Friday 23 April 2010

Electricity - life without it is so basic!

My daughter and son-in-law are coming home from Spain by plane today - Hurrahhh! I thought at one point I was going to have to fetch'em. Now I can get back to work on the wheel!

Their recent experiences have highlighted two of the most important inventions of our lives. Firstly their electrical fire which resulted in no electricity for a week. No light, no heat, no freezer or fridge so no perishable food in the house;
no cooker so no cooking, no hot water so no washing, no TV, no computer, no internet, no telephone. no charging of mobiles. They played scrabble with the kids by candlelight!

The second thing was the grounding of all aircraft. The chaos that ensued was uttlerly incredible. People walked the lines of cars waiting to cross the channel offering cash for a seat in a car. Others hired cars and dumped them at the port. So many stories! We use aircraft routinely to travel to distant places in a hours - places which would have taken weeks to get to a hundred years ago, and when they fail for some reason we are thrust back to that era and rediscover the problems people used to have just getting around.

When I was researching my book, "Perpetual Motion; An Ancient Mystery Solved?" I read about an Englishman who bought paintings done in Italy and carried them home to London where he sold them to the rich. He walked to Italy and walked back again! He did this several times and became extremely rich - and footsore!

I can't say Bessler's wheel would have had any impact on the grounding of all aircraft but it would have a major benefit for the domestic electricity user!

I have now got two designs of mechanism both of which will operate according to the principle by which Bessler's wheel worked. I'm using one design for now just to prove the principle. The two mechanisms work in different ways but they achieve the same ends and I think there may be another way too, because what I have does not accord precisely with Bessler's designs as far as I can tell. There are common parts but there is not 100 per cent match.

JC

Monday 19 April 2010

Volcanos, Fires and delay!

I expect most people know someone who is delayed by the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano system which began spewing volcanic ash over everyone and caused the closure of airspace in most of Europe. We are awaiting the return of my daughter and son-in-law who went to Spain for a few days while their homes was rewired and we redecorated it.

I may have mentioneded it already but, a few weeks ago they suffered a fire at their home due to an an electrical fault which resulted in three fire engines turning up. In fact there wasn't any actual fire, just billowing toxic smoke and a vile smell. The firemen had a heat sensitive camera and identified a couple of hot spots,which showed the source of the wiring fault.

Dave and Jo had actually boarded the plane before their return flight was cancelled and now they are trying to find alternative means of getting home. We volunteered to drive there and bring them home but it's 24 hours non-stop driving each way plus £500 worth of petrol - not to mention the price hike on the channel tunnel- £200 each way! They have looked at getting back by train (only 22 and a half hours!). But the trains, buses and ferry's are all over-subscribed and you can't even get a reservation through the internet for the web sites crashing. So they are destined to stay until the wind changes direction or the volcano runs out of steam!

Given this situation, I'm afraid I haven't been able to get much done lately in progressing my Bessler wheel to completion, but I still get some work done when I can grab a minute. I have been designing and building gravity wheels for most of the last thirty years, but not at an intense rate - just returning to it as and when the fancy takes me. So the present pressure to finish and publish information about either a working model or my work on it, is an unaccustomed burden that I am finding difficult to accept - even though I understand everyone's impatience. I am neither naive nor psychologically unable to finish what I started, as has been suggested. I just push back when pushed.

For those who think I'm wasting my time and their's I would say this. Wasting my time is doing anything that doesn't contribute to my goals. My goals are to either to build a working Bessler wheel or, failing that, publish my own work on it - and at the same time respond to my family's needs. One or both goals will be achieved - but not at the expense of my family. I'm as eager to finish this project as anyone else, and sharing what I know is a matter of tremendous anticipation for me. If I'm wasting your time...well the remedy is in your hands, but I should be sorry to see you go.

I found the principle by studying Bessler's clues and that option is available to everyone, although I did serendipitously stumble across a helpful clue via the internet. The clue was also in Bessler's books but I had previously ignored it or rather, not recognised it for what it was.


JC

Monday 12 April 2010

Patent? No thanks.

The subject of patenting has arisen again and I'd still prefer not to patent, assuming I was in a position to consider patenting Bessler's wheel.

