I think I've been confusing in my expressions. The most recent activity was to update/upgrade from 1.0 to 1.0.1 and I've not had 023 ever. When I discovered NewPing, I felt it was an easier library to use and to understand than my limited experience with ultrasonic.h library.
The demo code was uploaded and the serial monitor displays one line of non-zero distance then displays continuing zero distance figures, regardless of real world conditions. I suspect the non-zero distance is an anomaly. If I press the reset button on the Uno, the serial monitor displays non-zero distance figures.
I'm going to load the code later today that uses the ultrasonic.h library to see if the results are the same. I'm suspecting that the device is at fault, as you suggested.