go
and send Blackhead a radio.... After all it’s his stubbornness and
rashness that brought the firm to ... to this. That man thinks he’s a
king on earth.... This’ll ... this’ll get under his skin. If curses can kill I’ll
be a dead man tomorrow.” To his surprise he found the gray drawn
lines of his face cracking into a smile. Mrs. Densch lifted her head
and opened her mouth to speak to him, but the tears got the better of
her. He looked at himself in the glass, squared his shoulders and
adjusted his cap. “Well Serena,” he said with a trace of jauntiness in
his voice, “this is the end of my business career.... I’ll go send that
radio.”
Mother’s face swoops down and kisses him; his hands clutch her
dress, and she has gone leaving him in the dark, leaving a frail
lingering fragrance in the dark that makes him cry. Little Martin lies
tossing within the iron bars of his crib. Outside dark, and beyond
walls and outside again the horrible great dark of grownup people,
rumbling, jiggling, creeping in chunks through the windows, putting
fingers through the crack in the door. From outside above the roar of
wheels comes a strangling wail clutching his throat. Pyramids of dark
piled above him fall crumpling on top of him. He yells, gagging
between yells. Nounou walks towards the crib along a saving
gangplank of light “Dont you be scared ... that aint nothin.” Her black
face grins at him, her black hand straightens the covers. “Just a fire
engine passin.... You wouldn’t be sceered of a fire engine.”
Ellen leaned back in the taxi and closed her eyes for a second.
Not even the bath and the halfhour’s nap had washed out the
fagging memory of the office, the smell of it, the chirruping of
typewriters, the endlessly repeated phrases, faces, typewritten
sheets. She felt very tired; she must have rings under her eyes. The
taxi had stopped. There was a red light in the traffic tower ahead.
Fifth Avenue was jammed to the curbs with taxis, limousines,
motorbusses. She was late; she had left her watch at home. The
minutes hung about her neck leaden as hours. She sat up on the
edge of the seat, her fists so tightly clenched that she could feel
through her gloves her sharp nails digging into the palms of her
hands. At last the taxi jerked forward, there was a gust of exhausts
and whir of motors, the clot of traffic began moving up Murray Hill. At
a corner she caught sight of a clock. Quarter of eight. The traffic
stopped again, the brakes of the taxi shrieked, she was thrown
forward on the seat. She leaned back with her eyes closed, the
blood throbbing in her temples. All her nerves were sharp steel
jangled wires cutting into her. “What does it matter?” she kept asking
herself. “He’ll wait. I’m in no hurry to see him. Let’s see, how many
blocks?... Less than twenty, eighteen.” It must have been to keep
from going crazy people invented numbers. The multiplication table
better than Coué as a cure for jangled nerves. Probably that’s what
old Peter Stuyvesant thought, or whoever laid the city out in
numbers. She was smiling to herself. The taxi had started moving
again.
George Baldwin was walking back and forth in the lobby of the
hotel, taking short puffs of a cigarette. Now and then he glanced at
the clock. His whole body was screwed up taut like a high
violinstring. He was hungry and full up with things he wanted to say;
he hated waiting for people. When she walked in, cool and silky and
smiling, he wanted to go up to her and hit her in the face.
“George do you realize that it’s only because numbers are so cold
and emotionless that we’re not all crazy?” she said giving him a little
pat on the arm.
“Fortyfive minutes waiting is enough to drive anybody crazy, that’s
all I know.”
“I must explain it. It’s a system. I thought it all up coming up in the
taxi.... You go in and order anything you like. I’m going to the ladies’
room a minute.... And please have me a Martini. I’m dead tonight,
just dead.”
“You poor little thing, of course I will.... And dont be long please.”
His knees were weak under him, he felt like melting ice as he
went into the gilt ponderously ornamented diningroom. Good lord
Baldwin you’re acting like a hobbledehoy of seventeen ... after all
these years too. Never get anywhere that way.... “Well Joseph what
are you going to give us to eat tonight? I’m hungry.... But first you
can get Fred to make the best Martini cocktail he ever made in his
life.”
