Sunday 21 October 2012

A sawmill such as Bessler's wheel would have powered.

Bessler probably acquired his timber from a sawmill and yesterday I came across this amazing saw mill built in 1673 at the Willermershof farmstead in Schwarzenbach, this 'Knocking' Saw was in use until 1963 when it was moved to Vogtsbauernhof in south-eastern Germany. 

You can see from the video that it is driven by a waterwheel which uses precisely the same 'three tusked cams', or lifting arms, fixed with tenons, that are evident in one of Bessler's drawings.


From the above video, "farmsteads operated their own saws when the property had a considerable amount of forest area. They cut their own timber for private use as well as to sell commercially. Contracting the saws out to other farmers was also an additional source of income. There was a widespread use of 'knocking' saws in the Black Forest starting in the 16th century. The technique originated in the 13th century.

The 'knocking' saws is driven by a middle-shot water wheel. This turns a shaft axis that has three tusked cams, or lifting arms, fixed with tenons. When rotated, these cams knock against the overhead saw frame, thereby lifting it. With each turn of the water wheel, the saw frame is hit upwards three times. 

This hitting motion creates a knocking sound that can be heard from quite a distance away. When the frame has reached its highest point, it drops down suddenly. Upon falling, the saw blade cuts the trunk. The trunk is fastened down to a sled. By dropping, the saw frame sets a mechanism into motion shoving the sled towards the blade of the saw.

Trunks measuring up to 20 ft in length could be cut. Sawing a 20 ft board or plank takes about 45 minutes. Generally, boards and planks of a thickness from 3/4 to 3" were cut. Squared timber, such as used to build houses, had to be clouted with an ax. Boards and planks were needed to build houses, furniture, and wagons."

Boards of 3/4 of an inch  still sound a little on the thick side for Besslers' wheel but I guess they could be trimmed down some more - or even sliced in half.  Teuber described the Merseburg wheel as being covered by thin deals which I presume would have been thinner than 3/4 of an inch

It seems clear that a similar mechanical arrangement could have powered other kinds of mills.

NB More clues to come in next post.

JC

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54 comments:

  1. Wasn't the meresburg wheel covered with some kind of cloth?
    And the wood was over the drascwitz and gera wheels?

    The best clue isn't inside the wheel. It's inside the _____.

    Doug

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  2. Are you capable of delivering anything other than blank "solutions"?

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    1. No less capable than you are at blank solutions, or John, or Trevor, or Chris, or Worton, or Anonymous!
      I have a pretty good idea what he did.
      The wheel isn't the secret.
      Have you seen the movie "The Prestige"?

      Doug

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    2. Yes, the movie is VERY interesting, though a bit too complex plotwise for the general viewer to follow, IMO. It's certainly a nice homage to the various Victorian magicians who carefully guarded the secrets of their tricks and were constantly trying to out do each other even at the risk of losing their lives. I did not, however, like the way they suggested that Edison was a ruthless capitalist who would stop at nothing to prevent a rival inventor from producing a technical breakthrough (such as the fictitious "Transporter" used in the plot of the film). Edison was a hard working inventor who literally transformed the technological level of the WORLD in a matter of a few decades. In fact, he actually invented the concept of the research team which has become a standard methodology in the world of science and technology. In MANY ways, he's actually MORE impressive than Bessler who only achieved a SINGLE, though admittedly VERY interesting breakthrough.

      If you are trying to suggest that Bessler was merely a clever stage magician and his wheels were all fakes, then I think you will find such an absurd presumption totally rejected here. IF you do think that was the case, then please do elaborate with something other than a _______ reason!

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    3. Edison eloctrocuted animals. Pretty ruthless if you ask me. They changed the technical breakthrough in the movie, but the point was made (and he still lost the battle of the currents in 1903).

      Bessler risked losing his life to outdo his rivals.

      I'm suggesting his wheels (and their sounds) were distractions from the "principle" you're looking for. We all know they weren't fakes.
      They were clever though. New scientific discoveries can appear magical.

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    4. It's true that Edison did electrocute some animals in a misguided attempt to demonstrate that AC was more dangerous than DC (I remember seeing an archival film of this being done with an old elephant! Not a pleasant sight.). Considering that all of the people electrocuted by lightning are killed by DC, such demonstrations are somewhat ridiculous. Edison eventually lost the "battle of the currents" because it turned out that AC could be more easily increased in voltage for a low current transmission through power lines with much less loss due to resistive heating than could DC. It was really an economic issue that defeated him, but, I believe, that Edison persisted because he just did not feel comfortable with the concept of alternating current or the magnetic circuitry that would use it. Remember, like Bessler, he was almost totally self-educated (only one MONTH of "formal" enducation!) and he did not have the math skills to appreciate the potential of AC circuitry.

      He was certainly a genius, however, when it came to the use of DC. Many forget that it was Edison's discovery of the "Edison Effect" which paved the way for modern electronics AND our present digital "revolution". A few laboratory animals "sacrificed" in a misguided effort to extend the technology of DC is certainly regrettable, but is totally negligible considering the holocaust of laboratory animals being sacrified nowadays to develop new drugs, over 90% of which will NEVER be approved for use in humans. I shall continue to revere the memory of Edison despite his occasional personal failings.


      You wrote: "New scientific discoveries can appear magical."

      Alright, already...what IS this "new scientific discovery" that could appear "magical" which you think Bessler found? The longer you delay in revealing it, the more people will assume that you haven't the faintest idea of what it could be! And, unless you can describe it, they will eventually not even consider the possibility. It is up to YOU to prove your case!

