What an infinity of vain schemes--some of them displaying great ingenuity--for perpetual motions, and new mechanical engines of power, etc., would have been checked at once, had the great truth been generally understood, that no form or combination of machinery ever did or ever can increase, in the slightest degree, the quantity of power applied. Ignorance of this is the hinge on which most of the dreams of mechanical projectors have turned. No year passes, even now, in which many patents are not taken out for such supposed discoveries; and the deluded individuals, after selling perhaps even their household goods to obtain the means of securing the supposed advantages, often sink in despair, when their attempts, instead of bringing riches and happiness to their families, end in disappointment and utter ruin. The frequency and eagerness and obstinacy with which even talented individuals, owing to their imperfect knowledge of this part of natural philosophy, have engaged in such undertakings, is a remarkable phenomenon in human nature. At page 270 in treating on "Hydrostatics," he says: [Illustration] A projector thought that the vessel of his contrivance, represented here, was to solve the renowned problem of the perpetual motion. It was goblet-shaped, lessening gradually towards the bottom until it became a tube, bent upwards at _c_, and pointing with an open extremity into the goblet again. He reasoned thus: A pint of water in the goblet _a_ must more than counterbalance an ounce which the tube _b_ will contain, and must therefore be constantly pushing the ounce forward into the vessel again at _a_, and keeping up a stream or circulation, which will cease only when the water dries up. He was confounded when a trial showed him the same level in _a_ and in _b_. Pickering's Device In 1858, Peter Pickering, Landed Proprietor of Danzig, Prussia, applied for a British patent on "An Atmospheric Engine." It may be described as follows: [Illustration]