Perpetual motion: The history of an obsession

An illustrated overview of perpetualmotion machines and their inventors. The deceptively simple task of making a mechanism which would turn forever has fascinated many famous men and physicists throughout the centuries. In fact, the basic tenets of engineering grew from the failures of these perpetual motion machine designers. And, despite the naivete and even the blatant trickery of many inventors, there still exist a handful of mechanisms which defy explanation: * a vast canvascovered wheel which turned by itself was erected in the Tower of London * another wheel turned endlessly in Germany and was discussed by philosophers and scientists throughout Europe, including Sir Isaac Newton