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    5. Wrong again you are .

      Yoda

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  3. Yes, the "Knocking Saw" is certainly interesting and probably the first attempt to harness rotary power to cut wood. But, no modern sawmill would WASTE 45 minutes cutting through 20 feet of wood! They would want to cut through that in, maybe, 30 SECONDS!

    I use an electric chain saw to cut up the dead tree branches that seem to continually rain down upon my property, especially after a storm has struck. It consumes about 1400 watts of power and its 17 inch blade can cut through a 12 inch wide piece of wood at about the rate of 6 inches per minute requiring 2 minutes per foot. Thus, it cuts through wood at about the same speed as did the Willermershof farmstead knocking saw. No need for a cumbersome water wheel and complicated framework with my saw. I just plug its extension cord into a garage outlet (I have enough cords to reach 300 ft from the garage!), make sure its got oil in its tank, check that the chain is taut on the rail, don my safety glasses, and I'm good to go.

    Bessler's Weissenstein wheel has been estimated to continuously output about 25 watts. If it was used to power a chain saw similar to the one I have, then the saw would need (1400 watts / 25 watts) x 2 minutes = 112 minutes = 1.87 hours to cut through ONE foot of wood. A 20 foot long timber would require 20 ft x (1.87 hrs / ft) = 37.33 hours = 1.55 DAYS! I think I'll keep using my electric chain saw, thank you!


    "Boards of 3/4 of an inch still sound a little on the thick side for Besslers' wheel but I guess they could be trimmed down some more - or even sliced in half. Teuber described the Merseburg wheel as being covered by thin deals which I presume would have been thinner than 3/4 of an inch."


    I, too, think that the drum frames on Bessler's wheel were much lighter than one might suppose. I think the radial support members were only about 1/2" thick and maybe 2" wide. The wooded slats that covered the sides of the drums of the Gera and Draschwitz one-directional wheels were probably only 1/4" thick by 2" wide. Pieces this thin could be specially ordered from sawmills that catered to the furniture making industries of the time. While Bessler could easily have planed down the width of the wood pieces the used, he probably would not have been able to easily alter their thickness.

    Just because the wood of a frame is not thick, does not necessarily mean that the frame will be structurally weak. I once made a model wooden drum out of popsicle sticks which were only 1/16" thick by 3/8" wide! The drum was 2 ft in diameter and 2" thick and the cut pieces of popsicle sticks it contained were only glued together with artists' white glue. Yet, I found that, when layed on its side on the floor, I could place 30 lbs of barbell disc weights on it and the drum did NOT collapse!

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  4. Excuse me anon,..I don't give blank solutions,they are relevant and logically directed on the answer to solve the wheel.
    The problem is nobody listens because my answers are to direct and in your face because they challenge your own agenda.
    Remember my name because I will launch the wheel soon,probably this week,merely because I'm not a person who gives up.

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    Replies
    1. Good luck, Trevor.

      I'd be VERY interested to see how you managed to keep ALL of your wheel's weights on the descending side during wheel rotation. It must be a marvel of geometry, but I tend to be wary of any designs that are TOO extreme. But, then again, maybe you've hit upon something everyone else overlooked. Like they say, "There's a first time for everything!" Bessler's OB PM gravity wheel design was probably the first time THAT particular design was found and used and the same would apply to Asa Jackson's wheel (the ONLY two examples I know of that actually WORKED!).

      There's an important lesson to be learned from these examples which is that, to maximize one's chance of success, he should make sure that he is NOT just duplicating a typical design that has been tried unsuccessfully THOUSANDS of times before by thousands of other mobilists. Something VERY unique is needed. IF, however, the design is TOO simple, then it's probably already been tried and is useless. IF, OTOH, the design is TOO complex, then you may NEVER get it finished and tested (or your simulation program may not be able to calculate and display the model's various motions in a reasonable amount of time). Somewhere between these extreme conditions lies the path to follow. I'm confident that I AM on such a path now with my "right track" design based on the DT portrait clues.

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    2. TG, what evidence is there that confirms the Asa Jackson wheel actually worked? I would like to compare the strength of that evidence to the evidence known about the "Buzzsaw" gravity wheel.

      Rick

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    3. @ Zoelra

      Well, there is a book available from the museum that now owns the remains of Asa Jackson's wheel that contains some of the newspaper articles written about his wheel after its various public demonstrations in the towns surrounding his farm. This information is not currently on the web and those interested need to obtain the book. For those that might want to take a crack at reverse engineering his wheel, there is also a CD available containing about 500 photos of the wheel taken from practically every conceivable angle.

      Basically, around the year 1860, Jackson gave several public demonstration of this wheel. Some were in barns and I think one was out in the open air. He was hoping to sell the device to someone who would take care of the details of patenting and manufacturing it as convenient portable source of power for farmers. He never covered the central rocking mechanism that drove the wheel and it was used to power such farm implements as a butter churn and a water pump. It did not produce a continuous torque, however, but, rather, PULSES of torque. Obviously, it was employing some sort of VERY advanced parametric oscillation in its operation. Like Bessler, he did not hesitate to allow farmers to approach the wheel, examine it close up, and ask questions. Like Bessler, he avoided answering any detailed questions about its operation. Despite minute inspections of the wheel, no hint of fakery was ever discovered.

