Are there rivers in Antarctica? Man on the Ice Continent - L.I.

Introduction........................................................ ........................................................ ........................................................ .................... 3

1. Historical attempts to create a perpetual motion machine.................................................... ... 4

2. Design of a perpetual motion machine.................................................... ........................................................ ..... 6

3. First projects of perpetual motion machines................................................... ............................................. 10

4. The paradox of the existence of a perpetual motion machine.................................................. 14

Conclusion................................................. ........................................................ ........................................................ ............. 16

List of used literature......................................................... ........................................... 17

Introduction

They often talk about “perpetual motion”, “perpetual motion” both in the literal and figurative sense of the word, but not everyone is aware of what, in fact, should be meant by this expression. A perpetual motion machine is an imaginary mechanism that continuously moves itself and, in addition, does some other useful work. No one has been able to build such a mechanism, although attempts to invent it have been made for a long time. The futility of these attempts led to the firm conviction of the impossibility of perpetual motion and to the establishment of the law of conservation of energy - a fundamental statement of modern science. As for perpetual motion, this expression means continuous movement without doing work.

From a psychological point of view, the idea of ​​perpetual motion has always been extremely tempting: after all, the practical implementation of an artificially created closed energy cycle would undoubtedly lead to an epoch-making revolution in science and technology with profound socio-economic consequences. In addition to denying the essence of modern physical theories this would mean that the constructed perpetual motion machine would be the world's first machine with an ideal working cycle. Its perfection and maximum operational efficiency would have a huge impact on the development of the world economy. Humanity would be freed forever from the fear of energy shortages that inexorably haunts it today. Thus, the development of such a real perpetual motion machine would eclipse all inventions and discoveries made so far.

1. Historical attempts to create a perpetual motion machine

If you believe historical documents, the ancient Greeks and Romans were indifferent to the idea of ​​a perpetual motion machine. The Romans had plenty of slaves, and the Greeks were too good at mechanics.

European mechanics were infected with the idea of ​​a perpetual motion machine from the Indians. In the 12th century, the Indian mathematician and astronomer Bhaskara “invented” the first famous history perpetual motion machine - a wheel around the circumference of which containers partially filled with mercury were attached at a certain angle. As the wheel rotated, mercury flowed from one end of the container to the other, forcing the wheel to make another revolution. It is obvious that Bhaskara borrowed the design of his perpetual motion machine from the famous circle of eternal recurrence and never attempted to build the device he described. Perhaps he did not even think about how real his design was - for Bhaskara it was just a convenient mathematical abstraction.

However, European mechanics who became familiar with Bhaskara's works accepted the successful design. One of them was Villard de Honnecourt (XIII century). During his life he did a lot of useful things, but he went down in history as another inventor of the perpetuum mobile. Its design almost completely repeated Bhaskara’s version, but along with the use of mercury, Honnecourt proposed another method. In his opinion, the effect of perpetual motion could be achieved by placing an odd number of hammers around the circumference of the wheel. When the wheel rotates, the hammers will hit it, preventing it from stopping, Honnecourt believed.

Leonardo da Vinci also showed remarkable interest in this problem. He was very skeptical about perpetual motion machines, but spared no time in both a thorough criticism of variations on the theme of the Bhaskara wheel, and in a detailed analysis of the mistakes of his compatriot Francesco di Georgio. Complex systems of pumps and mill wheels looked very plausible on paper and even worked, but, alas, they were not perpetual motion machines. The fundamental impossibility of building such a system became commonplace two hundred years after Leonardo, but in the 1950s. The idea of ​​using water as a source of eternal energy was reborn in the works of Viktor Schauberger.

Robert Fludd (1574–1637) - a famous philosopher, mystic and, possibly, a member of the semi-mythical brotherhood of the Rosicrucians - in the treatise "De Simila Naturae", citing an unnamed Italian inventor, gives a sketch of a water engine, but doubts that this engine will be work. Ironically, Fludd is usually considered a proponent of the idea of ​​perpetual motion, sometimes credited with the authorship of the drawings that he included in his books.

2. Design of a perpetual motion machine

The interest of European science in magnets could not but be reflected in the design of perpetual motion machines. The famous scientist, first secretary of the British Royal Society, Bishop John Wilkins of Chester, 1614–72, defended for many years the possibility of building a perpetual motion machine based on magnets. As proof of the correctness of his ideas, Wilkins used a sketch of an engine consisting of a magnet, an iron ball and special tracks along which the ball first fell down under the influence of gravity and then was pulled up to the magnet. And although it was never possible to build a successful prototype, Wilkins believed until his death that it was still possible to build a perpetual motion machine based on his favorite design. Just need to work on it a little more.

Mechanical perpetual motion machines reached their highest point of development thanks to Johann Ernst Elias Bessler (1680–1745), also known as Orffyreus (Latinized cryptogram Bessler). The life of Bessler, who was notoriously bad-tempered, is a good illustration of the usefulness of patent law. The inventor wanted to sell his perpetual motion machine for one hundred thousand thalers (about two and a half million dollars at today's exchange rate) and did not agree to reveal the secret of the invention to anyone before the sale. At the slightest suspicion, at the slightest hint that they wanted to steal the secret, Johann Bessler destroyed the drawings and prototypes and moved to another city.

In 1719, Bessler, under the pseudonym Orffyreus, published the treatise "Perpetuum Mobile Triumphans", in which, in particular, he claims that he was able to create "dead matter, which not only moves itself, but can be used to lift weights and do work."

Two years earlier, the most impressive demonstration of Bessler's invention took place. A perpetual motion machine with a shaft diameter of more than 3.5 m was put into action on November 17, 1717. On the same day, the room in which he was located was locked, and it was opened only on January 4, 1718. The engine was still running: the wheel was spinning at the same speed as a month and a half ago.

During seven years of active experimentation (1712–19), Bessler built more than three hundred prototypes of two models of perpetual motion machines. In the first prototypes, the wheel rotated only in one direction, and significant effort was required to stop it; in later prototypes, the shaft could rotate in any direction and stopped quite easily. Any of Bessler’s designs were not just energy self-sufficient. There was also enough energy to do some work: for example, lifting weights.

But neither numerous certificates issued by independent commissions nor public demonstrations brought Bessler the money with which he planned to build a school for engineers. The maximum that he could get from those in power was four thousand thalers at a time and a house as a gift from Landgrave Karl, the owner of Weissenstein Castle.

The principles of operation of Bessler engines are not precisely known. Today we only know that he did not directly use the ideas of Bhaskara, as well as the “water principle”. Bessler was an experienced watchmaker, and in terms of the number of parts his engines could easily be compared with mechanical watches. He may have come up with a complex system of counterweights to keep the system unstable, coupled with spring mechanisms to occasionally catalyze the rotation of the wheel.

Before the law of conservation of energy was discovered, for centuries attempts had been persistently made to create a machine that would allow more work what energy is expended. It was previously called “perpetuum mobele”.

A perpetual motion machine is an imaginary but unrealizable engine that, after being put into operation, performs work for an unlimited period of time.

This is how the remarkable French engineer Sadi Carnot wrote about the importance of a perpetual motion machine for humanity: “The general and philosophical concept of “perpetuum mobile” contains not only the idea of ​​motion, which after the first shock continues forever, but the action of a device or some collection of such, capable of developing an unlimited amount of driving force, capable of consistently bringing all bodies of nature from rest, if they were in it, breaking the principle of inertia in them, capable, finally, of drawing from itself the necessary forces to set the entire Universe in motion, support and continuously accelerate its movement. This would really be the creation of a driving force. If this were possible, then it would become useless to look for driving force in flows of water and air, in combustible material; we would have an endless source from which we could endlessly draw.”

