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PHVSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
machine was based on resonating tuning forks that he claimed tapped
into the "ether." Kelly, a man with no scientific background, would invite wealthy investors to his house, where he would amaze them with
his Hydro-Pneumatic-Pulsating-Vacuo-Engine, which whizzed around
without any external power source. Eager investors, amazed by this selfpropelled machine, flocked to pour money into his coffers.
Later some disillusioned investors angrily accused him of fraud,
and he actually spent some time in jail, although he died a wealthy
man. After his death investigators found the clever secret of his machine. When his house was torn down concealed tubes were found in
the floor and walls of the basement that secretly delivered compressed
air to his machines. These tubes in turn were energized by a flywheel.
Even the U.S. Navy and the president of the United States were
taken in by such a machine. In 1881 John Gamgee invented a liquid
ammonia machine. The vaporization of cold ammonia would create
expanding gases that could move a piston, and hence could power machines using only the heat of the oceans themselves. The U.S. Navy
was so enthralled with the idea of extracting unlimited energy from
the oceans that it approved the device and even demonstrated it to
President James Garfield. The problem was that the vapor did not condense back into a liquid properly; hence the cycle could not be completed.
So many proposals for perpetual motion machines have been presented to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that the office
refuses to grant a patent for such a device unless a working model is
presented. In certain rare circumstances, when the patent examiners
can find nothing obviously wrong with a model, a patent is granted.
The USPTO states, "With the exception of cases involving perpetual
motion, a model is not ordinarily required by the Office to demonstrate
the operability of a device." (This loophole has allowed unscrupulous
inventors to persuade naïve investors to finance their inventions by
claiming that the USPTO has officially recognized their machine.)
The pursuit of the perpetual motion machine, however, has not
been fruitless from a scientific point of view. On the contrary, although
PHVSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE
machine was based on resonating tuning forks that he claimed tapped
into the "ether." Kelly, a man with no scientific background, would invite wealthy investors to his house, where he would amaze them with
his Hydro-Pneumatic-Pulsating-Vacuo-Engine, which whizzed around
without any external power source. Eager investors, amazed by this selfpropelled machine, flocked to pour money into his coffers.
Later some disillusioned investors angrily accused him of fraud,
and he actually spent some time in jail, although he died a wealthy
man. After his death investigators found the clever secret of his machine. When his house was torn down concealed tubes were found in
the floor and walls of the basement that secretly delivered compressed
air to his machines. These tubes in turn were energized by a flywheel.
Even the U.S. Navy and the president of the United States were
taken in by such a machine. In 1881 John Gamgee invented a liquid
ammonia machine. The vaporization of cold ammonia would create
expanding gases that could move a piston, and hence could power machines using only the heat of the oceans themselves. The U.S. Navy
was so enthralled with the idea of extracting unlimited energy from
the oceans that it approved the device and even demonstrated it to
President James Garfield. The problem was that the vapor did not condense back into a liquid properly; hence the cycle could not be completed.
So many proposals for perpetual motion machines have been presented to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) that the office
refuses to grant a patent for such a device unless a working model is
presented. In certain rare circumstances, when the patent examiners
can find nothing obviously wrong with a model, a patent is granted.
The USPTO states, "With the exception of cases involving perpetual
motion, a model is not ordinarily required by the Office to demonstrate
the operability of a device." (This loophole has allowed unscrupulous
inventors to persuade naïve investors to finance their inventions by
claiming that the USPTO has officially recognized their machine.)
The pursuit of the perpetual motion machine, however, has not
been fruitless from a scientific point of view. On the contrary, although