Patent Pending

"Patent Pending" is a science fiction short story by English writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1954. It was also published as "The Invention". It later appeared in his collection Tales from the White Hart. "Patent Pending" is a frame story, purporting to recount a scientific tall tale told by a certain Harry Purvis at the (fictional) "White Hart" pub in London sometime in the 1950s, during a discussion of literary censorship (at the expense of the censors).