Perpetual motion machines are usually constructed using the following techniques or combinations thereof:

Lifting water using an Archimedean screw;

Rise of water using capillaries;

Using a wheel with unbalanced loads;

A perpetual motion machine (lat. Perpetuum Mobile) is an imaginary device that allows you to obtain more useful work than the amount of energy supplied to it. The self-propelled wheel of the German inventor Orfireus rotated for two months in a sealed room, the doors of which were guarded by grenadiers. During demonstrations, it not only rotated at a speed of 50 revolutions per minute, but also lifted loads of up to 16 kg. In 1725, Peter I was going to Germany to personally inspect a perpetual motion machine, which the inventor Orfireus agreed to sell to Russia for 100,000 efimki (1 efimok - about a ruble).

In 1775, the Paris Academy of Sciences made its famous decision not to consider perpetual motion projects due to the obvious impossibility of their creation. But still on scientific conferences In Russia and other countries, ideas about extracting energy from a vacuum, pulsating fields (which eliminate part of the negative work in a closed loop), energy transformations when changing the internal structure of space-time, and the so-called “free energy” are heard with enviable consistency.

Some scientists manage to obtain patents for particularly abstruse inventions, where the patent office is not able to immediately recognize a perpetual motion machine. Moreover, great scientists of the past, including Robert Boyle and Johann Bernoulli, proposed their own designs for perpetual motion machines. Leonardo da Vinci devoted many years to the invention of a perpetual motion machine.

Perpetual motion machine of Bhaskara, 1150 g

First mentioned in historical literature about the specific device of a perpetual motion machine dates back to 1150. The Indian poet, mathematician and astronomer Bhaskara in his poem describes a certain wheel with long, narrow vessels attached diagonally along the rim, half filled with mercury. The principle of operation of this first mechanical “perpetuum mobile” is based on the difference in the moments of gravity created by the liquid moving in vessels placed on the circumference of the wheel. As the author himself describes, “a wheel thus filled with liquid, being mounted on an axle lying on two fixed supports, continuously rotates on its own.”

The rotating wheel was often used in ancient perpetual motion machines. In a sense, the “eternal movement of the wheel” even had a religious meaning. Even in the Vedic religion, the wheel symbolized the divine principle. Science, already at the very beginning of its development, began to borrow some religious attributes for its own purposes, putting them into practice in the form of structural elements of various machines.

Various modifications of the Bhaskara wheel are found in the literature of Arab countries in subsequent centuries. In Europe, the first drawings of perpetual motion machines appeared simultaneously with the introduction Arabic numerals, that is, at the beginning of the 13th century.

Drawing of one of the oldest perpetuum mobile projects in Europe (circa 1235) from the album of Villar d'Honnecourt

For some reason, there is no evidence that European engineers worked on perpetual motion machines in the ancient era, that is, in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, although they had enough qualifications and knowledge for such experiments. Probably, at that time there was simply no demand (public order) for an eternal source of energy. The energy problem was successfully solved by an unlimited number of slaves, available for use at any time practically free of charge.

Thus, in Europe, projects of perpetual motion machines appeared only after the 12th century. During the Renaissance, European scientists and inventors began to study this topic with renewed vigor. For example, Leonardo da Vinci devoted a significant part of his life to this. He started with the “perpetual wheel” schemes, known from past centuries, then tried to use the buoyant force of water, the water wheel, the Archimedes screw, with which the ancient Greeks raised water to irrigate fields. Naturally, Leonardo failed every time, but he did not give up for a long time. At one stage, the inventor made an accurate calculation of the moments of forces for the “perpetual wheel” project and came to the conclusion: “The total moment of forces rotating the wheel in one direction is exactly equal to the total moment of forces rotating the wheel in the other direction.” For its time, this was a serious scientific discovery. In fact, Leonardo da Vinci came close to discovering the law of conservation of energy. By the way, this law was formulated in 1842 by the German naturalist Julius Robert von Mayer, who at the age of 10 tried to construct a perpetual motion machine. At the age of 28, the scientist published the work “Notes on the forces of inanimate nature” in the journal “Annals of Chemistry and Pharmacy.” In it, he pointed out the equivalence of the work expended and the heat produced and thereby substantiated the first law of thermodynamics.

In the end, Leonardo also admitted that a perpetual motion machine cannot exist. In his notes there is a phrase: “I came to the conclusion that the existence of an “eternal wheel” is impossible. The search for the source of perpetual motion is one of the deepest misconceptions of man.”

Fortunately, in subsequent centuries, scientists did not listen to Leonardo da Vinci's conclusion. They continued their attempts to invent a perpetual motion machine, sometimes making remarkable scientific discoveries along the way.
Johann Bernoulli's perpetual motion machine is a brilliantly simple design (see picture on the left). A tube is lowered into a vessel containing a mixture of heavy and light liquids. The upper end of the tube is open, and the lower end is closed with a membrane that allows only the lighter liquid from the mixture to pass into the tube. Then, under the influence of the pressure of the heavier mixture, the light liquid in the tube will rise. If you correctly select the height of the tube, as well as the ratio of the densities of the liquids, the light liquid will rise so much that it will pour out of the tube. This will lead to an eternal cycle, and “thus the movement of the fluid will be eternal.”

Robert Boyle, like his colleague Johann Bernoulli, referred to the water cycle in nature - a supposedly real example of a perpetual motion machine. Bernoulli believed that the water cycle in nature is caused by the difference in the densities of salt and fresh water, but Boyle explained it by the action of capillary forces. The liquid rising through the capillary should, in the opinion of the inventor, pour back into the vessel if the length of the capillary is not too long.

As history shows, such attempts at “crazy” inventions really move science forward. This is the “perpetual motion machine” for science and technological progress. Unsuccessful experiments help us look at the problem differently, better understand the forces of nature and discover new previously unknown laws of nature.

For example, at the end of the 16th century, the Dutch mathematician and engineer Simon Stevin showed a drawing that could give the impression of a perpetual motion machine to uneducated fellow citizens. In this picture, the two balls on the right cannot seem to balance the four balls on the left of the vertex of the triangle. Thus, the chain of balls should supposedly rotate counterclockwise forever.

In fact, Simon Stevin found the condition for the equilibrium of bodies on an inclined plane - another scientific discovery.

In other words, scientists began to look for previously unknown laws of nature, including the conditions for the equilibrium of bodies, based on the postulate about the impossibility of perpetual motion. Now, looking at the diagram of the next “perpetuum mobile”, the scientist first of all asks the question: what forces did the inventor not take into account in his diagram of a perpetual motion machine?

Vacuum power plant ON THE. Shesterenko (VEUSH) on Laval nozzles. For more details, see the author’s books “VEUSH. Vacuum energy generator" and "VEUSH and KNOW-HOW". Obtaining energy from a physical vacuum. Christ the Creator"

Inventors are still working on new designs for perpetual motion machines. Physics and chemistry have advanced significantly over the past centuries, so the authors of such inventions have a much richer “toolkit” for use. In their designs they use not only mechanical structures, but also the laws of hydraulics, conduct experiments with magnetism, use chemical reactions, try to apply the laws of quantum mechanics, etc.

Super-unit Clem engine

For some obsessive inventors, their work becomes their life's work, a fixation. These people are convinced that perpetual motion machines exist and have been invented several times before, but powerful corporations and national governments do not allow such inventions to proceed. The authors of such inventions allegedly often die when mysterious circumstances. In the inflamed logic of inventors, this is easy to explain: after all, the creation of a perpetual motion machine will forever change the course of human history, completely overturn existing ideas about science, change the order of things in economics and technology, and deprive the powers that be of sources of money and power.

