I'm continually surprised that Bessler's wheel is still regarded as a fraud. 52 years ago (approximately) I read the maid's account of how she supposedly turned the wheel and I immediately knew it was wrong. How could a piece of mechanism turn the twelve foot wheel through the bearings? How could it reach a top speed 26 RPM in just three turns? How was such a mechanisms hidden in open bearings? How was it hidden during the change over from one set of bearings to another? If it was a fraud and the maid was simply mistaken or fooled into thinking that was how it was done , how else could it have been done?
Which leads us to pondering what force was accessable internally which could be used to turn the wheel? I have seen the suggestions of ambient temperature changes and I dismiss it with the same gut feeling I originally had when reading about the maid's version of events. Later consideration only added weight to my original conviction that it would not do. I am convinced, satisfied and know that it could only have been gravity supplying the weights with the necessary force and therefore energy.
Instead of shooting us gravity-driven wheel proponents down, I wish the shooters would offer alternative theories which were at leastt as acceptable as the gravity-only ones. We need theories which offer the same quick response, allowing speedy acceleration of the wheel. My personal belief is that there isn't one, but if people wish to dismiss gravity-driven wheels and yet find no fault in my argument that the wheel was not fraudulent, then they must offer some kind of suggestion of what force would suffice. It's no good saying that the wheel was genuine but gravity cannot be used in this way but they can't think of anything else.
It's as clear as daylight to me that gravity provided the energy source, Bessler said so too, and there is no alternative anyway.
JC
