Interpreting Bessler's principle of connectedness is a bit like knitting smoke. You can see it but you can't seem to grasp it. I thought I'd got it before, but now I think I really have! But have I? I think so but who knows at this point.
You can read the words 'principle of connectedness' and surmise that it refers to a degree of connection. Is it a vaccilating connection, sometimes fast and sometimes loose? Is it a flexible connection only capable of connection in one direction? Might be. There are several possibilities, but I think I understand what he was referring to now and if I'm right it doesn't in fact refer to the way the actual connections are made, in my opinion refer it refers to something else. I once thought I had found a feature of gravitywheels which no-one else was aware of. Then I met a guy who had come from Australia and had dropped into meet me and we discovered we were both aware of this oddity. I have seen comments which come close to what I'm thinking of but no one seems to have accurately described it. Of course it might not be as mysterious as I'm thinking, but I'm going to write something on the subject and post if for comment.
The other thing that concerns me - am I right in thinking that Bessler was indicating five mechanisms? I still think so, but testing five mechanisms on a wheel takes so much longer because I have to build each of them and attach them, whereas if I just wanted to test the hypothesis with two it would be so much quicker. But Bessler said "If I arrange to have just one cross-bar in the machine it revolves very slowly...", so will my two produce enough mechanical advantage to at least provide proof of the principle? Another rhetorical question for which the answer must be, try it and see.
JC
Talk is Cheap!
ReplyDeleteJohn - I had thought that "connectedness" probably meant adjacent weights connected together with "belts or chains" as Bessler shows and discusses in Maschinen Tractate No 9. It will be interesting to see what you've made of this.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to be searching for Bessler's most obscure clues. I've been wondering about some of his other perhaps clearer ones. In Maschinen Tractate he clearly likes some examples, e.g. interconnected weights (Nos 9 - 12) and weights on hinged rods (Nos 24 - 27). Others he regards as hopeless, like the ball weight types (Nos 1 - 8 and 43) except that with Nos 44 and 48 he hints that such devices could work if something else is added, which I guess would be what he called his "principle of excess weight" or "movement", or "preponderance" etc). He also hints that other (quite different) examples like Nos 9 - 12 would also work if the same principle was activated.
Whatever this principle might be, as far as I can see, it has to add energy to the system.
Bessler also seems to hint in his remarks on No 18 that springs are necessary.
"Talk is Cheap!"
ReplyDeleteThank you, anonymous, for your profoundly intuitive and original comment. I'm just overwhelmed at your intellectual virtuosity.
Hi Arktos,yes I am chasing even the most obscure clues, because I'm running out of the more obvious ones! I must admit I have not really checked MT recently for clues and perhaps I should go back over it and see if I can find anything else.
Yes you're right, energy must be added to the system if that system is to consume energy in order to do work.
JC
Planing a tour.
ReplyDeleteHi John. I am planing tour to Germany beslers home town.
What you recommend to wisit. Of course the besslers mill is in list. I would like to walk same step like bessler did.
I keep my thumps up for you :)
Hi anon. I visited Kassel, Furstenberg and Karlshafen. If you go to Kassel, go and see the water cascade with the Hercules statue at the top, that was there when Bessler was building his wheel and I think maybe Karl thought it might be developed to pump the water back up to the top. Also visit the Landsmuseum there and see Liebniz's calculating mnachine and other scientific instruments of the time.
ReplyDeleteKarlshafen was where Bessler lived at the time of his death and has hardly changed since then. See his house and the strange wall plaque.
Furstenberg of course to see the remains of the windmill. Enjoy the trip and let me know how it went.
JC
John, I always thought of "connectedness" as some kind of simple clutch mechanism, used to transfer kinetic energy from a falling pendulum to some kind of storage medium (springs?). The fall of those pendulums would be accelerated by moving the pivot.
ReplyDeleteAs for the number of mechanisms, I think it's fair to assume that indeed the optimal number is 5. It's monumentally obvious that the number 5 had a very special and important meaning to Bessler. It pops up everywhere.