Fuelless Generator

Inventor: Nikola Tesla
The Invention: Tesla's Fuelless Generator
Claimed Effects: An electrical generator that would not consume any fuel.
Details: An entire article on weird and unconventional inventions could be devoted to Telsa's work, but one of this most controversial inventions is this generator that, if it worked as he described, would provide unlimited amounts of free energy. It was 10 years after he patented a method for producing alternating current - the type of electric current we all enjoy today - that Tesla claimed to have devised an electrical generator that did not "consume any fuel." In 1931, Tesla told The Brooklyn Eagle, "I have harnessed the cosmic rays and caused them to operate a motive device. More than 25 years ago I began my efforts to harness the cosmic rays and I can now state that I have succeeded." Although Telsa filed a patent for a device he called "Apparatus for the Utilization of Radiant Energy," (number 685,957), it's doubtful that it was ever built or proved to actually work... otherwise, we wouldn't be paying any electric bills.