The inventors of the perpetual motion machine were constantly reacting sharply to fresh ideas. In the Middle Ages, attempts were made to create a “perpetuum mobile” based on magnetism. Later, they used the capabilities of electrical engineering. Nowadays there is an attempt to create it based on nanotechnology.
Even in the Middle Ages, repeated attempts were made to create a "perpetuum mobile" based on the phenomenon of magnetism.
In 1269, the Italian Pietro Peregrino wrote a treatise "The Message of the Magnet", a significant part of which is devoted to the description of an iron cogwheel located in the same case with a powerful magnet.
The magnet, according to the inventor's conviction, must repel the tooth closest to it, then the next one, and so on, which makes the wheel go into non-stop motion. Whether Peregrino himself attempted to build such a facility remains unknown.
In 1570, Johannes Tesnerius, Archbishop of Cologne, one of the close associates of Emperor Charles the Fifth, proposed his own version of a simpler magnetic perpetual motion machine.
A natural magnet was placed on top of a rack equipped with an inclined plane. According to the inventor, the magnet attracted a steel ball, which rose upward along the plane, fell down there through the hole and returned to its original point. In theory, the movement of the ball under the influence of a magnet should have been eternal.
But this scheme was already criticized by Bishop Wilkins in his book "Mathematical Magic". If a magnet has such an attractive force that it raises the ball up a slope, the bishop wrote, then this magnet is unlikely to allow the same ball to fall down through the hole. It will simply attract, "stick" the ball to itself, and the movement will immediately stop.
Trying to overcome difficulties of this kind, the inventors began to look for a special substance capable of neutralizing the forces of magnetism, so that they would be turned on and off at the calculated moments of time. If a plate of such a substance was placed between two magnets, they assured, then it would be easy to achieve perpetual motion, combining magnetic and non-magnetic materials in the mechanism, for example, copper and iron.
Promotional video:
In the early 19th century, a self-taught Scottish inventor and shoemaker by trade, Spence announced that he had found such a miracle substance and had already built, supposedly, two perfectly working machines. For a while, the news became a sensation. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that Spence had simply cheated.
ENGINEER PAYNE'S CAR
As soon as the development of electrical engineering began, the inventors of the perpetual motion machine immediately took its capabilities into their arsenal.
The most popular project "perpetuum mobile" based on current strength was a circuit where an electric motor drove a generator, and that, in turn, fed energy without any loss to the same motor. As a result, the circuit had to run forever without any recharging. It is characteristic that applications for such inventions were submitted not only by self-taught, but even by certified engineers.
Every now and then there were rumors that a talented engineer from the provinces had allegedly invented a generator capable of driving a 20-horsepower motor into continuous action due to atmospheric electricity! However, no one saw this miracle generator with their own eyes.
But in 1870 a sensation occurred.
A certain engineer Payne demonstrated his electromagnetic machine in Newark, New Jersey. This rather bulky structure was installed on the second floor of a large industrial building.
Payne's car received an impulse from a small electric battery, after which all its mechanisms and components came into non-stop motion. The machine was examined by specialists who said that it can be used for work in turning shops, sawmills and even on river vessels!
An instant celebrity inventor announced that a machine could be made even more perfect by investing some money in its refinement. He, they say, has wonderful ideas, the implementation of which will allow the serial production of a unique novelty. He soon set up a company and stocks were in great demand.
The inventor's business was going excellently until Dr. Henry Morton from the same Newark became interested in his brainchild. Morton insisted that the inventor give him the opportunity to examine the car more closely.
Since the case went public, and further success depended largely on Morton's conclusion, Payne did not oppose this verification. Morton 8 studied the mechanisms of the machine for several days, almost with a magnifying glass in his hands, but did not find any trick.
The machine was still powered by a small battery, and then ran nonstop all day until Payne turned it off himself.
This usually happened around six in the evening. Morton was already ready to admit the authenticity of the invention, but decided to arrange another check, for he did not leave doubts.
On that day, he involuntarily lingered until evening. Suddenly the car stopped. Morton glanced automatically at his watch: it was six in the evening. He asked Payne to turn on the car for a while, but he, clearly embarrassed, replied that there was a breakdown of some part. But Morton already guessed the true reason for the stop.
One floor below there was a workshop equipped with a conventional steam engine. The workshop finished work at exactly six o'clock in the evening. Apparently Payne's setup was connected to a well-disguised steam engine, and the battery was just a diversion.
The next day Payne disappeared with his car. But a part of the metal frame remained in the room, which was used for the installation of the installation. The frame turned out to be hollow inside, and the size of the cavity was such that it was quite possible to disguise the drive belt coming from the lower workshop in it.
So another "electrical" myth about a perpetual motion machine burst.
ETERNAL NANOMOTOR
Nowadays, there is a rapid development of nanotechnology. And now they started talking about the possibility of creating a perpetual motion machine based on them. In serious publications there are reports of the first successes in this direction.
Not in amateur workshops, but in well-known scientific centers, such as the University of California, Barcelona, Bologna and others, a nanomotor has already been created that does not need chemical fuel.
Shaped like a tiny dumbbell with a ring on the handle, it completes a full cycle in less than one thousandth of a second. This process can be compared to the work of a car engine, making 60 thousand strokes per minute.
Now all that remains is to create surface coatings and membranes from a multitude of similar nanomotors working in concert. It is they who will perform mechanical work in any given volume.
The highlight here is that the nanomotor, strictly speaking, does not belong to the category of "perpetuum mobile", since it consumes energy in the process of its work, it only takes it from "gratuitous", "inexhaustible" sources - from sunlight, due to the difference temperatures, changes in atmospheric pressure … But from the point of view of an ordinary consumer, that is, each of us, such an engine, of course, is "eternal", since it does not require any recharging.
Whether it will be possible to create it for mass and convenient use, whether it will enter widely into our everyday life, or will it remain at the level of scientific experiments, the not so distant future will show.