Buzz
The idea of perpetual motion has long captured human imagination. While it’s generally dismissed as pseudoscience today, the dream of creating machines that can defy the laws of physics continues to inspire inventors to craft ever more ambitious and bizarre devices in the hopes of changing the world.
10. Karpen's Perpetual Battery
In the 1950s, Romanian engineer Nicolae Vasilescu-Karpen developed a battery that continues to function today. It resides at the National Technical Museum of Romania, although it's not on public display. Despite its continued operation, the mystery of how and why it still works remains unsolved.
The battery inside the device is still the original one-volt model that Karpen installed back in the 1950s. However, due to a lack of funds for proper display and security, the machine has been kept in storage. The discovery that it was still running came about when a Romanian newspaper visited the museum on what seemed to be a quiet news day.
Karpen's doctoral research, conducted in 1904, focused on the influence of magnets on moving bodies, making him a prime candidate for inventing something as unique as his perpetual battery. By 1909, his studies expanded to high-frequency currents and the long-distance transmission of telephone signals. He also contributed to the development of telegraph stations, investigated ambient heat, and made strides in fuel cell technology. Despite all his groundbreaking work, modern scientists are still puzzled by the mysteries surrounding his battery.
Various theories have been proposed to explain the functioning of Karpen’s mysterious battery. Some suggest it could be a process where thermal energy is converted into mechanical energy in a continuous loop, while others speculate it involves undiscovered thermodynamic principles. The complex mathematics behind this invention seems to touch on concepts like the thermal-siphon effect and scalar temperature field equations. Though we haven't yet achieved a perpetual motion machine capable of generating free energy, we can't help but wish our batteries had the same longevity.
9. Joe Newman's Energy Machine
In 1911, the US Patent Office issued a sweeping decision that would prevent the granting of patents for perpetual motion or free energy devices, citing the scientific impossibility of such inventions. For many inventors, this decision made it even harder to gain recognition for their work within the scientific community.
In 1984, Joe Newman made a bold appearance on CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, presenting a device that seemed destined to change the world. With the recent memory of the oil crisis still fresh, the idea that an inventor had created a perpetual motion machine that produced more energy than it consumed captured the public’s imagination.
Except for the scientists, that is.
The National Bureau of Standards conducted tests on Newman's device, which primarily consisted of a battery pack powered by a rotating magnet within a wire coil. Unfortunately, when tested, all of Newman’s claims failed to hold up, though some people still chose to believe in his invention. Newman continued to showcase his Energy Machine, asserting that it could produce more than 100 percent efficiency and that his machines could generate ten times the energy put into them. When his patent applications were rejected and the scientific community dismissed his work, he was devastated.
An amateur scientist who never completed high school, Newman refused to give up, even when no one supported his vision. Believing that God had chosen him to be the steward of a machine that would change the world for the better, Newman remained convinced that the true potential of his invention had been concealed by powerful forces.
8. Robert Fludd’s Water Screw
Robert Fludd was a unique figure, embodying the perfect blend of scientist and alchemist during the early 17th century. He was known for his unconventional views, such as his belief that lightning was a manifestation of God’s wrath, which caused people to be struck if they didn’t take cover. However, Fludd also embraced concepts that we now accept as scientific truths, even though they were far ahead of his time.
Fludd’s version of a perpetual motion machine was a water wheel designed to grind grain while continuously recirculating the water that powered it. He referred to this invention as the “water screw.” The earliest wood engravings of this design, published in 1660 (though conceived around 1618), are considered some of the first illustrations of their kind.
Needless to say, the device didn’t work. However, Fludd wasn’t solely focused on defying the laws of physics with his machine. He also aimed to provide a solution for farmers. At the time, grain grinding relied heavily on streams. Those living far from a reliable water source had to transport their crops to the mill and then return them to the farm. Had his perpetual motion machine succeeded, it would have significantly eased the burden for countless farmers.
7. Bhaskara’s Wheel
One of the earliest known references to perpetual motion machines comes from the mathematician and astronomer Bhaskara, who wrote about the concept around 1150. His design featured an unbalanced wheel with curved, mercury-filled spokes. As the wheel rotated, the movement of the mercury provided the necessary force to keep it turning.
Over time, various iterations of Bhaskara’s wheel were created, all based on this initial idea. It’s easy to see why this seemed plausible: A constantly unbalanced wheel would naturally seek balance, and in theory, it should continue to turn. Some designers even trusted their wheels so much that they included brakes to prevent things from spiraling out of control.
