Charles Redheffer

First appearing in Philadelphia, Redheffer exhibited his machine to the public, charging high prices for viewing.

[2] Redheffer claimed he had invented a perpetual motion machine and exhibited it in a house near the Schuylkill River in the outskirts of the city.

Coleman noticed that the cogs were worn on the wrong side and suggested that the device was in fact powering the machine.

To validate his suspicions, he hired local engineer Isaiah Lukens to build a similar machine, using a hidden clockwork motor as a power source.

Civil engineer Charles Gobort offered to bet sums of money ranging from $6,000 to $10,000 that the machine was genuine, and that Redheffer had discovered perpetual motion.

He announced the machine was a fraud, and challenged Redheffer exclaiming he would expose the secret power source, otherwise he would pay for all the damage he would cause.

Redheffer agreed, so Fulton removed some boards from the wall alongside the machine and exposed a catgut cord that led to the upper floor.

[7] Redheffer appears to have constructed another machine in 1816, which he stated his intention to demonstrate to a group of men including the mayor and chief justice of Philadelphia.