Magnetism: The Revelation

By H. W. Shake

Imagine a world where there is no need for gasoline to run your car. You drive a car that never runs out of fuel. When you get stuck in a snow drift you simply turn off the drive engine, turn up the heat, get some food from the refrigerator in the back seat and wait to be rescued. Conversely, if you break down in the desert, you turn off

• Language: English
• Publisher: H. W. Shake Books Publishing
• Release date: Feb 8, 2024
• ISBN: 9781962730181

H. W. Shake

The focus of H. W. Shake’s life is his faith, so he tends to make his main characters people of faith. He has been a law enforcement officer serving in one capacity or another since 1983. Unable to go to sleep until 3 or 4 a.m. on his days off while he was on night shift he would write. Writing soon became a compulsion. Shake has authored fiction, science fiction, Christian Devotionals, and a blog. You can find his blog at www.kingstonministries.com. He hopes you enjoy his book. To God be the glory!

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Dedication

For Sarah my wife the love of my life!

Copyright © 2024 H. W. Shake Books Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Book Rights and Permission, at the address below.

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Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge my creator.

May this story glorify HIM.

Chapter 1

2042

Mist rose from his mouth, the product of the cold winter morning.  With blankets mounded all about the young man one might have thought they were looking at the smoke from a cabin’s chimney in the mountains. Some might have thought of a volcano spewing steam. Though it was the middle of winter, the room had no heat.  The Sevrin’s had enough income to keep the electricity on during the day but shut it off during nighttime hours except on the most bitter nights.  Air conditioning was out of the question in the Summertime.  Such was life in America for many in the what was now being called The Second Great Depression.  In other countries it was far worse.  Others in America had it much worse.  With the state of the economy there was simply no money to fix the old gas furnace so daytime heat was electric heaters that the boy’s father had installed.  Still, the Sevrin’s had it better than most.  They managed to feed themselves and many other people by what they raised on their farm.  They were often visited by homeless who were passing through.  They had never tried to find out who directed people to them but had never turned a hungry person away.  The farm also provided an ample supply of wood to fuel the wood stove that they fired before they went to bed, but the heat just never seemed to quite make it upstairs.  Beneath so many covers the young man did not notice the frigid air in his room, except on his exposed face.

Will awoke early, the lifelong habit of one raised on a farm.  He was a farm kid, born and bred.  The alarm clock was set for 5:30 a.m., but he was often awake before it sounded.

He reached out and took a flashlight from the nightstand then shined it on the clock.  The time was 5:28, so he flicked the alarm off.  As with every morning, the first thing he did was roll off the bed onto his knees, where he spent ten to fifteen minutes or more in prayer.  This was a particularly cold morning, so he wrapped a blanket around himself to keep from shivering as he spoke with The Almighty.  There was much to pray for right now.  There never seemed to be a shortage of subjects that needed the attention of prayer with millions homeless and millions more unemployed. 

The profit margin on the farm seemed to grow thinner and thinner as those countries with oil raised the prices higher and higher to support their lifestyle while fewer and fewer could afford any of their products. When approached about making petroleum affordable for the average man the CEO’s would talk around the point without ever addressing it.  They had grown quite adept at it.  Behind closed doors they would laugh.

Will’s desire was that he would someday inherit the farm even passing it on to his children.  He could not imagine living anywhere else or doing anything else.  That could not happen if they could not figure out how to increase the profits.  The only question was how to increase profits when the country seemed to be mired in a never-ending downward spiral.  The US economy had shrunk for eight consecutive years while inflation continued to spiral out of control.  Eight hundred acres seemed too small to be profitable in the day of mega-farms, but Howard Sevrin always seemed to scratch a living out of the dirt.  This while most mega-farmers had already gone bankrupt, not to mention the little guys.  Will’s dad had once had over a thousand acres but had sold a little here and a little there to make ends meet.  Now there was simply no market for it so another option was off the table.  The desire of Will’s heart was that the farm would never leave the family, and he would never leave the farm, even if he would have to make his living somewhere else.  All this figured prominently in his prayers.  He concluded, wishing that the will of the Almighty would be done. 

The next few minutes were spent in Bible reading, this to by flashlight as the electric was not turned on until six.  Will would not waste money with a battery flashlight but rather had one that generated light through a dynamo.  He would have to shake the light occasionally to get the light going again.  Like prayer, Bible reading was a habit that would go with him his entire life.  No matter where he was or what was going on, he would always find time to pray and read the Bible.  Seldom was either missed when opening the day.  If it was missed at the beginning of the day it was seen to before the day was over.  After reading a chapter of Matthew, he went to the Psalms - Psalm 37:4.  The text said, Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.  God knew Will’s heart.  First on his heart was service to God.  Second was Sandy, his girlfriend.  Third was the farm.  Still, to serve God, he would have done without the other two. 

