I've had some requests asking for more clues and it's not easy to point to the clues without giving too much away too soon! I say this because I still would like to try and make my own prototype first. However I think that unless you know the principle which drives the wheel, the clues may not be any use anyway.
Obviously the most useful clue would be one which would lead to an understanding of this principle, but again, I really don't want to share that yet. On the other hand there may be people out there who do know the principle but have not yet worked out how to incorporate it within the wheel, so they might indeed find my clues useful.
It has always been clear to me that if Bessler wished to preserve and subsequently reveal his design for the benefit of post-humous recognition, or to prove he thought of the solution first, it would have to be contained within some drawings, as well as in text. It seems to me to be almost impossible to describe the function of a machine in text alone. Sure, you can give some good clues but a picture is worth a thousand words. So the drawings hold the best clues, but which are they? In my opinion he would have set down those clues as soon as possible, which means the drawings in Grundlicher Bericht, Das Triumphirende and Apologia Poetica contain the original graphic clues. I agree there are clues in Maschinen Tractate but they are not as useful as some others, apart from the 'toys' page.
As far as I know, the drawing at the end of the Apologia Poetica is only of use in telling us that there are five mechanisms in the ideal machine - and the same can be said for the MT 137, but I may be wrong about that - or my interpretation of what the fives mean may be wrong or inadequate. I should also remind everyone that it might simply point to chapter 55 of his Apologia Poetica which obviously contains a wealth of undeciphered hidden text.
For me the portraits only hold information which points to a pentagram. As before, I assume this refers to the number five again. I'm not convinced that Bessler would or could have included any clues which would show how his machine worked, within the portraits, however I am well aware that at least one other person has found what they regard as useful information there, so I must await the revelation of that information before I can arrive at an informed opinion.
I think it was John Worton who commented that Bessler hid in plain sight the secret of his machine in his woodcut images available for all to see for three hundred years. What better place to hide such information than within a drawing which is open to public scrutiny and has been for 300 years?
And finally I must echo Doug's words, 'some of us have been looking at simulations way too much..'
JC
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