Omaha daily bee., 1910-03-13
Some Things You Want to Know
Perpetual Motion

lance the mechanism thew itself into gear
again In the same way. In this particular
It acted much like the automatically oper-
ated thermometers which regulate the heat
in big office buildings.
The clock was so arranged that the power
stored through the winding up Of the
weights would last a full year. even n all
that time there were not a single fluctua-
ton OF the barometer. The Cox clock was
carried from London to China as a present
to the emperor. on the trip It was slightly
injured and when taken to the clock re-
pairer 1t was found that the willy Chinese
prime minister had substituted a cheap
imitation for it-probably with the idea
Of gaining imperial favor by presenting II
to the emperor himself. What became Of
II has never been known. but some think
that even now It is measuring time in the
imperial palace of Picking.
A French engineer has invented a ma
chine that gives perpetual motion OF a
kind. though Il is confessed that IL can
never by more than a curiosity. It con-
sists Of a disk with a hole Of considerable
size through its center, to allow an axis OF
wood or iron TO pass through without
touching the disk itself. This disk is main
tanned in a perpendicular position with re-
spect to the axis by twelve or fifteen
strings of hemp passing over its rim like
the strings over the bridge of a violin.
The end OF the axis pivot upon pointed
spindles to overcome friction as much as
possible, and the strings are tied TO the
supports of the spindles. The lower part
of the disk is submerged in water, and the
absorption keeps the disk turning at the
rate of one revolution every ten OF twelve
minutes.
A few years Sago a popular method OF
extracting money from the pockets OF
gullible persons was that Of exploiting
stock in a fake power multiplying en-
CINE" 1t was claimed that by a certain
piece of mechanism the power at the
cylinder Of an engine could be multiplied
three times at the driving shaft. A shop
was rugged up in New York and an ostensl-
bly, practical demonstration made of It.
This consisted in having two cylinders OF
equal size, one driving an ordinary engine
mechanism and the other the power
m%ultiplier." 1t v, 'narently shown thai
the 'multiplier' It a weight three
times as large as .,rcr engine. II
was reasoned by engineers that II one
horse power at the cylinder would de-
velop three at the crank end, It was OBJ
NlOuS tllAl II WOuiu HlGal pei pSAuhA AiObOha
II this reasoning had been logical they
could nave hitched the engine to a motor
and gotten two-horse power for nothing,
but It proved to be merely a scheme to
multiply dollars in the pockets of the pro.
moters.
Another interesting perpetual motion ma
chine was produced in Philadelphia, after
the expenditure of $4,000 and ten years OF
labor. 1t consisted OF a long shaft mount
ing four fly wheels loose. These wheels
were so arranged that three Of them were
being speeded to a high momentum, while
the fourth was driving the shaft through
o~ne-quarter of a revolution, with the supply
of momentum that had been given 1t by
the same process. They reasoned out it:
success In the following way: Imagine g
fiy-wheel, such as is used on an ordinary
~1,OO-horse power engine, mounted freely