[CONTENTS]
For Summarized Table of Contents, see page [358] et seq.
| Page | |
| Introduction | [3] |
| Preface | [7]–[10] |
| Introductory Essay | [11]–[21] |
| Chapter I. | |
| Devices by Means of Wheels and Weights | [22]–[67] |
| Chapter II. | |
| Devices by Means of Rolling Weights and Inclined Planes | [68]–[75] |
| Chapter III. | |
| Hydraulic and Hydro-Mechanical Devices | [76]–[117] |
| Chapter IV. | |
| Pneumatic Siphon and Hydro-Pneumatic Devices | [118]–[162] |
| Chapter V. | |
| Magnetic Devices | [163]–[174] |
| Chapter VI. | |
| Devices Utilizing Capillary Attraction and Physical Affinity | [175]–[194] |
| Chapter VII. | |
| Liquid Air as a Means of Perpetual Motion | [195]–[196] |
| Chapter VIII. | |
| Radium and Radio-Active Substances Considered as a Conceived Source of Perpetual Motion | [197]–[199] |
| Chapter IX. | |
| Perpetual Motion Devices Attempting Its Attainment by a Misconception of the Relation of Momentum and Energy | [200]–[211] |
| Chapter X. | |
| The Alleged Inventions of Edward Sommerset, Sixth Earl and Second Marquis of Worcester, and of Jean Ernest Eli-Bessler (Councillor) Orffyreus | [212]–[255] |
| Chapter XI. | |
| Conservation of Energy. A Discussion of the Relation of the Doctrine of Conservation of Energy, and the Possibility of Perpetual Motion | [256]–[269] |
| Chapter XII. | |
| Will Perpetual Motion Ever Be Accomplished? A Discussion by the Author, with a Review of the Opinions of Eminent Scientists on the Subject | [270]–[357] |
[PREFACE.]
The author has no apology to offer for the production of this book. He has spent his life in environments that have brought him into constant contact with mechanics, artisans and laborers as well as professional men, engineers, chemists and technical experts of various types. He knows a great many men—young men, for the most part—are constantly working on the old, old problem of Perpetual Motion; that much money, and much time are being spent in search of a solution for that problem which all scientific and technical men tell us is impossible of solution.
It is believed by the author that a classification and presentation of selected groups of the devices produced in the past by which it was by the inventor believed, self-motive power had been attained, will save much work in fields already thoroughly exploited.
So far as the author knows no book on the subject has appeared since 1870. The various encyclopedias published contain articles on the subject, but they are necessarily brief, and not satisfying to young men who have become interested in the subject.
In 1861, Henry Dircks, a civil engineer, of London, published a work entitled "Perpetuum Mobile; or, Search for Self-Motive Power, During the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries." The book contains 599 pages, and was followed in 1870, by a second series by the same author entitled "Perpetuum Mobile, or a History of the Search for Self-Motive Power from the Thirteenth, to the Nineteenth Century." In these two books there is amassed a wonderful amount of material showing on the part of the author diligence, great patience and wide and thorough search.