Device by Means of Buoyancy Through Media of Different Densities
An account of this appeared in "Mechanics' Magazine," 1825. The author apparently had no great faith in the accomplishment of Perpetual Motion, and yet it is manifest that he had not abandoned hope of accomplishing it, and is still thinking along some line of attaining it. It goes without saying that the device failed. The account furnished, however, is as follows:
The unsuccessful (but far from fruitless) search made to discover the "philosopher's stone," and the "elixir vitæ," were productive of most important and beneficial results in the kingdom of chemistry; so, by a parity of consequence, I am disposed to believe that from inquiry after the "perpetual motion" (though equally unsuccessful), a similar good will result to the mechanical world. * * I beg leave to offer the prefixed device. The point at which, like all the rest, it fails, I confess I did not (as I do now) plainly perceive at once, although it is certainly very obvious. The original idea was this—to enable a body which would float in a heavy medium and sink in a lighter one, to pass successively through the one to the other, the continuation of which would be the end in view. To say that valves cannot be made to act as proposed will not be to show the rationale (if I may so say) upon which the idea is fallacious.
The figure is supposed to be tubular, and made of glass, for the purpose of seeing the action of the balls inside, which float or fall as they travel from air through water and from water through air. The foot is supposed to be placed in water, but it would answer the same purpose if the bottom were closed.
Description of the Engraving.—No. 1, the left leg, filled with water from B to A. 2 and 3, valves, having in their centers very small projecting valves; they all open upwards. 4, the right leg, containing air from A to F. 5 and 6, valves, having very small ones in their centers; they all open downwards. The whole apparatus supposed to be air- and water-tight. The round figures represent hollow balls, which will sink one-fourth of their bulk in water (of course will fall in air); the weight, therefore, of three balls resting upon one ball in water, as at E, will just bring this top even with the water's edge; the weight of four balls will sink it under the surface until the ball immediately over it is one-fourth its bulk in water, when the under ball will escape round the corner at C, and begin to ascend.
The machine is supposed (in the figure) to be in action, and No. 8 (one of the balls) to have just escaped round the corner at C, and to be, by its buoyancy, rising up to valve No. 3, striking first the small projecting valve in the center, which, when opened, the large one will be raised by the buoyancy of the ball; because the moment the small valve in the center is opened (although only the size of a pin's head), No. 2 valve will have taken upon itself to sustain the whole column of water from A to B. The said ball (No. 8) having passed through the valve No. 3, will, by appropriate weights or springs, close; the ball will proceed upwards to the next valve (No. 2), and perform the same operation there. Having arrived at A, it will float upon the surface three-fourths of its bulk out of water. Upon another ball in due course arriving under it, it will be lifted quite out of the water and fall over the point D, pass into the right leg (containing air), and fall to valve No. 5, strike and open the small valve in its center, then open the large one and pass through; this valve will then, by appropriate weights or springs, close, the ball will roll on through the bent tube (which is made in that form to gain time as well as to exhibit motion) to the next valve (No. 6), where it will perform the same operation, and then, falling upon the four balls at E, force the bottom one round the corner at C. This ball will proceed as did No. 8, and the rest in the same manner successively.
