The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-03-30
PERPETUAL MOTION.
Ingenuity That Has Been Wasted Upon
This Delusive Problem.
From the London Standard.


netism and electricity have played i'm
portant parts in the straining after
perpetual motion.
A curious machine was invented IN
America some time since. 1t acted,
or, rather, should have acted, by
capillary attraction. A piece OF
cloth, endless, like an ordinary roller
towel, was so arranged that one side
of it could take up water from a
trough. This would cause the cloth
to shrink, and so pull up the piece at
the bottom. causing continuous mo-
tion, claimed the inventor. It didn't.
Another curious machine was built as
follows: An endless pipe in the shape
Of an oval was stood erect on one side,
and one-half Of it was filled with wa
ter, the other half being empty. Then
oalls, heavier than air, but lighter
than water, were dropped through the
part only occupied by air, and popped
through a>valve at the bottom Of the
pipe, so entering the half Of the tube
occupied by water. Of course, they
rose by their OVID buoyancy, came
through another valve into the air
space: fell down, and repeated the op-
GRAFTON. There is great virtue in an
elf if, " according to high authority, but
there was the opposite of it in this in
stance. II the water in the tube had
had been obliging enough to stay in
its proper place the perpetual motion
would have been discovered, but the
water did not know its place, and so
the ingenious contrivauce was fail
ure.
A very simple arrangement was pat
ented in America in 1876. 1t con-
sisted Of pair of cones, hinged at
their apices inside. The patentee
proposed to run it on rails inclined to
each other. There was a space be-
tween the two cones for freight and
passengers, and the principle upon
which the car so formed was to run
was based upon the fact that if two
cones be placed upon planes inclined
to each other (the rails in this CASEY
their bases will tend to come together.
Gamgee's perpetual motion machine,
which was patented few years ago,
was very clever arrangement, worked
by the alternate compression of air
and water. 1t really did work for ten
hours at a stretch-that is, it ran, but
did not work, and would have been
perfect but for one little thing. That
triAe was the complete elimination of
friction. However, the machine was
success in one way, for patent
valve arrangement, which was part
of it, was sold by the inventor for the
respectable sum Of 100000.
Scientists have for long time past
recognized the impossibility of per-
petual motion. About a hundred
years ago the Academic Royale des
Sciences, at Paris, passed resolu-
tion that they would no longer enter
tain letters upon this subject, and
they included with it the quadrature Of
the circle, the trisection Of the arc,
and the duplication Of the cube. But
in spite of this there were taken out
in England and France during the ten
years ending 1870 no less than 119
patents for perpetual motion. 1t is
hardly to be expected that the cheva-
lier d'industrie should keep his tai
ents clear from perpetual motion, and
so numerous swindles have been per-
petuated with reference to it. One Of
them was discovered in 1916 by a
famous engineer in Paris. The ex-
hibitor had his machine upon table
on a bare stage, but the practiced ear
of the engineer detected the alter
nation of speed and slowness which is
invariably present when crank is
worked by hand. He and his COM
panion sprang upon the stage, and, in
spite Of the exhibitor, overturned the
table and found pair of wires run
ming down inside one Of its legs.
These, on being followed, we're found
to stretch under the stage and out to a
back yard, where perpetual motion in
persona was holding piece of bread
in one hand and turning crank with
the other.
Firm Resolution.