PERPETUAL MOTION 53 



That property of liquids known as capillary attraction 

 has been frequently called to the aid of perpetual-motion 

 seekers, and the fact that although water will, in capillary 

 tubes and sponges, rise several inches above the general 

 level, it will not overflow, has been a startling surprise to 

 the would-be inventors. Perhaps the most notable instance 

 of a mistake of this kind occurred in the case of the famous 

 Sir William Congreve, the inventor of the military rockets 

 that bore his name, and the author of certain improvements 

 in matches which were called after him. It was thus de- 

 scribed and figured in an article which appeared in the 

 "Atlas" (London) and was copied into "The Mechanic's 

 Magazine" (London) for 1827: 



" The celebrated Boyle entertained an idea that perpetual 

 motion might be obtained by means of capillary attraction; 

 and, indeed, there seems but little doubt that nature has 

 employed this force in many instances to produce this effect. 



" There are many situations in which there is every 

 reason to believe that the sources of springs on the tops 

 and sides of mountains depend on the accumulation of 

 water created at certain elevations by the operation of 

 capillary attraction, acting in large masses of porous ma- 

 terial, or through laminated substances. These masses 

 being saturated, in process of time become the sources of 

 springs and the heads of rivers; and thus by an endless 

 round of ascending and descending waters, form, on the 

 great scale of nature, an incessant cause of perpetual 

 motion, in the purest acceptance of the term, and precisely 

 on the principle that was contemplated by Boyle. It is 

 probable, however, that any imitation of this process on 

 the limited scale practicable by human art would not be 

 of sufficient magnitude to be effective. Nature, by the 

 immensity of her operations, is able to allow for a slowness 

 of process which would baffle the attempts of man in any 

 direct and simple imitation of her works. Working, there- 

 fore, upon the same causes, he finds himself obliged to 

 take a more complicated mode to produce the same effect. 



