Wow! Talk about a loaded question!
Assuming that it is NOT a perpetual motion machine (since those illusory devices are defined to exclude all inputs of energy), how did he manage to reverse a half of an ampere of current, more or less, and send this back to his battery pack to "top them off"?
By implementing a moderate frequency, of one Mega Hertz, enough to offset thermodynamic losses.
It's amazing what resistance, frequency, phase relation, capacitance and inductance can do to revitalize a circuit's limited input of power through the manipulation of reactive power (a potentiality) and its relative ease with which reactive power and real power (an actuality) can convert into each other...
Has anyone tried to recreate Joseph Newman's perpetual motion machine?