Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1876 — A PERPETUAL MOTION STORY. [ARTICLE]

A PERPETUAL MOTION STORY.

A plainly worded obituary notice, published lately in the local newspapers, is all the intimation that has as yet reached the people of Brooklyn of a very pathetic episode which has just taken place in their midst. The deceased party was a gentleman who had considerably outlived the allotted term, and whose direct descendants to-day may be counted by the dozen; yet so carefully have his family fuarded* the strange particulars of his eath, that but for the somewhat meager account which is now offered to our readers, it is not at all likely that even so much as a hint of their painful secret would ever have found its way to the public. Out of consideration for the self-re-proach which is the bitterest ingredient in their cup of sorrow, we forbear to give any clue to the identity of the family further than may be contained in the bare facts of the story, and since nobody can directly connect them with these facts but the deceased gentleman’s physician, the New York machinists, hereinafter referred to, and ourselves, such clue as may thus be furnished will serve rather to mislead the morbidly curious than to guide them even a short way toward a discovery. The subject of this narration, the late Mr. Van Pelt, for long conducted a very lucrative business in New York. Rather more than five and twenty years ago, however, haying seen his sons fairly started on the road he himself had so prosperously traveled, and his daughters without an exception suitably married, Mr. Van Pelt resigned his interest in the concern of which he had long been the head, and withdrew from business to enjoy that leisure and retirement which almost half a century of steady application had earned for him. He signalized his step by making munificent donations to every one of his children, partitioning by far the larger moiety of his estate among them. Indeed there is reason to believe that he sacrificed nearly seven-eighths of his fortune in order to surround nis children with the luxuries of life. He himself, having settled his eldest daughter and her husband jn one of the most desirable residences in Brooklyn, went to pass the rest of his days under their roof, and under their roof he continued to remain until the end. For some months after the date of his (retirement, Mr. Van Pelt found his chief •enjoyment in carpenter work. He had wrought so long with his brain in directing his business, that it did not seem unnatural he should seek relaxation in mannal labor. Moreover, it soon became apparent that he had a very remarkable turn for mechanics, and his daughter’s house furnished many an example of his handiness and ingenuity. By and by he began to turn his attention to mechanics, studying that sslence in books, and soon collecting a large number of treatises on i the laws of Statics and Dynamics, and their application to the needs of man from the earliest times. If his health was at this time not impaired by his close application, it was entirely owing to the fact that most or his time was occupied in the wholesome work of constructing machines for the purpose of demonstration and experiment. He had a workshop erected in the rear of his house On the most comfilete sode, and here he would remain rom daylight till dm*, heedless of the callß of hunger; and oblivions to everything but the problem before him. When his daughter affectionately insisted on his coming in to lunch, Ur. Van Pelt could

WWW* studying, but would take it with him even to the table, and would there pore over it while he mechanically ate. The sudden change in the man was very remarkable. He became possessed of one idea, and could not be got to talk on any subject but bis favorite pursuit, and his many friends failing to interest him in anything but wheels and levers, weight and equilibrium, force and motion, at last began, one by one, to save up visiting him altogether. Meanwhile, Mr. Van Pelt’s family saw all this with growing solicitude. The longest day did not now suffice their father tor the study of the problems that engrossed him, and with more anxiety than they ckred to reveal, they found that he often sat far into the night, calculating, Sing and constructing. His children to take counsel among themselves a certain Sunday for reasoning with the father, and kindly bringing to bear on him all the force of their combined entreaties. He party which assembled round the dinner table on the appointed Sunday was an unusually large one. It looked like a Thanksgiving or Christmas family gathering, and neither sou nor daughter of Mr. Van Pelt was absent from the board. The old gentleman was in excellent spirits at seeing them all together, and cheerily led the conversation to the one theme occupying his thoughts. His talk was enthusiastic and entertaining, and lasted during dinner, till, the cloth having been removed and the servants dismissed, his children saw that the time had come for the filial duty they had assembled to discharge. At length, when all had said what they had to say, he looked round the circle with a just apparent air of vanity, and said: “ Have you an idea, any of you, of the object of the work you see me engaged inf” They said they had not. “ And if you lived to see as the result of that work (‘my incessant and untimely application,’ as you call it) if you lived to see vessels crossing the Atlantic without the need of either wind or coal, thereby reducing freight and making importations cheaper; and if you lived to see mills and factories going without steam, and without the consumption of any valuable substance to produce a motive power, thereby reducing the price of food and clothing; if you lived to see all this, and knew that the world was indebted for it to me, your father, would you then say as you have just now rather unkindly said,'that my interest in my fellow men was dead ? Tell me, would you say then what you have very lightly said now!” They all disclaimed any intention to speak unkindly to him, and asked what were the means by which he expected to bring about the startling results he had mentioned. Was it by means of electricity ? “No.”

