Samuel P. Fall

Samuel P. Fall (February 22, 1834 - October 23, 1908) was an American farmer, described by press accounts as a hermit, and self-described visionary who spent several decades of his life attempting to invent a perpetual motion machine.

"HASN'T GIVEN UP YET," Portland Daily Press (Portland, ME), 1898-07-26
"Samuel P. Fall, an East Lebanon hermit, has for more than forty years been trying to discover a method of applying perpetual motion. His latest device of perpetual motion has a large pulley set in a standard. To the outer surface of the pulley are attached number of tubes containing quicksilver which acts as a floating weight in each tube. As the pulley revolves a system of mechanism holds the tubes extended to one side, while as they rise on the other side, the same mechanism allows them to unlock automatically and hang pendant, Mr. Fall's idea being that the tubes present less resistance when hanging than when extended. As the tubes pass the apex of the pulley, the quicksilver flows gently down the inclining tubes, constantly adding to their weight as they go. Mr. Fall believes that if he can succeed in governing the weight accurately he will be able to over come the dead center. The other idea that he describes is what he terms a double cross, the arms imparting motion by means of weights, the whole governed by the central portion above the arms. This he believes is certain to prove a success as soon as he is able to overcome the dead centre. Mr. Fall gets most of his ideas on perpetual motion in dreams and visions. He says forty years ago he was sitting in chair in his kitchen sort of dreaming and staring vacantly at the clock on the wall when he was astonished to sea the usually well behaved old timekeeper winding itself up. 'Then and there,' he says, 'there appeared unto me a man. I know not whence he came nor whither he went but I saw him as distinctly as I see you now, and he said to me: 'I am Galileo and I am going to give to you the motion. I am going away now for seven long, long years.' 'As he said this, he waved his hand slowly above his bead, and saying: 'But I shall return.' I stared at the clock and meditated trying to reason and explain the meaning of this visit. It came to me all in an instant, like a flash of lightning, that I had been selected from among all others to solve the problem of perpetual motion, and even after all these years of labor that have passed I have never lost faith in that promise. 'I was then exceedingly ignorant, but had in my youth learned to read and write. I began to study the Bible. I was not then a believer in its teachings, but the more I read and studied the more I believed. I pored over its pages night and day, and I have discovered among other things that it was written by one man from Genesis to Revelations. Shorty after the appearance of my strange visitant I felt a peculiar sensation in my head. It was as though I was being sprinkled with water, and I am now satisfied that it was water, water from the fountain of knowledge. I was being prepared for the work that I am destined to accomplish. 'I have written a great deal, and have several times copied the Bible, chapter after chapter, explaining the mysteries as I wrote, until all is as clear to me as the air we breathe. The manuscript that I have down in that old house there would make a load for this pair of horses. It is all in poetry, but it is in crude form. In future years I shall copy the best of it and write a book. Although I am not a believer in spiritualism, I do believe that the dead can communicate with the living, but it must be through a third party, a messenger, so to speak. I see many things in visions. 'Once I had been for many months at work on a piece of mechanism that I fondly hoped would reveal to me the secret of perpetual motion, but one night a man appeared in a vision and directed me to bury the fruits of my labor. I dared not do otherwise. In the early morning I went out and followed his bidding. I have never ventured to work up on the same principle since. Had I continued I feel certain that success would have crowned my efforts, but perhaps I was wrong and he knew better than I. Anyway, it is beneath the soil, and I alone know where. 'Not very long ago I had a vision, in which I saw a table extending toward the rising sun, as far as the eye could reach. There was no food upon the table, but on either side sat hosts of men. Their number must have been very great. At the head of this table there were three vacant chairs. Then there appeared man who was familiar to me, one whom I knew had failed in business. When he had seated himself at the head of the table, there were no vacant chairs, but I was provided with a chair and given a small portion of food at a side table. 'This vision represented to me that the men at the table were those who had struggled with the problem of perpetual motion, and the placing of my neighbor at the head of the table was to shown that all had failed. I alone was allowed partake of food. This I consider in the nature of a direct message to me to persevere and in the end the great secret which I covet shall be mine.' Farmer Fall has up-to-date ideas regarding agricultural implements and his numerous acres under cultivation are ample proof that not all of his time is devoted to the study of the holy writ and the problem of perpetual motion."

"A BUSY HERMIT," Daily Journal (Telluride, CO), 1898-11-08


"Between farming, studying the Bible, and searching for the secret of perpetual motion, Samuel P. Fall, who lives the life of a hermit in the outskirts of East Lebanon, Me., is about the busiest man in York county. Fall says that he got his first idea of perpetual motion from Galileo, who appeared to him in a vision 40 years ago. The philosopher's ghost then promised to impart to Farmer Fall the long sought secret and disappeared, saying that it would come back again in seven years. Whether this promise has been kept Farmer Fall does not say, but ever since the visitation of Galileo he has been studying up on the subject of perpetual motion, which secret he fully believes he will some day discover. Among his books the Bible is favorite, and he declares that after many readings of the Scriptures he has decided that the Book, from Genesis to Revelations, was written by one man. He has copied the entire Bible, and written voluminous notes in explanation, as he says, of its mysteries, the manuscript being a load for a hay rack. As a result of his studies of Holy Writ and works on mechanics, together with several visions and other spiritual communications. Farmer Fall has constructed two or three devices for the attainment of perpetual motion. One consists of a large pulley fitted with tubes containing quicksilver. The other device consists of a double cross, the arms imparting motion by means of a system of weights. Unlike most dreamers, Farmer Fall is well off financially, devoting a good part of his time to the cultivation of one of the best farms in his vicinity. — N.Y. Sun"