      From what I can surmise, Jackson's wheel was probably outputting power in pulses that exceeded about 100 watts each despite the fact that it was less than HALF the diameter of the Merseburg and Weissenstein wheels and only contained a FRACTION of the weight mass that they did! Like Bessler, he was largely self-educated, but I don't know if he could read or write since he never personally wrote anything about his wheels. In fact, he may never even have heard of Bessler and only had a vague notion that all of the "experts" had declared what he was trying to do as he perfected his wheel to be a "physical impossibility". Sometimes ignorance can be a "good" be a BLESSING!

      IF I am successful in reverse engineering Bessler's wheels, then MAYBE I will try to solve the Asa Jackson wheel mystery. Since we still have this wheel down in a museum in our state of Tennessee, even though some parts may be missing from it (it does not currently work), it would certainly be helpful if I could get permission from the museum owners to actually HANDLE the wheel so that I could see how its various parts move with respect to each other. However, even without that VERY great advantage, it may still be possible, via computer modeling, simulation, and logic, to reverse engineer the wheel and duplicate it by just studying the newspaper accounts and photos.

      Actually, though, this is probably a task best left to younger mobilists who will have more "fire in their bellies" than I currently do. I've spent several decades on the Bessler wheel and the prospect of another few on the Jackson wheel fills me with a sense of DREAD. LOL!

      If Bessler's wheel is considered the "Mount Everest of ROTARY OB PM gravity wheels" to reverse engineer, then perhaps we can refer to the Asa Jackson wheel as the "Olympus Mons of OSCILLATORY OB PM gravity wheels" to do the same with! (For those not into planetary geography, that's the highest known volcanoe in our entire solar system!)

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    4. Thanks TG,

      I was hoping you had some more tangible evidence such as interviews from family, friends, eye witnesses or reporters. I have searched the internet but have not found any information that I would say is abundant, definitive or credible. I plan on making a trip to the museum in TN to see the wheel as soon as I can. Hopefully within the next 6 months. I will pick up whatever information is available.

      You speak as if you are convinced that the wheel actually worked. With the few tidbits of information you can find on the internet, I don't see how you could come to that conclusion unless you had the book or CD, and it contains specific accounts of the wheel, or you have another source of information. Can you confirm there is additional credible documented evidence?

      Rick




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    5. @ Zoelra

      I wish that I could supply all of the information you request, but you really need to obtain the book for that information.

      Yes, the information on the web is somewhat sketchy, but I am VERY convinced that Asa Jackson actually had a WORKING wheel because of the elaborate precautions he went to in order to protect its secret when he wasn't around to personally guard the wheel. He would remove the weights and other key components and hide them when he was away in case someone broke into his barn and stole the wheel so that for their efforts they would then only get an incomplete mechanism that would not work. During the Civil War, Jackson actually hid his wheel in a nearby cave and carefully camouflaged its entrance so that Union soldiers could not get their hands on it! No one goes to those lengths to protect a hoax.

      Like Bessler, Jackson did not have anything available like an electric motor to secretly power his wheels. They were just starting to use batteries around that time for the telegraph, but if battery power shifted weights were used inside the wheel to oscillate their CoM, then that would have been immediately obvious to those familiar with the telegraph when they examined the exposed central mechanism of the wheel. There were no giant spiral mainsprings inside that could be wound up to power the wheel and supply the high bursts of power it outputted. When in a barn, the wheel was suspended from an overhead beam by two rather thin wooden pieces (as it is now as the museum) and the idea of pulley cords being run though the hollowed out cores of these pieces seems very unlikely to me. I also do not think that Jackson could have used compressed air to power the wheel for long runs, especially if it was located outside.

      Indeed, I accept his wheel as being the "real thing" and only the SECOND successful design known in history.

      Good luck with your planned visit (or should I say "pilgrimage"?) to the museum...I will envy you!

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    6. TG,

      I hope I didn't imply that I wanted you to provide information from the book. I will buy the book and the video as soon as I can. I wanted to know if you had more substantial information than what is generally available on the internet, and it sounds like you have the book, and it does indeed contain more factual accounts. I work of a company going thru some financial difficulty right now. I have 5 weeks of vacation to take by the end of the year and I have no one that can cover my work so I can't leave. I will carry most of the time over to next year and hopefully get paid for the rest. If I could leave tomorrow, I would. I live in St. Louis so I'm not too far away.

      Thanks again.

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    7. PART I:

      @ Zoelra

      Sorry to read of your company's financial difficulties. That seems to be a common lament nowadays as we get used to the "new normal" which used to be yesterday's "UNthinkable normal"! America is continuing, day by day, to lose its competitive edge in the world market place because it is getting increasingly more difficult for us to compete with the rock bottom wage levels in the "emerging" industrial nations. I don't expect things to improve much in the short term and, indeed, they will probably get worse...MUCH worse! But, somehow we'll survive and get on with life. We're just all going to have to learn to make do with less and try to make the most out of a bad situation.


      I certainly don't consider myself an expert on Asa Jackson's wheel, but it has definitely attracted and held my attention over the years. Here's a link to a nice frontal shot of his wheel at the museum.

      http://home.roadrunner.com/~sccinfo/asa-172.jpg

      Note that his wheel is actually the big one on the right side which is driving the smaller pulley contacting it at about its 9:15 position. The large wheel contains a central structure which can rotate inside of and independently of the large outer wheel and works via a rocking motion so as to transfer torque to the large outer wheel through those retractable pads to each side of the 6:00 position. Apparently, the central structure contained two equal weights that would slide from side to side along a track and thereby shift their CoM from one side of the axle to the other.

