On 12 Dec, 07:18, wrote:

There was a supposed perpetual machine that did. It used 2 battery
piles disguised as just supporting pillars to electrostatically
attract a clock pendulum, and this slight force was enough to keep the
clock running.

"Hidden batteries" is one of the 4 classes of perpetual motion
machine, (really works, doesn't even start to work, deceitful hidden
power source, natural power source like an Atmos clock). However the
electrostatic pendulum is a fairly well-known bit of honest physics
demonstration kit (Glasgow University has one in an entrance hall?)
but I don't think they've been "passed off" like this.