The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1922-01-25
Michigan Blacksmith Nearly Realizes
Dream of Ancients, Only to Waken
When Perpetual Motion is a Fizzle

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There are still two or three prob
lens in the world which have baffled
science. One of them in the prob,
lem of transmitting the baser metals
into GOLD. Another is perpetual mo-
ton; that is some sort Of device
which m ght keep running until its
parts are worn out, without the ne
cessity of attaching it to motor OF
steam power outfit or winding it up
like clock.
Science has been working on the
metal problem since the days of the
earliest alchefists, and is still up
against brick wall so far as find
ing an answer goes, although some
encouragement was given when sci
ence found it possible to manufac-
ture small diamonds with the aid Of
the electric furnace.
But the other problem-that of
perpetual motion-practically has
been given up as a bad job, and so
impossible GOES the problem seem of
so,ut.on that the United States Pa.
tent Office will not monkey with a
device calculated to do the work of
steam without the aid of steam.
Yet there was a time when the
Patent Office was flooded with appli-
cations for patent on perpetual mo-
ton devices, the only drawback of
these devices being that they wouk.-
MT work.
And one of the men who invent
ed" perpetual motion and succeeded
in putting together an intricate
piece of machinery which worked so
well and whose wheels flew around
so rapidly that the whole machine
flew to pieces, was a Michigan man
blacksmith living Gown in Van
Buren, county.
William Taylor was his name and
he was one of the best blacksmiths
in that part of Michigan in which
Antwerptownship, his home, was To-
Gated. And sthe device long sought
by inventors, for it worked in the
manner in (which he expected it to
operate, and perhaps little better.
Like Rome, Taylor's perpetual mo-
ton. machine wasn't built in day,
but like the wonderful one boss shay
celebrated in poetry, it just natur-
ally crumpled up and disintegrated
all at once, with each part taking
leave of its neighbor and heading in
"a d fferent direction.
Taylor, with his wife and IL chill
dren, came to Michigan from Ohio
in 1886, his brother-in-law, Reason
Holmes, being resident of the Sec
ton and having ntuced Taylor to
make the trip.
Taylor cleared small territory
out of the virgin foresf and built
himself a home neafwi6ch herset
up a blacksmith shop Business was
good from the start, for there were
many tools to be sharpened, wagons
to be repaired and horses to be shod
and blacksmiths were few, much of
his trade coming from a distance.
But Taylor, although good
blacksmith, was little more than
that, for he was keenly interested in
machinery which, in that day, was
a rather scarce article. He read
such books he could get and the
idea of perpetual motion took the
biggest hold on his mind.
Taylor did considerable reading,
although in his day books were few
and far between, but he gathered all
the information on machinery he
could get hold of, and it wasn't long
before he began fuss ing over queer
looking cog wheels, levers, weights
and balances in his shop. His black.
smithing didn't suffer, for the great
est needs of the pioneers of the sec
ton in which he lived were tools and
wagons and Taylor did the work for
a large territory.
Finally Taylor had his mach ne
nearly completed, and prepared to
apply for a patent, taking up the
matter with ona Of the neighbors
who did little law business in con-
nection with his farming.
Then came what was almost a
body bloy, for entering his shop one
morning, the blacksmith was dumb
founded to find the device gone. The
alarm was given, but officers could
find no trace of the machine.