Magnetic engine

Until now, dozens of applications for the design of a perpetual motion machine are submitted to the US Patent Office every year. The authors of modern inventions are sometimes smart and talented people who are distinguished by rich technical imagination and extensive practical experience, but they often lack basic theoretical knowledge of physics.

True, many modern “inventions” resurrect in one form or another technical ideas proposed in the Middle Ages, or even in the 12-13 centuries. For example, perpetual motion machines with a rotating rotor are still very popular. Pneumatic mechanisms, spring perpetual motion machines, hydraulics, chemical reactions, and electromagnetic fields are often used.

At first glance, some designs are even difficult to classify - is it either a perpetual motion machine, or a truly working machine that uses some poorly understood physical processes. We can probably mention the design of the “impossible” EmDrive engine, which creates thrust in a closed loop. It was tested in the laboratory of the Space Center. Lyndon Johnson NASA. A scientific work describing this engine, which seems to violate the law of conservation of momentum, was independently reviewed and published in a reputable scientific journal, and experiments on Earth showed the actual presence of thrust.

EmDrive test facility in the laboratory of the Space Center. Lyndon Johnson NASA

The engine, operating on an incomprehensible principle, produces thrust even in a vacuum, where any thermal convection is excluded. Physicists put forward different explanations for how EmDrive works. Some say that the EmDrive cavity may produce pairs of photons that are out of phase with each other. Such pairs carry momentum in the direction opposite to the movement of the engine. And the interaction of such photons contributes to the emergence of an electromagnetic wave with zero polarization. Such a wave still transfers impulse. There is a theory that the thrust of EmDrive is a consequence of the emergence of a “quantum vacuum of virtual plasma” of particles appearing and disappearing in a closed loop of space-time.

The hope of finding a perpetual motion machine gives inventors enormous strength and energy for work. The most important thing is to channel this energy in the right direction. Then a by-product of their work could be real scientific and technical discoveries, like Leonardo da Vinci, Robert Boyle, Johann Bernoulli, Simon Stevin, Julius Robert von Mayer and other “crazy” inventors.

Like the Paris Academy of Sciences, the US Patent Office does not formally issue patents on the Perpetuum Mobile. This rule has been in effect for more than a hundred years. However, the International Patent Classification retains sections for hydrodynamic (section F03B 17/00) and electrodynamic (section H02K 53/00) perpetual motion machines, since the patent offices of many countries consider applications for inventions only from the point of view of their novelty, and not from the point of view of physicality. feasibility.

It’s good if work on a perpetual motion machine helps advance scientific and technological progress. But we regret to say that in most cases this is not the case. For some inventors, the obsession with perpetual motion is similar to a mental disorder. They say that this disease often develops according to a standard scenario: first, the “patient” tries to build his own version of the classic “eternal wheel” - a wheel, one side of which is always heavier than the other thanks to a system of levers, rolling balls, overflowing liquid, and so on.

A child’s work on such a mechanism can be a real help in his studies; it helps the student to warm up his interest in physics and exact sciences. It is important not to cross the fine line when the belief in the possibility of creating a perpetual motion machine does not pass, but turns into an obsession throughout life.

Patents for perpetual motion machines. Organizations and centers for the study of free energy technologies

US Patents

3913004 October 14, 1975, Method and apparatus for increasing electrical power, Robert Alexander.
4975608 December 4, 1990, Switched Reluctance Motor, Harold Aspden.
5288336 Heat-to-electricity converter, Harold Aspden. see also patent numbers 5,065,085 and 5,101,632
4622510 from November 11, 1986, Parametric Electric Machine, Ferdinand Cap.
2912244 from 1959, Gravitational System, Otis Carr.
4006401 dated February 1, 1977, Electromagnetic generator, In Rivas.
3811058, 3879622 Permanent magnet motors.
2982261 McClintock air motor.
4595843 June 17, 1986, Rotating Magnetic Flux Transformer with Low Loss Core, Robert Del Vecchio.
4567407 dated January 28, 1986, Motor - Alternator, John Ecklin.
3368141 January 6, 1968, Transformer combined with permanent magnets, Carlos Garon.
3890548 June 17, 1975, Pulsed Capacitor Discharge Motor, Edwin Gray.
4595852 June 17, 1986, Electrostatic Generator, Robert Gundlach.
4831299 dated May 16, 1989, Unipolar Alternator, Yenakishi Haisaka.
4249096 February 3, 1981, Electric Dynamo, Barbara Nicox.
3610971 dated October 5, 1971, Electromotive Electric Field Generator, Williams Cooper.
4897592 dated January 30, 1990, System creating power from electrostatic field energy, Williams Hyde.
4151431 April 24, 1979, Permanent Magnet Motor, Howard Johnson.
4806834 February 21, 1989, Electrical Circuit of Inductive Conductors, Transformers and Motors, Earl Koenig.
3374376 March 19, 1968, Electric Generator, Raymond Cromrie.
3977191 August 31, 1976, Power Source...Robert Britt.
3670494, Method for converting atomic energy into useful kinetic energy.
4428193, System for extracting useful work from fuel. A mixture of inert gases circulating in a closed system is used as fuel.
4709323 November 24, 1987, Parallel Resonance Converter, Charles Lien.
5146395 September 8, 1992, Power Source Using Two Storage Circuits, Richard McKee.
4210859 dated June 1, 1980, Inductive device having two orthogonal windings, Paul Merestsky.
4500827 dated 19 February 1985, Linear Electric Generator, Thomas Merit.
4904926 dated February 27, 1990, Electric Magnetic Motion Generator, Mario Paciszynski.
4945273 July 31, 1990, High Efficiency Electrical Machine, Joseph Pinkerton.
4883977 November 28, 1989, Magnetic Power Converter, Dennis Regan.
4077001 Electromagnetic transducer with stationary elements having variable magnetic resistance, Frank Richardson.
5018180 May 21, 1991, Energy Conversion Using High Density Charge, Kenneth Shoulders.
4652771 from March 24, 1987, Transformer with magnetic flux oscillations, Theodore Speech.
4772816 September 20, 1988, Energy Conversion System, Jeffrey Spence.
4748311 May 31, 1988, Inverter with power source for chopper parallel resonant circuit tuned to twice the chopper frequency, Friedrich-Werner Thomas.
International patent H02K 31/00, 39/00 dated June 24, 1982, Closed part of a unipolar machine, Adam Trombley.
4835433 1987, Equipment for direct conversion of radioactive decay energy into electrical energy, Brown P.M.
US Patents for Electrogravity: 1363037 Goddard December 21, 1920; 2004352 Simon June 11, 1935; 2210918 Karlovitz August 13, 1940; 2588427 Stringfield March 11, 1952; 2231877 Bennet February 18, 1941; 2279586 Bennet April 14, 1942; 2305500 Slayter December 15, 1942.
English patent number 300,311 dated 15 August 1927, Device for producing force or motion by means of electrodes, Townsend Brown.
French patent number 1003484 dated 11/1951.
Electrogravity.
3187206 June 1, 1965, Electrokinetic Instrumentation, Townsend Brown.
3022430 February 20, 1962, Electrokinetic Generator, Townsend Brown.
3018394 January 23, 1962, Electrokinetic Transducer, Townsend Brown.
2949550 dated August 16, 1960, Electrokinetic Apparatus, Townsend Brown.
1974483 dated September 25, 1934, Electrostatic motor, Townsend Brown.
4687947 dated August 18, 1987, Electrical Power Conservation Circuit, Melvin Cobb.
4772775 from 20 September 1988, Generation of plasma flow in an electric arc, Sam Leach.
4432098 and 4429280, Information Transmission by Magnetic Vector Potential, Reynolds Gelinas.
UK, No. 547668, January 30 (September 7), 1942, Permanent Magnet Motor by Stanley Hitchcock.
UK, Application No.2282708A, Permanent Magnet Motor, Robert Adams, Harold Aspden.

