While attempts at Perpetual Motion are as old as the human race, not many of the more ancient devices have been preserved, either by engraving or by explanation. Among the very earliest of these attempts of which we have detailed information is the device of Wilars de Honecort. He was an architect, and lived in the thirteenth century. The information is preserved in "A Sketch Book" by him which was deposited and remains in the Ecole des Chartes at Paris. About the middle of the nineteenth century comments were published in France on this ancient device. Some of these were translated into English. The following account is an extract from a translation made by Professor Willis, of Cambridge. "_Many a time have skilful workmen tried to contrive a wheel that shall turn of itself: here is a way to make such a one, by means of an uneven number of mallets, or by quicksilver._" Wilars de Honecort presents to us a device for a perpetual motion; it is not clear whether he intends to claim the contrivance of it, or whether he had met with it in the course of his travels. It differs very little from a well-known contrivance for this purpose which has been so often published, and its fallacy so fully explained in popular books, that it is unnecessary to dwell at length upon the mechanical principles which it involves. It is extremely curious in this place, because it shows the great antiquity of the problem, the solution of which has wasted the time, the brains, and the means of many an unhappy artisan or philosopher. In the drawing we have now before us, the two upright posts, which are framed together and skilfully braced so as to ensure their steadiness, support between them a long horizontal axle, to the center of which is fixed a wheel with four spokes. The absence of perspective in this drawing makes the wheel appear as if it were parallel to the frame, instead of being, as it is, at right angles to it. [Illustration]