16 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



slide stiped over the steel wich brok the atraction be twen the tode- 

 stone and that steel and a tracted the next as the whele went roun and 

 keep the whele continulUy wherlling i shall not mention the other 

 matter untill i no your mind a bout this." The Secretary endorses 

 this lucubration, "Mr. John Thomas has discovered (or dreamt he 

 had) the perpetual motion, March 5, 1822." ^^ 



"Quid est quod fuit? ipsum quod futurum est. Quid est quod 

 factum est? ipsum quod faciendum est. Nihil sub sole novum, nee 

 valet quisque dicere: Ecce hoc recens est; jam enim praecessit in 

 saeculis, quae fuerunt ante nos." 



The words of the Preacher came into my mind when, intending 

 to prepare this address, I made an examination of the "Sundries, U.C.", 

 in the Dominion Archives. 



The very first paper which caught my eye was a letter from my 

 own county, Northumberland. John Smith, of Lot No. 3 in the 8th 

 Concession of Cramahe, writes, October 29, 1822, to Major Hillier: 



"As the lumbermen are committing sad depredations in this 

 neighbourhood by plundering indiscriminately the lands of the Crown 

 and those of private individuals to the ruin of the lands and great 

 detriment of the country," he asks that this practice be stopped. 

 Major Balfour of Percy said that he had no authority to stop the 

 depredations. Smith wishes "any communication for me to be 

 addressed to Major Bafour ... to prevent suspicion and avoid 

 the revenge of these robbers ... on some of the lots there is lumber 

 enough now cut to pay for 40 years' lease. . . ." 



Not receiving any reply — apparently the Crown Lands Depart- 

 ment of the day was supine — -Smith writes again, November 23, 1822. 

 He said that he had written, October 29, concerning the depredations 



''The idea is clear enough: Thomas thought that the interposition of a copper 

 screen would prevent the action of the loadstone on the steel — -the steel approaching 

 the stationary loadstone, being bare, would be attracted by it; but as soon as the 

 steel was past the loadstone, the copper screen or slide slipped over the steel and it 

 was no longer attracted by the loadstone. This is almost identical with the scheme 

 in the Ency. Brit., vol. 21, p. 182; the fallacy is obvious. 



The dreamer writes "todestone" but, of course, he means "lodestone;" he 

 once writes "whele" as "whete"; "stiped" is 'slipped". 



When I began the practice of law an inventor called on me time and again 

 with a scheme for perpetual motion: I refused to look at it or consider it (I had 

 received my degree of B.Sc. some years before). I told him to bring me a working 

 model and I would give him $100. Over and over again he brought descriptions 

 and sometimes part of a machine which "would work" or was "going to work"; 

 but I always refused to look at anything that did not actually work. I never got 

 one, and till the day of his death Moffat felt hardly toward me because I would not 

 pay him for something he was sure would work but which never did. 