      For example, the two sliding weights, when the right side one was at about the 1:30 position relative to the axle, would have their CoM on the right or descending side of the wheel and then, through the contacting pads, begin to apply a torque to the outer wheel. That would cause it to rotate CW through about 90 degrees or so. Once the right side weight reached about the 4:30 position relative to the axle, something really interesting (or "physically impossible" as the skeptics might say!) would happen. The CoM of the two opposed weights would suddenly slide back over to the left side of the axle, the contacting pads would momentarily retract, and the entire central strucuture would quickly counter rotate or "rock" back so that the right side weight was again "reset" at about the 1:30 position at which time the CoM of the two weights would slide back onto the right side of the axle, the contacting pads would again be lowered to make contact with the rim of the outer wheel, and the next cycle of torque would take place.

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    8. PART II:

      Thus, the larger wheel on the right side of the image would, with each approximately 90 degree increment of its CW rotation, continuously output pulses of torque that made the smaller contacting pulley wheel turn CCW through a complete rotation. In the linked image the belt attached to the pulley is held in place by an even smaller pulley attached to a blue colored block-like structure which is just a weighted block to keep the belt taut. Apparently, during public demonstrations, the block would be replaced with a butter churn or water pump. IF the machine being driven by the belt had the same diameter pulley on it as the weighted block in the image does, then each rotation of the larger pulley wheel contacting Jackson's wheel would make the small pulley on the machine rotate through about 5 turns. Depending upon how quickly the central structure in Jackson's wheel could reset itself, the operation of the belt driven machine might seem almost continuous and the farmers viewing the demonstration would certainly have been impressed.

      Though more compact than Bessler's most powerful two-directional wheels (thus having a much higher power output density), Jackson's wheel is also more complex mechanically. Interestingly, although Jackson may never have heard of Bessler or studied his work in depth, his wheel seems to also have relied upon careful counter balancing of its internal weights using SPRING tension!

      Anyway, that's my best guestimate of the wheel's mode of operation at this point in time. Those who might contemplate reverse engineering Asa Jackson's wheel should keep in mind that what they have at the museum probably has some critical parts missing from it and could also be damaged to some extent. It will require some WORLD CLASS reverse engineering to duplicate it or get the original at the museum operational again.

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  5. PART I:

    I'm continuing the "construction" of the new 4:1 scale, 36 inch diameter, one-directional Merseburg wheel "sub wheel" model that I mentioned in the comments to the last blog entry. So far, it is looking VERY good. I've increase the accuracy of the dimensions of the parts I am using to 5 decimal places (even though Bessler probably would only have had MEASURED accuracies to 2 places). When its 8 weighted levers are in their starting orientations at the beginning of a 45 degree increment of drum rotation, their CoM is projected a solid 0.25 inches horizontally onto the descending side (and, hopefully, will STAY there during drum rotation!) and a meticulous check of all of the cords used in the design indicates that none would snag on the levers or contact the inner surface of the periphery while the drum was in rotation. This is probably one of the most precise models that I have ever made and it should be ready for Stage 1 stability testing in another day or so.

    I also have made yet another interesting discovery while studying the two DT portraits. Apparently, the portraits provide some clues about BOTH the Merseburg AND the Weissenstein wheels! I had previous believed that the portraits ONLY detailed the internal mechanics of the Merseburg wheel.

    Bessler mentioned that he constructed his wheels in "layers" and these would have been parallel planes or subdivisions within the interior volume of a one-directional wheel or within the interior volume of EACH of the 8 weighted lever sub wheels of a two-directional wheel which space contained that wheel's various interconnecting lever cords and the cords from the springs to each of the 8 weighted levers.

    In the case of the Merseburg wheel, each of its two sub wheels apparently had its interior space subdivided into 5 separate parallel layers. 3 of them contained the interconnecting lever cords for the 8 weighted levers and 2 of them contained the cords from the springs to the levers (with TWO springs being assigned to each lever). Therefore, for EACH of the Merseburg wheel's sub wheels, the 5 layers contained 24 interconnecting cords (8 cords x 3 layers) and 16 spring cords (8 cords x 2 layers). That's a total of 40 cords (24 cords + 16 cords) for each sub wheel and a grand total of 80 cords (40 cords x 2) for the two one-directional sub wheels contained within the entire two-directional wheel's drum.

    Now for the surprising discovery I recently made.

    There is a clue in the portraits that indicates that the Weissenstein wheel's sub wheels were not divided into 5 separate layers, but, rather, into 7 layers!

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  6. PART II:

    After much pondering, I've concluded that this could only have been due to the fact that the weights used in that wheel were twice as massive as those used at the ends of the levers in the Merseburg wheel. Rather than use physically different springs with double the k values on his Weissenstein wheel's levers to compensate for their weights' doubled masses, Bessler simply used the SAME springs that he used in the Merseburg wheel, but added another TWO springs to EACH of the Weissenstein wheel's weighted levers! He basically just put an extra spring in parallel with each of the two springs that would have been assigned to each lever. That, of course, then required him to add ANOTHER TWO parallel layers for each sub wheel to accomodate the two extra springs per weighted lever and this then raised the layer count from 5 to 7 per sub wheel! Adding those two extra layers also would not have cramped the cord connections to their attachment points on the levers because, with the Weissenstein wheel, the width of the levers was increased by about 30%.

    Because of the addition of the 2 extra layers per sub wheel for the Weissenstein wheel, EACH of its sub wheels would have still contained 24 interconnecting cords, but there was then an increase from 16 to 32 spring cords (4 springs cords per lever x 8 levers = 32 spring cords). That's a total of 56 cords (24 cords + 32 cords) for each sub wheel and a grand total of 112 cords (56 cords x 2) for the two one-directional sub wheels contained within the entire two-directional Weissenstein wheel's drum.

    Yes, I know that these cords counts can seem overwhelming at first, but we must remember that these cords were spread evenly around the periphery of a wheel that was 6 feet in radius and had a circumference of about 38 feet!. Each octagonal sector of the drum of the two-directional Merseburg wheel would only have contained 10 cords (80 cords / 8) while each sector of the two-directional Weissenstein wheel would have contained 14 cords (112 cords / 8). The original table top ONE-directional wheel whose internal mechanics Count Karl paid the 4,000 thalers to view would only have contained 5 cords (actually only strings!) in each of its 8 sectors and this could certainly be described as "simple". When, however, one begins to consider the number of cords used in two-directional wheels such as the one at Weissenstein Castle having weights more massive than 4 lbs that then require doubled up parallel springs in order to counter balance, it's not as easy to continue to describe things as still being "simple".

    In the models I make, I ONLY show the particular cords which are under tension and the springs being stretched or relaxed during any 45 degree increment of drum rotation because slack cords and static springs are not relevant to the shifting motions of the weighted levers that occurs during any 45 degree increment of drum rotation. Indeed, this is all that is necessary to determine if the design is actually maintaining the CoM of its weights on the descending side of the drum during rotation and allows the simple simulation program I'm currently using (WM2D) to calculate the frames of the simulation in an acceptably short enough amount of time.

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  7. My new computer model one-directional wheel design is now COMPLETED!

    It is truly a beautiful construction to behold even though it has not yet been fully tested. It's rather amazing to think that from such perfect octagonal symmetry (only when all 8 weights are locked up against their rim stops, of course) a SUSTAINED asymmetry can be achieved which will then CONTINUOUSLY drain away the energy / mass of the wheel's 8 weights with each drum rotation. Truly amazing, indeed, and I can now FULLY appreciate why Bessler would have described it as being as "glorious as a peacock's tail"!

    I shall try to begin the Stage 1 stability testing later tonight (after the last of the three Presidential candidate debates beginning at 9:00 pm EST is finished at 10:30 pm). Rather than just immediately adjusting the springs to the k values of 0.31250 lbs / inch (equal to 5 ounces / inch) for the 4:1 scale model's 1 ounce weights which is the value that I suspect that they most likely should have, I've decided to approach that value in a series of gradually increasing steps, perhaps starting with 0.05000 lbs / inch and increasing by that amount as I approach the expected working k value. If all goes smoothly, then, at about a k value of 0.31250 lbs / in, I should notice that the 9:00 position weighted lever is so nearly completely counter balanced by the weighted levers and springs leading it that its end weight can be very easily lifted back toward its rim stop with the lowest of lifting force (perhaps only 0.01000 lbs or so).

    In any event, I hope to have both the Stage 1 and 2 tests finally completed by THIS October 31st. IF BOTH the Stage 1 and 2 tests are successfully completed by that date, then I will declare the "Bessler Wheel Mystery" to have been SOLVED on THAT date as an homage to Bessler and the successful official examination of his Merseburg wheel that took place on October 31st, 1715.

    This could really, REALLY be IT, folks!!!

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    Replies
    1. Good luck with your nice wheel TG,i am building my horse(not wheel) and if i am lucky
      with my animal, than i can start build wheel with or without weights.

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    2. Good luck TG! Keep us informed.

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  8. The best of luck with your design........ we will all rejoice for you, but more for the planet and its inhabitants

    I am a Perpetuum Mobilist

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  9. TG - "I will declare the "Bessler Wheel Mystery" to have been SOLVED"

    You do mean VIRTUALLY solved, right?

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  10. PART I:

    Thanks everyone for your well wishes. I really do appreciate them and, of course, wish you all well with your various approaches because, in light of Asa Jackson's undeniable (at least for me!) achievement, I no longer think that there is only ONE way to achieve a working OB PM gravity wheel. However, I STILL maintain that there is only ONE way to achieve the design that Bessler actually used.

    Yes, it's been a LONG journey up to this point for me and I've left a trail of failures behind me that is far too numerous for me to even want to contemplate. But, while each failure certainly disappointed me, I actually learned something from them. I guess what Edison said (I think he said it!) is true; namely, we often learn more from our failures than we do from our successes. What I learned from my PM research over the decades was that a "weights only" OB wheel is NOT possible to construct and that you need something "extra" to make such designs work.

    Bessler, bless him, found that something extra could be provided by VERY cleverly utilizing spring tension within the design to assist with the shifting of his weighted levers so as to keep their weights' CoM always located on the wheel's descending side as it rotated. It's REALLY just as simple as that, but, of course, the details are VERY difficult to determine. The DT portrait clues were the major ones that enabled me to finally find those details and soon I hope to be revealing what I've found so that others, possessing better fabricating resources and skills than I, can see if they can make a working PHYSICAL replication of one of Bessler's one-directional wheels from the design I'll reveal.

    Will this change the world? Well, I don't think it will revolutionize energy (/ mass) generation as most of my fellow mobilists seem to be convinced will happen (at least not with the design Bessler found) because I think that breakthroughs in solar power will be doing that in the future. But, finally determining HOW Bessler made his wheels turn WILL certainly change US. The rediscovery of the "secret" of Bessler's wheels will encourage humans to try new ways of doing many things and, I believe, will spur all kinds of research whether in astronomy, medicine, or physics. Maybe this will be the REAL value of the successful solution of the Bessler wheel mystery. It will give humanity a renewed sense of hope for the future and that, IMO, is probably worth more than all of the gold, platinum, silver, diamonds, etc. in the entire universe. They are just bits of matter with interesting physical, chemical, and optical properties. The maintenance of hope is a FAR more precious thing.