“ Bv magnetism ?” “No.” “By cold air?” “No.” “By what means then?” “Well, I say nothing now, but you shall know in time. There is no need for alarm about my health. Beside, bear this in mind, a man must profit by his moments of inspiration when they happen to come to him, be it midnight or midday. If he breaks off a train of abstruse thinking for the mere sake of eating dinner, he should not be disappointed if he eats a few more dinners before he is able to resume it again. So if you wish to please me, boys, you will not seek further to inquire how I spend my time. I shall always be glad to see any of you in my workshop, but without permission you must bring no strangers.” This conference with his children ended in a victory for Mr. Van Pelt, and it is merely in justice to their filial intentions that we have tried thus distinctly to outline it. His workshop became more than ever his continued resort. He never seemed to be quite at ease out of it. There his children saw one machine after another constructed —strange system of wheels, levers and weights. Mr. Van Pelt found that he could not make all of the pieces of machinery he required, and in such cases he constructed a model, or designed a plan, and sent it to the foundry of a New York machinist and engineer, where such an appliance as he wanted was at once made and sent home to him. This machinist happened to be acquainted with one of Mr. Van Pelt’s sons, and expressed to him, from time to time, a great admiration for his father’s mechanical ingenuity, and this being repeatedly told to Mr. Van Pelt, he at length consented to the gentleman paying him a visit in his workshop. On the occasion of this visit all the machines in the workshop were exposed to view excepting one, and that was carefully boxed up.

“ Well, what is your opinion?” asked Mr. Van Pelt’s son of his friend, when they had left the workshop. “Are all these contrivances of any practical value?” “None of those I was permitted to see arc of any value; but do you know what they are?” ■ “I do not, indeed.” “ They are copies, and modifications of copies, of some rather famous machines which have been contrived in times past, and judging from what I have seen I am rather afraid your father is in pursuit of that ignit fatuus , the perpetual motion. “ Ah! do you really think so. I fear your surmise is too true. And I suppose perpetual motion is now admitted by theoretical and practical mechanics to be an 'imptittdMlltyf' -' ’. —r —— “ Ob, there are a great many skilled mechanics, I assure you, who believe in it; but men of science, familiar with the operation of natural laws, know that perpetual motion is an absolute impossibility. This has been demonstrated over and over again since the time of Newton. I pretend, as yon know, to be a mechanic, theoretical and practical, and the proof that perpetual motion is impossible seems to me conclusive ana overwhelming. There is nothing in nature but what discourages a belief in it. The late Jeremiah Day, of. Yale College, has indeed stated in SiUiman't Journal that the revolution of the heavenly bodies is one known instance of perpetual motion, but this, to say the least, is open to very grave doubts. Comparatively speaking, the motion of the heavenly todies it perpetual; but astronomers tell us they arq subject to the same laws as terrestrial substances, and that doubtless in the long run they as infallibly obey them. Bnt notwithstanding the fact that only failure and disappointment have awaited all believers in the perpetual motion, venr many most ingenious men, such as your father, are engaged at this very moment in patiently toiling for its discovery ; and it is indeed incredible how much time, and money, and peace of mindaye, the mental sanity also, are sacrificed year after year in this bootless search.” “Is there any similarity in the methods by which inventors have sought to produce perpetual motion?” “ Oh, yes. Their machines have nearly

throw the‘just balance insisted on by nature. There is a wheel in your father’s workshop which may serve aa a representative of nearly *U the others. Its action is somewhat complex, but its principle is simple, and can be explained to you in this way. The wheel is to be turned by means of weights fixed at equal distances round its circumference, and it will continue turning forever if the preponderance of weight can always be thrown on the descending side of the wheel. This has been sought to be accomplished by arranging the weights so that oa the ascending side of the wheelthey will fall in toward the axis or centre, and on the descending Side fall out to the circumference, and'even beyond it; because the further from the axis the weight may be, the greater is the force it will exert on the wheel. But although many such arrangements have been contrived and set id operation, we have got no nearer perpetual motion than we were before, for the wheel presently comes to a standstill. Now look at the weights Just as they are when the wheel stops, and what do you see V You see that although the weights on the descending side are on the whole further from the axis than those on the ascending side, yet there are not so many of them on that side as on this, and calculation demonstrates the fact that the extra power derived by the position of the weights on one side, is exactly counterbalanced by their excess of number on the other. In short, what the perpetual motionists have done is to throw more weiqhtt , but not more weight, on one side of the wheel than of the other. The weight remains equally divided between both sides, and no human arrangement or contrivance can overcome this, the just equilibrium insisted on by nature. All perpetual motion machines whatever, .whether arrangements of wheels, or levers, or screws, or a combination of these, are doomed to certain failure, and the sooner your father is brought to understand that the better for his comfort. Nevertheless, he has a very remarkable inventive turn, which, well directed, might lead to very brilliant results. The discovery that Mr. Van Pelt was in search of the perpetual motion caused his family very great concern, and they renewed their efforts to reason him out of his hobby; but the old gentleman being nervous from late hours and severe mental strain, fell into a vehement passion. The collapse of a machine on which he had been at work for three years threw him into a fever, from which he had barely recovered, when he once more set to work. The result in a few months was that his mind became deranged, and he had to be treated in an asylum; but having after a few months’ confinement been dismissed cured, he once more betook himself to his workshop. His latest malady, however, had the effect of rendering him rather more careful of his health, while still as enthusiastic in his pursuit of perpetual motion as before. Nobodv could convince him of its impossibility, or reason him out of the belief that he was destined to be its discoverer and the everlasting benefactor of Mb kind.

