be possibly applied to either of these journals without 

 being discovered. Near the lower end of this vertical 

 shaft was a strong wooden wheel of about the diameter 

 of the length of the shaft. This was a spur-wheel, 

 with wooden cogs, beautifully constructed, and a fine 

 specimen of the millwright's art. The outer ends of 

 the arms of this wheel were planked over, forming a 

 concentric platform of about two feet wide. For 

 stiffness and stability, light iron suspension rods ran 

 from the arms close to the concentric platform to a 

 spider ring, or wheel, at the upper end of the vertical 

 shaft. On this concentric platform was a narrow- 

 gauge tramway, encircling it. On this tramway were 

 placed several four-wheeled carriages. The platforms 

 of these carriages, on which the propelling weights 

 were placed, were at an angle of about 45 to the tram- 

 way. The teeth of this spur-wheel worked into a 

 lantern pinion or trundle-wheel, in early times known 

 by millwrights as a wallower. This was on an upright 

 shaft, on the upper end of which was a crown-wheel, 

 bevel, or miter, driving a horizontal shaft, on which 

 was a V pulley, with a corresponding one on [the] 

 shaft of a grindstone. A round belt of either catgut or 

 rawhide, [was] drawn very tight between the V 

 pulleys. When the weights, which were of lead, and 

 probably as much as forty or fifty pounds each, were 

 placed on the carriages, the big wheel would at first 

 slowly commence to revolve, but would soon acquire 

 what was claimed to be the normal speed due to the 

 weights. Then the credulous crowd were invited to 

 sharpen their knives on the grindstone driven by the 

 untiring perpetual motor that neither consumed fuel 

 or food, and whose lifetime alone depended on the 

 durability of the materials of which it was constructed. 

 Soon a crowd would be pressing to take their turns 

 with their Barlow blades, to be shown as having been 

 ground by the power of Redheffer's great invention, 

 the perpetual motion. 



I have but a dim recollection of the discussions, or 

 the opinions expressed by those present at this exhibi- 

 tion of the machine; but many times subsequently I 

 have heard my father state that he had been very 

 positive in advancing his belief in the entire thing 

 being a fraud; that instead of the perpetual motion 

 driving the grindstone it was being driven by the 

 grindstone, or in other words, that the shaft of the 

 grindstone was being driven by crank and manpower 

 on the other side of the partition. 



The grindstone being placed near the partition, its 

 journals, to prevent cutting by the grit from the stone, 

 were covered by roughly made wooden boxes in a 



manner to convey the idea that it was an after- 

 thought; when the box cover next the partition was 

 removed it was plain to be seen that the grindstone 

 shaft did not reach the partition, but no opportunity 

 was given to caliper this end of the shaft, and if 

 slightly out of round when the box cover was re- 

 placed, an undetected connection could be made with 

 the operating crank, and the power be carried 

 to the machine by the tight round belt through the 

 bevel wheels and the lantern pinion. 



My father said that the wooden cogs of the platform 

 wheel were so nicely made, fitting so closely into the 

 rounds of the lantern pinion, that in the shadow from 

 its top platform it was impossible to see whether the 

 pinion was driving or being driven, that the same 

 might be said of the bevels on upright and horizontal 

 shaft. My father, to satisfy himself, had gone with 

 some slips of soft, damp paper, which, when un- 

 observed, he had inserted between the cogs and the 

 round and had got ocular demonstration that the 

 lantern pinion was driving, and not driven, and he 

 had become satisfied, and had freely so expressed 

 himself, as to the modus operandi of the fraud being 

 practiced. 



This got to Redheffer's ears, and so excited him 

 that when the legislature appointed a committee, at 

 his own solicitation, to examine and report on his 

 wonderful discovery and invention, he refused to allow 

 the examination until some one was substituted for my 

 grandfather Nathan Sellers, who was named on the 

 committee, on the ground that both he and his son 

 Coleman had so strongly represented the whole thing 

 a fraud and deception that a fair, unbiased report 

 could not be expected with either of them on the 

 committee. 112 I do not know how the matter got 

 before the legislature, or its object. On my inquiries 

 as to the nature of their report, the reply was non- 

 committal. They had seen the machine in motion, 

 had heard the charges of fraud, but, if one, they had 

 failed to discover it. 



Though nothing of value had come from the motor, 

 the interest in it had not abated, and it was still a 

 successful exhibition, crowds daily visiting it. One 

 day on hearing loud talking in my father's office, and 

 what sounded to me as insolence to him, I went 

 forward in time to hear Redheffer say to him, "Your 

 charging me with fraud has done me great injury, 

 and I insist on your coming and bringing with you 



112 This paragraph appears to be almost entirely in error. 

 See introduction to this chapter. 



83 