    It's been said hundreds of times on this blog and other free energy sites: 300 years is WAY TOO LONG to have NOT solved this irksome historical mystery. I couldn't agree more!

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  11. PART II:

    Think of it. In the last 300 years we've managed, via the Rosetta Stone, to translate ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics to learn the history of Egypt and its pharoahs, developed batteries, generators, electric motors, electric illumination, gasoline engines, motion pictures, x-rays, automobiles, airplanes, rockets, antibiotics, electronics, radios, blood transfusions, nuclear power, television, lasers, computers, organ transplants, etc., etc., etc. BUT, despite all of this monumental progress we have been STOPPED dead in our tracks by ONE man's SINGLE 300 year old invention?!!! That's TOTALLY PREPOSTEROUS! Let's get this nut cracked and cracked once and for all! The time is NOW!


    Anonymous 23 October 2012 16:18 wrote:

    "You do mean VIRTUALLY solved, right?"

    Quite true. But, I'd rather have a glitch free, virtual solution on a computer monitor panel than NO virtual solution at all. Despite it being virtual, it's a major step forward that, I believe, WILL pave the way for REAL solutions in the form of handcrafted replicas of Bessler's wheels. First the virtual one-directional wheel will come (IF my Stage 1 and 2 testing of my current design is successful), then there will be the successful construction of real one-directional wheels, and, finally, the sucessful construction of real two-directional wheels. The craftsmen, the tools, and the materials are ALL out there right NOW and only awaiting a WORKABLE design to use as a guide in their constructions. I am hoping (and PRAYING!) that I will soon be able to provide that design. IMO, I've never been as close as I believe that I am now. Time will tell if I'm right.


    As a update on the ongoing Stage 1 stability testing of my present design, I can report that early this morning (when I should have been having breakfast!), I began the Stage 1 testing by tightening up my one-directional wheel design's 16 springs by increasing their k values from 0.00000 lb/in up to a value of 0.05000 lb/in. The 9:00 to 3:00 position weighted levers still flopped over when they were released because, obviously, the counter balancing acting on them is still insufficient to hold them in place. But, I did, however, notice that, as I approached the k value of 0.05000 lb/in, the speed of the flopping over motion began to slow down somewhat. It appears that the increasing spring tension is starting to work even though I'm still only about 1/6th of the way to the k value of 0.31250 lb/in (or 5 ounces per inch) which I believe Bessler actually used in HIS original prototype table top one-directional wheel. I shall continue incrementally increasing the k values later tonight.

    BTW, I've had another revelation about Asa Jackson's wheel, but I'll save that for another comment.

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    1. Good luck Ken.

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    2. " we have been STOPPED dead in our tracks by ONE man's SINGLE 300 year old invention?!!! "

      Speak for yourself . That's what i hate about these rants ... it has all been said before and additionally in the same way as before . Someone who truly understands Bessler , as the friend to mankind and the teascher he was would gladly take the challenge he set forth and yeild the results of his effort .

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  12. TG, please explain, in detail, one clue that you got from the portraits, that told you something specific for your design. For instance, explain in detail how you came to the conclusion that two springs per lever were used. I still think you are pulling clues out of your hat but would love to have you prove me wrong. Thanks, Justsomeone

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    Replies
    1. He finally signs his work . :) I too think TG is fos but he is insensative to any kind of insult .

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    2. Actually, Chris, I don't like being insulted anymore than you do.

      Delete
  13. It's the curls in the wig. If you squint real hard, you can count just the right number of curls to match your theory.

    Doug

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    Replies
    1. One will not have to "squint real hard" if, like me, he works with high resolution images of the two portraits. Ideally, you want resolution so high that you can, literally, fill your entire monitor screen with a clear image of even the smallest detail in the portraits. When one does this, he immediately realizes the incredible precision that went into the creation of the two portraits. That precision was intended for a purpose: to convey accurate mathematical clues as to the construction of the internal components in Bessler's wheels. Unless one can find and properly interpret the DT portrait clues, he is, quite sadly, only working with a VERY small fraction of the information he will need to successfully reverse engineer Bessler's wheels and his chances of success will be GREATLY diminished.

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  14. PART I:

    I certainly don't blame anyone for being dubious of the claims that I am now making. We've heard it all before, ad nauseum, from an unending parade of mobilists who claim to "have IT", but really don't and either eventually admit that, continually deny it, or just "mysteriously" disappear from the scene. I, however, intend to do none of those things. IF, indeed, I do NOT have IT, then I will be the FIRST to admit it and just return to my ongoing search for IT. IF, OTOH, I DO have IT, as I believe I now do, then I will do my level best to make sure that the PM "community" is aware of the rediscovery so that they can begin to use it to make REAL physical duplicates of Bessler's various wheels that WILL work (assuming, of course, that the builder is skilled enough to produce a wheel with the required precision).


    Justsomeone asks "For instance, explain in detail how you came to the conclusion that two springs per lever were used."