“Tres bien monsieur,” said the longnosed Roumanian waiter and
handed him the menu with a flourish.
Ellen stayed a long time looking in the mirror, dabbing a little
superfluous powder off her face, trying to make up her mind. She
kept winding up a hypothetical dollself and setting it in various
positions. Tiny gestures ensued, acted out on various model stages.
Suddenly she turned away from the mirror with a shrug of her
toowhite shoulders and hurried to the diningroom.
“Oh George I’m starved, simply starved.”
“So am I” he said in a crackling voice. “And Elaine I’ve got news
for you,” he went on hurriedly as if he were afraid she’d interrupt him.
“Cecily has consented to a divorce. We’re going to rush it through
quietly in Paris this summer. Now what I want to know is, will you...?”
She leaned over and patted his hand that grasped the edge of the
table. “George lets eat our dinner first.... We’ve got to be sensible.
God knows we’ve messed things up enough in the past both of us....
Let’s drink to the crime wave.” The smooth infinitesimal foam of the
cocktail was soothing in her tongue and throat, glowed gradually
warmly through her. She looked at him laughing with sparkling eyes.
He drank his at a gulp.
“By gad Elaine,” he said flaming up helplessly, “you’re the most
wonderful thing in the world.”
Through dinner she felt a gradual icy coldness stealing through
her like novocaine. She had made up her mind. It seemed as if she
had set the photograph of herself in her own place, forever frozen
into a single gesture. An invisible silk band of bitterness was
tightening round her throat, strangling. Beyond the plates, the ivory
pink lamp, the broken pieces of bread, his face above the blank
shirtfront jerked and nodded; the flush grew on his cheeks; his nose
caught the light now on one side, now on the other, his taut lips
moved eloquently over his yellow teeth. Ellen felt herself sitting with
her ankles crossed, rigid as a porcelain figure under her clothes,
everything about her seemed to be growing hard and enameled, the
air bluestreaked with cigarettesmoke, was turning to glass. His
wooden face of a marionette waggled senselessly in front of her. She
shuddered and hunched up her shoulders.
“What’s the matter, Elaine?” he burst out. She lied:
“Nothing George.... Somebody walked over my grave I guess.”
“Couldnt I get you a wrap or something?”
She shook her head.
“Well what about it?” he said as they got up from the table.
“What?” she asked smiling. “After Paris?”
“I guess I can stand it if you can George,” she said quietly.
He was waiting for her, standing at the open door of a taxi. She
saw him poised spry against the darkness in a tan felt hat and a light
tan overcoat, smiling like some celebrity in the rotogravure section of
a Sunday paper. Mechanically she squeezed the hand that helped
her into the cab.
“Elaine,” he said shakily, “life’s going to mean something to me
now.... God if you knew how empty life had been for so many years.
I’ve been like a tin mechanical toy, all hollow inside.”
“Let’s not talk about mechanical toys,” she said in a strangled
voice.
“No let’s talk about our happiness,” he shouted.
Inexorably his lips closed on to hers. Beyond the shaking glass
window of the taxi, like someone drowning, she saw out of a corner
of an eye whirling faces, streetlights, zooming nickleglinting wheels.
The old man in the checked cap sits on the brownstone stoop with
his face in his hands. With the glare of Broadway in their backs there
is a continual flickering of people past him towards the theaters down
the street. The old man is sobbing through his fingers in a sour reek
of gin. Once in a while he raises his head and shouts hoarsely, “I
cant, dont you see I cant?” The voice is inhuman like the splitting of
a plank. Footsteps quicken. Middleaged people look the other way.
Two girls giggle shrilly as they look at him. Streeturchins nudging
each other peer in and out through the dark crowd. “Bum Hootch.”
“He’ll get his when the cop on the block comes by.” “Prohibition
liquor.” The old man lifts his wet face out of his hands, staring out of
sightless bloodyrimmed eyes. People back off, step on the feet of the
people behind them. Like splintering wood the voice comes out of
him. “Don’t you see I cant...? I cant ... I cant.”