Will had chosen Romans 8:28 as his life verse.  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  The young man believed every word of that verse though he often did not see how it worked until after it had.

Will was a large boy, well over six feet and heavily muscled.  He reminded his mom of her oldest brother.  He stretched his large body, pulled on his overalls and clodhopper boots, then rose to his full six feet, four inches.  He was not built like his dad who was whip slim with long, thin muscles.  He was also an inch taller than Howard Sevrin.  Will was a big kid and would fill out further to become a big man.  Even in a teen body, he weighed well over two hundred pounds, all farm-hardened muscle.  No one at that time knew the weight that his broad shoulders would one day carry.

He made his way downstairs where he donned his winter gear then exited the house to see to his morning chores as his mother was just beginning to stir.  Breathing in the smells that make farm life so special, he became fully awake. 

He even enjoyed the smells of the hogs they raised.  They meant life to him.  He knew the intelligence of the swine and smiled as the sows ran toward the fence.  They saw him coming and knew what that meant.  Will fed them most every morning.  Even though Howard had left the house before his son, the sows had given the older Sevrin little more than a cursory glance.  Will gathered buckets of feed and headed into the confinement area.  Setting the buckets just outside the fence he smiled as the hogs squealed and strained trying to get through the fence to the food even though he did the same thing every day they still tried to get to the food.  Will climbed over the fence and reached back to get the first bucket.

As the young man poured feed into the troughs, the hogs nearly knocked him down more than once. He walked back to the fence to get another bucket then back to the troughs to make sure things were properly distributed.  The hogs swarmed around him to get their share, or, being hogs, more than their share.  Since he had worked with pigs all his life, he knew the personalities of each grown hog, or as he called it, piginalities.  There were those that tolerated you because you fed them, there were those who wished their ears scratched like great puppy dogs, and there were those that were just plain mean.  The last group did not last long on the Sevrin family farm but would quickly become sausage when they showed their bad side.  He was always willing to accommodate the puppy-dog type.  After the feed was poured, a four-hundred-pound sow he had named Moby, short for the whale Moby Dick, nuzzled his hip.  Will scratched behind the big hog’s ear.  Moby showed a look of complete bliss as he dug into the thick skin with his fingernails.  Soon she pulled away, looked up at him with appreciation, and moved back to the feeding trough.  There were things more important than getting your ears scratched if you were a hog.  Moby was the dominant sow.  She moved into the group of twenty and simply pushed the others aside as she waddled up to breakfast.  The other hogs squealed protest, but none would challenge the Queen of the lot.

Any defective heaters required removing one’s gloves despite the cold so that you could manipulate the delicate circuitry and make it connect again.  You could not perform the delicate work on the heaters with gloves on. Once fixed they would have to be placed back into the trough.  By the time the heaters were reconnected, Will’s hands were stiff from the cold.

Once Will was done in the hog lot he headed for the chicken coup.  There was usually a dozen or so eggs to gather each day, chicken feed to scatter and another water trough to heat so that the contents remained liquid.

With the early chores done Will returned to the house where Betty, his mother, was already cooking up a large breakfast that contained the fruits of their labors, eggs, bacon, sausage and so on.  You could see when the two stood next to one another that Will favored her side of the family.  Will almost always read a book while eating.

You studyin’? Betty asked.

No, Mama, readin’ this one for pleasure, he told her with a look of embarrassment.

Betty ambled over from the stove and took the book from his hand to read the cover.  Advanced Magnetic Theory.  She whistled, shaking her head.  Well, at least you don’t waste your time on video games or super hero CD’s like most your age.

I like stuff like this.  Will smiled shyly as she handed back the book and returned to the stove.  I think there’s a lotta’ things that could be done with magnetics that no one’s done yet.

What can be done with a magnet except holding something she asked.

I think if we’d do more research on polarities, especially opposite polarities the boy was in his glory we’d be able to power things.

Betty turned from the stove and considered her son for a moment.

Beyond me she said as she turned back to her stove.

Howard reentered the house via the kitchen door just then, pulling off the straps on his bibs.  He walked over and put his arm around his wife’s waist, giving her a small squeeze.  Sure smells good, Mama.

