No one now actually believes that either the Marquis or the Councillor ever made a wheel or machine that actually furnished its own motive-power. Those who believe in the impossibility of Perpetual Motion, of course, do not admit the possibility of such a thing. Those who may still believe in the possibility of Perpetual Motion devices admit, as they must, that had either of these discoveries actually been made it would have supplanted steam, electricity, wind, water and all other forms of power for driving machinery, and, indeed, for furnishing heat. And, yet, the above articles and comments show that the contemporaries of the Marquis and the Councillor, and subsequent writers on their claims sought to find excuses and explanations consistent with their good faith and their claims. We do not accuse either one of them of vicious falsehood, but the truth is that when the Marquis of Worcester wrote that "all the weights of the descending side of a wheel shall be perpetually farther from the centre than those of the mounting side, and yet equal in number and heft to the one side as the other. A most incredible thing, if not seen; but tried before the late King (of blessed memory) in the Tower by my directions," etc., he meant, if he meant anything, to convey the idea that he had constructed such a machine, and had exhibited it before King Charles I, and when Orffyreus wrote "The inward structure of the wheel is of a nature according to the laws of mechanical perpetual motion, so arranged that by disposed weights once in rotation they gain force from their own swinging and must continue their movement as long as their structure does not lose its position and arrangement," he meant, as clearly appears from the entire context of what he wrote, to convey the idea that he had constructed a wheel capable of moving perpetually by virtue of the arrangement of its own parts until it should wear out. Neither one spoke the truth. Each knew that he had done no such thing as he claimed to have done. He probably thought the solution so near at hand that he could safely announce it to the world, and when called upon for a demonstration could produce the finished working article.
The author of this book has known many Perpetual Motion workers so confident and so enthusiastic that unhampered with extreme discretion, they announced that they were near enough to the solution of this ages-old puzzle that they were certain of success. A little less discretion, with the slightest disregard or even carelessness about the absolute truth could have easily led them to announce that they had such a working machine. The author has indeed known a few such announcements. It is therefore, not surprising that in the history of Perpetual Motion labors, instances can be found where the tireless, but enthusiastic worker being full of confidence, and not secretive, and with the least bit of human carelessness about the truth have announced the actual discovery and successful operation of the machine. We will undertake to say that there have been thousands of just such instances during the last three or four centuries, probably tens of thousands. It is probable that such an instance could be found in every township in the United States. It is not, therefore, surprising that two instances can be found in persons of sufficient personal eminence to give credence and weight to their stories. Such we conceive the facts with reference to the Marquis and the Councillor. Each thought what he told when telling it to be a harmless stretch of the truth, and felt sure that he could protect himself by a very little added perfection to his device. How many many Perpetual Motion devices have been perfect and ready for successful operation except for "one little thing," which the inventor felt sure of finding.
The Marquis and Councillor by their little indiscretion, and their puerile carelessness about the truth, each made himself neither famous, nor infamous, but ridiculous in history.
[CHAPTER XI]
Conservation of Energy—A Discussion of the Relation of the Doctrine of Conservation of Energy, and the Possibility of Perpetual Motion
Conservation of Energy is a doctrine to the effect that energy, like matter, is indestructible, and, except by the infinite, can neither be created nor destroyed; that the sum total of all Energy in the world remains constant; that it may manifest itself in different forms, as heat, magnetism, electricity, mechanical motion, vaporization, but that the sum total remains the same.
Nothing could be more satisfactorily proved than this doctrine, and, yet, like Newton's theory of universal gravitation the proof does not amount to a mathematical demonstration. Mathematics demonstrates the conformity of the doctrine of universal gravitation, and of Conservation of Energy with all known natural processes and observed phenomena; but mathematics does not otherwise prove the Universality of Gravitation nor Conservation of Energy.
Writing on this subject of proof, with reference to gravitation, the late and eminent Simon Newcomb says: