Then he put a couple of crystals of Iridium Phosphate in the other half of the capsule, sealed it with another gob of paste, and carefully stuck the halves together. It was not easy doing this delicate work wearing the heavy gloves, but Woodrow's even patience was the direct opposite of Artie's squirminess in the bushes. Now, though, he knew he had to act quickly, because the gelatin capsule was not an ideal vessel for the volatile jet fuel. But he was ready for the next step, and he moved so quickly Artie almost lost his abilities as a containment vessel as Woodrow ran from the shed and grabbed one of the chickens that were always wandering away from the farm down the road, and quickly stepped back into the shed to his work table. It was no trouble to get the chicken to swallow the capsule.
Chickens peck first and never consider the consequences.
The only variable in Woodrow's experiment was how long it would take for the capsule to dissolve in the chicken's digestive tract so that the active ingredients would have the opportunity to combine. Woodrow had confidence that this part would work. The big question was whether the minute amounts he had measured out would result in a less dramatic action than the cereal bowl experiments. Ideally, he hoped that the chicken would simply float a few feet off the worktable surface, opening the era of controlled anti-gravity, and changing the World as we know it in far reaching and mostly positive ways. That was the hope.