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From: laneg@ulowell.UUCP (Dromio)
Newsgroups: net.physics,net.misc
Subject: Re: "Free Energy Machine"
Message-ID: <257@ulowell.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 23-Mar-86 21:08:32 EST
Article-I.D.: ulowell.257
Posted: Sun Mar 23 21:08:32 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 26-Mar-86 02:20:44 EST
References: <326@inuxm.UUCP> <293@hadron.UUCP>
Reply-To: laneg@ulowell.UUCP (Dromio)
Distribution: net
Organization: University of Lowell
Lines: 31
Xref: watmath net.physics:3968 net.misc:9406
Summary: 

In article <293@hadron.UUCP> jsdy@hadron.UUCP (Joseph S. D. Yao) writes:
>Quite a while ago, I read a story which started with a young man
>
>
>The young man gets an idea, develops it, comes out with a
>something-for-nothing machine.  He then decides to leave his commune,
>end of the story has him returning to the little commune, where the
>girl upbraids him for not remaining true to his principles, and not
>giving up everything in the world.  The young man, looking around at
>everything he had wanted in the world, has no reply.  (Nice little bit
>of irony, there.
>

(poorly condensed version of article)

I just recently reread the story in question. It's titled 'Brownshoes', and
was written by Theodore Sturgeon. The device in question is a little gizmo,
made out of certain parts and material, which, when put together in a
certain way, would spin a rotor without energy until its bearings wore out.
The ending is, indeed, nicely ironic. Our hero, Mensch, has almost
singlehandedly revolutionalized human society and wiped out hunger and
poverty. His girl accuses him of leaving his ideals:

'"You could have had love," she said.
 "But I did.". And, since she could never understand, he got into his
noiseless, fueless car and drove off.'

For those who are interested, it's available in a collection titled
'Sturgeon is Alive and Well', along with a whole bunch of other good fiction

			a lesser Power of Darkness