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    Of Stegner's Folly
    Of Stegner's Folly
    Of Stegner's Folly
    Ebook37 pages28 minutes

    Of Stegner's Folly

    By Richard S. Shaver

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 26, 2013
    Of Stegner's Folly

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      Book preview

      Of Stegner's Folly - Richard S. Shaver

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of Of Stegner's Folly, by Richard S. Shaver

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

      Title: Of Stegner's Folly

      Author: Richard S. Shaver

      Release Date: May 29, 2010 [EBook #32582]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OF STEGNER'S FOLLY ***

      Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online

      Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

      Of Stegner's Folly

      By Richard S. Shaver

      [Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from If Worlds of Science Fiction March 1952. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

      When a twenty-foot goddess walked out of the jungle, they knew Stegner wasn't kidding.

      Old Prof Stegner never foresaw the complications his selective anti-gravitational field would cause. Knowing the grand old man as I did, I can say that he never intended his blessing should become the curse to mankind that it did. And the catastrophe it brought about was certainly beyond range of all prophecy.

      Of course, anyone who lived in 1972 and tried to get inside Stegner's weird life-circle must agree that you can get too much of a good thing. Even a pumpkin can get too big—and that's what happened when the Prof turned on his field—things got big; and too darned healthy!

      I was there the day Stegner announced the results of ten year's research on his selector. Nearly everyone present had read the sensational articles concerning his work in the feature sections of the big town newspapers. Like the rest, I had a vague idea of what it was about. It seemed the Prof had developed a device that repelled various particles of matter without effecting others. In short, if he turned on his gadget, gravity reversed itself for certain elements, and they went away in a hurry. Like this: he could take oxide of iron, turn on his selective repellor, and the rust rather magically turned to pure iron without the oxygen. Or, he could take a pile of mixed chemicals, turn his control

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