Charles Redheffer

October 17th, 2006

Charles Redheffer appeared in Philadelphia in 1812, exhibiting a machine of his invention at $1 per person admission. He claimed that the device produced enough energy that it could power itself and still have some left over (making it a perpetuum mobile), and lobbied for funds to build a larger version.On January 21, 1813, a group of city commissioners arrived to inspect the machine. Although Redheffer prevented them from getting too close, one of them noticed the gears were worn in the wrong direction, and correctly deduced that the output shaft was powering the machine, and not the other way round. Local engineer Isaiah Lukens was hired to build a replica, which he did with relative ease, using a hidden clockwork mechanism to act as the power source. Redheffer, realising he had been rumbled, fled to New York City, and once again began exhibiting a perpetual motion machine.

One visitor, a mechanical engineer named Robert Fulton, noticed the machine operated in an unsteady, jerky fashion, as if operated manually by crank. In front of the gathered crowd, Fulton challenged Redheffer, announcing he would reveal the hidden power source, else pay for all damages he made in the process. Redheffer was compelled to agree, whereupon Fulton removed boards from the wall adjacent to Redheffer’s machine, revealing a catgut cord leading to the upper floor. There, Fulton found an elderly man turning a crank with one hand and eating bread with the other.

The gathered crowd quickly became an angry mob and demolished the machine. Redheffer fled the city.

Lukens’ replica still exists, held by the Franklin Institution in Philadelphia. While Redheffer wasn’t neither a scientist nor pretended to be, I liked this story too much not to include it.

Entry Filed under: Bad Scientists

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