Friday 20 November 2009

Two principles and Orffyreus or Bessler?

This has been an interesting week for me. I am still finding difficulty in allocating enough time to building Bessler's wheel according to my design. But during one of the brief moments when I managed to get to work on it I discovered that there are at least two completely different ways to achieve the same result i.e. a gravity driven wheel. My original design and the second method each use the same kind of mechanisms, but obviously configured slightly differently. The second method looks easier to build and once I've finished the first design I shall build another wheel according to the second method. This seems to back up Bessler's claim to have built wheels which worked on different principles. They are different but one leads to the other.

I have also had subjective confirmation that my design is right because of questions raised in http://www.besslerwheel.com/. In some of Bessler's more literary descriptions of his wheel the inventor makes use of metaphors to aid understanding and at the same time confuse. Two metaphorical descriptions had left me clueless as to the reason for their inclusion, but recent references to them brought them back to my mind and at last I understood them - and as I've said before, the understanding of these descriptive clues seems to come after the solution arrives which is a pain but also useful in confirming that you are going the right way. As I said this is a purely subjective experience and open to the accusation of self-delusionment!

Someone wrote to me expressing doubt that I should refer to the inventor as Bessler because he chose the pseudonym, Orffyreus. I have wavered from one view point to the other ever since I first began to write his biography , "Perpetual Motion; An Ancient Mystery Solved?" I decided on using the name Bessler rather than Orffyreus almost as casually as flicking a coin to make the decision, simply because I could not make my mind up which was better. I think he would approve of my use of his real name because I have written so extensively about the reasons for the name change that no-one could be in any doubt as to whom I am referring to, which ever name I use.

He adopted the name Orffyreus for a very good reason; he wished to make people question the name and seek the reason. This, in my opinion, he did to provide a pointer to the use of alphabetic substitution and alphanumeric codes - and we all now know the reason for that. It was his intention to provide encoded information about the design of his machine for posterity.

JC

4 comments:

  1. "I discovered that there are at least two completely different ways to achieve the same result i.e. a gravity driven wheel."

    This wouldn't surprise me since though the Vesica Pisces Gravitational Motor is not a wheel it is a means of harnessing the power of gravity [until someone can prove to me it isn't ;-)]

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  2. I'm afraid the least dillusional angle to take is that it "doesn't work until someone proves to me it does". John, so far I'm not too worried about you, I still think you should let the community have at this design. Putting it on the table should increase the chances of success... though sometimes I do wonder. :-\

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  3. Yes Frank, I agree and there is still the question of why Bessler appears to have hinted at it in one of his "Das Triumphirende" drawings.

    I know Wind, that there is a view point that insists that I, and others, should put our cards on the table and share everything we know or think we know about the design of Bessler's wheel. I understand the argument and even agree with it, but I cannot resist the urge to try it for myself before giving it away. There is another aspect to sharing current and failed designs that bothers me and it is the fact that most of my later designs are variations or improvement on those previous failed designs. As for those prevous designs that failed and I understood why, I have lost interst in them and seee little point in sharing them. You could say that Bessler's Maschinen Tractate is a compilation of failed designs and unless you can find some of his hidden clues in the book, there is not much use to be had of it other than as an interesting insight into his own efforts to solve the problem.

    JC

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  4. No question in my mind at all........Bessler. His tinkering may have been to leave clues, but his name was Bessler. Let those of us who are in search look for the clues, but do not cloud the water for everyone. Help clarify it

    Go ahead and give it a try before letting us in, after all.......you are the reason that we are here and you deserve the right to test your ideas before sharing, but I am in such a vibrational starvation waiting to see which of us can post..........I HAVE DONE IT Those words that will change all forever.......we are close, I can feel it. or maybe its that taco I had for lunch today !

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The True Story of Bessler’s Perpetual Motion Machine.

On  6th June, 1712, in Germany, Johann Bessler (also known by his pseudonym, Orffyreus) announced that after many years of failure, he had s...