He still had a difficult time believing it was finally over... fifteen years of his life dedicated to the memory of his great grandfather and the pursuit of justice for his estate. The media stopped paying attention years ago and even his close friends had distanced themselves after too many warnings that his single-mindedness would be his undoing. Ultimately, it was the discovery of an obscure subsection of the 1946 Federal Tort Claims Act that turned the tables and paved the way for this very favorable judgment. The testimonies given by the University of Illinois at Chicago Professors of Economics and ‘Measuring Worth’ cofounders were the final nails in the coffin of the opposition. The two professors expertise in monetary history effectively illustrated the financial loss caused by the denial of the application to renew Patent No.9428X in 1850 and the failure of Congress to pay W. A. Burk $300 for the right to his invention. The historic opportunity, labor, and economy cost analysis determined the current value of the patent and lost opportunity to be $1,770,000.00. That would certainly have been a big enough judgment to claim victory and end most of his worries. He did not expect the additional provision to reinstate the original patent No.9428X in his great grandfathers name or the approval of his own patent No.9428Y for his updated version of his great grandfather's solar compass.

William Austin Burt IV sat up in the dark. For just a moment, he did not recognize his surroundings. He rubbed his weary eyes with the palms of his hands and tried to read the time on the clock on his nightstand while muttering, "Why is it always the same dream...".