Patents for splitting water and using it as fuel, including “cold fusion”

4394230 US patent dated July 19, 1983, Method and apparatus for splitting water molecules, Henry K. Puharich.
2251775 UK patent dated 20 April 1994, Thermoelectric conversion, Harold Aspden.
5288336 US patent, Thermoelectric conversion, Harold Aspden.

Organizations and centers for the study of free energy technologies

Russian Physical Society, 141002, Moscow region, Mytishchi, B. Sharapovskaya 3. Fax 095-2926511. Publishes magazines.
Institute of Free Energy, St. Petersburg, 193024, PO Box 37. Public organization, database on research in the field of gravity and alternative energy.
Academy for Future Sciences, P.O.Box FE, Los Gatos, CA 95031, USA.
AERI, Advanced Energy Research Institute, 14 Devonshire Mews West, London W1N 1Fp, Great Britain.
ADAS, Association of Distinguished American Scientists, P.O.Box 1472, Huntsville, AL 35807, USA. Fax 205-536-0411.
Borderland Sciences Research Foundation, P.O.Box 429, Garberville, CA 95440-0429, USA.
Center for Action, P.O.Box 472, HCR 31, Sandy Valley, NT 89019, USA. Publishes books, a magazine and distributes videotapes.
COSRAY, The Research Institute, Inc., 2505 South Forth Street East, P.O.Box 651045, Salt Lake City, UT 84165-1045, USA.
Delta Spectrum Research, Inc., 5608 South 107th East Av., Tusla, Oklahoma 74146 USA. Fax 918-459-3789. Database on commercial projects in the field of free energy, in electronic form - about 11 MB. Sends articles on NASA's work in the field of electrogravity:
Electrostatic levitator with feedback control; Hybrid contactless heating and levitator; Precision fabrication of electromagnetic-levitation coils and others.
Electrodynamic Gravity, Inc., 35 W. Tallmadge Ave., Akron, Ohio 44310, USA.
Fusion Information Center, P.O.Box 58639, Salt Lake City, Utah 84158-0369, publishes the cold fusion journal Fusion Facts, fax 801-583-6245.
Gravity Power Research Association, 36 Mountain Road, Burlington, MA 01803, USA.
GRI, Group Research Institute, P.O.Box 438, Nelson, New Zealand. Dr. Ashley Gray.
High Energy Enterprises, P.O.Box 5636, Security, CO 80931, USA. Fax 719-4750582. Published books by Tesla and the results of the work of his followers. International Tesla Society Books.
Institute for Advanced Studies at Austin, 4030 Braker Lane W., Suite 300, Austin, TX 78759, USA.
INE, Institute for New Energy, 1304 South College Avenue, Fort Collins, CO 80524, USA. Published by New Energy News magazine, P.O.Box 58639, Salt Lake City, UT 84158-8639, USA. Access via EMAIL: [email protected].
Will send a collection of reports from the conference on developing free energy projects Denver Report’94.
Intergrity Institute, 1377 K Street, NW, Suite 16, Washington DC, USA. Fax 202-543-3069. Research on electrogravity, inertial propulsion, negative mass as an energy source.
Distribution of materials about T.T. Brown's work on electrogravity.
JPI, Japan Psychrotronic Institute, Dr. Shiuji Inomata, Electrotechnical Laboratory, 1-1-4 Umezono, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki 305, Japan.
Cosmic Energy Association, 37-2 Nisigoshonouti, Kinugasa, Kitaku, Kyoto, 603, Japan. Dr. Masayoshi Ihara.
Orgone Biophysical Research Laboratory, Inc., P.O.Box 1395, E1 Cerrito, CA 94530, USA. Fax 510-526-5978.
Quantum Biology Research Laboratory, Cotati Research Institute, P.O.Box 60653, Palo Alto, CA 94306, USA.
PACE, Planetary Association for Clean Energy, Canadian Headquarters: 100 Bronson Av., Suite 1001, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada T1R 6G8. Fax 613-235-5876. European Representation in Germany:
Planetartsche Vereinigung fur Saubere Energie, Inc. Feyermuhler Strasse 12, D-53894 Mechernich, FRG. Fax 49-24438221, EMAIL [email protected]. Representative office in Latin America:
FUNDAPAC Allayme 1719, San Jose, Guaymallen, Argentina.
SEA, Space Energy Association, P.O.Box 11422, Clearwater, FL 34616, USA.
Tesla Book Company, P.O.Box 121873, Chula Vista, CA 91912, USA.
Tesla Incorporated, 760 Prairie Av., Craig, CO 81625, USA. Fax 303-824-7864. 300/1200/2400 modem for Tesla BBS by calling 719-486-2775.
ExtraOrdinary Science, Resource Guide, fax 719-475-0582. Official catalog of books, articles, videos and databases of the Tesla Society.
Explore Magazine, The New Dimension in Scientific Approach, P.O.Box 1508, Mount Vernon, Washington 98273, USA.
Electric Spacecraft Journal, P.O.Box 18387, Asheville, NC 28814, USA. Fax 704-683-3511.
Nexus Magazine New Times Magazine, P.O.Box 30, Maplepton Qld 4560, Australia. Fax 074-429381.
Cold Fusion Times Magazine, P.O.Box 81135, Wellesley Hills MA 02181, USA.
Infinite Energy Magazine, P.O.Box 2816, Concord, NH 03302-2816, USA. Published by Cold Fusion Technology, fax 603-224-5975, email: [email protected].
Journal of 21st Century Science & Technology, P.O.Box 16285, Washington, DC, 20041, USA.
Cold Fusion Magazine, 70 b Route 202N, Petersborough, NH 03458, USA.
Brown's Gas International, 5063 Densmore Av., ENCINO, California 91436, USA. Inventor of "Brown's gas", Yull Brown. Fax 818-990-4873 in the USA.
ENECO, Inc., 391-B Chipeta Way, Salt LAke City, Utah 84108, USA. Fax 801-5836245. Develops several power generation devices through cold fusion with both heavy and light water.
Robert Adams and Company 46 Landing Road, Whakatane, Bay of Plenty, New Zealand. Robert Adams, research on creating a permanent magnet motor-generator.
Methernitha, 3517 Linden, Switzerland. Manager Francis Bosshard.
Swiss Association for Free Energy, P.O.Box 10, 5704 Egliswilli, Switzerland.
Space Research Institute, Box 33, Uwajima, Ehime 79, Japan. Dr. Shinichi Seike. Fax 895-24-7325. Experiments on gravity and changes in the pace of time during the operation of free energy generators, measurements of chronal potentials.
Nuclear Power Corporation, 581 400 Karnataka, India. Project Director, Kaiga Project, Dr. Paramahamsa Tewari.
Cosmic Energy Foundation, Neptunuslaan 11, 3318 E1 Dordrecht Netherlands. Dr. Martin Holwerda, Director.
World Harmony, P.O.Box 361 Applecross 6153, Western Australia.
Another office for this group: U.S. World Harmony, P.O.Box 317, Rainier, WA 98576, USA.
Sabberton Research, P.O.Box 35, Southampton SO9 7BU, England, Dr. Harold Aspden.

