The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1903-11-28
HAD RIDDLE SOLVED
SAD FATE OF INVENTOR OF PER
~ PETUHL MOTION
Fifty Years Ago the Idea Was Shown
to Be Feasible, but the Wise Men OF
the Day Scoffed-And Humanity's
Senefactcr Died.

Il there be any one negative propo-
sition in mechanics that is held to be
undeniab1e by the entire scientific
world, it is. that it is not possible to
construct perpetual motion machine.
And by perpetual motion machine,
taking it in it's simplest form, is meant
n piece of mechanism which will re-
main indefinitely in continual motion
solely by the action of the attraction
Of grayitation.
Nevertheless no less a person than
Mr.. David M. Stone, who was for
many years the editor of the Journal
of Commerce, and whose personal
character has always been above sus.
picion, is the authority for the posi-
tive statement that he had in his pos
session for several weeks, about fifty
years ago, a machine of precisely that
sort. He declared that the files OF
the Journal Of Commerce OF about
1852 contained a full account OF the
machine. but these files were de-
stroyed by fire, and he told the story
from memory. However," he de-
L
iy
about 1852 an old man, perhaps 80
years old, brought the machine to my
office to show to me. 1t was con-
structed about like this. l think there
we're six OF the hollow arms. In each
one was little ball The arms were
not rigidly fixed, but had little play.
AS the cylinder .revolved the balls
rolled. Thus, the balls in the arms
On the right were always an inch or
SO further from the center than those
on the left and they counterbalanced
the weight OF the arms themselves.
tho whole machine was: always, there
fore, heavier on the right than on the
left, and SO it always ,revolved. l
think there was also a spring in each
arm that helped the reaction of the
ball, but [ cannot recollect the ar
rangement of the springs.
Then there was a pendulum that
was geared to regulate the speed. If
that was disconnected the machine
went faster and faster till the centri-
fugal force kept all the little balls at
one spot, and then it would go slower
and slower till it stopped. I tried that
once, and started it again with my
1nger.
-'Wela, ] 'kept that machine in my
Office for several weeks, under my
own private lock, to make sure that
there was no trick about it, and it
went right along. The Journal of
Commerce printed an account Of it,
and was ridiculed numerically in con-
sequence, but the machine kept right
on going.
Then the. old man exhibited it at
fair in New Jersey, charging a small
entrance fee, and some local scien-
tific men-i think one of them was a
Princeton professor-had him arrest
ed for taking money under false pre-
lenses. He was arraigned and the
justice OF the peace asked him what
defense he had, and the: old man said
his only defense was that the ma
chine did what he claimed. The JUS
tice was angry and asked him how
he dared say that when these eminent
gentlemen swore there must be a
spring in it or it wouldn't go.
And the old man said: 7 have
worked at it for forty years, and
there is 10 spring in it, and it does
go
$50 they got an AK and chopped it
UP, and there was great silence, for
there was no spring. And the old man
picked up the fragments and went
away with the tears rolling down his
face And he died soon after. New
Work Herald