    Gladly. Aside from the fact that I tried DOZENS of different arrangements using only ONE spring per weighted lever that did NOT work, I eventually found that Bessler gives MULTIPLE clues in EACH of the DT portraits that indicate that he did, in fact, use TWO springs per weighted lever in the Merseburg wheel (a recent discovery I made, however, indicates that this was NOT the case in the Weissenstein wheel which actually used 4 springs on each of its more massive weighted levers).

    The Merseburg wheel, being two-directional, used TWO separate one-directional "sub wheels" that were mounted in opposition to each other on the same axle. Each sub wheel contained 8 weighted levers. I eventually noticed that his two DT portraits contain various SPRING symbols and realized that their QUANTITIES were an important clue that refered to the number of springs that were used on the 8 weighted levers within ONE of the Merseburg wheel's sub wheels.

    I've already discussed what I call the "Parted Wig Clue" in the first portrait. Each of the curls on ONE side of that wig, located by its visible circular end loop, represents a single HELICAL spring used inside of ONE of the sub wheels of the Merseburg wheel. If one counts them carefully, he will find 16 curls on each side of the wig which means that EACH of the one-directional sub wheels within the Merseburg wheel contained 16 helical springs which works out to 16 springs / 8 levers = 2 springs per weighted lever!

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  15. PART II:

    Here's another rather difficult to interpret clue from the 1st DT portrait.

    The VERY few mobilists who actually study the portrait symbols in depth are usually so focused on the illustrations that they tend to completely overlook the lettering and calligraphy of the words UNDER the portraits, yet these ALSO contain important clues.

    For example, in the text under the 1st portrait, Bessler uses the letter "M" to stand for a helical spring contained in ONE of the Merseburg wheel's one-directional sub wheels because of the resemblance of that letter to the coils of a helical spring. If one counts up the "M's" he will find only 7 of them. The 8th one must be "synthesized" by combining the letters "I" and "N" found in the word "Invent" on the bottom line. With this revelation the reverse engineering mobilist analyzing this 1st portrait clue will immediately jump to the conclusion that Bessler ONLY used 8 spring / 8 levers = 1 spring per lever and begin to build models using that design element. And, of course, that is EXACTLY what the Master wanted him to do and which I immediately did!

    Of course, only AFTER he discovers that NONE of his one spring per lever designs will work will he return to the 1st portrait's bottom text again and do a bit more searching. When he does, he will discover that there is something ELSE that appears 8 times! It's those COLONS or :'s that Bessler uses to take the place of groups of letters. These colons do not represent individual springs, but, rather, are MULTIPLIERS that indicate that EACH of the previous 8 spring symbols that the mobilist found must be DOUBLED which, of course, is indicated by the TWO dots in each colon. When that is done, one then has 8 springs x 2 = 16 springs in EACH of the Merseburg wheel's one-directional wheels so that there are 2 springs on each of its weighted levers and ALL of the 16 weighted levers inside of the giant two-directional wheel's two one directional sub wheels will contain a grand total of 32 helical springs.

    There are more clues about the use of two springs per weighed lever in the Merseburg wheel, but the above will have to suffice for the moment and, indeed, they only represent the very tippy tip of a HUGE submerged iceberg of clues that WILL guide the serious reverse engineering Bessler mobilist to a successful replication of his wheels! Sadly, practically NONE of these clues has ever even been discussed on the web and only a VERY few mobilists on planet Earth are even aware of them at the present moment. I, quite fortunately, am one of them and that is precisely WHY I am so very close to THE solution to the Bessler Wheel Mystery today!

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    1. TG,i have grave concern that at 99.9% the game will be over.In the event of this insufferable reality come to mind, there is a nice and effective natural remedy for
      extreme urgency,go for a long stroll through deep forest and breath deeply.
      Despite this,i wish you success.

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    2. PART I:

      Well, let's hope that, THIS time, the "game" will not be over and something REAL can come out of a reverse engineering Bessler mobilist's research.

      I'm now working on that remaining 0.5% of the journey down the "right track" that Bessler found and the going is definitely more difficult than in the past for me. It's really come down to a matter of exactly HOW Bessler applied spring tension to his wheel's weighted levers so as to achieve that nearly complete counter balancing of the weighted levers between the 9:00 and 3:00 positions of a CW turning drum. Once that counter balancing is achieved then, indeed, it DOES become EASILY possible to make one's ascending side weights "rise in a flash" as their lever's pivots pass the 9:00 position of the rotating drum. In the last several months I've tried practically every one spring approach possible without success and now, thanks to recent new interpretations of previously puzzling DT portrait clues, I've moved on to the use of TWO springs per lever. There are MANY ways of attaching two springs to a weighted lever, but the clues suggest only a few of them and the one I'm testing now looks PARTICULARY promising.

      Yes, I do find strolling through and "communing" with nature to be VERY relaxing and I love FRESH air. I'm fortunate enough to have a small forest on my property that is, literally, teaming with wildlife and I've placed weather resistant benches at strategic locations so that I can relax there and take in the sights and sounds of nature. I feed birds from my kitchen window daily (I'm too lazy to fill up a bird feeder) and even deer that venture close enough for treats. They really love those square peanut butter crackers and Triscuits, too. I think they like the taste of a salty snack (come to think of it, so do I. LOL!).

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    3. PART II:

      Anyway, I've just continued a bit more with the Stage 1 stability testing of my latest design by raising the k values of its 16 springs from 0.05000 lb/in to 0.1000 lb/in. At 0.1000 lb/in the 9:00 to 3:00 position weights are still flopping over, but the speed at which they do so is now MUCH slower. Hopefully, I'll have stability before I reach a k value of 0.31250 lb/in which is 5 ounces per inch for the little springs in my 36 inch diameter model wheel and 5 pounds per inch for the larger springs in the Merseburg wheel. It would be really be nice if I could achieve stability at only 0.2500 lb/in which is 4 ounces per inch for my little 4:1 scale computer model and 4 pounds per inch for the Merseburg wheel springs. Well, further testing will continue tomorrow.

