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        This is  a  story  from a book called FOIBLES AND FALLACIES OF
               SCIENCE, written by Mr.Daniel Hering in 1924.

    History relates several types of  perpetual  motion machines.  The
    inventor's motives range from the ideal of pure  invention  to  an
    attempt to defraud the public. Perpetual motion machines have been
    traced back for several hundred years.

    As of this  date  there  has  been  no  known account of a working
    perpetual motion machine which can  be  built  and demonstrated by
    anyone other than  the  inventor.  Although, we  have  heard  many
    claims, we have  yet  to  see a working model.  This does not rule
    out the possibility  that  one   could   actually   be   made  and
    practically demonstrated.

    The U.S.Patent Office  receives about one hundred  applications  a
    year on perpetual motion machines but they are usually rejected by
    the office, without research into their workability.

    The keywords which bring about the rejection are perpetual motion.

                                       contributed by Ron Barker

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                         THE REDHEFFER FIASCO

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         One American  invention  played  a  conspicuous  if  not very
    creditable part among perpetual  motion  machines.  This  was  the
    invention of Charles Redheffer who exhibited it in Philadelphia in
    1812 and 1813.  Although it continued in operation  apparently  as
    long as its  maker  desired, it was perhaps not inherently more or
    less plausible than some others but it became une cause celebre.

         There were two circumstances  connected  with it that gave it
    celebrity, and entitle it to special notice: It created so much of
    a furore that  the  legislature of Pennsylvania thought  it  worth
    while to appoint  a  commission.  This was a dignity to which such
    machines rarely attained.   The   other   circumstance   was   the
    exceedingly clever way  in which the fraudulent character  of  the
    machine was twice  detected;  once, by the eye, trained to observe
    the niceties of mechanical action;  and  once, by the ear, skilled
    to detect any peculiarity in the sound of moving  machinery. At an
    appointed time the  commission  visited  the  house  in  which the
    machine was exhibited,  on the Schuykill  near  Philadelphia,  but
    arrived there only to find the house locked and the key missing.

         They did not get the opportunity to examine  the  machine and
    could only inspect it through a barred window. They saw a vertical
    shaft carrying a horizontal disc on which two inclined planes bore
    weighted cars that  descended  and  rose  at certain points in the
    rotation of the disc. This action of the planes and cars drove the
    shaft and disc which, in its turn,  propelled  further  mechanism.
    The horizontal disc  was a spur wheel and the teeth  in  its  edge
    engaged with those  of  a  smaller wheel and so, ostensibly, drove
    the rest of the machinery.

         One of the visiting commissioners,  Mr.  Nathan Sellers, took
    with him his  young  son,  Coleman Sellers, who was  a  mechanical
    genius, and was  keenly  interested  in  the whole affair.   Young
    Sellers saw something that escaped  the  others; his attention was
    caught by the  appearance  of the cogs in these two  wheels.  They
    were not much worn, only smoothed a little, but what little effect
    of rubbing together  they  did  show  was on the wrong side of the
    cogs!

         The faces of the cogs that will  show wear depends upon which
    wheel is driving the other and, in this instance,  the small wheel
    proved to be  driving  the  larger.  If the fact is the reverse of
    this, as it was represented to be,  then to the mechanic whose eye
    detects this discrepancy,  such  a  machine  would  appear  to  be
    running backwards. Although  the  source  of  propulsion  was  not
    discovered the deception was unmistakable.   After  returning home
    the young man told his father what he had discovered;  the  latter
    then employed a  skilful  mechanic to make a small model just like
    the Redheffer machine,  but propelled  by  a  clockwork  mechanism
    concealed in an  ornamental  post  of  the  framework.  This  mode
    exactly duplicated the  behavior  of  the  larger  machine, to the
    astonishment and mystification   of   Redheffer  himself  to  whom
    Sellers showed it.

         Conscious of his own trickery he was scared  by the idea that
    another had actually   achieved  what  he  pretended  to  do,  and
    proposed to buy out young Sellers,  offering  him a handsome share
    in the profits to be derived from the machine.

            (See Article on the Redheffer Perpetual Motion Machine, by
             Henry Morton,  in the Journal of the Franklin  Institute,
             Vol.  139, 1895, p.246.)

