The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1896-12-26
CAN RUN OF ITSELF.
MAINE YANKEE HAS A MACHINE THAT
APPROACHES PERPETUAL MOTION.

IL Certainly Has Amazing Power-Basi
ness Men Of Portland Interested In the
Invention - Rehr's Machine Works by
Compressed Air 1t Furnishes OF ItseIf.
An engine which supplies it's own
power, which will turn the wheels of
Industry without the turning Of All
ounce OF fuel or the cost of a penny for
its work, mach \ which will run as
long as its parts y stay together, and
which the longer it runs the more pow
erful ii becomes that il what William
A. Rohr of Portland, Me-, claims to
have discovered and what hundreds Of
bright men in New England say they
know he can make.
Rohr came to Portland from Montreal
about three years ago. He brought with
him, besides a wife and child, the model
OF queer looking machine, which he
seemed to value more than he did his
better half or his offspring. As soon as
he had established himself in house
on quiet street he went to work ON his
machine. The neighbors soon began tc
tell queer stories about him, and rumors
ous machine which was located in his
house and which kept the neighbors
awake nights by its clanking' and rum
bling.
The result Of all this was that RohI
became disgusted with Portland and his
| inquisitive neighbors and moved to
Long Island, "a resort near Portland,
where he leased a small cottage and
continued to carry on his experiments.
| That he had some kind of an engine
that would run along undisturbed
whether he was in the house or not soon
became known. Crowds of curious peo-
| pie sought out the inventor Is retreat and
endeavored to find out something about
! tho machine, the noise of which could
be heard at some distance. But they
were kept away by huge dog, which
guarded the machine during Rohr's alb.
sence, and, though the, inventor would
60 away FROM home and be gone several
days at a time, the mysterious machine
would run on and on untiringly.
Rohr had. in fact, invented a machine
which in running supplied it's own power
and increased it constantly. About q
| year ago the inventor interested some Of
Portland's business men In his machine,
and, in return for partial interest in
it, they agreed to give him money
enough to build larger model. These
gentlemen thoroughly investigated the
machine before they put their money
| into IL. With skilled mechanicsand ex-
perts they visited Rohr's home at Long
Island and not only saw his machine
run, but took it all apart and studied
the principles on which it depends
They kept a man at RohrN house for
four days and four nights, and during
to run without interruption.
In all $5, 900 has been laid out ON this
machine so far, and big engine, capa-
BILE Of developing 30 horsepower, is now
being constructed at machine shop in
Portland. The wonderful engine is now
nearing completion, and in a few weeks
will be given public trial.
Rohr' s. machine depends ON compressed
air. combined with some simple mechan-
ical contrivances, for its power A large
iron air tank, about IL feet long, A feet
high and 8 feet wide, is the most i'm
| portant part of the machine. In this is
placed cylinder 90 inches in diameter,
the barrel of an ordinary air pump. This
pump forces air, sucked in from with
out the tank, into the tank itself. The
piston rod Of this pump is attached to
the crank shaft Of two large 200 pound
hywheels above. There is also large
4 nooxyhaal f1so hot svxkc
larger cogwheel, which is supported by
second shaft directly in the rear Of the
first one.
A largo sprocket wheel and chain,
similar to that seen on an ordinary bi-
cycle, connect this second shaft, with
its flywheels and large ,cogwheel, to a
small compressed air engine. Now,
when the big 1900 pound Aywheels
connected with the piston rod of the air
pump are pnt in motion by some outside
force, the air pump forces air into the
big iron tank, and this air is used to
run the auxiliary compressed air en-
gine. The momentum of the big fly-
wheels on the piston rod crank shaft
brings the piston rod up again for an
other impulse, and the auxiliary COM
pressed air engine, by the series of
sprocket wheels, chains and gearing,
gives the 900 pound nywheels a shove
around, and down goes the piston into
the air pump again, compressing moro
air and furnishing more power with
which to run the machine.
The air pump furnishes just three
times more air than is necessary to run
the auxiliarycompressed air engine. and
thus the machine is constantly laying
up power with which to run. New
| York Herald.
| Great Inducements