Chapter Three Summary

After being wounded in the Civil War because he was mistaken for Abraham Lincoln, Elias Tarkington retired to the valley bearing his namesake college. During one phase of the college's early history, Eugene tells the reader, Elias had 27 perpetual motion machines created by several of his more industrious engineering students. Since there is no such principle of perpetual motion known to physics, the idea strikes Eugene as the height of absurdity. He tells how Elias had the machines made with incredible detail and intricacy, even though they do not and never have practically worked as anything more than expensive desk paperweights. Eugene tells the reader how when he discovered the perpetual motion machines rusting in an attic, he had several students polish them and display them in the college's main library. Eugene informs the reader that the college has remained an...