It has long been established that the invention of a perpetual motion machine is impossible. In a broad sense, a perpetual motion machine refers to a mechanism that continuously moves itself. But this is far from a sufficient definition. Thanks to centuries of fruitless attempts to create a miracle machine, today it is possible to precisely define the very concept of a “perpetual motion machine” and the reasons for its impracticability. Moreover, such attempts left a significant mark on history and confirmed the existence of the most important laws of physics. We will consider and analyze which ones below.

Definition and classification of perpetual motion machines

So, a perpetual motion machine, as is already known, is an imaginary device. The nature of the work performed can be classified as follows:

1. A perpetual motion machine of the first kind (physical\mechanical, hydraulic, magnetic) is a continuously operating machine that, when started once, does work without receiving energy from the outside. These are devices of a mechanical nature, the principle of operation of which is based on the use of certain physical phenomena, for example, the action of gravity, Archimedes' law, capillary phenomena in liquids.
2. Perpetual motion machine of the second kind (natural) - heat engine, which, as a result of the cycle, completely converts the heat received from any one “inexhaustible” source (ocean, atmosphere, etc.) into work. They are associated with cyclically repeating natural phenomena or with the principles of celestial mechanics.

This classification is common and is found in old scientific literature. Later researchers have another definition. It comes from the idea of ​​an ideal machine that operates without loss and converts all supplied energy into useful work or some other type of energy.

Scientists of different times went to these definitions the long way. They subjected them to detailed analysis and were not always unanimous. The problem was whether it is possible to consider a perpetual motion machine only that machine, which, when fully assembled, will immediately begin to work on its own, or is it permissible to impart an initial motor impulse to the device. There was also a debate about whether the main characteristics of a perpetual motion machine include the condition that, when set in motion, it simultaneously performs some useful work.

Reasons for the idea of ​​creation

The first mention of a perpetual motion machine dates back to 1150. But does this mean that ancient mechanics were not interested in perpetual motion? On the contrary, this was one of those traditional problems to which science paid a lot of attention in connection with the study of physical phenomena. But when studying the conditions determining the circular motion of bodies, the Greeks came to conclusions that theoretically excluded any possibility of the existence of artificially created perpetual motion on Earth. For example, Aristotle argued that the movement of bodies accelerates towards its center. About bodies with truly circular motion, he writes: “They can be neither heavy nor light, since they are not capable of approaching the center or moving away from it in a natural or forced way.” Only celestial bodies satisfy this condition.

But the founder of the idea of ​​a perpetual motion machine is considered to be the Indian poet, mathematician and astronomer Bhaskar Acharya (1114-1185), who described in his poem a kind of eternally moving wheel. Note that the body is taken as a basis round shape. According to ancient Indian philosophy, regularly repeating events that make up a circular cycle are for him a symbol of eternity and perfection. That is, the progenitors of the idea of ​​perpetual motion were motivated not by practical, but by religious needs. The idea of ​​a perpetual motion machine reached its apogee in the Middle Ages in Europe, during the period of intensive construction of temples, cathedrals and princely palaces, and then, of course, the creators were interested in practical use cars.

Some models of perpetual motion machines of the first kind

Wheel with unbalanced weights

Picture 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Here is a model of Bhaskara's perpetual motion machine (Fig. No. 1) with long narrow vessels half filled with mercury attached obliquely along the inner side of the circle. Bhaskara justifies the rotation of the wheel as follows: “The wheel thus filled with liquid, being mounted on an axle lying on two fixed supports, continuously rotates on its own.”

Two more models, similar in principle of operation, invented in medieval Europe. The role of vessels partially filled with mercury is played by convex-concave sectors inside the wheel, inside of which there are heavy balls (Fig. No. 2) or rods movably attached to the outer part of the wheel with weights at the ends (Fig. No. 3).

The principle of operation of these engines is to create a constant imbalance of gravity on the wheel, as a result of which the wheel must rotate. Let's consider why this calculation is not justified using the example of a regular wheel. Here it is assumed that the work is done by gravity, that is, in normal conditions(at short distances and near the Earth's surface) it is constant and always directed in the same direction.

Figure 4

F T is the weight of the load, F P is the force with which the lever acts on the hinge (compensated by the support reaction force), F B is the turning force, R is the distance from the hinge (pivot axis) to the trajectory of the center of mass of the load.

When the lever is positioned strictly vertically upward, the weight of the load is transferred to the hinge and is compensated by the reaction of the support. The force is directed normal to the circle, the tangential component

is absent, which means the moment of force is zero. This position is called top dead center (TDC). If the lever deviates, the reaction of the support no longer compensates for the weight, a tangential component of the force appears, and the normal component begins to decrease. This will continue only until the lever reaches a horizontal position. When the moment of force reaches its maximum value, the lever will again begin to act on the load, the normal force will change its sign relative to the lever. The tangential force will begin to decrease until the lever is in a vertical down position (bottom dead center (BDC)).

Thus, as can be seen from Fig. No. 4, for half of the working cycle the load accelerates, moving from top dead center (TDC) to bottom dead center (BDC), and for half it slows down. After making several revolutions, the wheel with unbalanced loads will reach a state of equilibrium.

Chain on an inclined plane

Figure 5

Another type of mechanical perpetual motion machine is a heavy chain with the longer side thrown through a system of pulleys. Theoretically, it was assumed that the part on which there are more links will begin to slide off the inclined plane, as a result of which the closed chain will move continuously. However, it is known that the chain will be at rest. This type of engine is interesting primarily because, from the impossibility of its perpetual motion, the engineer, mechanic and mathematician Simon Stevin (1548-1620) proved the law of equilibrium of a body on an inclined plane. One chain is heavier than the other by the same number of times the larger face (AB in Fig. No. 5) of the prism is longer than the short one (BC in Fig. No. 5). It follows that two connected loads balance each other on inclined planes if their masses are proportional to the lengths of these planes.

A mechanism similar in principle (Fig. No. 6): a heavy chain is thrown over the wheels so that its right half is always longer than the left. Therefore, it must fall down, causing the chain to rotate. But the chain on the left side is stretched vertically, and the right side is stretched at a certain angle and curved. Similarly, perpetual motion of this mechanism is impossible.

Figure 6

Hydraulic perpetual motion machine with Archimedes screw

In the vast majority of perpetual hydraulic engines, inventors tried to use a mechanism known since the times of Ancient Greece - the Archimedes screw - a hollow tube with a spiral plane inside, designed to lift water from a vessel to a vessel of the greatest height.

Figure 7

The liquid from the vessel rises with wicks first into the upper vessel, from there with other wicks even higher; the upper vessel has a drainage chute, which falls onto the wheel blades, causing it to rotate. The liquid in the lower tier rises again through the wicks to the upper vessel. Thus, the stream flowing down the chute onto the wheel is not interrupted, and the wheel must always be in motion (Fig. No. 7).

Only the wheel of this machine will never rotate, since there will be no water in the upper vessel. This will happen because capillary forces caused by the curvature of the surface of the liquid, although they allow one to overcome the force of gravity, raising the liquid in the wick fabric, but they also hold it in the pores of the fabric, preventing it from flowing out of them.

Denny Papen's Vessel

Figure 8

Denny Papen's design for a hydraulic perpetual motion machine is a vessel tapered into a tube and bent in such a way that the free end of the tube with a smaller radius is located within the large “neck” of the vessel (Fig. No. 8). The author assumed that the weight of water in the wider part of the vessel would exceed the weight of the liquid in the tube in the narrower part. Thus, fluid circulation should have occurred due to the pressure difference. Actually in in this case The basic law of hydrostatics works: the pressure exerted on the fluid is transmitted without change in all directions. The surface of the liquid in a thin tube will be at the same level as in the vessel, as in any communicating vessels.

