# What's up with Steorn's "Orbo" (free-energy perpetual-motion promises)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 9, 2007, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-steorns-orbo-free-energy-perpetual-motion-promises/407373 "2007-06-09T16:28:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2007, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-steorns-orbo-free-energy-perpetual-motion-promises/407373/201 "2007-07-25T10:52:41Z")
Update: Some pictures of the machine have been released [http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/07/first\_glimpse\_of\_an\_orbo.html](http://dispatchesfromthefuture.com/2007/07/first_glimpse_of_an_orbo.html) -as well as some (perhaps speculative) diagrams of construction. It doesn’t even seem to be a particularly novel idea - I’ve seen machines of this construction before - it seems to be based on the idea that if you angle the magnets, you can sneak up on them easily and then be repelled away in a forward direction, which is just nonsense. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-steorns-orbo-free-energy-perpetual-motion-promises/407373/202 "2007-07-31T01:07:36Z")
It’s been about four weeks now. No word from Steorn on a new demo. I guess the corporate directors have managed to get their money out of the numbered accounts and are just now settling in to their palatial beachfront villas in a Caribbean island without extradition treaties. Should be an announcement any day now. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-steorns-orbo-free-energy-perpetual-motion-promises/407373/203 "2007-07-31T08:22:30Z")
I’d ask who gives money to people like this, but then when concerned types send money to Nigerians who desperately need their help getting money out of accounts to the West, its clear at least that someone does. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2007, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-steorns-orbo-free-energy-perpetual-motion-promises/407373/204 "2007-07-31T08:37:44Z")
Well, they fooled me, at least partly, and for a while. Like many other people, I was sitting, waiting to see how Steorn was going to turn it into a scam, but I believed them that there was a jury, and that they weren’t seeking funding. Whereas in all probability, it _already was_ a scam, there was no jury, and they probably were seeking funding on the quiet. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Them](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/898d66/32.png) [@The\_Them](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Them)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2007, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-steorns-orbo-free-energy-perpetual-motion-promises/407373/205 "2007-08-01T11:54:38Z")
As a fourth grader, I came up with something like this. Thought I was real clever. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2007, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-steorns-orbo-free-energy-perpetual-motion-promises/407373/206 "2007-08-01T14:08:47Z")
[QUOTE=The Them] As a fourth grader, I came up with something like this. Thought I was real clever. [/QUOTE] If you came up with this at 9 years old, you _were_ clever… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2007, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-steorns-orbo-free-energy-perpetual-motion-promises/407373/207 "2007-08-01T14:56:49Z")
Depends whether **The Them** is talking about the magnets or the scam. ---
**Author:** ![stolichnaya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bcef8e/32.png) [@stolichnaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stolichnaya)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2007, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-steorns-orbo-free-energy-perpetual-motion-promises/407373/208 "2007-08-01T23:57:50Z")
Not particularly. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2007, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-steorns-orbo-free-energy-perpetual-motion-promises/407373/209 "2007-08-02T02:58:14Z")
[QUOTE=The Them] As a fourth grader, I came up with something like this. Thought I was real clever. [/QUOTE] Not clever enough to get people to throw money at you though… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2007, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-steorns-orbo-free-energy-perpetual-motion-promises/407373/210 "2007-09-05T16:32:17Z")
I hope this isn’t reviving a zombie thread, but has anyone heard anything from Steorn recently? I was so looking forward to a demonstration of perpetual motion… ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2007, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-steorns-orbo-free-energy-perpetual-motion-promises/407373/211 "2007-09-05T19:19:09Z")
They have released no communication of any sort since the failed demo. I suspect they have fled, or are fleeing, with investor money to a place without pesky extradition treaties. It’ll take awhile to get the money lined up for escape, but it’ll likely take longer for fleeced investors to get the cops involved. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-up-with-steorns-orbo-free-energy-perpetual-motion-promises/407373.md?page=10)