Irish company Steorn made headlines around the world when it took out a full page advert in The Economist claiming to have developed a device that produced ‘free energy’. Throughout early July, the company planned to display the device to the public for the first time. Professor Sir Eric Ash, electrical engineer and former rector of Imperial College London, visited the demonstration for the BBC News website. Marvellous things can happen in this world. As an engineer, whenever I look at a new baby I say categorically that there can be no such thing – it’s far too complicated to work. Yet we know this lack of faith in the marvellous is misplaced. So, the fact that a device or an invention looks too marvellous to be true is not conclusive evidence that it isn’t. I believe that it is thinking on such lines that encourages inventors – and there have been many since the 12th Century – to pursue what would be a true marvel: a perpetual motion machine. The most recent attempt is from Mr Sean McCarthy, the Chief Executive Officer of an Irish company called Steorn. His invention, […]