Previously, similar vessels, differently oriented in space, were proposed for this engine. They were based on the principle of operation of a siphon: in it (in a curved tube with elbows of different lengths, through which liquid flows from a vessel with a higher to a vessel with a higher low level liquid) the work expended on raising the liquid is done by atmospheric pressure. At the same time, in order for liquid to flow through the siphon, the maximum height of its bend should not exceed the height of the liquid column balanced by the pressure of the external air. For water, this height at normal barometric pressure is approximately 10 m - this fact was not taken into account and led to incorrect conclusions about the perpetual motion of such an engine.

Other hydraulic motors

Figure 9

Among the many projects of a perpetual motion machine, there were many based on Archimedes' law. One of these projects looks like this: a tall vessel (20 m), filled with water, has pulleys located on one face at different ends, through which a strong endless rope with fourteen fixed hollow cubic boxes is thrown. The boxes are identical, equidistant, waterproof and have sides of 1 m (Fig. No. 9).

Indeed, boxes located in water will tend to float up. They are acted upon by a force equal to the weight of the water displaced by the boxes.

But even if this rope is infinite, the effect is not justified, because in order for the rope to rotate, the boxes must enter the vessel from the bottom, and for this they must overcome the pressure of the water column, which will be much greater than the force of Archimedes.

Figure 10

A simplified version of a perpetual motion machine of the hydraulic type (Fig. No. 10), the idea of ​​which comes from a gross violation of the interpretation of Archimedes’ law. The part of the wooden drum immersed in water, according to Archimedes' law, is subject to buoyant force. Of course, the wheel will not rotate, because the force will not be directed upward (as intended by the inventor), but towards the center of the wheel.

Magnetic perpetual motion machine

Figure 11

A simple but original model of a perpetual motion machine with magnets. Two inclined grooves lead to the ball magnet located on the stand: one straight, installed above, the other curved (Fig. No. 11). An iron ball placed on the upper chute will be attracted by a magnet, then along the way it will fall into the hole, roll down the lower chute and go back to the upper chute.

However, if the magnet is strong enough to pull the ball away from the bottom point, it will prevent it from falling through the hole located very close by. If, on the contrary, the force of attraction is insufficient, then the ball will not be attracted at all.

Perpetual motion machine of the first kind in contradiction with the law of conservation of energy

The final approval of the law of conservation of energy in the 40-70s of the 19th century was based on the work of Sadi Carnot, Robert Mayer, James Joule and Hermann Helmholtz, who showed the connection between various forms of energy (mechanical, thermal, electrical, etc.). The law of conservation of energy is formulated as follows: in an isolated system, energy can move from one form to another, but its total amount remains constant.

As a rule, the impossibility of a perpetual motion machine is considered as a consequence of the law of conservation of energy. Mayer's reasoning and Joule's experiments proved the equivalence of mechanical work and heat, showing that the amount of heat released is equal to the work done and vice versa; Helmholtz was the first to formulate the law of conservation of energy in precise terms. Unlike his predecessors, he connected the law of conservation of energy with the impossibility of the existence of perpetual motion machines. The principle of the impossibility of perpetual motion was used by Mayer and Helmholtz as the basis for the analysis of various energy transformations. Max Planck in his work “The Principle of Conservation of Energy” placed special emphasis on the equivalence (rather than a causal relationship) of the principle of the impossibility of a perpetual motion machine and the principle of conservation of energy.

In thermodynamics, the conservation law is historically formulated in the form of the first law of thermodynamics: the change in the internal energy of a thermodynamic system during its transition from one state to another is equal to the sum of the work of external forces on the system and the amount of heat transferred to the system, and does not depend on the method by which this transition is carried out, i.e. Q = ΔU + A. The first law of thermodynamics is often formulated as the impossibility of the existence of a perpetual motion machine of the first kind, which would do work without drawing energy from any source.

Perpetual motion machines of the second kind

The classic perpetual motion machine of the second kind provides for the possibility of accumulating heat through work, the cost of which is less than the heat received, and using part of this heat to re-perform work in a new cycle. Thus, there must be a surplus of work. Another version of this engine involves the ordering of the chaotic thermal movement of molecules, resulting in a directed movement of the substance, accompanied by a decrease in its thermodynamic temperature. There are not as many widely known projects of such engines invented as, for example, engines of the first type, and information about them is not sufficient for a description. The vast majority of ideas for such machines are absurd and contradictory, or belong to the class of imaginary perpetual motion machines (in fact, they are not eternal), and have low efficiency.

The second law of thermodynamics, formulated by Rudolf Clausius, clearly states: a process is impossible whose only result would be the transfer of heat from a colder body to a hotter one. Which also means that in a closed system, entropy during any real process either increases or remains unchanged (i.e. ΔS ≥ 0). The second law of thermodynamics is a postulate that cannot be proven within the framework of thermodynamics. It was created on the basis of a generalization of experimental facts and has received numerous experimental confirmations.

The possibility of using the energy of thermal motion of body particles (heat reservoir) to obtain mechanical work (without changing the state of other bodies) would mean the possibility of realizing a perpetual motion machine of the second kind, the work of which would not contradict the law of conservation of energy. For example, the operation of a ship's engine by cooling ocean water (an accessible and practically inexhaustible reservoir of internal energy) does not contradict the law of conservation of energy, but if, apart from cooling the water, there are no other changes, then the operation of such an engine contradicts the second law of thermodynamics. In a real heat engine, the process of converting heat into work involves the transfer of a certain amount of heat to the external environment. As a result, the engine's thermal reservoir is cooled, and the colder external environment is heated, which is in agreement with the second law of thermodynamics.

Imaginary perpetual motion machine

Figure 12

In the 60s XX century The toy, which in the USSR received the name “eternally drinking bird” or “Hottabych’s bird,” created a world sensation. A thin glass flask with a horizontal axis in the middle is sealed into a small container. The free end of the cone almost touches its bottom. The flask contains a certain amount of ether (in the lower part), the upper empty part of the flask is covered with a thin layer of cotton wool on the outside. A vessel with water is placed in front of the toy and tilted, forcing it to “drink” (Fig. No. 12). Then the mechanism works independently: it leans towards the vessel with water several times a minute until the water runs out.

The mechanism of this phenomenon is clear: the liquid in the lower cavity evaporates under the influence of room heat, the pressure increases and displaces the liquid into the tube. The upper part of the structure outweighs, tilts, and steam moves into the upper ball. The pressure is equalized, the liquid returns to the lower volume, which outweighs and returns the “bird” to its original position.

At first glance, the second law of thermodynamics is violated here: there is no temperature difference, the machine only takes heat from the air. But when the flask reaches a vessel with water, the water from the wet cotton wool intensively evaporates, cooling the top ball. A temperature difference between the upper and lower vessels arises, due to which movement occurs. If evaporation stops (the cotton wool dries out or the air humidity reaches the dew point, that is, the temperature to which the air must cool for the water vapor contained in it to reach a state of saturation and begin to condense into dew), the machine, in full accordance with the second law of thermodynamics, will stop moving. The power of such an engine is very low due to the insignificant difference in temperature and pressure at which the “bird” operates.

Perpetual motion machines as commercial projects

Perpetual motion machines, shrouded in the mystery of invention and operation since ancient times, were undoubtedly created not only for practical use. At all times there have been scammers and dreamers who intended to extract not only energy greater than 100%.

One of the most famous “scams of the century” is the perpetual motion machine of Johann Bessler (1680-1745).

