Nicolae Vasilescu-Karpen - inventor of the immortal battery

Nicolae Vasilescu-Karpen (December 10/22, 1870, Craiova–February 1964) was a Romanian engineer and physicist, who did pioneering work in the field of telegraphy and telephony. He also had notable achievements in mechanical engineering, elasticity, thermodynamics, long distance telephony, electrochemistry, and civil engineering.
After studying at the Carol I High School in Craiova, he went to the School of Bridges, Roads and Mines in Bucharest. Upon graduation in 1891, he worked as a civil engineer for three years. He went to France to study physics at the University of Paris. In 1904, he was awarded a PhD degree in physics; his thesis was titled Recherches sur l'effet magnétique des corps electrisés en mouvement. After a year spent as Professor at the University of Lille, he returned to Romania, to teach at the School of Bridges, Roads and Mines, where he was appointed director in February 1920. Due to his efforts, the School was transformed later that year into the Polytechnic University of Bucharest. Vasilescu-Karpen was the first rector of this University, serving in that capacity until 1940.
In 1908 he invented the Karpen Pile, which works in the absence of a magnetic field, but takes advantage of the thermal-siphon effect of the electrolyte density variation
In 1922, he was elected to the Romanian Academy.

Inventions.
The immortal battery.

The National Technical Museum "Dimitrie Leonida" has a battery, built by Nicolae Vasilescu Karpen, which works without interruption for 59 years now. The invention can not be exhibited because the museum has no money to buy the security systems required for special exhibits.
For 59 years still indicates 1 volt

A battery of Romanian production, provides energy for 59 years without interruption. The inventor said a half-century ago, that it will go forever. Apparently he was right. Romania possesses a Perpetuum mobile. It's a "battery with uniform temperature”, known as “Pila lui Karpen” , built in 1950. Police banned the display of the museum object without an extraordinary security measure.
The device is a Perpetuum Mobile, meaning a device that generates energy forever without outside intervention. Although it had to stop many decades ago, "Pila lui Karpen" is still working, as the inventor said it will. The scientists can not yet explain how it is possible.

Nicolae Vasilescu Karpen started to work at a theory of electrical cells that generate energy forever since before the First World War. The battery was patented in 1922. For scientists today is incomprehensible how it was possible for a man of a scientific rigor as Karpen to work at such a “crazy” thing. The theoretical paper refers to the dimensions and materials to be used for building the battery. After the theory was ready, he got to work. He wanted to demonstrate through a prototype that the calculations were correct. The prototype was ready in 1950. It was, in fact, two cells connected in electrical series, which put in motion a galvanometric motor. The motor moved a paddle connected to a switch. Every half spin the paddle opened the circuit, and at the second spin closed it. The rotation of the propeller was calculated so that cells have the time to recharge and to restore polarity. The motor and the paddles were actually to demonstrate that the battery provides electricity. Today there is no need of it, because there are special devices for measurments. According to the calculations of Karpen, you could build a similar device, respecting the proportions of the existing battery to develop more energy. In the past, the mechanism was an object of research at the University of Brasov and at the Bucharest Polytechnic University. With the passage of time has become very clear that the cell won’t stop, and around it was born the legend of Perpetuum Mobile.

Romanian scientists are trying, unsuccessfully, to explain what is the basis for this phenomenon. Theoretically, the battery works against the second principle of thermodynamics, the transformation of the heat in mechanical work.