David McClintock
David McClintock | |
|---|---|
| Known for | "McClintock Air Motor" self-running air engine (U.S. Patent 2,982,261) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Engineering |
David McClintock is the inventor associated in free-energy and perpetual-motion literature with the so-called "McClintock Air Motor," a claimed self-running engine. He is listed in The Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists.
The air motor
The device is described as a hybrid of a three-cylinder engine with a 27-to-1 compression ratio and a rotary engine using solar and planetary gears. According to accounts of the invention, it burns no fuel and instead becomes self-running by driving its own air compressor, a claim that would place it among the class of purported "free energy" or perpetual-motion machines that are considered impossible under the laws of thermodynamics. These operational claims have not been independently verified.
The invention is tied to U.S. Patent No. 2,982,261, "Air engine," issued 2 May 1961. Sources note a discrepancy in the naming: while the device is attributed to "David McClintock" in the free-energy literature, the patent itself was registered under the name Cleo L. McClintock. The engine appears in compilations of free-energy and perpetual-motion devices, but no neutral technical evaluation of a working unit is documented.