Even as far back as the Middle Ages, would-be inventors started trying to come up with and claiming to have come up with a perpetual motion machine. Perpetual motion is motion that continues forever without any outside force to keep it going. So, a perpetual motion machine would be a machine that generates its own power and keeps going infinitely. Such a machine, of course, is impossible, since it would violate the laws of thermodynamics, but that fact hasn't kept people from trying to invent such a device. One such individual was J. E. Yandell of Hickory Barren in Greene County, Missouri.
The December 4, 1894, issue of the Springfield Democrat declared: "Perpetual motion has been accomplished at last, and in the next few months J. E. Yandell, a substantial farmer of Hickory Barrens, will rattle into Washington on a perpetual motion machine at the rate of 100 miles a minute and demand a patent from the government authorities."
It seems Yandell had gone into the Greene County recorder of deeds office the day before requesting that some action be taken to protect his invention until he could get a patent on it from the federal government, because he feared that "someone might jump ahead of him and beat him to his patent."
When the recorder informed Yandell that his office had no power in the matter, Yandell pulled out "a small infernal machine looking instrument made of clock wheels, etc." and sat it down on the table "under the recorder's nose." The recorder, "thinking his last days had come, calmly turned his eyes to heaven."
Yandell rubbed one of the wheels hard against the table, and "the whole thing began action and sputtered around like a kettle of cod fish."
That was all it did, however, and Yandell declined to explain any more details about his machine. Instead, he went to the county court and held a consultation with a judge who was said to be seriously considering giving Yandell the "necessary financial backing to bring the matter to a focus."
Afterwards, Yandell submitted to a brief interview by the Democrat reporter. The newsman described Yandell as "an intelligent man of about 55 who does not appear to be a dreamer."
Yandell said he could not give the details of his invention until he obtained the patent, but he said he had been studying mechanics for several years but had only recently perfected perpetual motion. He had taken one or two close friends into his confidence, and they were "certain that he had hit the bull's eye and would soon be a millionaire."
Yandell claimed the device he'd shown the recorder was only a part of his machine and was, in fact, not even the most essential feature. He declared that his invention could indeed generate its own power and that it would revolutionize the world. He thought the machine would be able to run mills, factories, railroad or anything that required power, and he predicted it would take the place of steam and electricity. His only problem, he said, was that he was "handicapped for want of funds."
The would-be inventor said that he would have an "iron model" completed within a couple of months and that it would weigh about 200 pounds. This machine would carry Yandell to Washington at a high rate of speed. It would have to have a track to run on, but he felt sure that arrangements could be made with the railroad companies to let him pass over their tracks. "The first power in my machine generates two other powers," Yandell declared, "and can bring into action still another if necessary."
Not surprisingly, Yandell's dream apparently didn't pan out, as the Springfield newspapers published no follow-up stories about it.
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