Garabed T. K. Giragossian was an Armenian living in Boston who is remembered for developing a perpetual motion device shortly after the turn of the 19th century. He immigrated to America in 1891. In 1917, Giragossian claimed, reportedly fraudulently, to have developed a "free energy machine". The assignment of the patent to the United States government was conditionally accepted in Pub. Res. 65-21, 40 Stat. 435, enacted on February 8, 1918, and authorized the Secretary of the Interior to form a committee to investigate the machine. The committee issued a report on July 1 finding that the principles were not sound.[1] Supposedly involved in a conspiracy, Woodrow Wilson signed a resolution offering him protection. The device was a giant flywheel that was charged up with energy slowly and put out a lot of energy for just a second.
Voodoo Science, a book in which he is mentioned.