The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-06-06
PERPETUAL MOTION.
Ingenuity That Has Been Wasted
Upon This DeIusive Problem.

From the London Globe.
For many centuries past the problem Of
perpetual motion has been the bugbear of
busy brains. and the names of the invent
ors who have tried their hands at the
the elixir vitae, the Communication of the
baser metals into the noble, and the quad
nature of the circle, perpetual motion, Is
"a subject eminently suitable for consti-
tutional wanderers and half-learned me-
chanics. All the would-b6 inventors of
this easily demonstrated impossibility,
however, have not been half-learhed by
any means. Witness that famous poet,
sculptor, and general genius, Leonardo da
Vinci The British Museum contains a
rough sketch from the painter of the Last
supper of a perpetual motion machine, ar
ranged as the majority of them are, on
the principle of hinged weights round the
periphery of a wheel
Arkwrlght again was certainly not a
fool nor a healf-learned mechanic, but
he believed In the possibility of perpetual
motion and made several models of his
ideas-which, II Is almost needless to state,
failed to Worthwhile Sir Christopher
Wren took out patent for a similar ma
chine. But perpetual motion was invent
ed before the time of Christopher Wren
or even Leonardo da Vinci That Is the
subject, not the fact, was invented. The
earliest known example was in the thir-
teenth century. Wllars de Honecort, a
Flemish artist and architect, who died
at Paris in the year 1890, was responsible
for 1t. There is in the Imperial library
in Paris a big quarto sketch-book which
once belonged to this gentleman, and
which contains, among various sketches
of landscapes, buildings and decorations, a
sketch of a perpetual motion machine,
with the note: MANY people have for a
long time past tried to produce a machine
which go of its own accord and continue
to go until 1t Is stopped-here is such a
machine, which, with movable mallets ar
ranged round a wheel, will go forever
The machine itself is of the pattern that
has recommended itself to the majority
of experimentation cranks. 1t is merely
a wheel hung on an axle. and has ar
ranged around its periphery several mall
let's at equal distances from each other, in
such a way that the weight shall always
be on one side, and so keep pulling the
wheel over. It's only fault was that the
weights did not act as de-
street.-The machine looked very
well on paper, but was good
illustration of the definition once given Of
a theory: that it Is ian imprac ticable
method Of doing that which is impossible"
In 100 a gentleman Of the name Of Orffy-
rus claimed to have invented a perpetual
motion machine The Landgrave Of Hesse
Cassel believed In the invention, IL appears
and granted him the Castle OF Weissenstein
as a residence while he built his contri-
vance. This, when 1t was finished, resem-
bled in shape gigantic cheese, twelve feet
across and two and a half feet thick. 1t
was hung upon an axle eight feet long
and eight inches In diameter, and was set
into solid oak frame. When the whole
was ready the Landgrave came to see It,
and IL was set going. Then the room was
sealed up, and the Landgrave returned in
eight weeks, the room was opened, and
the machine found to he stin
going. Thereupon the Landgrave de-
clared that Orfyrus had invented perpet-
ual motion, for had he not seen the proof
thereof with his own eyesl But this evil
dence was not sufficient for professor Of
philosophy at Berlin. lie came to see the
machine, and asked It's inventor 50 many
awkward questions that Ornyrus refused
TO let him examine IL. The professor pub
lished his report upon the machine and
said that he could not say where the fraud
precisely lay, because he was not permit
ted to examine the invention closely This
report so angered poor Orfyrus that he
took his machine TO pieces and never set
II up again, and when he died. In l7i5,
his secret OF perpetual motion-if he pos
sessed it--died with him.
II Is not, we believer, very far from the
truth 10 state that every individual who
has had 70 do with machinery or mechan-
les has given at least a passing thought
20 the solution OF perpetual motion. We
do not mean 10 say that he has actually
given up his mind to u at any period OF
his life, but only that he has wondered N
such and such an arrangement would act
After all, " Is not TO be marveled AZ n
everybody has, for the subject Is a par
ticularly fascinating one, and almost ev-