Short Fiction · Chapter
The Pendulum explained
John Layeville, inventor of a time machine, is imprisoned inside the glass head of a giant pendulum after his machine malfunctions and kills thirty scientists.
What happens
John Layeville, inventor of a time machine, is imprisoned inside the glass head of a giant pendulum after his machine malfunctions and kills thirty scientists. Swung endlessly back and forth for what becomes centuries, he witnesses the decline of humanity, an alien invasion that wipes out the city, and finally his own death. The pendulum continues swinging until alien visitors from the void discover his skeleton, still grinning as if having conquered time itself.
Themes in this chapter
Technology vs. Humanity
Layeville's time machine, meant to help humanity, becomes his prison and a monument to his failure, while robots outlast humans in maintaining the pendulum.
Mortality and the Brevity of Life
Layeville's long imprisonment ends in death, his skeleton grinning as a symbol of his conquest over time, yet the pendulum continues swinging long after.
Isolation and Otherness
Layeville is utterly alone in his glass prison, cut off from humanity, first as a spectacle and later as the last human on a dead Earth.
Characters to notice
- Layeville
The inventor of the time machine, now imprisoned in the pendulum he designed, swinging endlessly as the 'Prisoner of Time.'
Key passages
“Up and down, back and forth, up and down. First the quick flight skyward, gradually slowing, reaching the pinnacle of the curve, poising a moment, then flashing earthward again, faster and faster at a nauseating speed, reaching the bottom and hurtling aloft on the opposite side.”
The pendulum swings continuously, moving up and down and back and forth, with Layeville experiencing the dizzying motion as it accelerates and decelerates.
Describes the relentless motion of the pendulum that defines Layeville's imprisonment.
“The prisoner of time! That’s what they called him now! Now, fettered to the very machine he had planned and constructed.”
Layeville is now known as the 'Prisoner of Time,' trapped in the machine he himself invented.
Highlights the irony of Layeville's fate.
“He had slain the world’s greatest scientists! He recalled the moment of shocked horror that followed. Something radically wrong had happened to the machine.”
Layeville remembers the accident where his time machine killed thirty scientists, leading to his trial and imprisonment.
Recounts the pivotal event that led to Layeville's punishment.
“Pressed closely to the glass side of the cell was the face of a whitened skull—a skeleton visage that stared out over the city with empty sockets and an enigmatical smile wreathing its lipless teeth.”
After a thousand years, alien visitors find Layeville's skeleton pressed against the glass, grinning as if it had conquered time.
Describes the final discovery of Layeville's remains.