Perpetual motion short story

[wagtail]

I've often thought back on this short story but with so little detail remembered, I don't know if anyone will be able to help track it down.

I read it in an anthology borrowed from a library in the early 1970s.

I picture the book as hardback, and I picture it with a dark background cover--not sure on either of those though.

The story is about a 'crazy' scientist who invents a perpetual motion machine but for some reason I don't remember, the invention is lost to the world. And that's all I've got. No memory of characters or anything else.

I remember being thoroughly intrigued because it was the first time I encountered the concept of perpetual motion.

eta: quite probably borrowed from the then 'junior' section of the library

 

[Danny McG]

A perpetual motion machine ... Could it possibly have been an anti-gravity device?

 

[wagtail]

I don't think so, Danny.

 

[Danny McG]

Possibly this one:-

'The man who learned Loving' (aka 'Brownshoes') by Theodore Sturgeon

edit: it looks like this has already been answered way before I joined Chronicles!

Brown Shoes?

Looking for an old sf story. I remeber it as named Brown Shoes, but I could be wrong. A man and woman, hippies, are leading a hippy life style, when the man has a realization about a technology that would bring cheap or free power to the world. He becomes a suit-wearing member of society...

www.sffchronicles.com

 

[wagtail]

Possibly this one:-

'The man who learned Loving' (aka 'Brownshoes') by Theodore Sturgeon

edit: it looks like this has already been answered way before I joined Chronicles!

Brown Shoes?

Looking for an old sf story. I remeber it as named Brown Shoes, but I could be wrong. A man and woman, hippies, are leading a hippy life style, when the man has a realization about a technology that would bring cheap or free power to the world. He becomes a suit-wearing member of society...

www.sffchronicles.com

Ooh! I wonder if that's it. I looked up the covers of publications this story appeared in, and Publication: Sturgeon Is Alive and Well ... is kinda like the cover I remember. I'll have to hunt around for a copy to read. Looks interesting, whether it's the particular one I remember anyway. Thank you!

 

[Danny McG]

Ooh! I wonder if that's it. I looked up the covers of publications this story appeared in, and Publication: Sturgeon Is Alive and Well ... is kinda like the cover I remember. I'll have to hunt around for a copy to read. Looks interesting, whether it's the particular one I remember anyway. Thank you!

If you succeed then please let us know if we got it

 

[wagtail]

If you succeed then please let us know if we got it

I found a copy to read (if somewhat awkwardly) here: The Man Who Learned Loving

No, it's not the one I'm looking for as the technology is realised. I enjoyed Sturgeon's story, though, and I like his sharp, incisive writing and characterisation. I'll keep an eye out for more of his work.

The story I'm remembering is written in a different (more vintage?) style.

 

[Danny McG]

Ok cheers, the hunt continues

 

[Ravensquawk]

Possibly this one:-

'The man who learned Loving' (aka 'Brownshoes') by Theodore Sturgeon

edit: it looks like this has already been answered way before I joined Chronicles!

Brown Shoes?

Looking for an old sf story. I remeber it as named Brown Shoes, but I could be wrong. A man and woman, hippies, are leading a hippy life style, when the man has a realization about a technology that would bring cheap or free power to the world. He becomes a suit-wearing member of society...

www.sffchronicles.com

Lovely story. One that has always stayed with me. But it was not triggered by perpetual motion machine invention.
In that story, his invention is not lost to the world. More's the pity that it is fiction.

There are other stories that don't fit, and one that might, but I am still searching for the title.
A man starts wild ever-widening swings through time, and sort of becomes a perpetual motion machine. Until the present universe ends. It ends something like: "He did not observe, but became part of, the creation of the planets."
Sounds a bit like Harry Harrison and a story that also became a novel of a different name, but still searching.

 

[Richiehead]

There are other stories that don't fit, and one that might, but I am still searching for the title.
A man starts wild ever-widening swings through time, and sort of becomes a perpetual motion machine. Until the present universe ends. It ends
omething like: "He did not observe, but became part of, the creation of the planets."

That one is The Weapon Shops of Isher by AE Van Vogt

 

[Ravensquawk]

Thank you

That one is The Weapon Shops of Isher by AE Van Vogt

Thank you.
I was looking at Toy SHop by Hary Harrison and knew it did not fit. So thank you for reuniniting me with this story, albeit with a grisly ending.

I am still sorry that I do not have any perpetual motion inventor stories, but am watching out for them.