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Science & Mechanics permanent magnet motor

"We don't grant patents on perpetual motion machines," said the examiners at the U.S. Patent Office. "It won't work because it violates the law of Conservation of Energy," said one physicist after another. But because, inventor Howard Johnson is not the sort of man to be intimidated by such seemingly authoritative pronouncements, he now owns U.S. Patent No. 4,151,431 which describes how it is possible to generate motive power, as in a motor, using only the energy contained in the atoms of permanent magnets. That's right. Johnson has discovered how to build motors that run without an input of electricity or any other kind of external energy! The monumental nature of the invention is obvious, especially in a world facing an alarming, escalating energy shortage. Yet inventor Johnson is not rushing to peddle his creation as the end-all solution to world- wide energy problems. He has more important work to do. First, there's the need to refine his laboratory prototypes into workable practical devices -in particular a 5,000-watt electric power generator already in the building. His second and perhaps more difficult major challenge: persuade a host of skeptics that his ideas are indeed practical. Johnson, who has been coping with disbelievers for decades, can be very persuasive in a face-to-face encounter because he can not do more than merely theorize; he can demonstrate working models that unquestionably create motion using only permanent magnets. When this writer was urged by the editor of SCIENCE & MECHANICS to make a thousand mile pilgrimage to Blacksburg, Virginia, to meet with the inventor, he went there as an "open-minded skeptic" and as a former research Scientist determined not to be fooled. Within two days, this former skeptic had become a believer. Here's why. Doing the Unthinkable. Howard Johnson refuses to view the "laws" of science as somehow sacred, so doing the unthinkable and succeeding is second nature to him. If a particular law gets in the way, he sees no harm in going around it for a while to see if there's something on the other side. Johnson explains the persistent opposition he experiences from the established scientific community this way: "Physics is a measurement science and physicists are especially determined to protect the %u2018Law%u2019 of Conservation of Energy. Thus the physicists become game wardens who tell us what laws' we can't violate. In this case they don't even know what the game is. But they are so scared that I and my associates are going to violate some of these laws, that they have to get to the pass to head us off!"
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