Mind Machines You Can Build ing why; just get it built or working and in saleable condition by next Wednesday! ') By and large, however, die principles o f physics and odicr sciences that I'd learned in college comfortably supported my engineering work. B u t an unquestioning faidi in what they'd told me was true during my formal academic education and even some of the pragmatic principles I'd learned afterwards was shattered by my first encounter with an inexplicable machine in 1956. John W . Campbell, Jr., die late editor o f ANAL O G magazine, published a science-fact article describing a strange device known as a "Hieronymous machine"' for which a U.S. patent existed. H e gave explicit instructions on how to build one and invited the readers of the magazine to try it for themselves before they labelled it an impossible fraud. T h e device-which is described in this book is an electronic instrument whose purpose is to determine die qualitative constituents of a metallic alloy. It uses a * tactile" detector that is stroked and t h a t f e e l s different'1 when the device detects a given metallic component in an alloy. However,
Campbell
reported
that
the
Hieronymous machine worked whether or not it was plugged into a wall socket. He also claimed that it would work if you made one simply using die diagram of the elecnonic circuit and substituted thread tor wire.
1-