◆ PARALLAX

Right. I have been told to bring this here instead of the believers' webring where everyone already agrees with me, because you lot will "actually test it." Fine. My device is a magnet-studded wheel that has not stopped turning since 12 April 1987. One push, that is the only energy I ever put in. I know what conservation of energy says. My answer is that the garage is not a closed system. Ask me anything. I will NOT be filming it for 24 hours straight because my camera runs off my OTHER invention and that opens a can of worms. Site's on the webring if you want the photos. Ask me anything.

[staff] Cyril, you're welcome here and you'll get a fair hearing, so read the pinned Standing Challenge once. Nobody needs a 24h film. We need ONE number: net power out, measured, over any interval you like, with the measurement method stated. A wheel turning proves it turns. It does not measure work done against its own bearing friction. Put a calibrated brake on it, measure the torque it can sustain, give us watts. If it's above its losses, you'll be the most important man alive and I'll say so in writing. If you won't put a load on it, we both already know why.

Not piling on. Genuinely: a Prony brake is two bits of wood, a bolt and a fish scale, you can build one Saturday for under a tenner. It turns "it spins" into "it sustains X newton-metres at Y rpm," which is a real claim we can do something with. Right now you have an unloaded flywheel, which a good bearing and one good push will keep going a surprisingly long time. The load is the whole ballgame.

Cyril's a mate and I've stood in that garage, the wheel's real and it does turn. But these two aren't being unfair to you Cyril -- put the brake on it. If it holds a load you've won, and if it doesn't you'll have learned which of us is right, which is more than the webring will ever tell you because we all just nod. Different crowd here. That's why I told you to post it.

I'll build the brake. Not because I think I'm wrong -- because Dale's right that you lot at least said what would change your mind, which is more than the experts ever did. Give me a fortnight. If the numbers are rubbish I will come back here and say so, in writing, and you can all have a go at me. Deal.