Robert G. J. Sandifer

Robert G. J. Sandifer (b. c. 1860 - July 3, 1915) was an American shoemaker, resident at Hannibal, Missouri, who, it was reported in 1898, claimed to have invented a perpetual motion machine that ran "without the aid of steam, water, springs or any mechanical power save its own momentum." The Sandifer machine was loosely described in the press as consisting of three pieces, but the design scheme was to be jealously guarded until such time as it received patent protection; however, no patent was ever granted to Sandifer for such a machine, nor was any follow-up made in the newspapers on its further development.

As far as patents are concerned, Sandifer received one (U.S. No. 761,612) on a car fender in 1904, his first and only. In the press sphere, both Sandifer and his wife offered written endorsements for Doan's Kidney Pills in advertisements, the latter's in Missouri, the former's in California, where Sandifer lived at Sanger in Fresno Co. for three years prior to his passing from a liver complaint.