Typed by Rick Friedrich 2016.
The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, September 09, 1886, Image 7

Image and text provided by University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
Persistent link: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn94056415/1886-09-09/ed-1/seq-7/
IS IT PERPETUAL MOTION?
The Invention of an Ohio Man Who Expects to Revolutionize the World.
An Electrical Machine Which He Claims Will Run Until It Wears Itself Out.
Mystery of Force.
	For half a century, writes a Mansfield, O., correspondent of The Cincinnati Commercial Gazelle, D. M. Cook has been a familiar figure in Richland county, and has been marked for his singular inventive genius. In 1850, when a young man, he became impressed with the wonders of electrical science, and then became enamored of its study. He began to delve into the unknown of this hidden force, and for thirty-six years in alternately brilliant and adverse circumstances has trodden over this field till there is no nook or corner with which he is unacquainted. He commenced his studies at a time when little was known of electricity, and by a pursuit of knowledge in that direction with unbounded zeal, he has not only kept apace with the wizards of the day, but has so far gotten in advance of them that his assertions are almost accepted as altogether incredulous. 
	But no matter whether his claims seem wonderful and almost beyond belief, they are worthy of credence, for he must be placed in the list of successful inventors. In 1852 he conceived and constructed a device that revolutionized the manufacture of sorghum sirup. The device was called an evaporator, and was used to make sirup from sorghum. His principle was to run the juice across a heated surface in zig-zag rows till the juice would run out as a pure sirup ready for the table, the water being evaporated in its passage, and the impurities being thrown to one side. On this he received letters patent in 1858, and in 1859 a company began the manufacture of the same. Thousands and thousand were disposed of, varying in price from $25 to $35, over $4,000,000 being realized, on which the inventor got a handsome; royalty. Through this he derived quite a fortune, although a portion of it he spent in improving and introducing the device. Even to this day a firm in Cincinnati is engaged in the manufacture of this same evaporator, from which the members of the firm made themselves rich. Cook, however, several years ago lost his right to the royalty by some means or other, and has not been drawing anything from that source since. 
	Save for this slight diversion. Mr. Cook has not experimented in any field outside of electricity since thirty-eight years ago to any considerable extent, but in this direction he can be said to have spent the greater part of his life.
	For a while he sought to solve the question of cheap power, light, etc., by producing the proper current by means of a battery. He invented a battery of peculiar value for telegraph purposes, which was in use for a long time at Crestline, on the Western Union, and until the discovery of the cheap gravity battery that is now in use. But Mr. Cook long ago concluded in his own mind that in dynamic electricity lay future success. Accordingly lie cast aside the battery as a secondary affair, and set about to experiment with dynamos of novel and peculiar construction.
	For several years past he would occasionally meet me and speak of his discoveries in the electrical field, but would say that he had not yet secured the results he was after. He would tell me: "When I get my experiments completed I want to show you what will revolutionize the world. I propose to make a perpetual electric generator or motor which will propel it-self by its own current, the resistance of the generator proper being only about 10 per cent, of the rotary power of the electric engine upon which the current of the generator acts."
	This assertion was sufficient to shock an ordinary person's nerves, but I accepted the statement with much allowance. However, I became interested and kept watching results.
	Last November Mr. Cook came to me and said: "I have at last met with success. I have found the principle that I have been hunting for so long. I can now start a dynamo to going, and will never stop except by the wearing away of its own parts. Not only will it run itself by its own current, but also produce power enough, according to the size of the engine, to run any machine in the world."
	Perpetual motion, "I suggested."More than that, "he replied."It is perpetual motion with only 10 percent of the force used, leaving 90 percent for power to be utilized as is desired. Not only that, but more; one helix of my dynamo will produce light in proportion to its size while the other is making the current that runs the engine. It will serve to heat your house, so that instead of having stoves and grates, little wires will "run through your rooms, and on your parlor table will be a highly burnished apparatus containing wires, etc., which will keep the temperature of the house at what ever point you wish."
	"What will be the cost to run it?" 
	"Nothing. As I said, start it. and it will go. Heat, power, and light produced by one machine, for absolutely nothing!" I looked at him to sec if he was there yet, and if so, whether he was mad, in earnest, or joking. He laughed at my astonishment, and said: "I am now making a model, and when far enough along I will show it to you." 
