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Mechanical Appliances and Novelties of Construction
by
Gardner D. Hiscox, M.E.
Norman W. Henley Publ. Co.
1927

The Inventor's Paradox - Desaguliers' Demonstration
The Prevailing Wheel Type
Marquis Of Worcester Wheel
Rolling Balls
Folding Arms
Chain Wheel
Most Common Idea
Magnetism And Gravity
Pick-up Ball
Ball-Carrying Belt
Ferguson's Type
French, 1858
Revolving Tubes And Balls
Geared Motive Power
Differential Hydrostatic Wheel
Lever Type
Double Cone
Rocking Beam
Titling Tray And Ball
Rolling Ring
Differential Water Wheel
Multiple Water Wheel
Gear Problem
Mercurial Wheel
Water Wheel
Air-Bag Wheel
Water Wheel
Air Transfer In Submerged Wheel
Extending Weights And Water Transfer
Chain Buckets
Congreve's Sponges
Transfer Of Air
Differential Weight of Balls
Inclined Disk And Balls
Self-Moving Water Power
Chain Pump, 1618
Archimedean Screw
Differential Weight By Flotation
Floatation Problem
Liquid Transfer Wheel
Chain-Pump
Mercurial Displacement
Air-Buoyed Wheel
Magnetic Resistance
Overbalanced Cylinder
Hydrostatic Weight
Capillary Attraction
Magnetic Pendulum
Magnetic Wheel
Magnetic Mill
Regenerating Pendulum
Magnetic Wheel
Alternate Magnet Type
Electro-magnetic Type
Electrical Generation
Perpetual-Motion Puzzle



23. Perpetual Motion
Electrical generation

     The fallacy of perpetual motion is now so generally understood that the description of a new scheme for attaining it is only justified in so far as it may be instructive. The sketch illustrates such a device, apparently successful, and the discovery of the error in it is both instructive and interesting.

Perpetual Motion Machine: 970A-Puzzle

     Mount a horseshoe magnet on a wooden base, and into the latter cut a continuous groove along the three sides of a triangle opposite the poles of the magnet, N and S. Suspend a long narrow bar magnet on a universal joint from a standard. A pin projects into the groove from the lower end, "which is its north pole, and can move only along the triangular course.

     Start the device with the suspended magnet in the position shown. The lower end will tend to move in the direction of the arrows, because in so doing it is getting farther away from the repelling north pole of the horseshoe magnet and nearer the attracting south pole, which action will bring it to the corner of the triangle in the foreground. It will next move down the side as indicated by the arrow, because along that line it is nearer the attracting south than the repelling north pole. When it reaches the end of its trip, at the angle between the poles of the magnet, the attraction and repulsion will be balanced, but a slight jar will carry the traveler beyond the angle.

     The third leg of the triangle will be covered similarly, the north pole repelling the traveler. On this basis the motion should continue indefinitely, but a test will show that it will not do so.

     The corners of the triangle should be rounded slightly and it would be better to use several hanging magnets, flexibly connected, so that when one is at the dead center the others will carry the traveler on.

(Subsection 970A, from p.390)


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