<------- smiling as I sit here, reading the thread…listening to “Perpetual Change” by “YES”…
What Nick said…
Cartooniverse
" If you want to kiss the sky, you’d better learn how to kneel "
My mate works for the English Patent office.
Every month or so, he gets a patent application for a ‘Perpetual Motion Machine’.
He writes back to say he’s testing it, then puts it in a cupboard.
Several months later he looks and the machine’s stopped.
Then he writes back refusing the patent…
Why doesn’t the sun come out at night when the light would be more useful? (Pratchett)
This reminds me of one thought experiment proposed by, I think, Feynman. It consisted of a ratchet. Molecules could go one way, but not the other. This would, eventually, create an imbalance in the container which could be used to do work.
The flaw was found to be in random motion in the ratchet itself.
here’s a related article from Scientific American. Feynmann’s device is discussed.
http://www.sciam.com/1999/0299issue/0299scicit1.html
not perpetual motion, but pretty damn cool: http://forums.cosmoaccess.net/forum/survival/prep/library2/rotate.htm
eggo
Regarding the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, I found a link. Here is the text regarding models:
As a side note, looking through the pages I found the following tidbit:
[emphasis added]
They’re covering all contingencies. I guess that ensures PPM inventors get their fair hearing, huh?