Meanwhile he was busy making the calculations on which was to be based a contrivance combining all the excellencies and avoiding all the defects of his former machines—a contrivance which, unless iron and steel should change their nature, and even the attraction of gravity belie itself, would demonstrate the perpetual motion an accomplished fact at last. One year after another went by, and still calculations were being made, plans drawn, and models constructed, and still Mr. Van Pelt retained his enthusiasm, which now, after twenty years ot constant headwork, amounted to a mania. The old man, in fact, was on the verge of lunacy, into which any shock might hopelessly precipitate him. As for the wonderful machine he was engaged on, the New York machinist, who had ere this been admitted into all the secrets of the workshop, told Mr. Van Pelt’s family that it was indeed a perfect miracle of misdirected ingenuity; and as it drew toward completion its constructor grew crazy with excitement, while, to add to the anxiety of his family, his physician told them that one more disappointment s*ch as he had already borne would most probably prove his death blow. In vain they tried to divert their father from his work, or to delay the completion of the unlucky machine; such attempts only enraged the old man. At length, after much deliberation, and after having taken both the machinist and the physician into their confidence, they reluctantly resolved, as the only means of prolonging their father’s life to its natural end, to endow his machine with apparent perpetual motion at all hazards. This proved not to be such a very difficult matter, especially as Mr. Van Pelt had charged his friend the machinist with the construction of some means of support for the axle of the large wheel in his new machine. The machinist resolved that the needed support should be furnished by a square, upright, iron cylinder, which should be hollow, so as to allow room for a belt to pass round the axle and through the floor of the workshop into the cellar beneath, there to connect with an ordinary water Wheel, which was to supply the perpetual motion to Mr. Van Pelt’s machine. To carry out this daring deception without exciting Mr. Van Pelt’s suspicions, might seem a difficult task; but the old man was so absorbed in his own part of the work that it was easily managed after all. The axle of the large wheel was settled in its place, the belt passed round it connected with the water wheel below, and nothing remained but to give the wonderful machine its initial motion in order to keep it going so long as the Brooklyn water supply lasted. At last, after years of toil upon it, the day arrived when the machine was ready to do set in motion. For two days and two nights before its inventor had worked constantly, without sleep, and almost without food, fitting its numerous parts together. The machinist, the physician and nearly every member of Mr. Van Pelt’s family were in the house awaiting the issue, for he had insisted that nobody should be present at the starting except himself. He locked himself in his workshop, therefore, while his sons and daughters remained anxiously in the house. For hours they waited, and it was long past noon when they learned that at last the perpetual motion machine was going in its eternal round. s-.-The first to inform them of the important fact was the machinist, who had taken up his poet in the cellar, and who knew by the strain and retardation of the concealed belt the very moment when Mr. Van Pelt set his machine in motion. Then all sat waiting an invitation into the workshop—waiting and thinking on the testacy of the old man, alone with the contrivance in which he had miraculously implanted the power of perpetual motion, independent of all external force. They tried to fancy his delirium of delight; his eyes opening in awe and wonder, his heart full to bursting with unspeakable pride

this with many prickings of conscience, and some of them covered their faces and wept in silence. But hour after hour stole by, and still no invitation came. With the shades of evening their impatience grew into alarm, and their ears were frequently laid to the key-hole of the workshop door. Bnt nothing did they hear but the whir of the perpetual motion, and when they spoke no answer was returned. At last, at dusk, In an excess of dread, they burst the door and crowded iu, every one of them. On the floor, before the large revolving wheel, with his arms extended from his sides, his eyes in a fascinated gaze, and his lips parted in a smile, Mr. Van Pelt lay on his back afi dead as a stone. He had been killed by excessive joy, and it is to be hoped his ghost passed right on into eternity, without coming to the knowledge of the deception that had been practiced on him. —Brooklyn Sunday Sun.