Their kiss was not without passion, even after twenty plus years of marriage.

Howard turned his attention to his only child.  Any new pigs today?

Nope, Will replied, sows just keep gettin’ fatter.

Howard worried.  The boar had gotten in with the sows accidently, impregnating several.  Usually that would have been a good thing but not with the hardest part of winter coming on.  New pigs this time of year might not survive the cold and he had no way to keep them warm.  Heating the barn just was not in the picture when you can barely afford to heat the house.

Maybe that means a lotta’ pigs.  Our Lord knows we could use some extra, but everybody can about now.  He’ll provide, ain’t to worried about that.  Howard began to dig into Betty’s morning offerings, then paused and read the title of Will’s book.  Boy, if you can understand stuff like that, you’ve gotta’ go to college.

Why?  Will saw little use in universities and thought most too liberal for his tastes.  Most courses were taught by professors who had gone straight through and got their PhD’s having never worked in the field a day in their life.  College degrees were becoming less and less practical though with the depression the cost was dropping like a rock just like enrollment.  He realized that while society promoted college degrees most jobs did not require one.  He had seen several his friend’s older siblings get a degree only to find that there was no job waiting for someone who had such a degree.  There simply was no market for that knowledge they had spent four or more years obtaining.

You’re smart, son.  Howard squinted for emphasis as he looked his son in the eye.  You’d be able to go places and do things I never thought of.  You’re smarter than me.  I want better for you.

Smarter than you?  Will looked incredulous.  You have to be a genius to keep this farm afloat when everybody else is going belly up in this economy.  This depression's put most everybody outta business.  I don’t know how you do it.  Besides, how would you pay for college?

Guess I’d have to get a job in town.  Howard was more than willing.

Work full time at some factory and farm full time?  Will was not enamored with the idea.  He knew his dad meant it, but he also knew there were no jobs in town and it was only getting worse.  Not to mention that if Howard could find a job, with the farm, he would be working two full time jobs.  He knew that was not good for a person’s health. I don't even think there's any factory jobs out there.  Most places are laying off not hiring.

Howard smiled.  Even so most of them's lookin' for maintenance people and I can do that. Son, I’ll do what I have to do to give you a better life.

Dad, I can’t imagine a better life than here on the farm Will spoke his heart.  He did not believe college would help him to do what God wanted him to do.  God would give him the talents and knowledge he needed.

Just then there was a knock on the back door.  Howard pulled a .357 from the holster that was hidden beneath his coveralls and concealed it behind his back.  Will knew his father’s actions were a sign of the times.  Tough times.  When he answered the door, he found the son of a friend dressed in rags on the back porch. 

What can I do for you Paul Howard asked though thinking he knew the answer.

The man pulled the baseball cap from his head and looked at the ground.  Sir, there’s not enough food at home.  Mom and Dad have a tough enough time feeding the rest of the family.  I was wondering if there was anything I could do here.  The ragged man paused then quickly added I’ll work for food and a place to sleep in the barn.  The loft will be fine.

Howard had built something of a bunk house in the barn just three years earlier.  There had been several men in and out, but it was empty right now. He looked at Will Go fire up the stove in the bunk house.

Will moved to his chore.

Howard holstered the revolver and waived the young man into the kitchen.  Come have some breakfast.  You can’t work on a farm with an empty stomach.

The new farm hand thanked Howard five times before he got to the kitchen table.  Betty could see that he was not only hungry but cold as well.    She dished out a large plate of food and set it before him.  He thanked her six times.

Don’t you have any other cloths She asked.

Paul shook his head.  Been stayin’ at the camp.  I had to leave my stuff there one day while I went to a job interview and they stole everything I had.  I got the job but because I didn’t have proper cloths they wouldn’t let me work.  They fired me the first day.

In many places the United States looked like the 1930’s.  In some places it was more like the 1850’s.  If you traveled Europe, you might have thought you had gone back to the Middle-Ages.

Despite the tight budget she would go to the thrift store when she got to town and get the boy some cloths.

The old pickup that Will drove groaned on that cold morning, but finally started.  He was just grateful to have it.  Most kids in his class had to ride the bus.  Because of the economy the schools could not afford to run a bus if the student lived within 2 miles of the school.  Will picked up any he saw walking on his way.  Usually that was either two or three.  The truck was not as fast or fancy as what some of the rich kids drove, was seldom washed, never waxed and had started to rust.  His clothes were not as nice as the kids with money still, they were nicer than those whose parents had been out of work for years.  He usually wore jeans and a T-shirt, but he had something that the others did not have.  What that special something was could not be defined by most, but he was clearly the leader wherever he went.  This came from the confidence of knowing his eternity was assured. 

