The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1898-03-30

For many centuries past the prob
lem of perpetual motion has been the
bugbear Of busy brains. and the invcn-
tors who have tried their hands at the
subject is legion. Like the search af-
ter the clixer yit;c, the transmutation
Of the baScr metals into the noblcr,
and the quadraturc Of the circle. per-
pctual motion is a subject %cmincntly
suitable for constitutional wondcrcrs
and alf-lcarncd mechanics.
All the would-be inventors Of this
early demonstrated impossibility,
however, have not been half-lcarncd
ov any means. Witness that famous
poet. sculptor and general genius,
Leonardo da Ninci. The British Mu-
scum contains a rough sketch from the
painter Of the LAST SUPPER Of a
perpetual motion machine. arranged
as the majority Of them arc, on the
principle Of hinged weights round the
periphery Of a wheel.
Arkwright, again, was certainly not
a fool nor a half-learned machinist,
but he believed in the possibility Of
perpetual motion and made several
models Of his ideas-which, it is al
most needless to state, failed to work
while Sir Christopher Wren took out
a patent for a similar machine. But
perpetual motion was invented before
the time Of Christopher Wren, or
eve Leonardo da Finci; that is, the
subject, not the fact, was invented.
The earliest known example was in
the thirteenth century.
Wilars dc Honecort, a Flemish ar
tist and architect, who died at Paris
in the year 1890, was responsible for
it. There is, in the Imperial Library
III Paris, a big Iuarto sketch book
which once belonged to this gentle
man: and which contains, among vari-
Gus sketches Of landscapes, buildings
n decorations, Il sketch Of a pcrpct-
ual motion machine, with the note:
MANY people have for a long time
past tried to produce a machine which
will go Of its own accord and continue
to go until it is stopped. Here is
such Il machine, which, with movable
m%allcts arranged round a wheel, will
go forever
The machine itself is Of the pattern
that has recommended itself to the
majority of perpetual motion cranks.
1t is merely a wheel hung on an axle,
and has arranged around its periphery
several mallcts 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 desired-the
machine looked very we'll on paper,
but was a good illustration Of the def
milton once given Of a theory, that it
is "an impracticable method Of doing
that which is impossible"
In 1900 q gentleman Of the lame of
Orffyrus claimed to have invented q
perpetual motion machine. The Land
grave of Hessc Casscl believed in the
invention, it appears, and granted him
the castle Of W~eisscnstein as a resi-
dencc while he built his contrivance.
This, when it was finished, resembled
in shape n gigantic cheese, twelve feet
across and two and a half feet thick.
|: was huis Upon IN axle cigint feet
long and eight inches in diameter, and
was set into a solid oak frame. When
the whole vas ready the L~andgravc
came to see it, and it 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 be still going.
Thercupon the Landgrave declared
that Orffyrus had invented perpetual
motion, for had he not seen the proof
thereof with his own eyes! But this
evidence was not sufficient for a pro-
fcssor ct philosophy ut Berlin. lie
came to see the machine, and asked
It's inventor so many awkward Dues
tons that Ortfyrus refused 20 let him
examine it. The professor published
his report upon the machine, and said
that he could not say where the fraud
precisely lay, because he was not per
mitted to examine his invention close
iy. This report SO angcrcd poor orr
fyrus that he took his machine to
pieces and never sat it ur again, and
when he died, in l745, his secret Of
perpetual motion-if he possessed it
died with him.
1t is not, we believe, very far from
the truth TO state that every individu.