Perpetual Motion Machine of Paul Scheerbart called 'Mickey Mouse'

In the last days of 1907, the German novelist and exponent of glass architecture Paul Scheerbart embarked upon an attempt to invent a perpetual motion machine. For the next two and a half years he would document his ongoing efforts (and failures) from his laundry-room-laboratory, hiring plumbers and mechanics to construct his models while spinning out a series of imagined futures that his invention-in-the-making was going to enable.
The Perpetual Motion Machine: The Story of an Invention, originally was published in German in 1910
#veproject1
#perpetualmotionmachine

[M]

I really don't understand why anyone would want to invent a perpetual motion machine, when all they have to do, is take a regular old commercially-available power strip, and plug it into itself. I've been doing this for years. But the drawback is that instead of paying for power bills, I have an exorbitant level of ammunition expenditure due to the number of Saudi assassins and oil company mercenaries who have tried to silence me for this miraculous discovery.

[Andrewlohbihler]

You will notice at 1:04 that this contraption starts like a motor, and has a constant speed of rotation. This is consistent with a motor driving it. If there was any principle to getting energy from gravity then the angle of tilt would cause a different rotation rate. This is clearly not happening so this is obviously fake.

[rstevewarmorycom]

(Pssst! It's got a hidden battery and motor!!)

[Lofi.z]

I love how you can see him pushing a button on the side of the box. Which obviously powers the wheel.

[RyanTaylor-pigq]

From the veproject website:

"Please, be advised:

These Videos are of motorized versions that were built to illustrate how these machines were supposed to work in the minds of Inventors."

It's amazing how willfully ignorant people are.

[sealight]

Notice the large blue box the device is sitting on? This is where the battery and the motor and pulley wheel is. The belt goes up one side to the top of the a-frame and back down again the other side. Rotating the arm with the attached wheels switches on the power. The round ball is a diversion. Why do people spend so much energy trying to trick the gullible with useless devices?

[joshhyyym]

These videos are always good for a laugh, in our physics class we often play a game of 'spot why the perpetual motion machine isn't in perpetual motion' :)

[backlashD]

Lawl, it just started moving at full speed instantly.. Just like Electric motors do.

[Justin-ougq]

Perpetual motion is impossible, everything is slowely slowing down, and there is friction always present

[BARUNIZ]

I love how the movement starts, at certain point it magically gains constant speed. Epic BS

[steve-o]

Thanks for the visual I now have a new solution in solving a old problem, even if what I just witnessed isn't what it claims to be.

[vishvakumara]

It is a torque rectifier. Wonderful design.! But you are actually converting the torque variations from hand to the hamster wheel.

This mechanism can be useful to convert seismic energy, vehicle jitter or just any undesired movements to usable power.!

[steverush]

Back in the nineteenth century, you had to be clever, running compressed air up through hollow table legs and frame members.  Electric drives make it so easy.

[redcapedjoker]

Why so many dislikes? This is amazing. Perpetual motion devices have existed for over 100 years now! The people who dislike have never made a thing in their lives. It is trully sad when innovation is met with such negativity.

[lucalamb]

The funny things is that when is weel is moving a strange AC50Hz noise (like an electrical engine) is present.. :)))

[wyanebiggs]

every time you touch it, the energy received changes, this is not perpetual motion.

[WeTrudgeOn]

He keeps moving the cross bar just a small amount to keep it rolling, if he were to let go of it the weight would go to the bottom and everything would stop.

[DJzSith]

That is a very thick base. How many perpetual batteries does is to hold?

[virtone]

Simply holding it (stationary) doesn't input energy. if you watch his right hand holding the wheel bar, you will see it oscillating very slightly from side to side. He may think he's holding it there to prevent the bar from rotating too far left/right, but will find it does not work if fixed firmly in place. He is reacting to the bar moving left by pulling it back right. Then the flywheel pulls it too far right and he pulls it back left. That is where energy is being added to the system.

[taquenos]

you make glass sculpture? so make your machine transparent hehehehe