were avowed believers, or, as the politicians would 

 say, upon the fence." IM 



Jones in 1828 accurately assessed the approach 

 of the great majority of men to the question of 

 "perpetual motion," as it has been generally 

 understood from the 13th to the 20th century. 

 Over the years, an increasing number of people 

 have paid lip service to the conclusion that the 

 operation of such a device would require viola- 

 tion of natural laws. Jones pointed out, however, 

 that "there are but few persons who admit this 

 truth as they admit an axiom; there appears in 

 general some mental reservation; some apprehen- 

 sion, that if they declare the thing impossible, it 

 may, nevertheless, happen that some lucky wight 



may 'hit upon it,' and ruin their reputation as 

 accurate philosophers." uo 



The quest for perpetual motion continues. I 

 doubt whether there lives a mechanically inclined 

 person who has not gone through the phase of 

 being attracted by the question, usually going so 

 far as to commit a rude sketch to paper and to 

 confront a friend or colleague with the question, 

 "Why won't this work?" 



Generally that is the end of it; but I have 

 answered my share of letters from those who have 

 "hit upon it" (on paper), and who want either to 

 receive the standing reward that they have been 

 told exists, or to share their exciting discovery with 

 the public, asking only the public acclaim that 

 will come with their great revelation. 



[An incident of] my boyhood was strongly impressed 

 on my mind, and as I do not know any one now liv- 

 ing who can describe it from their own knowledge, I 

 shall try to do so, believing it will be of interest. . . . 

 I refer to Redheffer's perpetual motion, which in its 

 time created as great a furor in the world as any move- 

 ment motor has. With our knowledge of the present 

 time we look with amazement at the credulity of men 

 of means, supposed to possess more than ordinary 

 intelligence, investing their money in secret for inter- 

 ests in theoretical motors claimed by their projectors 

 to be regenerators of the economic laws of the world. 

 This was exactly what was claimed by Redheffer, and 

 interests in his wonderful discovery were eagerly 

 purchased. 



I have no way of fixing the date of this excitement, 

 nearer than that my first recollection of it was hearing 

 the matter discussed during one of my summer vaca- 

 tions at the residence of my grandfather, Charles 

 Willson Peale , who at that time was living at his 

 country-seat near Germantown, one of Philadelphia's 

 suburbs; this would place the date somewhere near the 

 end of the teens of the present century. 111 



I recollect that at one of these discussions my 

 grandfather expressed himself as believing that Red- 

 heffer, though at that time he was practicing a fraud 

 in exhibiting his motor in operation on the original 



109 Journal of The Franklin Institute (November 1828), vol. 6, 

 pp. 318-327. 



110 Ibid. 



111 In 1 8 16, when Sellers was not quite 8 years old. 



conception of the theory on which he based its opera- 

 tion, had been honest in the belief that the machine 

 would be a perpetual self-mover; and that it was not 

 until he had discovered his error after having wasted 

 his time and impoverished himself, that he resorted to 

 the ingenious device that enabled him to exhibit his 

 machine in operation, to recuperate by the exhibition 

 fees and gull the creditors into purchase of interest in 

 his perpetual motor. My father, who was present at 

 this discussion, was not disposed to be so lenient; he 

 freely expressed himself as believing the thing to have 

 been a fraud or trick from its earliest conception. 



The machine then on exhibition being within easy 

 walking distance, it was proposed that the party go to 

 see the wonderful machine in motion; I, as a boy, 

 accompanied them. We found quite a crowd there; 

 lines of carriages in waiting; many pedestrians from 

 the city. The machine was running, and many of 

 the visitors were holding their pocket-knives on the 

 grindstone that was apparently being driven by the 

 perpetual motor. Mr. Redheffer was explaining in 

 his characteristic manner the principle on which the 

 machine was built and operated. "You see," said 

 he, "the machine running, and the power with 

 which it turns the grindstone; now this power is 

 entirely due to the manner the little carriages are 

 loaded on the revolving platform"; he then said he 

 would answer any questions, and fully illustrate the 

 principle. "You see here I have a little four-wheel 

 carriage; its platform is double, and so arranged that 

 I can set it at any angle. I have this plain plank 

 for it to run on; now the platform is level and parallel 



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