I understand the advantages of patenting such an invention, having had them drummed into me constantly by people who are both pro-patent and fully versed in the intricacies of the legal protection system, but there are a couple of disadvantages which to my suspicious mind, outweigh any advantage you care to name.

The first is the expense. Although the total fees only add up to £200 in the UK, there are other costs such as patent agents fees, renewal fees as well as the possible cost of enforcing your patent which will add significantly to this initial cost. I couldn't write it myself so I'd have to pay some patent attorney to do it for me. No, trust me, I couldn't write it for myself. I am reliably informed that it could cost over £30,000 to get patent protection across Europe and further afield; and a simple dispute could cost over £200,000 if not resolved out of court.

Now I know that many will immediately suggest such fears are groundless; "think of the fortune you will be getting! The cost will be peanuts compared to what you will receive," some will say. Although potentially true, there is one small point that has been overlooked and that, or rather she, is my wife. There is no way she is going to allow me to remortgage our home to finance the patenting of a machine whose very existence is denied by science. So that's that.

Then there is the more spooky prospect which I have also been relentlessly warned about. Should I have the temerity to go ahead and make my outrageous patent application despite my beloved's warnings of impending doom, if I decide to follow that route, I have to face the distinct possibility that certain sinister groups, mascarading as gentlemen in dark attire, will pounce upon my patent and seize it and all persons connected with it and bury the lot in some secret location, never to be seen again.

Seriously, there is a mechanism whereby the British government oversees all patent applications to ensure that there is no chance that they might conflict with their interests, with a view to censoring the release of information on the subject. It is a distinct possibility that any government might, for its own purposes - i.e. tax revenue - wish to seek control of such an invention. Such action, however remote the possibility, means that I could not afford to apply for a patent just in case it never sees the light of day. Although I cannot answer for other patent offices in other countries, I am of the opinion that all of them have similar options available to them.

I don't even accept that patenting is the right thing to do in this case. If I succeeded it wouldn't be my invention, but Bessler's. I couldn't have got as far as I have without his help and I shall prove that soon - working wheel or no working wheel.

But the main reason why I wouldn't patent is because such a device needs to be openly discussed and promoted to the whole world. More than enough money would find its way to my bank account for me not to be concerned about losing out on the vast sums of money purported to be mine, should I patent. Books, interviews etc, for a few weeks would more than suffice to replenish the family coffers.

So don't tell me I'd be screwed every-which-way if I didn't patent - its a case of screwed if I do and screwed if I don't!

JC

Monday 5 April 2010

There's only one Principle for a Gravity-Driven Wheel.

The possibility of making a working gravity-driven wheel which could utilise one of two or even more different principles has surfaced and my first reaction was, yes, it might be possible. However further consideration has cast some doubt in my own mind. It all depends on some differing criteria. My device is designed to work using only the force of gravity, and no additional forces are necessary, other than those subsequently generated by the motion initiated by gravity.

Inventors have sought to design just such a machine for hundreds of years and have, so far as we know, failed. Only Johann Bessler claimed to have succeeded. I have discovered the same principle that Bessler discovered, and I know this because I have found confirmation of the fact, and it was only after I thought I'd had found the answer that I sought and confirmed it for myself in his books.

This principle undoubtedly provides the answer but I have come to the conclusion that there is no alternative design which requires only the force of gravity to initiate it. Anything else will need an additional force of some kind, be it electromagnetic, magnetic, ambient temperature changes etc. So my opinion has changed, and I think there is only one principle which will work to make a gravity-driven wheel rotate, with no additional external forces to aid it.

Of course it might be possible to incorporate this principle and use something other than weights to induce rotation and I have a couple of ideas but they all require an additional force. So it is my opinion that anyone who believes that they may have designed a working device which does not seem, from the slender information given out about it, to require the adoption of this particular principle, is on the wrong track and is surely heading for failure. I may be wrong and it is after all just my opinion, but perhaps I will be able to prove the matter soon.

I realise that gravity-only wheels are almost anathema to many perpetual motionists (in the meaning of anything forbidden by social usage - thank you Nick), but I am confident that a full explanation will desolve those beliefs like sandcastles in the incoming tide.
JC

The Bessler - Orffyreus Perpetual Motion Machine.

Johann Bessler, aka Orffyreus, exhibited a perpetual motion machine in 1712. Of course it wasn’t a perpetual motion machine (PM for Perpetua...