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Title: Perpetual motion: The history of an obsession by Arthur W. J. G Ord-Hume ISBN: 0-04-621024-5 Publisher: G. Allen & Unwin Pub. Date: 1977 Format: Unknown Binding

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Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 5
Summary: Perpetually readable...
Comment: Best overall account of Redheffer's Perpetual Motion claim published to date.

Rating: 4
Summary: Affectionate Look at the Pursuit of an Impossible Dream
Comment: Mr. Ord-Hume, an engineer himself, wrote this book after being entreated to aid with a television show on the subject of Perpetual Motion in Britain; he had already kept a file on perpetual motion machines as a curiosity he kept running into while studying the history of machines, and evidently was inspired by these two separate things to write an entire book on the subject. His book reads as more than a history of individual inventions and their creators than an engineering treatise, which puts not only the machines but the whole pursuit of perpetual motion into perspective; originally conceived as a way to simply save work, then as the holy grail of early engineering, and finally as a way for con men to bilk investors out of their money, the author catalogues the efforts of very interesting and often brilliant men. He explains how the machines were supposed to work, why they won't, and even occasionally gets inside the head of the inventors. He never makes fun of them however, and even credits them with inadvertantly furthering science and physics by building ever-more complex machines that won't work due to various physical principles that are discovered. Many brilliant men who could have been famous contributors to science wasted their lives and fortunes (and occasionally their sanity) pursuing the idea of free energy, no to avail. There was one exception...a clockmaker named Cox who built a perpetual clock powered by a barometer. But is it true perpetual motion? You decide.

My only quibble with the book is that his qauint style of writing does become more than a bit convoluted at times in trying to make his point, and that he does not go into enough detail at times explaining why a machine does not work, apparently assuming (and probably correctly) that the reader will not be able to follow the physics involved. However, the book is very entertaining and thought-provoking to anyone interested in mechanics. Some of the concepts are truly brilliant, especially considering how long ago they were conceived; except for the annoying fact that they wouldn't work. No matter how big a skeptic, the reader will probably find himself (or herself) doodling their very own machine on a piece of paper...and convincing themselves it could work. An esoteric and highly entertaining work for mechanics enthusiasts.