The Secret Book Of The Gnomes

Perpetual motion - does it exist?

For hundreds of years, humans and gnomes have tried to invent a machine that could go on working forever. Let's see what one wise gnome said about perpetual motion.

'I have travelled the world from east to west, visiting one court after another. I have had the pleasure and good fortune to see one of the oldest designs for a perpetual motion machine. The inventor of the machine shown below told me that: "When the wheel is spinning, the weights on the right will always be further from the centre of the wheel than those on the left". He believed that because the right side would always be heavier than the left, the wheel would never stop turning. But I didn't believe him.'

'He was correct in saying that the weights on the right side are always farthest away from the centre of the wheel. But he didn't realise that the number of weights on the right will always be less than the number of weights on the left. And that means the wheel will soon stop turning.'

The gnome was called Bengasi-gnomonius, and he drew this sketch in the year 1324 (the year of the square curve according to our gnome calendar).

'The other perpetual motion machine I saw is shown in the picture on the right. Here the heavy chain runs around a series of wheels. Whatever the position of the chain, the right side always weighs more than the left. The inventor thought that this would make the chain move around the wheel forever, without any human or gnome help. But does this complicated machine work?'

The manuscript of Bengasi-gnomonius ends here, so we cannot be sure whether his experiment was successful.

The gnome birthday tree

When a gnome is born, it is customary for father gnomes to plant a large acorn to celebrate his child's birthday. The baby gnome and the tree then grow up together. If a gnome forgets his age he only has to visit his tree, which acts as his own personal calendar.

   We look after our adopted tree very carefully. And when the gnome dies, all the creatures in the wood gather round the oak tree to pay their last respects.

Oak Leaf, Acorn Cup, Acorn

Oak trees are our favourite birthday trees. Like us gnomes, they live for many hundreds of years. They grow very quickly at first, and then slow down. They come in handy for other things besides helping us to remember our age.

The acorns which are not used to plant new trees are collected to make sugar and a lotion to soothe aches and pains. Acorn shells make perfect little cups for thirsty gnomes on picnics. Some artistic gnomes use them to hold water when they are painting.

   The oak leaves are dried out in the sunshine and used to make a snug bedding for our pet mice.

The bark is used to make a beautiful brown dye which is the favourite colour of lady gnomes. When the smooth brak of young oaks is left to dry, we can use it to make an antiseptic. We carry this with us in our first-aid kits when we go for a walk in the woods, just in case we come across an injured animal or bird.

Strictly speaking, an oak is not only type of woodland tree that can be planted to celebrate the birth of a gnome. Lime trees are also used. When you go for a walk in the woods, look very carefully and you may spot the runic inscription we father gnomes carve on the bark. This will tell you the date of birth and other details about the newly born gnome. Runic inscriptions can sometimes be mistaken for human scratchings.

The holm-oak, a deciduous tree, is a very popular birth tree for the gnomes. The trees can grow much taller than us, up to 15 metres high. Sometimes, we have to stand on tip toes to read the runic inscription at the bottom.

We have invented a number of ways to send important messages to our gnome cousins around the world. Pigeons are very reliable, and are always willing to carry our letters.

In these picture from The Secret Book you can see how we attach messages to our bird friends. A secret colour code tells all gnomes what type of letter is being carried.

Blue Ribbon - Good news

Green Ribbon - No reply needed

Black Ribbon - Bad news

Red Ribbon - Urgent letter

Ring to hold letter, Ribbon

The multi-purpose bicycle

We have always been skilled craftsmen as you already know from the beautiful wooden objects we carve. But we also invent many, many machines to help us around the house and in our daily work. The bicycle to our right, for example, is no ordinary bicycle. Look closely, for it has a number of important uses.

Here is a gnome making a vase with his potter's wheel. A system of cogs is used when this attachment is fixed.

1. Felt saddle

2. Pedals

3. Stand - also known to the gnomes as "goat's foot"

4. Drive belt

5. Cogs

6. Handlebars

7. Potter's wheel

When the bicycle is fixed to the ground it becomes a perfect potter's wheel. Without the stand, it can be used as an ordinary bicycle as an ordinary bicycle. A bicycle is a great way for gnomes to travel through the woods. If the grass is not too tall, we can see all around us. As we shall see over the page, our multi-purpose bicycle can also be used to sow crops and sunflower seeds.

1. Axle

2. Small wheel

3. Drive belt

4. Large wheel with fox fur for polishing

5. Acorn

Some houseproud squirrels ask us to polish their acorns before they store them for the winter.

When we want to sow our crops, we hang a basketful of wheat, maize or sunflower seeds from the handlebars. We then place the seeds in the 'paddles' as we ride along. This operation requires great skill.

The seeds do not always fall in the right spot, and it can be a strange sight to see a sunflower growing in the middle of a bramble bush!

6. Large wheel with paddles for sowing seeds.

7. Paddles

8. Seeds being thrown out by rotating wheel.