Even in his teens Will thought more like a resident of Heaven who was just visiting Earth rather than a resident of Earth hoping to go to Heaven.

Sandy Carlson was considered the catch of the senior litter at Forrest County High School.  She knew she could have any of the boys her age, but also knew Will was a special one.  Guys like him did not even come along once in every generation.  The slight, but strikingly beautiful girl was the head cheerleader, and a near shoe-in for her long blond hair to sport the crown of the Homecoming Queen in this, their last year of school. 

She seemed to have radar, she called it Willdar.  As soon as he walked through the door, she was at his side.  Each day several kids always crowded around him; he seemed to travel with an entourage.  The group included his younger cousin Hugh.  They did not seem to care that he sometimes carried the aromas of his early morning work.  Any girl would have been glad to be by his side, but he and Sandy were inseparable.  In the two years since they had started going together, they had never lost the desire to be together as much as possible, nor the google-eyed stare for one another.  You could hear it in his deep charismatic voice every morning when he said, Hi, Sandy.  She had many other suitors, but no other would do.  Some were better athletes, even though Will started on the football, basketball, and baseball teams.  Many were richer, but Will was full of the Holy Spirit and that made him different.  None loved God the way that Will did; that was the most important thing to her.  He remained the unchallenged leader of the youth group at the Community Church.  Even the adult leaders would sometimes defer to the boy on points of Scripture.  He knew the Bible forward, backward, sideways and upside down.  He had even memorized large parts of Scripture.  Will was also a nearly straight A student, though he would be embarrassed by the occasional B and an almost yearly slip to a C in some subject.

When school was out, there was basketball practice.  When Will went to the boards, even the bigger players got out of his way.  He did this like he did everything, all out.  Players from other teams would challenge him the first few times and then back off, too.  The team from Forrest County would never win a state title, but they were a good high school team, winning most of their games.  Will was the anchor, the floor coach.  As a senior forward and team captain, Will was averaging nine points, eight rebounds, two steals and four assists a game, good high school stats, but not something that would get him a major college scholarship.  He definitely was not pro material.

One evening when Will arrived home from practice during the greatest depths of the depression, the world started to change.  Howard met him as he got out of the old truck.  Son, gotta’ problem.

What’s up, Dad?

Motor went out on the grain elevator.  Howard’s demeanor told Will that his dad did not want to spend the money to get a new motor.  A new elevator was out of the question financially.  You have a way with those things.  See if you can fix it.

As Will walked toward the elevator he saw Paul cleaning the stalls in the barn.  They waived at each other.  Will was glad to have Paul aboard.  If not for Paul, he would have had to do that before he went in for supper.  He removed the motor and took it to the shop.

After his evening chores and supper, as the sun went down, Will set the motor on the workbench.  In another few minutes the motor lay in pieces.  That is when he had a revelation that would change his future and the world.  He would always say the revelation was straight from God.  As the pieces of the motor lay on the bench, he saw a vision in his mind of what would happen if you placed magnets of opposite polarities at opposing angles, just so, on the inside of the housing.

Will went to his dad.  Dad, I think I can fix the motor, but I’ll need ten bucks or so for the parts.

Howard dug into his old wallet and, though the pickings were sparse, took out a worn twenty.

An hour after receiving the money, Will was back home with the parts.  He had bought $9.43 worth of magnets.  First, he sawed the magnets into precise sizes and then placed each in its proper place, as the vision had shown him.  He adjusted the motor so that when the switch was off the magnets were not in opposition but when the switch was thrown, they would come opposite each other and the opposite polarities would cause resistance.  This caused the motors drive to spin, generating electricity and powering the elevator.  It was past ten that evening when the motor was reassembled.  The electrical cord no longer bore a use and so he snipped it off, then remounted the motor on the elevator and turned it on.  It worked perfectly and ran much more silently than it had before.  The electric motor was old and had rattled in use.  He marveled at what he had just learned.  You are good, Lord. He said a silent prayer.

Will did not tell his dad how he had fixed it.  As far as Howard could see it ran just as always, turning on and off at the switch.  A week later, Howard noticed something.  When he went to unplug the motor so he could move the elevator, he could not find an electrical cord.  Howard was still scratching his head over the matter when Will pulled into the barn lot.  He asked his son about it.  Will explained how he had fixed the motor.  Howard only understood a fraction of what the boy told him.  The elder Sevrin turned the motor on, and then turned it off.  Turned it on, turned it off.  He did not even pretend to understand.  Oh well, the thing worked and that was all he needed to know.  Howard just shook his head, hooked up to the elevator and moved it to a different part of the farm.  The older Sevrin did not realize how their life and the world had just changed.

