bill@utastro.UUCP (William H. Jefferys) (04/01/85)
The most recent issue of *Science* (Vol 227, p. 1558, 29 March 1985)
has an article about Joseph Newman's alleged perpetual motion machine,
and his battle with the patent office. The highlights of the article are:
* District Judge Thomas Jackson has ordered Newman to submit his machine
to the National Bureau of Standards for testing, by 30 May 1985.
* Newman says he will not comply with the ruling. He claims that the
NBS had a chance to test the machine in 1982, but refused. The NBS
says that Newman arrived unannounced on their doorstep and demanded
that his machine, which he had hauled up from Mississippi in a truck,
be tested then and there. The NBS agreed to observe, but not test
the machine, since they did not have the requisite equipment. Later
they made arrangements with Auburn University to test the machine, but
Newman never showed up.
* Newman claims that no one else has had to demonstrate their inventions
before receiving a patent, but the Patent Office says that there is
precedent for this, and that it is not uncommon in unusual cases.
PO spokesman Oscar Mastin says, "This is an unusual case."
* Newman says he doesn't have the money to ship the machine to Washington
to test, and has hired a public relations firm to publicize his cause.
(Sound familiar?)
* If Newman refuses to comply with the court order, then at the next
court hearing, scheduled for 11 June, Judge Jackson says he "will
draw inferences."
--
"Men never do evil so cheerfully and so completely as when they do so from
religious conviction." -- Blaise Pascal
Bill Jefferys 8-%
Astronomy Dept, University of Texas, Austin TX 78712 (USnail)
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