Steampunk Saturday - Perpetual Motion Machines

It's not surprising that perpetual motion machines have fascinated crackpot inventors since before Leonardo da Vinci. Mankind loves the idea of something for nothing. It's what drives us to cut coupons, buy two-for-one deals, and believe burning fossil fuels couldn't possibly impact the environment. Perpetual motion is the Fountain of Youth of the inventor's world, undying power - mechanical immortality, and it drew the attentions of notables such as Robert Boyle (of Boyle's Law fame) and Nikola Tesla. In the end, like the Fountain, perpetual motion proved to be nothing but a myth, a lovely idea that hucksters and hoaxers used to part suckers from their hard-earned cash.

A collection of perpetual motion machines as shown in the October 1920 issue of Popular Science

In 1920 Popular Science Magazine printed an article driving another stake in the heart of the mythological beast, but the beast that is perpetual motion survived. In 1977 Emil T. Hartman patented a magnetic system with the distinctly unromantic acronym of SMOT which purported to change magnetic energy into kinetic energy which exceeded the amount of required to power the magnets. It never has worked. And, less you see the fad of perpetual motion as dead and gone, as recent as 2006 Steorn Ltd. claimed to have created a magnetic device which would withstand scientific scrutiny, in 2009 the jury of scientists they solicited stated the device did not work.

The facts are interesting, but this is a Steampunk Saturday post and, as such, we should take a look at something that looks like it could have come from the mind of Jules Verne or H. G. Welles. Not to disappoint, I give you mass-transit done perpetual motion-style.

From the October 1920 issue of Popular Science Magazine, an outtake supposedly from the September issue of the Galaxy Illustrated Magazine

Though Popular Science didn't reveal the inventor's name a search showed that an article regarding perpetual motion and "self-moving carriages riding on conical wheels" appeared in the September 1871 issue of The Galaxy Illustrated Magazine and I even managed to find a line drawing of one of the carriage cars. Unfortunately, Google's repository of scanned ephemera doesn't contain the issue of interest. I'll keep looking, maybe it will appear eventually. Regardless, if you need a topic for your steampunk crackpot scientist to obsess over, perpetual motion just might do the trick!

From the September 1871 issue of the Galaxy Illustrated Magazine

Happy National Aviation Day

On this date in 1871 Orville Wright was born to Bishop Milton and Susan Catharine Wright in the sleepy town of Dayton, Ohio. Orville and his brother Wilbur grew up in a family that, by all accounts, was loving and encouraged the intellectual curiosity which would eventually lead the pair achieving one of the most influential accomplishments of the 20^th century.

Orville went on to serve as one of the founding members of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and remained an active member for 28 years. He received the Daniel Guggenheim Medal for great achievements in aeronautics on April 8, 1930 and became a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1936. In 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed Orville’s birthday as National Aviation Day, an observance meant to celebrate the history and development of aviation.

Orville passed away on January 30, 1948 having witnessed aviation’s transformation from what was considered a hobby for crackpots to a force which shaped nations and, to a large extent, determined the outcome of two world wars.

Indiana State Fair - 1873 Premium List

I found this 1873 Premium List for the Indiana State Fair in the digital archives of the Indiana Historical Society. Premium lists provide potential exhibitors and vendors with a list of rules and requirements they must meet if they want to be part of an event.

I'm not sure of the identity of the building featured on the list's cover. The Indiana State Fair didn't find a permanent home in Indianapolis until 1892, almost twenty years after this publication, so it's not located within the modern fairgrounds. I checked and the E. C. Atkins and Company did have a factory in Indianapolis during this era, but from what I've seen it didn't resemble the cover illustration. I can only conclude that the book depicts the location where the 1873 fair was held, but I've had no luck identifying the location or anything other than this image. If you have any ideas about the identity of this Victorian edifice, send them in!