13^th Jun 2014

In perpetuity…

The first ‘official’ Wavelength in 2005 (preceded by a few Clear Spots) featured Hugh de la Cruz talking about his perpetual motion invention which he had been developing for ten years. He chose a pseudonym; Alan Bridges, as a defence against being silenced by the powers that be who will want to prevent the development of perpetual motion as it will make existing energy sources obsolete and bring about the collapse of petro-chemical industries etc.. Today is the last of four Wavelength broadcasts from the Science Museum and so I invited a curator from the Science Museum to come along and debate perpetual motion with Hugh. As Hugh has been consistently frustrated by the responses to his invention over the years it seemed a good opportunity for him to move the project along. The Science Museum were unable (or unwilling) to provide anyone to discuss the topic, the unspoken subtext being that it is a subject which attracts timewasters and cranks. Hugh suggested that he would only take part in the programme if he could speak for ten minutes on the telephone to one of the curators. This would allow him to explain the theory behind his invention and ascertain if they would give him a fair hearing. To date, Hugh has been obsessed with this idea for eighteen years. I recorded my preliminary discussion with Hugh during which he became increasingly intransigent and eventually the proposed meeting fell through. Today’s programme consists of the original thirty minutes from 2005 followed by the recent thirty minute conversation. So, for the time being, the world will have to muddle through without perpetual motion.