Figure 13

Figure 14

Under the pseudonym Orfireus, this Saxon engineer, on November 17, 1717, in the presence of famous physicists, demonstrated a machine with a shaft diameter of more than 3.5 m. The engine was put into operation and locked in a room, and after checking after a month and a half, they were convinced that the engine wheel was rotating at the same speed.

When the same thing happened two months later, Bessler's fame thundered throughout Europe. The inventor agreed to sell the car to Peter I, but this did not happen. However, this did not stop Bessler from living comfortably on the funds received through demonstrating the engine. The engine is a large wheel that rotates and lifts a heavy load to a considerable height (Fig. No. 13).

The invention caused a lot of controversy and unresolved questions. The most important of them - the principle of operation - was not known to the general public. Therefore, incredulous skeptics concluded that the secret lies in the fact that a skillfully hidden person pulls on a rope wound, unnoticed by the observer, on a hidden part of the wheel axle. And their expectations were justified: soon Bessler’s maid revealed the secret:

the engine really only worked with the help of third parties (Fig. No. 14).

Another famous case using a perpetual motion machine “for other purposes”: in one of the cities, in order to attract customers, a “perpetually” rotating wheel was installed near one cafe, which, of course, was started using a mechanism.

Some developers of the ideas of perpetual motion machines in chronological order:

1. Bhaskara Acharya (1114-1185), poet, astronomer, mathematician.
2. Villars de Honnecourt (XIII century), architect.
3. Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464), philosopher, theologian, church and political figure.
4. Francesco di Giorgio (1439-1501), artist, sculptor, architect, inventor, military engineer.
5. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), artist, sculptor, architect, mathematician, physicist, anatomist, natural scientist.
6. Giambattista Porta (1538 - 1615), philosopher, optician, astrologer, mathematician, meteorologist.
7. Cornelius Drebbel (1572 - 1633), physicist, inventor.
8. Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), physicist, linguist, theologian, mathematician.
9. John Wilkins (1614-1672), philosopher, linguist.
10. Denny Papin (1647-1712), mathematician, physicist, inventor.
11. Johann Bessler (1680-1745), mechanical engineer, doctor, fraudster.
12. David Brewster (1781-1868), physicist.
13. Wilhelm Friedrich Ostwald (1853-1932), physicist, chemist, idealist philosopher.
14. Victor Schauberger (1885-1958), inventor.

Conclusion

In 1775, the French Academy decided not to consider proposals for perpetual motion machines, putting forward a final verdict: the construction of a perpetual motion machine is absolutely impossible. Over the entire history of perpetual motion, more than 600 projects were invented, and most of them occurred at the time when the laws of thermodynamics and conservation of energy became known.

Of course, the efforts of numerous creators of perpetual motion machines were not in vain. Trying to construct the impossible, they found many curious technical solutions, came up with mechanisms and devices that are still used in mechanical engineering. In the fruitless search for perpetual motion, the foundations of engineering science were born and the laws denying its existence were confirmed.

Perpetual motion technology has attracted people at all times. Today it is considered more pseudoscientific and impossible than vice versa, but this does not stop people from creating ever more outlandish gizmos and gizmos in the hope of breaking the laws of physics and causing a world revolution. Here are ten historical and extremely entertaining attempts to create something similar to a perpetual motion machine.

In the 1950s, Romanian engineer Nicolae Vasilescu-Carpen invented the battery. Now located (although not on stands) in the National technical museum Romania, this battery still works, although scientists still don't agree on how or why it continues to work at all.

The battery in the device remains the same single-voltage battery that Karpen installed in the 50s. For a long time, the car was forgotten until the museum was able to properly exhibit it and ensure the safety of such a strange contraption. Recently it was discovered that the battery works and still produces a stable voltage - after 60 years.

Having successfully defended his doctorate on the topic of magnetic effects in moving bodies in 1904, Karpen certainly could have created something out of the ordinary. By 1909, he began researching high-frequency currents and the transmission of telephone signals over long distances. Built telegraph stations, explored heat environment and advanced fuel cell technologies. However, modern scientists have still not come to common conclusions about the operating principles of his strange battery.

Many conjectures have been put forward, from the conversion of thermal energy into mechanical energy in a cycle process, the thermodynamic principle of which we have not yet discovered. The mathematics behind his invention seem incredibly complex, potentially including concepts like the thermosiphon effect and scalar field temperature equations. Although we have not been able to create a perpetual motion machine capable of generating endless and free energy in huge quantities, nothing stops us from enjoying a battery that runs continuously for 60 years.

Joe Newman's Energy Machine

In 1911, the US Patent Office issued a huge decree. They will no longer issue patents for perpetual motion devices because it seems scientifically impossible to create such a device. For some inventors, this meant that the battle to have their work recognized as legitimate science would now be a little more difficult.

In 1984, Joe Newman went on the CMS Evening News with Dan Rather and revealed something incredible. People living during the oil crisis were delighted with the inventor's idea: he introduced a perpetual motion machine that worked and produced more energy than it consumed.

Scientists, however, did not believe a single word Newman said.

The National Bureau of Standards tested the scientist's device, which consists largely of batteries charged by a magnet rotating inside a coil of wire. During the tests, all of Newman's statements turned out to be empty, although some people continued to believe the scientist. So he decided to take his energy machine and go on tour, demonstrating its operation along the way. Newman claimed that his machine outputs 10 times more energy than it absorbs, meaning it operates at over 100% efficiency. When his patent applications were rejected and his invention was literally trashed by the scientific community, his grief knew no bounds.

An amateur scientist who didn't even graduate from high school, Newman didn't give up even when no one supported his plan. Convinced that God had given him a machine that would change humanity for the better, Newman always believed that the true value of his machine had always been hidden from the powers that be.

Robert Fludd's water screw

Robert Fludd was the kind of symbol that could only appear at a certain time in history. Part scientist, part alchemist, Fludd described and invented things at the turn of the 17th century. He had some rather strange ideas: he believed that lightning was the earthly embodiment of the wrath of God, which strikes them if they do not flee. That being said, Fludd believed in a number of principles that we accept today, even if most people did not accept them back then.

His version of a perpetual motion machine was a water wheel that could grind grain by constantly rotating under the influence of recirculating water. Fludd called it a "water screw." In 1660, the first woodcuts depicting such an idea appeared (the appearance of which is attributed to 1618).

Needless to say, the device did not work. However, Fludd wasn't just trying to break the laws of physics with his machine. He also looked for a way to help farmers. At that time, processing huge volumes of grain depended on flows. Those who lived far from a suitable source of running water were forced to load up their crops, haul them to the mill, and then back to the farm. If this perpetual motion machine were to work, it would make life much easier for countless farmers.

Wheel of Bhaskara

One of the most early mentions perpetual motion machines comes from the mathematician and astronomer Bhaskara, from his works of 1150. His concept was an unbalanced wheel with a series of curved spokes inside filled with mercury. As the wheel rotated, the mercury began to move, providing the push needed to keep the wheel spinning.

Over many centuries, a huge number of variations of this idea have been invented. It is quite clear why it should work: a wheel that is in a state of imbalance is trying to bring itself to rest and, in theory, will continue to move. Some designers believed so strongly in the possibility of creating such a wheel that they even designed brakes in case the process got out of hand.

With our modern understanding of force, friction and work, we know that an unbalanced wheel will not achieve the desired effect, since we will not be able to get all the energy back, nor will we be able to extract it much or forever. However, the idea itself was and remains intriguing to people unfamiliar with modern physics, especially in the Hindu religious context of reincarnation and the circle of life. The idea became so popular that wheeled perpetual motion machines later found their way into Islamic and European scriptures.

