Professor Terwilliger and Tim - The Sun Car
by
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Tim was delighted.
Professor Terwilliger laughed and the smile on his face could not have been more broad.
They were about eighty feet up and moving swiftly above a monumental traffic jam on Interstate 80 just south of Chicago. At about 40 MPH relative to the ground, they were quickly leaving the long line of cars behind.
Looking left Tim could see the sunlit skyline of downtown Chicago and the shimmering waters of Lake Michigan beyond. Straight ahead was a bank of morning fog extending inland from the lake. They were traveling in the Skimmer, the latest version of Professor Terwilliger’s invention, the Sun Car. It was performing perfectly.
"You can turn on the auto-pilot now," the professor said, pointing to the control on Tim’s left. Exactly like the automatic speed controls on the standard highway-bound Sun Cars, it performed the same, with one difference. It did set speed, but it set the height over the ground as well.
Tim had examined their quarters closely. At first he could see no way out. The windows were barred and painted over, the door locked, and much of the time a guard appeared to be just outside in the hall. The bathroom had no window. But he did notice a large water stain in the ceiling just outside the closet, and inside he found the same. He went into the closet and in short order found the ceiling had rotted. With little difficulty he pulled down plaster and ceiling boards creating a hole large enough for even the professor.
"See if the guard is outside," he requested.
"No sign of him, " the professor replied.
Tim took his chair into the closet, using it to help with the scramble into the attic. He found roof boards rotted as well and quietly pulled several aside. He could see a large tree branch extending over the roof.
They didn’t waste any time. In short order Tim and the professor reached the roof and scrambled down the trunk of the large Oak tree that fortunately was there. They both got some bruises and scrapes, but that didn’t slow them a bit.
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About the Book
Have you ever been slowed or stalled in traffic and wished you could simply pull back on your steering wheel and have your car soar up and away, free and easy, leaving all the hassle behind ?
That’s just what Professor Terwilliger and Tim do when they get trapped in traffic on Interstate 80 south of Chicago!
Join them as they experience adventure and travel first in the Sun Car and later in an adaptation of the Sun Car known as the Skimmer. Building on the brilliant scientific breakthroughs of Professor Terwilliger, he and Tim take the first truly efficient electrically powered car, the Sun Car, on what they call the Grand Tour in 2001. However, there are those who are threatened by the new technology. They intervene and, to say the least, bring excitement to the story.
Then, four years later, backed by the formidable resources of Tim’s family and associates, and as a result of further scientific discovery, the professor and his protégé Tim Hale test drive the Skimmer, the first car to be powered successfully by an anti-gravity device.
Here is a story of creativity and adventure, of a future that might be, for teens and other young readers of all ages.
About the Author
Cal Patterson is a classic "snowbird"; summers in Michigan and winters in Florida. And, he now has time to turn to writing novels, a dream he has had for years.
Since his high school and college years, Cal has continued to write both professionally and for pleasure. In high school he won awards for excellence in writing and was editor of the school newspaper. While at the University of Michigan he worked on the Michigan Daily.
His career included three years in the Air Force, thirty in the telephone industry and ten as executive director of a private foundation. In the Air Force he was a pilot in an air refueling squadron of the Strategic Air Command. During his years in the telephone industry he worked for Northwestern Bell in Iowa and Michigan Bell in the Detroit area. He held a variety of management positions in operations and ultimately in public relations. He managed the employee and public information program at one time for Northwestern Bell in Iowa. And, one of the assignments in public relations with Michigan Bell was to manage the corporate contributions program. This led to the opportunity to retire from the telephone business and move to the McGregor Fund, a private foundation in Detroit.
He draws on his writing skills and this lifetime of experiences for the settings and circumstances that are included in the novel about Professor Terwilliger and Tim and the professor’s inventions, the "Sun Car" and the "Skimmer."