Lawrence Vick

Lawrence Theodore Vick (June 23, 1898 - September 6, 1981) was an American machinist of Scandinavian descent who worked for Peter Ivanoff for twenty years, and, after Ivanoff's death, attempted to track down his former employer's perpetual motion machine, seemingly to no avail.

Press Coverage


"SEATTLE. — Somewhere in the Northwest today there is a machine which represents a half-million dollar investment and half the life of Peter Mollow Ivanoff. Ivanoff worked for 30 years in his 300 thousand dollar Seattle machine shop to overcome friction. But he would have bristled with indignation if you asked him, 'And how's your perpetual motion machine coming along these days, Ivanoff?  'He called it a co-motional machine,' said Lawrence Vick, disciple of the brilliant Bulgarian, who died here several years ago.  'He wasn't a failure — he had something, I'm sure of it,' Vick said.  'You could walk into his shop, twirling a shaft of a multi-geared gadget. And you couldn't hold the other end of the shaft with a Stillson wrench.'  Offers His Services  Today, Vick offers his 20 years' experience as machinist with Ivanoff to any engineer who is willing to continue where the Bulgarian left off. 'But it would be much easier if we could find that machine,' he said. Ivanoff, having no living relatives, bequeathed his plant and machine to several Vancouver (B.C.) residents who had subsidized his work with cash gifts. Vick said he thought the frictionless machine was gathering dust in some Vancouver warehouse, but the 14 trustees claim the machine is still in Seattle. 'Ivanoff ignored the guffaws and chiding of professors who referred him to basic physical laws when he began his experiments,' Vick said. Engineer Conducts Test But finally — after 30 years' work — he was ready to unveil his invention and a large electrical company sent an engineer to conduct tests. 'A battery of meters was attached and voluminous notes were taken,' Vick said. 'The last meter was read. Immediately the engineer signed an affidavit claiming the machine free of friction.' But the engineer was signing his own dismissal notice. 'The company fired him on the spot, accusing him of wrongly connecting a meter,' Vick said. Vick, however, believes the engineer. No one knows what Ivanoff thought, but shortly afterward he began wasting away. The doctors said he died of cancer. Vick isn't so sure."