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The Forbidden Motor: Genius or Hoax?

Gabor Makes

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The Motor That Defied Physics: The Mystery of the Joseph Newman Engine

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What is this topic about?
Invented by Joseph Newman in the late 1970s, this motor claimed to produce more energy than it consumed—effectively a perpetual motion machine. The design featured a massive coil of copper wire (weighing hundreds or even thousands of pounds) and a permanent magnet rotor. Newman argued that his motor tapped into the "gyroscopic particles" of magnetic fields.

Q:
Energy from Nowhere? The Rise and Fall of the Controversial Newman Motor
Genius or Hoax? Exploring the High-Voltage Secrets of Joseph Newman

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20 Comments

@GaborMakes Creator 5 months ago Pinned

If you enjoyed the mystery of the Newman Motor, you'll love the complexity of the Enigma machine (release: 17.04.2026) and BIOGAS project (release: 18.04.2026). Both changed history in their own way!

ENIGMA (The Unbreakable Code)
https://youtu.be/OpqJ8EiqYBs

BIOGAS (Free Gas from Kitchen Waste):
https://youtu.be/Zgsf5FMIBRA

@EarnieBoyd 5 months ago

I actually played this in 1x speed. I typically watch in 2x the speed.

@mysteriousrabbitholes 1 month ago

I don't want to beat the dead horse of perpetual motion. Rather, combine flywheels, capacitors , peltier devices , stirlings , batteries, etc to achieve the same ends. I'll let the mensa egos battle it out . I just want results. Fantastic channel. I'm just here to adapt.

@moineagu1 5 months ago

BRILIANT PROJECT CONGRATULATIONS ❤❤❤❤

@glasslinger 5 months ago

I have a super cap about that same size but it is a 2 farad at 2 volts. I bought it back in 1995. The super caps have come a long way in 20 years!

@mattg6472 5 months ago

Ya know whats crazy the tape spiral commutator where you run current through the metal motor shaft and it gets interupted by the tape you can adjust timming on it

@Mend-It-Man 4 months ago

Az intelligencia a változáshoz alkalmazkodás képessége."

Nice one

@OldNameNoLongerFits2026 5 months ago

If I'm teaching someone, I'll try to emulate you, great work!

@JohnSmith-b7v2g 4 months ago

A mosfet transistor should cause it to run longer because only voltage and zero current will cause it to conduct.

@solo206 5 months ago

I had this idea before, but I didn't have many parts to make. Thank you for providing what I roughly envisioned.

@CSGATI 5 months ago

Use 3 coils at 120 degrees for the heck of it.

@analog_guy 5 months ago (edited)

A simple motor without a commutator can be made with a single coil, a single battery such as an AA, and rotating magnet, using a negative resistance circuit formed with a tunnel diode or with a pair of transistors connected to make what has been called a "lambda circuit".

@gkdresden 5 months ago

You can also make a version with just 1 coil and 2 transistors and some passive devices. In this case the coil works as magnetic sensor and driving coil. The driving circuit is the same as for the magnetic pendulum.

@josephqaqish2598 5 months ago (edited)

this circuit is traditionally used in all wall clocks since the 50th , it need just a kick to start , it call here in germany meißner circuit

@daviddavids2884 5 months ago

this is a good illustration of why the use of capacitance in an ou apparatus tends to result in misleading/false results.!

@pauldench1299 5 months ago

Great video, I guess you could use solar , wind, wave to generate and charge a battery bank link a Newman motor and some switching to boost the capacitor and maintain motor speed and then you kind of have perpetual motion, well as long as the equipment holds out. Fascinating 👍

@grantclinch2496 5 months ago

New man’s motor was massive, there’s an equation which i dont recall , where efficiency increases with mass, the increase is not linear, its exponential.

@cliffcampbell8827 5 months ago

It is very easy to get more volts out of a circuit than what is put into it. For instance, take a 12 volt circuit, run that juice thru a coil and now you have 40,000 volts (this happens in your car, thousands of times a minute).

@jackking1869 5 months ago

The formula is incorrect in that it calculates the charge and not the energy (power). The charge is 22 x 2.8 = 61.6. The energy, however, is 0.5 x C x U^2, or 86.24 watts. Since the motor converts energy into rotation, this is what matters, not the charge.

@stoic2357 5 months ago

I'm more interested in actual work done. Yes, the spinning can be considered work but...
1. How much air or water (liquid) can it move on a specific charge?
2. How much can it lift or move a specific object on a specific charge?
3. How long can you keep a light (even LED's) at a constant lumen/brightness on a specific charge?
4. How much can you amplify a signal or increase the volume of a speaker on a single charge?
5. The perpetual motion or "free electricity" claim (un-proveable after 100 years or so) is that you can provide a "feedback loop" that will maintain the "motor" without a constant power source. You could charge up a "battery" of capacitors but even then....
It is a nice toy to demonstrate a workable theory but how can it be applied to get something done at some sort of scale (measurable, provable)

Thank you for the simple design and explanation.