The Perpetuum Mobile, a machine which can just be made out in the shadowy right background of the Linder Gallery (no. 43 in the zoomable image), is not the only invention of Cornelis Drebbel (1572-1633), nor perhaps even the most significant, but it is certainly the one for which he was best known by his contemporaries, and the one of which he remained most proud. It is also the instrument about which most has been written – both by his contemporaries and by modern scholars. First demonstrated in late 1604, the fame of Drebbel and his Perpetuum Mobile spread rapidly, and the Perpetuum Mobile was still being cited as late as the 19^th century, long after Drebbel himself had passed into obscurity. Read more…