80 Henry Riddell on 



To come near home, I have found a large number of per- 

 l)elual motion devices among the patent records in the City Library, 

 though I am sorry to say that the series is far from complete, many 

 patent specifications and even some volumes having disappeared 

 before the collection came into the possession of the Library. 

 Unfortunately the missing specifications are mostly out of print 

 and the loss is irreparable. 1 have to thank the authorities of the 

 Library forgiving me facilities to have a considerable number of 

 the drawings photographed and transferred to lantern slides. 

 Only one or two prints from these can be given here. 



The earliest patents of the kind which I can find recorded 

 were granted in 1627. In this year Felton and Drewe were 

 granted a patent for raising \yatcr, and Brounker, Apprice and 

 Parham also received a patent for an engine to do ploughing and 

 tilling land without the aid of horses or oxen and with only two men 

 to put in action and to supervise. In the same year Mr. Parham, 

 with two fresh associates, went one better, and proposed "to en- 

 force and cause all manner of mills of whatsoever kind or nature 

 to perform their wonted labour without the aid of horse or wind 

 or water, to be set, worked and continued in motion by the 

 strength and labour of one man only " 



Ufnfortunately, in those early days no description was given 

 of the subject matter of the patent except a general enunciation 

 such as has been quoted, and no drawings of this period have been 

 preserved. 



The same description would serve many of the early patents, 

 for example, No. 50 of 1630, granted to David Ramseye and 

 others, claims "to make any sort of mills to go on standing waters 

 without the helpe of wynde, water or horse " In No. 153 of 1662 

 Ralph Wayne proposes "an engine which with the perpetual 

 motion of itself without the helpe or strength of any creature will 

 not only drain great levels of water . . . ." while in the same 

 year the very next patent is granted to Wemys for "a way whereby 

 all motions caused by the force of a river, wind or horses may be 

 done by one or two men ... by an engine whose strength may 

 be doubled or trebled at pleasure." In No. 327 of 1693, Poyntz 



