15 Biggest Hoaxes That Fooled The World

In 1812, Philidephia, an unknown and fairly barmy American inventor named Charles Redheffer claimed that he had invented a perpetual motion machine. Seeing as the general consensus in the scientific community is that this machine would violate both the first and second laws of thermodynamics, this was a pretty big claim.

A perpetual motion machine is a device that, once started, can maintain its motion without further input. This machine, with our current understanding of physics are an impossibility, but may inventors like to play fast and loose with terms such as "impossible", resulting in many attempts to create one.

Redheffer purported to have invented just such a device. However, when he applied to the government for money to fund his project, they sent some inspectors round to see where their money was going. Redheffer did not manage to play it particularly cool, freaking out every time the inspectors got close to his machine, claiming that he feared they would damage it. 

Despite this, one of those beady-eyed inspectors noticed that that something wasn't quite right with the machine - he saw that it appeared to be being powered by the device that Redheffer claimed it was powering.

Eventually, a string was discovered that led to another room. In this room was sat an old, bearded man turning a crank handle with one hand and eating a crust of bread with the other. After the old man's discovery, an angry mob trashed the machine and Redheffer disappeared in to obscurity.