Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was the prototype "Renaissance Man". His talents included art, engineering, music, physics, and mathematics. His famous Notebooks (a collection of drawings and commentary on loose manuscript pages) were largely unorganized "notes" to himself that he never put into a format for proper publication. These include ideas and designs from other sources, and some original ones, without indication of which were which. Leonardo was never shy about proclaiming his many talents, but he often started projects he never finished.
Leonardo's famous comment comparing perpetual motion seekers to alchemists is often quoted. "Oh, ye seekers after perpetual motion, how many vain chimeras have you pursued? Go and take your place with the alchemists." The last reference is to "seekers after gold", which at least one translator has misinterpreted as "gold-diggers".
Leonardo very carefully analyzed several versions of the overbalanced wheel with moving weights, and showed why they would not work.
Moreover, you might set yourself to prove that by equiping such a wheel with many balances, every part, however small, which turned over as the result of percussion would suddenly cause another balance to fall, and by this the wheel would stand in perpetual movement. But by this you would be deceiving yourself... As the attachment of the heavy body is farther from the center of the wheel, the revolving movement of the wheel round its pivot will become more difficult, although the motive power may not vary. [From Dircks (1861)]
This last comment is especially perceptive. In modern language is says that as a weight moves farther from the rotation axis, the gravitational torque on it is greater, but the moment of inertia of the wheel is simultaneously increased, making the gravitational torque less effective in increasing or sustaining motion of the wheel. The net gain is zero. (alias gak bisa)