First Law of Thermodynamics Repealed?

January 21, 2003 10:17 PM

Perpetual-motion machine being sold on eBay. It's essentially six automotive alternators connected (via motorcycle chain) to an electric motor. One of the alternators supposedly powers the motor, leaving the remaining five to provide 700W of free energy. Sigh...people actually believe this crapola?
posted by Vidiot (24 comments total)

(N.B.: the auction is ending in less than 11 hours as I post this. Can anyone tell me how to cache it or find a cache of it?)
posted by Vidiot at 10:19 PM on January 21, 2003

Choose Save or Save Page As from your File menu, and when the dialog pops up, select "Entire Web Page" (or your browser's analogue thereof) - both Mozilla and IE (recent versions) allow you to download the entire page for offline viewing. It will show up as an archive file viewable by only the application you saved it from (generally speaking).
posted by babylon at 10:24 PM on January 21, 2003

It must work, check his sellers feedback!
posted by phatboy at 10:27 PM on January 21, 2003

I bet if I got me about a thousand of those, I could go off the grid!
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:45 PM on January 21, 2003

I really like the fact that it's a black box. Since he describes the internals, shouldn't the box be painted white?
posted by blue_beetle at 11:00 PM on January 21, 2003

The inverted gravity field on this thing must be enormous!
posted by four panels at 11:16 PM on January 21, 2003

thanks, babylon. I saved an .MHT file and will upload it when the auction is over.
posted by Vidiot at 11:42 PM on January 21, 2003

Funny that it includes an internal battery.... why bother including something that silly and peripherary if the device provides free unlimited power?
posted by nathan_teske at 11:54 PM on January 21, 2003

I love the fact that he's selling two, both auctions of course having exactly the same photos (and currently the same Current Bid).

I suppose someone should report this to eBay... eventually.
posted by krisjohn at 12:06 AM on January 22, 2003

I reported them, but I wasn't the first. Here's what I said:

Questionable Content on eBay : Prohibited or Questionable Items : Batteries
As described these items are perpetual motion machines, and thus obviously fraudulent. Sorry to use the "batteries" section, but you didn't have a "Violates the first law of thermodymanics" option.
posted by krisjohn at 12:11 AM on January 22, 2003

Give the guy a break. He merely forgot to mention the nuclear-powered hamster.
posted by Opus Dark at 12:39 AM on January 22, 2003

Yeah, but it comes with its own cool black box. That's neato!
posted by geekhorde at 1:57 AM on January 22, 2003

i think you guya are just all pissed off that you didn't come up with it first.
posted by joedan at 2:16 AM on January 22, 2003

Ok, I almost believed it. But the giveaway is the inconsitency between the diagram and the text. Does this thing output 700 w or 600 w?

Must be the Power Inverter playing tricks
posted by magullo at 5:16 AM on January 22, 2003

[nitpick]wasn't the giveaway the claims of unlimited free energy?[/nitpick]

By the way, an archived .MHT file (possibly only viewable in IE, from babylon's comment above) is here.
posted by Vidiot at 5:53 AM on January 22, 2003

[nitpick answer]Irony is the word. Not only does he claim the impossible, he does it in the most careless way possible[/nitpick answer]
posted by magullo at 5:59 AM on January 22, 2003

oh yeah, tongue was in cheek during both your note and my response, magullo. (Must be the international energy cartel hacking into eBay and deleting bids...this could blow the lid off the whole market!)
posted by Vidiot at 6:08 AM on January 22, 2003

Sorry to use the "batteries" section, but you didn't have a "Violates the first law of thermodymanics" option.

That made my day.
posted by Frasermoo at 6:17 AM on January 22, 2003

If the seller is using this thing to power his perpetual run-on sentences/paragraphs, then it obviously works.
posted by moonbiter at 6:27 AM on January 22, 2003

If there's one thing I can't stand, it's these liberally-biased Laws of Thermodynamics. "Energy must be conserved." Damn conservationists take the fun out of everything.
posted by vraxoin at 7:26 AM on January 22, 2003

Luser! I've been enjoying perpetual free electricity for years, ever since I took an extension cord and plugged it into itself!
posted by timecube at 7:45 AM on January 22, 2003

here's my take, simply play a robbie williams LP of him crooning all frank's greatest hits then simply tap the unlimited source of energy as he spins in his grave.
posted by johnnyboy at 8:46 AM on January 22, 2003

Frasermoo: I'm glad someone enjoyed it.

You know what really bugs me? eBay has been killing all Atari prototype cartridge auctions citing some copyright or licensing delusion, but these auctions of obviously fraudulent crap went through to completion.
posted by krisjohn at 4:56 PM on January 22, 2003

Who said anything about perpetual motion? He admits that the thing only lasts for 10 years. He’s just some poor scientist, held back by “Big Battery”, who has to make ends meet by selling self-powered generators and Coin Shooters. Stop trolling, all of you.
(for the sarcasm impaired, I’m surprised you made it this far down the thread)
posted by Gary at 5:25 PM on January 22, 2003