Will lay next to Sandy on the couch in her living room, watching television.  Though both her parents liked Will, her mom still carefully supervised as she knitted another sweater.  Will did not know that she was making his Christmas present as he watched.

The petite blond looked up at him.  She could see that his eyes were pointed at the television screen but did not see it.

You’ve been a million miles away tonight, Sandy said.  She did not really care as long as he was physically close.

Will looked down at her and laughed a short laugh.  Just thinkin’.

She rolled on top of him, her petite body easily resting atop his bulk.  ‘Bout what?

He smiled a shy smile.  Magnetics.

Magnetics?  She gave him a dubious look.  This was another thing she loved about him.  You could probe his depths but never find the bottom.

Yep. 

Just magnets in general or something more serious?  Her eyes were wide as she wondered at what he was talking about.  She was the straight A student, but he was often far above her on a given subject.

How magnets might be used to power machines that would therefore not need fossil fuels and would give us unlimited power while making the environment better, freeing us from our dependence on oil, and possibly pulling us out of this depression.

Her look became incredulous.  Why don’t you think about something deep?

Will put his arms around the girl that he expected to spend the remainder of his life with.  God put these ideas in my head.  I can’t stop thinkin’ about it.

She studied his eyes.  There was something going on here, something that was bigger than both of them.  She only hoped that it did not take him away from her.  She would be willing to share him, but not do without him.

In late March that year the weather was good, so the field work was well underway.  Will would rush home after school to help his dad.  As he approached home one Friday evening, he saw his dad leaning up against the wheel of their largest tractor, looking dejected.  The boy could see that the engine was torn down, and there seemed to be a serious problem.  He parked the old truck at the edge of the field and walked over to his dad.

Pa, somethin’ wrong? he asked.

Howard did not speak or look up for a long moment.  I think we’re done, son.

Will immediately took his father’s meaning.  The tractor was broken down.  The problem with it was serious, and they could not afford to repair it much less replace it.  Without the big tractor, they would probably not get the crops out.  Without crops, they would lose the farm.  The young man looked into the heart of the tractor’s power plant.  Yes, the engine was done as an internal combustion version, but not as a magnetic one.  Will told his dad his idea.  Howard simply had nothing to lose.

While this required much larger, heavier and more expensive magnets than the elevator he still fixed the tractor for less than two thousand dollars.  Before the weekend was over, the big tractor was humming.  Now, not only would they get the crops out, they would use no fuel doing it.  The cost of putting out their crops would be less than any other farmer around there.  Even spending the money to repair the tractor they would spend much less on tilling the fields than they ever had.  Their profit margin had just grown.  Howard was beginning to see the big picture.

Chapter 2

Will and Howard discussed the possible uses of the magnetic motor for days.  They came to the realization that the only limit to their future was the limit of their imagination.  At night they built motors; soon the whole farm ran on magnetics.  They could leave the heat on twenty-four hours a day and would be able to use the air conditioner in the summer.  No more monthly bills. The magnetic motors had saved the Sevrin’s enough money to keep the farm afloat for some time.  Fuel was pushing five dollars a gallon again.  Howard realized some of the money saved would have to be spent in obtaining patents for Will’s motors.

The motors also caused another problem.  Men were coming from all around wanting to work for food.  They had heard of the warm, comfortable bunk house.  Word had spread about Betty’s cooking.  Howard was now turning away further hands because he did not have room or enough work for them.  With him keeping the men busy the farm looked like it had been manicured. 

Will and Howard drove to the state capitol to investigate the patent.  They filled out the paperwork and were instructed by the clerk to take a seat by a patent clerk named Josh.

Once in the back of the patent office the clerk had a conversation that the Sevrin men never heard.  Josh had taken their papers and headed back to the rear of the office.  By the time he had made it near the rear, he was laughing hysterically at the overall clad men and their clodhopper boots. 

Josh, what’s up Adam asked.

It took a moment for Josh to compose himself enough to answer; though he still had to speak between guffaws.  Two hicks out front.  They’re in bibs and work boots.  They even smell of hog dung.  They think they’ve got something here that no one else ever thought of.

Josh waved the papers. 

Arty took the papers and looked them over.  "Don’t ever remember seeing anything like