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 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.