Cox watch

When the famous London clockmaker James Cox built his perpetual motion clock in 1774, it worked exactly as the accompanying documentation described, explaining why this clock did not need to be wound. The six-page document explained how the watch was created based on "mechanical and philosophical principles."

According to Cox, the watch's diamond-powered perpetual motion machine and reduced internal friction to almost no friction ensured that the metals used to construct the watch would degrade much more slowly than anyone had ever seen. Besides this grandiose statement, then many presentations new technology included mystical elements.

Besides the fact that Cox's watch was a perpetual motion machine, it was a brilliant watch. Encased in glass, which protected the internal working components from dust while also allowing them to be viewed, the clock operated from changes in atmospheric pressure. If the mercury rose or fell inside the hour barometer, the movement of the mercury would turn the internal wheels in the same direction, partially winding the clock. If the watch was wound continuously, the gears would come out of their grooves until the chain loosened to a certain point, after which everything would fall into place and the watch would begin to wind itself again.

The first widely accepted example of a perpetual motion clock was shown by Cox himself in the Spring Garden. He was later seen at week-long exhibitions at the Mechanical Museum, and then at the Clerkenville Institute. At that time, the display of these watches was such a miracle that they were captured in countless works of art, and crowds of people regularly came to Cox to look at his wonderful creation.

"Testatika" by Paul Baumann

Watchmaker Paul Baumann founded the spiritual society Meternitha in the 1950s. In addition to abstaining from alcohol, drugs and tobacco, members of this religious sect live in a self-sufficient, environmentally conscious atmosphere. To achieve this, they rely on a miraculous perpetual motion machine created by their founder.

The machine, called Testatika, can take supposedly unused electrical energy and turn it into energy for the community. Due to its secrecy, scientists were unable to fully examine the Testatica, although the machine became the subject of a short documentary in 1999. Not much was shown, but enough to understand that the sect almost idolizes this sacred machine.

The plans and features of Testatika were revealed to Baumann directly from God while he was serving a prison sentence for seducing a young girl. According to the official legend, he was saddened by the darkness of his cell and the lack of light for reading. Then he was visited by a mysterious mystical vision, which revealed to him the secret of perpetual motion and endless energy that can be drawn directly from the air. Members of the sect confirm that Testatika was sent to them by God, also noting that several attempts to photograph the car revealed a multi-colored halo around it.

In the 1990s, a Bulgarian physicist infiltrated the sect to learn the design of the machine, hoping to reveal the secret of this magical energy device to the world. But he failed to convince the sectarians. After committing suicide in 1997 by jumping out of a window, he left a suicide note: “I did what I could, let those who can do better.”

Bessler wheel

Johann Bessler began his research into perpetual motion with a simple concept, like the Bhaskara wheel: apply weight to the wheel on one side, and it will be constantly unbalanced and constantly moving. On November 12, 1717, Bessler sealed his invention in a room. The door was closed and the room was guarded. When it was opened two weeks later, the 3.7-meter wheel was still moving. The room was sealed again and the pattern was repeated. Opening the door in early January 1718, people discovered that the wheel was still turning.

Although a celebrity after all this, Bessler remained tight-lipped about how the wheel works, noting only that it relies on weights to keep it unbalanced. Moreover, Bessler was so secretive that when one engineer snuck a closer look at the engineer's creation, Bessler freaked out and destroyed the wheel. The engineer later said that he did not notice anything suspicious. However, he only saw the outer part of the wheel, so he could not understand how it worked. Even in those days, the idea of ​​a perpetual motion machine was met with some cynicism. Centuries earlier, Leonardo da Vinci himself scoffed at the idea of ​​such a machine.

Yet the concept of the Bessler wheel never completely went away. In 2014, Warwickshire engineer John Collins revealed that he had been studying Bessler's wheel design for years and was close to solving its mystery. Bessler once wrote that he had destroyed all the evidence, drawings and drawings about the principles of his wheel, but added that anyone who was smart and quick-witted enough could understand everything for sure.

Otis T. Carr UFO Engine

The objects included in the Copyright Register (third series, 1958: July-December) seem a little strange. Even though the US Patent Office long ago ruled that it would not issue any patents on perpetual motion devices because they could not exist, OTC Enterprises Inc. and its founder Otis Carr are listed as the owners of the “free energy system,” “peaceful atom energy,” and the “gravitational engine.”

In 1959, OTC Enterprises planned to carry out the first flight of its “fourth-dimensional space transport” powered by perpetual motion. And while at least one person got a brief look at the jumbled parts of the heavily guarded project, the device itself was never revealed or "off the ground." Carr himself was hospitalized with vague symptoms on the day the device was due to make its first journey.

Perhaps his illness was in a smart way escape the demonstration, but it was not enough to put Carr behind bars. By selling options on technology that did not exist, Carr interested investors in the project, as well as people who believed that his device would take them to other planets.

To get around the patent restrictions of his crazy designs, Carr patented the whole thing as an "entertainment device" that would simulate trips to outer space. It was US Patent #2,912,244 (November 10, 1959). Carr argued that his spacecraft worked because one had already flown away. The propulsion system was a "circular free energy foil" that provided an endless supply of energy needed to propel the vehicle into space.

Of course, the strangeness of what was happening opened the door to conspiracy theories. Some people have suggested that Carr actually assembled his perpetual motion machine and flying machine. But, of course, he was quickly clamped down by the American government. The theorists could not agree: either the government does not want to disclose the technology, or it wants to use it independently.

Perpetuum Mobile by Cornelius Drebbel

The weird thing about Cornelius Drebbel's perpetual motion machine is that while we don't know how or why it worked, you've definitely seen it more often than you think.

Drebbel first demonstrated his machine in 1604 and amazed everyone, including the English royal family. The machine was something like a chronometer; it never needed winding and showed the date and moon phase. Driven by changes in temperature or weather, Drebbel's machine also used a thermoscope or barometer, similar to Cox's clock.

No one knows what provided the movement and energy for Drebbel’s device, since he spoke of curbing the “fiery spirit of the air,” like a real alchemist. At that time, the world still thought in terms of the four elements, and Drebbel himself experimented with sulfur and saltpeter.

As stated in a letter from 1604, the earliest known representation of the device showed a central ball surrounded by a glass tube filled with liquid. Gold arrows and markings tracked the phases of the moon. Other images were more elaborate, showing a car adorned with mythological creatures and gold embellishments. Drebbel's Perpetuum mobile also appeared in some paintings, particularly by Albrecht and Rubens. In these paintings, the strange toroidal shape of the machine does not resemble a sphere at all.

In his self-proclaimed "incredibly true life story", David Hamel claims to be an ordinary carpenter without formal education, who was chosen to become the guardian of the machine of eternal energy and the spacecraft that should work with its help. After an encounter with aliens from the planet Kladen, Hamel claimed to have received information that would change the world - if only people would believe him.

While this is all a bit disconcerting, Hamel said his perpetual motion machine uses the same energies as spiders jumping from one web to another. These scalar forces nullify the pull of gravity and make it possible to create a device that will allow us to reunite with our Kladensky relatives, who provided Hamel with the necessary information.

According to Hamel, he has already built such a device. Unfortunately, it flew away.

After working for 20 years to build his interstellar device and engine using a series of magnets, he finally turned it on and this is what happened. Filled with the glow of colorful ions, his anti-gravity machine rose into the air and flew over Pacific Ocean. To avoid a repeat of this tragic event, Hamel is building his next car from heavier materials, like granite.

To understand the principles behind this technology, Hamel says you need to look at the pyramids, study some forbidden books, accept the presence of invisible energy, and think of scalars and the ionosphere much like milk and cheese.