With our current understanding of force, friction, and work, we now know that an unbalanced wheel won’t achieve perpetual motion because it won't recover all the energy, let alone generate enough to require brakes. Nevertheless, the idea was fascinating, particularly when viewed through the lens of Hindu religious beliefs surrounding self-renewal and the cycle of life. The concept remained so popular that wheel-shaped perpetual motion machines appeared in later Islamic and European texts.
6. Cox’s Perpetual Timepiece
In 1774, renowned London clockmaker James Cox unveiled his perpetual motion timepiece, which closely followed the description provided in the accompanying documentation explaining why the clock never required winding. The six-page document detailed how the clock was created through the 'union of mechanic and philosophic principles.'
Cox claimed that the clock, powered by diamonds, achieved constant motion while minimizing internal friction to nearly zero. This, he argued, slowed the decay of the clock’s metal components to an unprecedented degree. While this may sound like a lofty claim, it was common for new technological inventions of the time to be presented with a mystical aura.
Although Cox’s timepiece wasn’t truly a perpetual motion machine, it was a remarkably innovative clock. Encased in glass to protect it from dust while showcasing its internal mechanisms, the clock was powered by atmospheric pressure changes. Whether the mercury in the clock’s barometer rose or fell, it caused the inner wheels to move in the same direction, gradually winding the clock. Once the clock was nearly fully wound, the gears would shift, and the chain would loosen to a specific point, allowing everything to realign, restarting the winding process.
The first widely recognized example of a perpetual motion clock, it was initially displayed by Cox at Spring Garden. Later, it was showcased at the Weeks’ Mechanical Museum and then at the Clerkenwell Institute. The clock was such a marvel of the era that it inspired countless fictional works, and Cox charged spectators a substantial fee to witness his creation.
5. Paul Baumann’s Testatika
Watchmaker Paul Baumann founded the spiritual community Methernitha in the 1950s. The members of this religious group live in a self-sustaining, environmentally conscious manner, abstaining from alcohol, drugs, and tobacco. They claim that their founder’s miraculous perpetual motion machine is key to their lifestyle.
Known as the Testatika, this machine is said to capture unused electrical energy and convert it into power for the community. The Testatika resides in a restricted building, never having undergone full scientific examination, though it was briefly featured in a 1999 documentary. Despite the limited footage, the community staunchly believes in the machine's near-sacred powers.
The plans and design of the Testatika were reportedly given to Baumann directly by God while he was serving a prison sentence for molesting a young girl. According to the story, Baumann was disheartened by the darkness of his cell and the absence of light for reading. It was during this time that he had a mystical vision, which granted him the secret to perpetual motion and boundless, eco-friendly energy. The sect’s followers confirm the divine origin of the Testatika, even claiming that attempts to photograph the machine have shown it surrounded by a halo of multicolored light.
In the 1990s, a Bulgarian physicist sought to persuade the sect to reveal the designs of the Testatika, hoping to share the concept of this free energy device with the world. However, his efforts were in vain. After committing suicide in 1997 by jumping out of a window, he left behind a note that read: “I did what I could, let those who can do better.”
4. Bessler’s Wheel
Johann Bessler’s journey into perpetual motion began with a concept similar to Bhaskara’s wheel: by weighing one side of a wheel, it would remain unbalanced and constantly rotate. On November 12, 1717, Bessler sealed his invention inside a locked room, which was guarded. When the door was reopened two weeks later, the 3.7-meter (12 ft) diameter wheel was still turning. The room was sealed once again, and the same pattern was repeated. When the door was opened again in early January 1718, the wheel was still in motion.
Despite the wheel’s success, Bessler was extremely secretive about its inner workings, only stating that it relied on weights to keep it unbalanced. His secrecy was so intense that when an engineer managed to sneak a peek at the wheel, Bessler became enraged and destroyed it. The engineer later claimed to have seen nothing unusual, though he had only observed the exterior and had no insight into the wheel’s actual mechanism. Even during that time, the notion of a perpetual motion machine was met with skepticism, as centuries earlier, Leonardo da Vinci had mocked the concept of such a machine.
Yet, the idea of Bessler’s wheel has never fully disappeared. In 2014, engineer John Collins from Warwickshire claimed that after years of studying Bessler’s designs, he was close to unlocking the secrets of the wheel. Bessler himself once stated that he had destroyed all the evidence, blueprints, and drawings of how his wheel operated, but added that anyone who was intelligent and persistent enough could eventually figure it out.
