The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1890-11-07
AT THE PATENT OFFICE.
Perpetual Motion Cranks are Nu-
merous Among the Visitors

A few wcoks sgo, - white-heaied
gray-bcardcd old man appeared at the
front-door OF the White House, with q
little pine box under his arm He Sp-
preached Colonel Dinsmore, the giant
like guard who presidcs over tho vcsti-
bulc and asked 70 soc the President
What is your name and what do
You want 20 see him fOr?" asked the
Colonel
Whorcupon the old man, pointing 20
his box, said that he had discovered the
secret OF perpetual motion, and he
wanted 70 show il 70 President Uarri-
son. Colonel Dinsmore told him that
he had better take his invention 20
the Patcnt Ohlcc, and tho old man
started OF down Pennsylvania avenue.
1t is estimated that At least ten thou
sand American citizcns arc export
mcnting to-day upon plzn OF prodUc-
ing perpetual motion These ton thou
sand arc scattered throughout the
United States, and several Of them find
their way, each week, % the Patent
OBcc at Washington some OF them
arc insane, others arc full OF common
sense on every other subject but this,
and all arc LisruEtad when they find
that thc Patent OMco demands q work
iuE-mOdCl Of their machines such q
model has never bccn produced, and,
however attractive the scheme may ap-
pear on paper, all such invention must
necessarily fail when they come 10 this
tcst
Not long aro an Associated Press dis
patch vas published IN nearly every
daily newspaper IN tho United states
SEATING that an Ohio man had ~ last
PRODUCED such an invention, and few
weeks ago q furuiture-cArvCr Ia IAltl-
moro claimed he had made the dis
c0vcry. His machine was SGT OF IL
most ucrfcctly-balaucc weights con-
nectcd with Ieadcu ball which, roll
ing up ono gutter and down another,
produced a power which operated the
machine FOR a time, but which was, OF
course, lost as soon as friction began TO
act upon it. His idea he considered
new, but IL is the same that one Of the
Hrahmius Of India conceived three
thousand years ago and described in the
Vcdas. Il is much the same Is that OF
an Italian inventor who in lG5S had a
/ hollow wheel with weights attached 20
| itwhich fell down as the wheel passed
/ central point and were expected %
/ close up 70 tho wheel as IL went on
/ around, thus apparently making the
/ Ncirht on tho descending side OF the
/ wheel greatly exceed that on the as
/ ccnding The Marquis OF Worcester,
| who had much TO do with invcntin2
] q steam engine, got up hollow wheel
fitted with cannon balls and having
| curbcd spouts. The idea was that the
] balls would run TO the rim OF the wheel
on the falling side, set it in motion and
then run back 20 the center as II turned
on. a practical model, however, showed
that the greater part OF the balls soon
rot to the outer edge OF tho wheel, and
the motion stopped
About a hundred years ago, Con
I nccticut Yankee, named Harris Ran
som, asked the General Assembly oi
that State FOR q monopoly OF his discov
ory OF tho art or mystery OF making
perpetual motion Of water, whereby ht
| is able and can raise the water from any
river, pond, spring or fountain to the
height OF thirty feet perpendicular, and
convey the same 10 any parks Of any
towns or cities, or return the same u
tho original fountain or head, which
said performance will DO OF great ad
vantage, not only to the petitioner, bu
TO tho public in general, by affordinl
them at all times good and wholesome
water at very trifing expense"
Eight men signed this petition, but a
there is no perpetual water-machin'
running to-day, IL is evident that Ran
som made nothing outof II,
Three years before the Declaration o
Independence, John Shipman applied
for q patent on mills 20 be run by the
ebb and how OF the tide, and got mo
nopoly for forty years to run his tide
mills anywhere in the town OF Say
brook. benjamin HaUks, of Litchleld
n Conn, claimed that he had invented
clock that wound itself up with the mo
tion Of the air. ard that would continue
TO do SO without any other aid OF assist
auce until its parts were worn out Thi:
was generations ago, AID If an air-clOcl
ever existed, we find no record of IL 20
day. a Mr.. Jennings, of New York, ha:
constructed more than ninety model:
I worked on more than sixty different
| principles in his attempts 20 invent per
| pctual motion. Ho has been working
on IL for thirty-one years, has spent for
| ty thousand dollars, and now thinks hC
has succeeded. He has not however,
patented his invention, and the leading
examiner Of tho motor section Of the
| Patent Office believes that there is no
! danger that he ever will
I'VE have said the examiner, ''hun-
dreds OF applications for patents, but
! these are based on descriptions and
| specifications, and not on working
machines In more than two decades
] vgl have nat r.rafNaT 4uv rl.F no 1fIre q,