[syhprum (OP)]

During the eighteenth century many scam perpetual motion machines were demonstrated to gullible would be investers, a popular one was the everlasting rotating wheel in a locked room and another the flopping hammer device.
The enthusiasm for this device persists to the present day and one still sees variation of the design published.
Were patents ever granted for any of these designs.

[alancalverd]

The UK and EU forbid patents on perpetual motion machines.Not sure if the US does, but until quite recently there was a requirement to provide a working model, which was a lot more fun than  a simple ban.

[syhprum (OP)]

Australia is the place until very recently you could patent them there .
I was wondering about the early days of the industrial revolution when many of strange things were subject to a patent, it is an interesting exercise to design a scam machine there are many ways to scam the suckers!

[Sam Brown]

The UK and EU forbid patents on perpetual motion machines.

alancalverd is right, specifically in Section 4.05 of the UK best practice manual, it states that

"Processes or articles alleged to operate in a manner which is clearly contrary to well-established physical laws, such as perpetual motion machines, are regarded as not having industrial application."

Personally I love that they are not rejected for being impossible, but for not having industrial application!

[Yahya]

Were patents ever granted for any of these designs.

The first patent for a free energy machine was in 1868:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_perpetual_motion_machines