L. R. Banks

L. R. Banks
Born	8 January 1851(1851-01-08) Ohio
Died	30 August 1926 (75) Anderson, Hamilton, Ohio
Religion	Baptist
Alma mater	Baptist Union Theological Seminary (Eng. Course, 1884-86; Post-Grad., 1886-87)
Affiliations	Automatic Power Company (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Spouse(s)	Sarah A. Markley

Leonard R. Banks (January 8, 1851 - August 30, 1926) was an American lawyer, Baptist minister, and inventor who claimed to have discovered a secret process for super-cooling liquid air that would be self-perpetuating (though he stated it was not a perpetual motion machine, claiming rather that it draws energy from the environment without requiring further electrical input once it has begun operating). In 1913, Banks co-founded the Automatic Power Company of Cincinnati, Ohio to support the development of his "free energy" machine; four years later, he told local media that he believed his process was the same as that of Garabed Giragossian, who had petitioned for support from the U.S. government for his "Garabed" device.

Press Coverage

• "'Automatic Power'", Industrial World 47 (1): xiv, 17 March 1913, https://books.google.com/books?id=nM8cAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA9-PR14, "The machine will be composed of a series of tanks which are to be filled with compressed air and this is to be transformed by a secret process into liquid air with a temperature of 312 degrees below zero, and this transformation, it is estimated, will generate a power of two tons to the square inch, which could be used for every purpose from electricity to fuel heating and the transformation will continue in an endless change, and the tanks would require no further attention and there would be no further cost in generating power." 
• "First Fuelless Engine Invented By Him, Cincinnatian Says", Cincinnati Enquirer: 16, 14 Oct. 1917, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/33842270/ 
• "'GARABED A FAKE,' BUT NEVER MIND, HERE'S SUBSTITUTE", Washington Times: 2, 15 Oct. 1917, https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84026749/1917-10-15/ed-1/?sp=2&r=0.149,0.362,0.512,0.3,0