Problem in solid

In Short

When engineer Tim Woodart invents true three-dimensional photography—a device that scans, projects, and materializes living matter using studio energy—corrupt motion picture star Harry Foster realizes he can exploit the technology to commit the ultimate crime. Foster duplicates himself, murders his own copy, and frames the situation to evade prosecution by exploiting legal loopholes surrounding identity and suicide. The novel explores the intersection of cutting-edge technology and human malice, delivering a sharp courtroom satire that uses science fiction to probe the absolute limits of the legal system.

The Story

Martin Hammer, the world's foremost motion picture producer, gets his office door destroyed when engineer Tim Woodart demonstrates a revolutionary three-dimensional camera system. The device uses a three-way scan to capture the exact atomic mass and charge of objects or people, projecting them as living, breathing replicas while wiping the previous frame to generate power.

Meanwhile, Hollywood actor Harry Foster uses the solid camera to secretly create a duplicate of himself. Planning to escape his extensive network of blackmail, embezzlement, and larceny, Foster takes his duplicate to his apartment, shoots him dead with a duplicate revolver, and leaves the body behind. Police and FBI agents discover the corpse, and investigators like Lieutenant Miller and Jacobson recognize that whoever killed Foster did society a favor, noting that the corrupt actor was moments away from being cornered for his crimes.

Foster assumes a new identity, but when he reads about his widow Jenny Foster finding solace with Tim Woodart, greed drives him back to Hollywood. He begins blackmailing Jenny and Tim, confident that he is legally dead and therefore untouchable. State attorney Jones and Lieutenant Miller eventually track down Foster, arresting him for first-degree murder.

During the sensational trial, Tim Woodart testifies about how the solid machine consumed seventy thousand kilowatts of energy on the night of the murder, proving that a duplicate was created and stripped from the set. Defense attorney Cranshaw presents a clever defense, arguing that since the duplicate was created from the original, no actual identity was destroyed—rather, the defendant merely attempted suicide, which is a misdemeanor or requires psychiatric treatment rather than execution.

The jury deliberates and finds Foster guilty of first-degree murder, concluding that his self-duplication and calculated plot constitute self-murder. However, right after the verdict, Foster reappears at Jenny's apartment, mocking the court and revealing that he had Cranshaw create yet another duplicate of him to ensure he can never be punished again due to double jeopardy. Disgusted and refusing to live under his threat, Tim and Jenny step outside while Foster arms himself, leaving the multiple iterations of the criminal to settle their own destructive fates inside the open apartment.

How It Unfolds

• The voyage begins: Tim Woodart startles motion picture producer Martin Hammer by walking through a solid oak door using a projected three-dimensional image and a simulated doorway.
• The double drops: Harry Foster experiments with the solid camera's circuits, successfully halting the wipe-away feature to materialize a living, breathing duplicate of himself before shooting it dead in his living room.
• The clever ghost: Believing he is legally immune because authorities buried his identical copy, a living Foster returns to Hollywood to blackmail Jenny Foster and Tim Woodart.
• The courtroom pivot: State attorney Jones establishes through Woodart's technical testimony that a massive surge of power was used to create a human duplicate, while defense attorney Cranshaw argues the act amounts to attempted suicide.
• The final recursion: Convicted by a jury that views his plot as premeditated self-murder, Foster laughs off the verdict by revealing he has generated yet another duplicate to completely defy legal punishment.

The People

• Martin Hammer is the world's foremost motion picture producer who wants to capitalize on novelty and realism in entertainment, but ultimately finds himself bewildered by the technological chaos and property destruction surrounding solid photography.
• Tim Woodart is the ingenious engineer who invents three-dimensional photography and desires a quiet professional life, but finds himself drawn into protecting Jenny Foster from the relentless extortion of her husband.
• Harry Foster is a thoroughly corrupt movie star and criminal who wants to permanently escape his illicit past through fraud and duplication; he views everyone around him as leverage, only to be consumed by his own infinite deception.
• Jenny Foster is Harry's long-suffering wife who wants freedom from her abusive, criminal husband and finds genuine solace with Tim Woodart, enduring her husband's psychological torment before finally seeing justice catch up to him.
• Lieutenant Miller is a weary, pragmatic police officer who wants to see corrupt men like Foster brought down, and he happily bends conventional expectations when an obvious villain is finally removed from the streets.
• Cranshaw is Foster's cunning defense attorney who seizes upon the scientific absurdity of atomic duplication to construct a brilliant, paradoxical courtroom defense centered on the laws of suicide.

In Its Own Voice

"Martin Hammer should have been prepared for anything." This opening line establishes Hammer's stature in the film industry just before his office door is obliterated by an impossible technological intrusion.

"I got the focus wrong," said, "otherwise the image could have--" Tim Woodart offers this breezy, understated apology after walking straight through a solid oak door as a projected three-dimensional illusion.

"The defendant, Harry Foster, is charged with Murder in the First Degree," said State attorney Jones. This formal accusation launches a totally unprecedented legal battle where traditional murder definitions collide with matter duplication.

What It's Really About

The story examines the profound philosophical and legal crises that emerge when technology outpaces jurisprudence. Smith questions what constitutes a unique human identity, an individual soul, and personal accountability when matter can be mechanically duplicated by a machine. The narrative argues that human nature remains stubbornly corrupt even when confronted with miraculous scientific creation; instead of using matter replication for noble ends, characters immediately weaponize it for fraud, blackmail, and murder. Furthermore, it satirizes the rigidity of the legal system, showing how abstract laws crumble when forced to categorize a man who acts as both his own victim and his own killer.

Why Read It Today

Readers who love classic mid-century hard science fiction with a heavy dose of courtroom drama and dry wit will thoroughly enjoy this novella. It reads with the brisk, clever cadence of a smart pulp magazine thriller, combining technical world-building with snappy dialogue and cynical Hollywood atmosphere. The experience feels like watching an intellectual puzzle play out among hardened cynics who refuse to be overly rattled by the impossible. While modern readers may note the brisk pacing and the era's swift narrative turns, the central puzzle—what happens to the law when a person can be cloned and murdered—retains a remarkably fresh, thought-provoking edge. What stays with you is the eerie persistence of human greed and the haunting final image of a criminal trapped in an endless loop of his own manufactured copies.