Henry Dircks

“ The proof that Conservation of Energy conforms to all other known phenomena of nature has been aided, and hastened by the refinement of scientific instruments by which forms of energy such as heat, electricity, and magnetism can be more delicately measured and determined than ever before, and if instruments for measuring and determining the amount of energy in its various forms were as crude as they were even a single century ago, it is probable Conservation of Energy would still be the undiscovered foundation of all natural phenomena. ”

“ Is it to cause a body to act in such a manner that the reaction shall be greater than the action itself, and by that means generate force by the accumulation of the surplus? Or, can the motion communicated be greater than that lost by the agent? ”

“ Nevertheless, it appears that to carry out this most subtle mechanical idea, namely, to make a dead material not only move itself, but lift weights and perform work, even the most profound mathematicians and the most learned people have continually fallen into error. It is no less notorious that those who have so sought, not only refuse their consent, but have set their seal on the discovery as an unsolvable problem. ”

“ It has not only pleased this mighty Prince to protect me against my numerous enemies, but also to give me house-room in his princely Castle of Weissenstein, near Cassel; to name me one of his most honored servants, and restore me in a measure all the honor and means that I had lost in my native country; wishing no doubt to give to Hessin Cassel the high honor which belonged to Saxony by right. In gratitude for all these gracious acts, I consented to give another example of my Perpetuum Mobile machine. ”

“ What, then, is more natural than that a boy with an active mind who is at all mechanically turned, as most boys are, begins to wonder why, if wheels lift stones, and if stones descending make wheels run, cannot a machine be made that will lift stones, or other weights, and in turn be run by the descent of the lifted stones, or other weights? Why, if the turning of wheels lift water, and if descending water makes wheels go, should not an adaptation be made by which the same machine will elevate water, and be run by the descent of the elevated water? ”

“ The advantages of the invention are obvious. The whole of the machinery for a large factory may be contained underground, which, indeed, will be the most desirable situation for it, and valuable room will thus be saved; the expense of erection will not be great; and the saving in coals, &c., necessary for a steam-engine of the like powers, will be immense. I might, perhaps, have secured much benefit to myself by taking out a patent for the discovery, but I have no wish to profit by monopoly. ”

“ If the doctrine of Conservation of Energy be true about which there seems to be no doubt, then all hopes of ever attaining Perpetual Motion must cease, for the idea of Perpetual Motion is predicated and has its foundation upon the creation of energy. The mechanism must give more energy than is imparted to it. It must make energy, and this in the light of the generalized truth of Conservation of Energy is an impossibility. We might as well talk about making substance, and the creation of substance, or the creation of energy either one is not an attribute of man. ”

“ A moving principle has been sought for, but without success, in the magnet, in the gravity of the atmosphere, and in the elasticity of bodies. If a magnet be disposed in such a manner as to facilitate the ascension of a weight, it will afterwards oppose its descent. Springs, after being unbent, require to be bent by a new force equal to that which they exercise; and the gravity of the atmosphere, after forcing one side of the machine to the lowest point, must be itself raised again, like any other weight, in order to continue its action. ”

“ A falling body is, of course, acted upon by gravity with uniform force equal to the weight of the falling body, and that force continues to follow the falling body and to be applied uniformly and equally, however slowly, or rapidly the body may be falling. And, omitting atmospheric resistance, the body is absolutely free to move except for its natural tendency to remain at rest, or at uniform velocity. It is well known that a body falls (almost exactly) sixteen feet in one second, and at the end of one second has a velocity of thirty-two. ”

“ Theor.—If one weight in its descent does, by means of any contrivance, cause another weight to ascend with a less momentum or quantity of motion than itself, it will preponderate and raise the other weight. ”

“ If such reasoners were well convinced that the power of a machine is to be estimated by the excess of motion referred to the perpendicular, without any regard to the apparent center of the machine, and that in machines very little compounded it is possible to produce effects directly contrary to the rule which is true of the simple lever, they would probably renounce many flattering projects, grounded only on the supposition of its universality. ”

“ The antiquity of the problem of Perpetual Motion, and the countless attempts by clever and ingenious minds to accomplish its solution, and the uniform failure of such attempts is no proof at all, scientifically speaking, that Perpetual Motion is an impossibility. If there be scientific proof that Perpetual Motion is unattainable, that proof must be found elsewhere than in the number of attempts and the universality of failures, or in the number or eminence of the people who believe it to be impossible. ”

“ The only interest that we can take in the projects which have been tried for procuring a perpetual motion must arise from the opportunity that they afford of observing the weakness of human reason.
For a better instance of this can scarcely be supplied than to see a man spending whole years in the pursuit of an object, which a single week's application to sober philosophy would have convinced him was unattainable. ”

“ The earth is carried round the sun by the action of two forces, one of which is momentum, which is not, in reality, a force or cause of motion,168 but an effect derived from an original impulse; and that impulse or the momentum derived from it is not destroyed, because there is no resistance to the moving body—that is, there is no friction. Well, I cannot make this machine without having resistance to the motion—that is, friction; but to compensate for this I have two real forces, two causes of motion, each of them capable of imparting momentum to a body: they are both constant forces ”