THE SECRET
by Irvin R. Barrows, Editor of the Perpetual Motion Journal
It was a damp and chilly night as the inventor left the reference room of the public library. No one suspected that the tightly-buttoned coat and turned up collar were more for protecting a bold new invention than to ward off the night air.
Inside the coat pocket on the back of library forms was sketched an idea worth thousands or even millions. “What would it be like to be a billionaire?” he thought as he walked him win order to save the streetcar fare.
Was he being followed? Who might try to steal his idea? You can’t trust anyone these days; A little more research and it would be perfected. The librarian doesn’t realize that on the back of these forms is developing the greatest invention of all history. “If I tell anyone they will steal my invention. Some day the world will realize how great I am, but now I must be more careful.”
The man at the next table, pretending to read a book, has looked at him twice. He would have to see a doctor about that pain he just felt again. Where could he find a patent attorney to work for a percentage of royalties instead of cash. He would have to keep his secret idea hidden for a while longer.
Then he felt the pain again. The doctor he saw, and the night seemed even closer, for he learned he had only six months to live. The great secret must be given to mankind before he died, so he confided in his closest friend who yawned as he completed the explanation.
Others must be told, but their interest was only polite instead of real. Every method was used to give the world his valuable perpetual motion idea, letters, mimeograph, printing, but they turned it down cold. Dead cold. And the secret is still hidden, for no one now remembers the idea he once tried to hide and then couldn’t give away.
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LATE NEWS FLASH
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From his mother, the editor received the following later:
“Dear Irvin: Your photograph on the front inside cover of the second Journal came today. I intend to take it out and frame it; but I don’t expect I will ever take time to read what you have written about perpetual motion. I wouldn’t understand it if I did.”