	The matter was not specially discussed after that, although he would frequently bring up the question, until a day or two ago and I had serious doubts whether he would ever show the device to me. I thought of Keely and his motor, and felt that the results Mr. Cook professed himself able to obtain were such that he would keep secret his machine, if he had any, in order to justify the public. My surprise may be imagined, therefore, when Mr. Cook came to me a few days ago and said: "I believe I will show you my electric engine and generator. I am far enough along now to show you how the results are accomplished."
	A time was fixed, and at the appointed hour Mr. Cook called and took me to his farm, about three miles south of Mansfield. As an excuse for a heavy crop of weeds in a fine field, where hundreds of bushels of wheat should have been harvested, he explained: "I have been so busy with my researches that I have been unable to put out any crops. I could get nobody to attend to the farm, and therefore it is a barren waste. I succeeded in getting a few acres of oats planted, and that, with a small potato patch, will be all I derive this year from this fine tract." 	Here he lives, as he has lived for years, with a wife and 14-year-old daughter and his wife's sister. The latter is his enthusiastic assistant, and has helped him in many long years of toil. Distant from the house stands an old shop, wherein is, hidden the secrets of his life. No stranger over enters here, for it is herein that are contained the results of thirty-six years of labor. This seclusive rule has been almost invariable, having been broken but half a dozen times in over a third of a century. Several electricians and two or three others of known integrity have been admitted, but only after signing an ironclad agreement not to reveal, patent, or cause to be patented or improved without his consent any of the parts shown to them.
	The shop is dilapidated, as is the rest of the farm, so much is his mind taken up in the pursuits of his studies. The rear is used as a shelter for his trusty old horse, who has done near thirty years of royal service, while tho front part is devoted altogether to his laboratory.
	The agreement signed, Mr. Cook led the way to the door, but before unlocking it grasped me by the hand and had me renew the promise made in the written agreement. This done, I was ushered into the mysterious room. I was bewildered by the appearance of the place. The room was large, and everywhere hung bundles of wire. Magnets of all shapes and sizes hung about the walls and were scattered on the floor in confused heaps. In one corner was a huge machine, with large coils and magnets, which Mr. Cook told me was the first machine he at tempted to'make. But in the center of the room sat the pride of his life. I saw at a glance that this mysterious man had not wasted his time and for tune. He had branched out from the beaten track, and had produced a machine that differed in all respects from dynamos of present; construction, except in that he also used wire and iron. 
	"This" he sad he "is my perpetual electric generator and engine. I will call my assistant and show you how it works." 
	The machine was rudely constructed, for Mr. Cock made it all himself with a few old tools that had done too much service already. Parts of it were made of wood, and the whole was not put together in a very artistic manner, but it demonstrated his discoveries, and that was his only purpose in its construction. This model weighs three hundred pounds, and Mr. Cook said by the hand-power of one man could be generated current sufficient to light up from thirty to fifty sixteen candle-power incandescent lamps.
	His assistant having arrived, who by the way is a young lady of handsome appearance, the work of demonstration began. I tested the current in several ways and found it very powerful. Having made electricity somewhat of a study, I was surprised at the simplicity of many of the principles. The manner in which he expects to get the results heretofore mentioned is theoretically correct, and there is no mechanical difficulty which he has not already overcome. 
	After examining the machine carefully in all its parts, I was conducted to an adjoining room, where, on a table, sat a smaller model of more accurate make. It contained a much better arrangement of the parts, and from what he told me I am compelled to believe all that Mr. Cook had told me. I asked him why he had not sought capital to develop his theories more rapidly, when he replied that he had not heretofore been ready. He said: 
	"I wanted to complete my labors, so that I could say my work is done. I desired to give to the world a machine perfect in every particular, that would settle forevermore the question of cheap power, light, and heat. Up to now my work was not finished. I am now almost done. Within a very short time I shall be able to show to all mankind that I have a machine that will revolutionize the world. When I can exhibit a running model, which I can in a few days, then I will be ready to consider the many propositions that I have already received."