Newman's Energy Machine was a

DC motor A DC motor is any of a class of rotary electrical motors that converts direct current (DC) electrical energy into mechanical energy. The most common types rely on the forces produced by induced magnetic fields due to flowing current in the coil ...

which the inventor, Joseph Newman, claimed to produce mechanical power exceeding the electrical power being supplied to it. In 1979, Newman attempted to patent the device, but it was rejected by the

United States Patent Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexa ...

as being a

perpetual motion machine Perpetual motion is the motion of bodies that continues forever in an unperturbed system. A perpetual motion machine is a hypothetical machine that can do work infinitely without an external energy source. This kind of machine is impossible, a ...

. When the rejection was later appealed, the

United States district court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

requested that Newman's machine be tested by the

National Bureau of Standards The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...

(NBS). The NBS concluded in June 1986 that output power was not greater than the input. Thus, the patent was again denied. The scientific community has rejected Newman's ideas about electricity and magnetism as

pseudoscientific Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claim ...

and his claims as false.

Claims by the inventor

By adding rolls to the armature of a motor, a larger and larger

counter-electromotive force Counter-electromotive force (counter EMF, CEMF, back EMF),Graf, "counterelectromotive force", Dictionary of Electronics is the electromotive force (EMF) manifesting as a voltage that opposes the change in current which induced it. CEMF is the EMF c ...

is generated on the motor. Newman outlined his claims about there being a fundamental electromagnetic interaction in all matter ultimately derived from only one type of force particle propagating at the speed of light. Newman claims that the motor derives its power by converting some of the mass of the copper in the coils into usable energy, in application of Einstein's

mass–energy equivalence In physics, mass–energy equivalence is the relationship between mass and energy in a system's rest frame, where the two quantities differ only by a multiplicative constant and the units of measurement. The principle is described by the physicis ...

. According to proponents of the Energy Machine, the most crucial part of the design concerns what happens as a result of mechanical commutation.

U.S. patent application

In 1979, Newman submitted an application for his device to the

United States Patent and Trademark Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexa ...

. The application was eventually rejected in 1983, which set off a lengthy court battle. The

United States District Court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

requested a master of the court to make the final decision. William E. Schuyler, Jr, former Commissioner of U.S. Patent Office, Washington, DC was chosen by the court to make the final decision to award the patent or not award the patent to Newman. Schuyler concluded that evidence to support Newman's claim was overwhelming and found no contradictory factual evidence. However, the judge ordered Newman's machine to be tested by the

(NBS). The National Bureau of Standards (NBS), now known as the

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...

(NIST), by request of the patent office, tested the device for several months and got negative results. In every case presented in the NBS report, the output power was less than power input from the battery pack, and therefore the efficiency was less than 100%. The court therefore upheld the rejection of the patent application. Newman argued that he had been mistreated by the patent office, and tried to have his motor legalized directly by the US Congress. He obtained a hearing on 30 July 1986 in front of several senators, but he was unsuccessful. During the hearing, Newman refused to have the machine tested by independent experts, and senator John Glenn pointed out that his supposedly independent expert actually had a prior business relationship with him. The case is now cited in the USPTO's

Manual of Patent Examining Procedure The ''Manual of Patent Examining Procedure'' (MPEP) is published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for use by patent attorneys and agents and patent examiners. It describes all of the laws and regulations that must be follo ...

as an example of an "inoperative" invention that can't have any utility, concretely as a perpetual motion machine.

Cease and desist order

In August 2007 the Alabama Securities Commission issued a

cease and desist A cease and desist letter is a document sent to an individual or business to stop alleged illegal activity. The phrase "cease and desist" is a legal doublet, made up of two near-synonyms. The letter may warn that, if the recipient does not dis ...

order to the "Newman Energy Corporation", alleging it had sold unregistered stock in the company. In January 2008 the company tendered offers of rescission to its nine Alabama investors, offering to reverse the sales. Eight of the investors declined the offer, electing to retain their investment; the ninth did not reply. The company agreed to pay the State of Alabama $7,000 in administrative assessments and investigative costs.

In popular culture

The device is referenced in the

Big Black Big Black was an American punk rock band from Evanston, Illinois, active from 1981 to 1987. Founded by singer and guitarist Steve Albini, the band's initial lineup also included guitarist Santiago Durango and bassist Jeff Pezzati, both of Nake ...

song "Newman Generator", recorded for their 1987

Peel Session John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

References

Bibliography

* Newman, J. (8th ed.).(1998). ''The Energy Machine of Joseph Newman''. Scottsdale, AZ: Joseph Newman Publishing Company.

Notes

External links

; Claims
"The Energy Machine of Joseph Newman"
(Official site: archived copy of the site as at the last complete date – 25 March 2014) ''Retrieved 12 March 2017''.

by Jean-Louis Naudin and M. David ; Skeptical
"The Error Machine of Joseph Newman"
by Tom Napier

by

James Randi James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician, author and scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. Rodrigues 2010p. ...

"Is it possible to build a machine that generates more power than it uses?"
by

Cecil Adams Cecil Adams is the pseudonymous author of ''The Straight Dope'', a popular question and answer column published in ''The Chicago Reader'' from 2 February 1973 to 2018. The true identity of Adams, whether a single individual or a group of authors, ...

{{Electric motor, state=collapsed Electric motors Fringe physics Perpetual motion Discovery and invention controversies Free energy conspiracy theories