The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1909-08-12
Frank Otto, known as Perpetual
Motion 0tto," Sent to State
Asylum at Mendoza
SCHEME OF A LIFE TIME GONE
Otto Has Lost His Mind Striving to
Solve the Problem That Has
Bothered the Scientists of
the Ages

A little old man, bent and gray
stood before Judge Randall in the
Municipal Court on Friday and was
committed to the state hospital FOR
1 the insane at Mendoza On the
records of the court the man appeared
simply as Frank Otto, but this told lit
tie of the story of the life of the nan
which found a pathetic enaing in the
insanity court. Otto will probably
spend the rest of his life in the asy-
lums of the state as while he is not
violently insane his mind is shattered
and the physicians who examined him
feel that he will never be himself
again. Frank Otto should have been
placed on the books of the court as
Perpetual Notion Otto and then
the fact that he had been adjudicatcd
tof unsound mind would have been of
greater interest to the people of the
county.
+ Otto has been for years one of the
strangest men living in Kenosha coun-
ty and he has spent more than score
Of years in an effort to perfect ma
chine which would develop perpetual
motion. Men have laughed at Otto,
but the old man kept at his work try
ing to solve the problem which had
bothered the minds of scientists for
centuries. There was never more
ardent student of mechanics than Otto
and even on his way to the asylum he
laid plans to have the relics of his
old machine shipped to Mendoza in
order that he might continue his work.
1t is probable that the attendants at
the asylum will humor the harmless
old man and grant him. this request
Otto was for years a prosperous
farmer in the town of Paris. For
years he titled the soil and was re-
garded as well to do. More than
twenty years ago, however, he began
work on his perpetual motion machine.
In short time he got so interested
in his problem that he sold his farm
and the proceeds of the farm went to
pay the expenses of his experimenting
Ten years ago he declared that he had
solved the problem and then he
brought the machine to Kenosha and
closely guarding the secret of it's opera
ton he started it going in a building
on Park street. Then he began to
sell shares in his invention and not a
few people in Kenosha have little SOU
venirs of this effort to raise more
money with which Otto was to continue
his work. The machine about this
time stopped running and the old man
was SO discouraged that he took an
AK and broke it up, but within week
he had started work on new model.
He left Kenosha and went out into
the town of Somers where he got lit
tie shop and started work again and
built new machine from the ground
up. During this time he was making
his home with James Nelson az Som
mers. The second machine was never
completed for while the old man was
at work he began to lose his mind and
for many months he has been a care
TO the people with whom he made his
home. His childishness finally made
him a nuisance to the people who cared
for him and they decided that it would
be better for all concerned for, him to
be sent to the state institution. Many
people still believe in Otto and believe
that he was working along the right
I line to secure machine which would
| develop a motion that would defy the
laws of gravitation and friction, but
be this as it may, it is certain now
that the shattered mind of the old
man will never permit him to finish
his work. He is now seventy five
years of age and so broken that the
physicians fear that he will live but
a short time.