3. David Hamel’s Antigravity Machine
In his self-proclaimed “incredible true life story,” David Hamel describes himself as a humble carpenter with no formal education, chosen to be the guardian of a free energy machine—and the spacecraft powered by it. After meeting extraterrestrials from the planet Kladen, Hamel claims to have received world-changing knowledge—if only people would believe him.
Though his story is a bit perplexing, Hamel explains that his perpetual motion engine harnesses the same forces a spider uses to leap between strands of its web. These scalar energies counteract gravity’s pull, and eventually, he believes it will enable him to build a craft that will reconnect us with the Kladen natives who shared this information with him in the first place.
If Hamel’s account is to be believed, he’s already constructed such a device. Unfortunately, it flew away.
After spending 20 years constructing this interstellar device and engine using magnets, Hamel finally powered it up, and that’s when it happened. Amid a glow of vibrant ions, his antigravity machine lifted into the air and shot off across the Pacific. In order to prevent a repeat of this unfortunate event, Hamel is now building his next machine with heavier materials such as granite.
To comprehend the principles behind this technology, Hamel says you must look to the pyramids, consult certain banned books, accept the existence of unseen energy, and think of peanuts and peanut butter as representations of scalars and the ionosphere.
2. Cornelis Drebbel’s Perpetuum Mobile
The most peculiar thing about Cornelis Drebbel’s perpetual motion machine is that, although we’re still unsure what it actually was or how it functioned, it’s likely that you’ve encountered it more times than you think.
Drebbel first unveiled his machine in 1604, astonishing everyone, including the royal family of England. The device seemed to function as a timekeeper; it never needed winding and displayed both the date and the phases of the Moon. Powered by fluctuations in temperature or weather, his machine operated via an air thermoscope or a barometer, similar to Cox’s timepiece.
The exact mechanism that powered Drebbel’s device remains unknown, as he described it in mystical terms, saying he harnessed the “fiery spirit of the air” like an alchemist. At the time, the world was still viewed through the lens of the four classical elements, and Drebbel was conducting experiments with sulfur and saltpeter.
In a letter from 1604, the earliest known illustration of the device depicted a central globe surrounded by a glass tube filled with liquid. Gold fittings and dials tracked the phases of the Moon. Other versions of the machine’s depiction were more ornate, adorned with mythological creatures and gilded decorations. The Perpetuum Mobile also appeared in various paintings, particularly those by Albrecht and Rubens. In those works, the machine’s unusual, doughnut-like shape appeared less like a globe and more like something else entirely.
Drebbel’s creations captured the interest of royal courts across Europe, leading him to tour the continent for some time. However, despite his fame, he died in poverty. The uneducated son of a farmer, he enjoyed the patronage of Buckingham Palace, invented one of the first submarines, and spent his final years running an alehouse after several of his projects went awry, tarnishing his reputation.
1. Otis T. Carr’s UFO Engine
In the Catalog of Copyright Entries (Third Series: 1958: July-December), there is an unusual listing. Despite the US Patent Office’s long-standing stance that perpetual motion machines couldn’t be patented due to their non-existence, OTC Enterprises, Inc. and its founder, Otis T. Carr, are registered as the owners of a ‘free energy system,’ ‘peaceful atomic energy,’ and a ‘gravity motor.’
In 1959, OTC Enterprises was set to launch its ‘fourth dimensional space vehicle’, which would be powered by a perpetual motion engine. Though at least one individual caught a brief glimpse of the scattered components of this secretive project, the vehicle was never revealed or launched. Instead, Carr was hospitalized with an unspecified condition on the day the vehicle was scheduled for its inaugural flight.
Perhaps his illness was a calculated excuse to avoid the demonstration, but it didn’t keep him out of trouble. Carr had been selling stock options for a technology that didn’t exist, deceiving investors who believed the craft would eventually carry them back to their extraterrestrial home.
In an effort to bypass patent limitations on his outlandish claims, Carr registered his creation as an ‘amusement device’ intended to simulate trips into space. This device was assigned US Patent # 2,912,244 (granted on November 10, 1959). Carr defended his claims by asserting that the spacecraft was proven since one had already ‘escaped.’ The propulsion system was described as a ‘free energy circular foil,’ designed to provide an infinite supply of energy to propel the craft into space.
The strange events surrounding this case sparked a wave of conspiracy theories. Some speculated that Carr had indeed made the perpetual motion engine work and managed to get the craft airborne. However, these claims were allegedly suppressed by the US government. The theorists couldn’t settle on whether the government was trying to keep the technology hidden from the public or if they wanted to control it for their own purposes.
