David EH Jones' Perpetual Motion Machine

It may be a combination of gravity, magnetics, and just shape. It is not actually perpetual, it is using the energy of the earth to keep on trucking. I think the perpetual motion classification is a scam to keep people from seeing the whole picture. Just because it is not perpetual does not mean it is not impressive.

Utilizing the energy of the planet and environment is very impressive, especially getting more energy from doing so than you use to create the energy. People call these ovrburden engines fake but they are not fake, they just do not qualify as perpetual motion machines. This machine would not be able to run a small LED bulb, but it can keep running.

than you use to create the energy

There is no creating energy. Maybe you meant another form though.

If any sort of load was put on that thing it would come to a screeching halt. Machines aren't very useful unless they have work output.

a reply to: EasyPleaseMe

Firstly, the pistons don't seal, you can see them 'wiggle'. Nor do the shafts go fully into the enclosures with the heat-sinks. So the whole pistons/cylinders/heat-sinks parts are entirely a misdirection.

Most likely the strip of metal at the bottom is a NiTiNol memory metal motor. Bent into an "S" shape with a 'warming' voltage applied in cycles.

The disks are used to capacitively time the rotation speed and regulate the voltage supplied to the Nitinol strip.

There'd probably be a battery bank in the base, too.

Could be battery powered, the pistons look like they are flipping switches.

Also the glass in front of the base is very wavy. You can see the distortion of straight lines as the camera moves.

This might be weak Fresnel lens heating the metal strip. Each time it cools and moves back into to focal area it flexes.

The surface of the 'massive heat sink' looks a bit like a solar cell grid, and there is a lot of light in that room.

Edit to add:

But that would be rather obvious cheating, wouldn't it.

How fascinating!

I'd not ever heard of this before.

A couple folks have commented about the machine not having any work output, but it does actually. It may not be a lot, but it does have some work output. It has to overcome the resistance of the bearing in the wheel.

On a funny note, wouldn't it be a hoot if they took it apart to find it had some highly radioactive isotope as the power source...and that the glass was wavy because it was leaded glass.

originally posted by: EasyPleaseMe
How do you think it works?

I don't know but there are several good places to hide batteries and a motor which is a common trick for perpetual motion machines. This link explains how you can build fake perpetual motion machines using hidden batteries and other means:

Fake perpetual motion machines you can build.

One of the simplest deceptions is to hide batteries in the device itself. A simple wheel, even a large one, with high quality dry bearings, requires very little power to sustain its motion. Imagine, for example, a bicycle wheel. Now consider how many batteries could be hidden inside the rubber tire. Quite a few; enough to power the wheel for several years. Of course you'd want to use batteries with a long shelf life. Museum displays of such machines are usually in place for at least a year. Some years ago mercury batteries would have been the best choice, but today lithium batteries would be preferable. A small electric motor could be hidden within the wheel's hub, and its electrical power conducted through the wheel's spokes, one of them subtly insulated at each end. Just an idea you might want to try.

Another "in plain sight" method is to put batteries inside a metal cylindrical shell that plays the role of a moving weight. People don't expect batteries to be hiding in moving parts. Batteries can be obtained in flat sheet form, like those used in instant photographic film packs that power the camera's flash. The hiding places are limited only by your ingenuity.

a reply to: Kandinsky

In 1966 he proposed the idea of a hollow molecule, “a flat sheet of carbon atoms bonded hexagonally rather like chicken wire.”

Source

That would be graphene! And he thought of it in 1966! We are told the historical story that graphene was made in 2004 at Manchester University for which the Russian scientist won the Nobel Prize in 2010.

Make you wonder a bit!

What is life without some mystery? There is something very artistic and romantic about that notion!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

The WIkipedia page on graphene goes through all of the important historical milestones. It's not described as popping up out of a vacuum in 2004.

a reply to: GetHyped

It was specifically isolated in 2004.

The Japanese have been rubbing it onto their Samurai swords for centuries in the form of charcoal.

originally posted by: chr0naut
a reply to: EasyPleaseMe
Most likely the strip of metal at the bottom is a NiTiNol memory metal motor. Bent into an "S" shape with a 'warming' voltage applied in cycles.

The disks are used to capacitively time the rotation speed and regulate the voltage supplied to the Nitinol strip

Good thinking although I think the disks are a red herring too.

originally posted by: ItsNotIronic
Also the glass in front of the base is very wavy. You can see the distortion of straight lines as the camera moves.

This might be weak Fresnel lens heating the metal strip. Each time it cools and moves back into to focal area it flexes.

Well spotted, I didn't notice that. It might be something to do with that...

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

A couple of points:

1) The hype surrounding samurai swords is just that: they weren't actually very good compared to other swords of the time made from better quality steel.

2) That's not really the same as isolating and and producing the hypothesized material of graphene so it's really a minor tangential footnote in the history of the stuff.

a reply to: Arbitrageur
Your quoted text reads like it was written by Dr Jones

Interestingly the machine has some what appear to be, 'heavy weights'.

I hope the true operating method is something more exciting than hidden batteries though. And you would hope that the previous 100 attempts at fathoming its secrets included hidden batteries

a reply to: EasyPleaseMe

Hopefully no one figures out it's secret but in various attempts to do so throughout the next several decades accidentally bring forth several otherwise very unlikely to be stumbled upon advancements!

At least that's what I'd wish for if i could...