On reading about this mistake, one is inclined to base the judgment of Hjorth upon assumptions belonging to the present time. But this would be a great injustice to him. The axiom that the quantity of energy in nature is unalterable, and consequently a perpetuum mobile an impossibility, has, as it were, been imbued by our own generation with the mother’s milk. Not so with Hjorth. Not until the forties of the last century, did Mayer, Joule and Colding, the City Engineer of Copenhagen, set forth their theories about the permanency of energy, and about the convertibility of heat into mechanical activity, and of the latter into heat again. These theories, however, were very slowly accepted, even by scientists. It is, therefore, no wonder that a man like Hjorth, having no special scientific training, could not easily digest the new theory and Hjorth did not have any instinctive sensation of having entered upon a hopeless and impossible track. On the contrary, he imagined the new wonderful form of energy to conceal unestimable possibilities which he had only to wrest from nature.
Though Hjorth was thus ship-wrecked on his favourite idea, he nevertheless discovered new land, fertile for coming generations. His intrepid zeal guided him, as Ørsted had anticipated, in spite of his lack of scientific education, on to the road leading to the splendid results of this day.
None of Hjorth’s original partners participated in the manufacture of his latest machines, and possibly this was due to his above-mentioned erroneous idea. Only one of his English friends, Wm. Macredie, of Melbourne, maintained his attachment to Hjorth and his confidence in him to the last. He was always very interested in Hjorth’s schemes, and, besides, he shared his religious creed.
Hjorth was very anxious as to his future. When he returned from England, he stood quite destitute and felt depressed by poverty. His health was not of the best, and his formerly so neat hand-writing had become unsteady. He received, shortly after his return, a communication from his English partners that they wished to have the dynamo patented in Denmark and France, which showed that they had faith in this machine, but nevertheless these were hard times for Hjorth.
The dynamo remained for some time with Malcolm, in Liverpool, and negotiations for its sale were several times entered into, but were without results. It was tested on several occasions, but these tests proved that it could not yield as much as might be expected from its size. The uncoiled magnets, which were originally of cast iron, were replaced by more powerful steel magnets. Upon the whole, this dynamo had a rather eventful existence, for first every other magnet pole was removed (see [Fig. 6]), and then it was proposed to rewind the magnets. In May, 1857, it was donated to the Polytechnic Institute, Regent Street, in London. Among the papers left by Hjorth, there are a daguerreotype and a photograph of this machine, (from which the accompanying [Fig. 6] is reproduced).
Notwithstanding a thorough search of the London museums, it has been impossible to trace this machine, which is said to have been seen in London during the nineties.
Hjorth was now compelled to find a new means of earning his livelihood, and to make new connections. In 1857, he became the representative of Cyclop’s Steel Manufactory, Charles Cammell, of Sheffield, and in 1859, he applied for and obtained a licence as a translator of English in Copenhagen. Finally he had a kind of engineering and patent office, assisting strangers in obtaining monopolies, and doing work for new railroads, bridges etc. In the beginning of the sixties he caused a research to be made concerning the use of coals from Hornholm and Silkeborg, and the use of peat for briquettes. In April, 1860, he applied to the government for a position, enabling him to work for the building of new railroads in Denmark, and at the same time he referred to his previous merits in that direction. As he had not, within a year thereafter, received any position, he made a petition for a yearly pension, in case such a position could not be given to him. As »the idea of building the Sealand railroad, as well as the general location of this road, is mainly due to Secretary Hjorth ... and further more, no small share in the completion of the undertaking is due to him«, it was proposed, on the budget for 1861-62, to grant a pension to Hjorth. That year and the following ones, until his death, he received 500 rixdollars.
During these years, Hjorth lived at 10 Nørrebrogade. In 1845, he married Vilhelmine Ancker, née Hansen (born on the 27th of March, 1805), the widow of the farmer Diderick Ancker, of »Lille Egede«, and thereby he became the step-father of two daughters. This marriage was childless.
This carefully dressed little man[9] in top-hat and high-heeled shoes, was well known, and very well liked in many circles. He was always amiable and willing to help, and it is known that he has, at great personal sacrifice, assisted young artisans who were in hard luck. In society he attracted attention by his power of fascination and by his universal knowledge. On Sundays he was regularly seen directing his steps to St. John’s church, where, for many years, he was a member of Rev. Frimodt’s congregation.
During the period of depression above described, Hjorth could naturally not very well afford to occupy himself with experiments, nor had he much time. Still, in 1857, he secured permission to undertake, at the navy yard, some experiments concerning the carrying capacity of a magnet at varying distances between the pole and the armature, and at the same time he sketched out the construction of an electro-motor, especially well adapted to utilize the magnetic attraction. This electro-motor was built in Copenhagen with funds granted by the »Classenske Fideicommis«. When it was finished, Hjorth applied for the money needed to make it double acting.