         An exposure  like  this  which  did  not  actually reveal the
    secret of the machine was not sufficient  to check the interest of
    those who wanted  to  believe  in  it,  and  the exhibitions  were
    continued. In 1813,  soon  after  the fiasco in Philadelphia, this
    same machine or a duplicate of it  was placed on exhibition in New
    York, where it was to meet its second reverse, The  sequel is well
    told by Mr. C. D. Colden in his Life of Robert Fulton.

         " One  of these perpetual motions," says Mr. Colden, speaking
           of the Redheffer machine,  "commenced  its  career  in this
           city" (New York), "in eighteen hundred and  thirteen.   Mr.
           Fulton was  a  perfect unbeliever in Redheffer's discovery,
           and although hundreds were daily paying their dollar to see
           the wonder, Mr.  Fulton could  not  be  prevailed  upon for
           some time to follow the crowd. After a few  days,  however,
           he was induced by some of his friends to visit the machine.
           It was in an isolated house in the suburbs of the city.

         " In  a very short time after Mr. Fulton had entered the room
           in which it was exhibited,  he  exclaimed,  `why, this is a
           crank motion.' His ear enabled him to distinguish  that the
           machine was moved by a crank, which always gives an unequal
           power, and  therefore  an unequal velocity in the course of
           each revolution; and a nice  and practised ear may perceive
           that the sound is not uniform. If the machine had been kept
           in motion by what was its ostensible moving  power, it must
           have had an equable rotary motion, and the sound would have
           been always the same.

         " After  some  little  conversation  with  the  showman,  Mr.
           Fulton did not hesitate to declare, that the machine was an
           imposition, and  to tell  the  gentleman  that  he  was  an
           impostor.

         " Notwithstanding the anger and bluster which  these  charges
           excited, he assured the company that the thing was a cheat,
           and that if they would support him in the attempt, he would
           detect it at the risk of paying any penalty if he failed.

         " Having  obtained  the  assent  of  all who were present, he
           began by knocking away some  very  thin  little  pieces  of
           lath, which appeared to be no part of the machinery, but to
           go from the frame of the machine to the wall  of  the room,
           merely to keep the corner posts of the machine steady.

         " It  was  found  that a catgut string was led through one of
           these laths and the frame of he machine, to the head of the
           upright shaft of a principal  wheel:  that  the  catgut was
           conducted through  the wall, and along the  floors  of  the
           second story  to a back cockloft, at a distance of a number
           of yards from the room which  contained  the  machine,  and
           there was  found the moving power.  This  was  a  poor  old
           wretch, with  an  immense  beard  and all the appearance of
           having suffered a long imprisonment; who when they broke in
           upon him, was unconscious  of  what had happened below, and
           who, while he was seated on a stool, gnawing  a  crust, was
           with one hand turning a crank.

         " The  proprietor  of  the perpetual motion soon disappeared.
           The mob demolished his machine,  the  destruction  of which
           immediately put a stop to that which had been,  for so long
           a time, and to so much profit, exhibited in Philadelphia!"

         Besides the  numberless variations in the methods of applying
    the principles of mechanics to secure  a return of more power than
    is expended to secure a return of more power than  is  expended on
    the machine, consciously   or   unconsciously  the  principles  of
    thermodynamics were invoked by inventors for the same purpose. The
    fallacy was the  same.  Only two  generalizations  are  needed  to
    comprise all known principles of heat in connection with work, and
    these are called the two laws of thermodynamics.  They  are to the
    effect that (1)  a definite amount of heat has an exact equivalent
    in a definite amount of mechanical  work,  and either of these can
    be transformed into the other; (2) if by any means  we  cause heat
    to be transferred from some outside source; no self-acting machine
    will do it of itself.

         While the first of these laws is universally and unreservedly
    accepted, the second  has  always  been  a  subject of dispute and
    still is so.  The desire to get  something  for  nothing  and  the
    belief in the possibility of dong so are too strong  to yield to a
    dictum the demolition   of   which   would  seem  to  assure  this
    possibility. To disprove a law by  a  process  of reasoning is one
    thing, to violate it by a process of action is another.  In theory
    the law has  been controverted repeatedly, and disproved, at least
    in the opinion  of  the controverts,  and  if  it  could  only  be
    violated in practice the perpetual motion could be  obtained ; the
    " working model   "   demanded  by  the  Patent  Office  might  be
    forthcoming.


                                     Submitted by: Ronald Barker,
                                                 Vangard Sciences