Hi all from this newbie,

Please allow me to tell you all a story of something that I saw with my own eyes.

this was back in the seventies in my homeland Scotland, I was a new salesman in stationary and office supplies and keen as mustered to make my mark. Working in the new town of Glenrothes, Fife, I happened upon a man working in his work yard, welding together mini skips, with the attitude nothing ventured nothing gained I approached him with my best introductory smile and catalog in hand. At this point I didn't expect much, just to leave my card and catalog would be welcome. Anyway he asked if I had anything in the catalog that would allow him to visually display his process at a university presentation he was giving in six weeks time. Jumping at the chance to show my prowess and ascertaining his exact needs, I was ushered inside the adjacent workshop.
This is where the story begins:-

He produced a small piece of wood approx 2"x4"x1/2"with two wood up-rites about 3" apart, both with simple V notches cut into their tops, effectively forming a cradle. There were two blocks of metal fixed at each side of one of these blocks, which tuned out to be magnets. So a base of wood, two wooden up-rites with v notches cut into there tops and two magnet  attached the base , one each side of one (only) of the uprights. having handed it to me for inspection he then handed me the next piece of the puzzle,
Turned out this was an armature of sorts consisting of a long needle passed through a short length of 1/4" wooden dowel, on this was glued several triangular segments around one end of the dowel, turns out they weren't exactly triangular but tapered toward the dowel at one end of each segment. I was then given a small bar magnet (broken in the middle) which he asked if I could put together, this I did, after some thought I may add. Of course the broken ends could not come together as the ends repelled each other, he did this to see if had the knowledge of how magnetism worked. Having passed the test, he then asked me to place the rotor into the cradle, then with only my finger give it a gentle spin, that's when I witness something that nothing I could not explain. The rotor built up speed rapidly until it literally jumped/burst out of the cradle. He explained that the tapered  magnet segments, glued to the dowel, were attracted to the two stationary magnets, fixed to the base, by the leading faces of the direction of rotation, and that the opposite end  repulsion that should effectively have stopped the rotor, was weakened by it's tapered end section, hey ~ presto, perpetual motion, only he needed the university brains to design a centrifugal brake that would work intuitively to slow the spin action according to load/torque.
I might not have believed this, had I not both seen and set up the apparatus myself.

The man in question, had quite literally disappeared when I went back to inquire as to his success or otherwise. Workshop closed and empty, non of the surrounding companies saw the emptying and non knew how he could be contacted, mysterious!

...mastersus

Sadly, the older we get, the more cynical we become. If there is one thing I love, it is a good story. Once upon a time, in a place far away, and a long time ago....
 So you have known about this since the seventies. Did you try to make one?


If you break a bar magnet in half, when you try to reassemble it, the broken ends do not repel, they attract.


Did you carefully examine the bottom of the vee notches, and did you look for the tiny exposed wires there, that fed current into the armature from the AAA batteries hidden in the base?


Since this man had the answer to the world`s problems, how much time did you spend trying to track him down after he "disappeared"?


The kindest interpretation I can put on this is that you were a victim of a good conjuring trick. As always I would love to be proved wrong.


Thanks for entertaining us for a few minutes on a dull, rainy day.