August Nelson
From Kook Science
August Nelson (August 7, 1872 - October 4, 1922) was an American street car conductor and mechanical tinker who was reported by Illinois newspapers to have hung himself owing to "disappointment over his failure to perfect a perpetual motion device."
Press Coverage
- "Death Notice for August Nelson, fifty", Ashton Gazette (Ashton, IL), 19 Oct. 1922, https://idnc.library.illinois.edu/?a=d&d=TAG19221019.1.2, "St. Charles. — August Nelson, fifty, was spoken of as a 'man who never took a drink of any intoxicant, and never lost his temper,' and as 'a model husband.' But he tinkered with inventions and it is believed disappointment over his failure to perfect a perpetual motion device caused him to take his life by hanging himself to a tree on the bank of Fox river."