Bridgemaker has never had any trouble making money, but it’s a different vocation that he longs for, a vocation that was apparently widespread in the past, so he sends men from Timesearch, Inc., to find the secret that had to exist in the past.
Our field men have explored the Pre-Technological Age, the First Technological Age, and the early years of our own age; but even though they witnessed some of the ancient technicians at work, they never caught a glimpse of the machine.

Variants

(1)
  1. “Production Problem” by Robert F. Young, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1959.
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Robert F. Young