PERPETUAL MOTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 4026, 13 January 1875, Page 6 (Supplement)

PERPETUAL MOTION.

"Perpetual motion/ observes the Palf Ma!l Gazette, " has been discovered by an old negro in Kentucky, who has fallen a victim.to his own invention. It appears from the account given by the Franklin (Kentucky) Patriot that the old negro some little time ago constructed a waggon so arranged that it runs by itself by virtue of the fact that the weight of gravitation is thrown forward of the centre of motion, and the machine is consequently compelled to run. It was his intention to exhibit his waggon at the fair, of Franklin on the 9th September, so that its value might be tested in the presence of the thousands of people there assembled, and on Wednesday, the 2nd September, he mounted the machine, adjusted the bands; tipped the balanceweight over the centre of motion, gave the drmng-wheel a shove, and started for Franklin to report to Mr John B. Montague, Secretary of the Association, and have the machine regularly entered on, the books. : The waggon went humming along the smooth sandy .road at about the rate of 15 miles an hour; close behind it, at a rattling pace, came an ordinary vehicle containing Coroner HartUeld and a jury, who, anticipating some fatal accident, took precaution to follow the waggon. This anticipation was unfortunately realised, for in making a turn just near a noted point called ' Ked Pond,' at the forks of the Gross Plains and Spring, field roads, the starboard front wheel ' collided 1 with a heavy set post oak sapling, and tho rebound was so powerful that the old negro was thrown forward over the dashboard, and was at the same time struck by the flange of the driving wheel'and precipitated with such violence against the feuce panel on the opposite side of the road that he was killed instantaneously. The machine, after tho accident, struck out with freedom, but near the residence ef a Captain Lee its progress was arrested by a larcre lo", which tilted the balance weight back of the centre of motion, and when overtaken by the coroner and his party the wild waggon was standing quietly at rest. Since the death of the luckless old negro, no one has dared to mount the waggon ; but it was exhibited at the fair, and a general impression prevailed that it was a wonderful machine, destined to play an important part in the history of locomotion."