      I'm also experimenting with HOW I am going to present the new design should I finally REALLY have IT.

      I could just post a link here to drawings of the design that I've uploaded to a photobucket account, but I would prefer to provide an actual video of the simulated wheel as it rotates so that the viewer can see how the weighted levers are shifting during wheel rotation and how that causes their CoM to stay on the descending side of the wheel. WM2D does allow one to "export" video clips of simulations as .avi files and I'm now experimenting with that feature. So far, the test sims I've exported with this file type look a bit "grainy" and run somewhat slowly on the Windows Media Player. I'm trying to see if I can correct for this problem by "tweeking" the various parameters that one can control when exporting the frames of a sim as a video.

      I could just provide a link to the .dxf file for the model wheel, but then the viewer would have to have WM2D installed on their hard drive in order to open the file and run the simulation of the moving wheel which, sadly, most mobilists still do not have. Thus, I prefer a video clip since most people on the internet do have the Windows Media Player on their PC's that can play an .avi file.

      All of these considerations, of course, will remain "academic" UNLESS I can finally SUCCESSFULLY complete the Stage 1 and 2 tests of the design. Hopefully, that will be done successfully by THIS October 31st in time for the 297 anniversary of another important milestone in the Bessler saga!

      Delete
  16. Thanks TG for your reply. It told me everything I wanted to know about your "right track" path! Good luck, Justsomeone

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    Replies
    1. You're quite welcome, Justsomeone.

      Yes, there are enough clues in the DT portraits to successfully reconstruct Bessler's wheels. BUT, one must still do a LOT of deductive reasoning to extract the full information content of those clues and see how they fit together to bring an actual image of the secret mechanics Bessler used into sharp focus. None of the actual physical components inside of his wheels (other than one helical spring and a piece of cord shown in the 2nd portrait) is actually displayed in the portraits and one must not make the mistake of trying to compare the portrait items to the MT illustrations which are all made of obvious components, but, sadly, for UNworkable designs. The information contained in the portraits is FAR more subtle in nature and, because of this, the VAST majority of reverse engineering Bessler mobilists, no matter how sincere and dedicated they may be, will remain forever "blind" to them unless someone provides them with the information. Putting on those eyeglasses Bessler offers in the second portrait might SEEM like a very easy thing to do, metaphorically speaking, but it is most definitely NOT as I learned from my own experience over the years.

      For example, nowhere in the portraits will one find the entirety of the magic lever's shape or the cord scheme required by the "Connectedness Principle" overtly depicted. But, one WILL find bits and pieces of these that are scattered about in the two portraits. ONLY an ACTIVELY BUILDING mobilist that DAILY consults the portraits will eventually be able to ACCURATELY pick out and interpret the VALID clues and, from them, finally deduce the correct shape of the "magic" levers Bessler used, the exact locations on those levers to which the cords must be attached, and the correct pattern of interconnecting cords to use. I now, after years of sustained effort, have ALL of these items and am HIGHLY confident that they ARE accurate.

      What I previously have not been able to determine was the details the springs Bessler used and HOW he used them. That, as I previously mentioned, is the true "HEART" of the Bessler Mystery, the FINAL detail that MUST be obtained BEFORE one can successfully construct a WORKING OB PM gravity wheel. It is this final detail which will determine if the Stage 1 and 2 testing of my latest design for an 8 weighted lever, one-directional wheel will work or not. I either have it and the mystery will be solved or I do not have it and the mystery will NOT be solved (at THIS point in time!). Almost like flipping a coin...heads I win, tails I lose...actually FAR better odds than my state's lottery! LOL!

      At this point in time I am STILL feeling VERY good about the design and anticipating it successfully completing its Stage 1 stability testing in a few more days.

      Delete
  17. Actually TG, I was thanking you but not complimenting you. Curly hair equals springs? I think you are a nut, a nice nut but never the less a nut. You are very good with your math though. 8×2 is 16. I still wish you luck, Justsomeone.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, I seem to have made the grand mistake of thinking that you were sincerely grateful for my detailed discussion of SOME of the "two springs per weighted lever clues" in the portraits. I did not realize at the time that you were actually trying to sarcastically mock me and my research efforts. Well, I won't be making THAT kind of mistake again and that will probably be the LAST time that I will be discussing ANY of the DT portrait clues, even the "lower lever" ones as I did for you, in detail here. Now people will have to wait until I finally release the design I have (but only IF it passes its current Stage 1 and 2 testing) so that they can see for themselves how its various construction elements are revealed by the MANY DT portrait clues. I do not accept nor do I want ANY of YOUR "well" wishes for ANYTHING I am working on now!

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  18. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  19. I am seeking interested parties and/or assistance at this time .

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  20. Why is it, that on any discussion on the internet, it always seems to end in quarreling or ridiculing each other. Is it just envy or human nature that being anonymous, it brings out this bad "quality" in people?

    I too, raised my eye-browse when TG started explaining his curls/springs theory.
    But isn't it a fact that thinking out-of-the-box, could be the only way of solving the wheel mystery?

    Please stop this bickering, otherwise it will take at least another 300 years before any progress is made.

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    1. Hello, Herbert, and welcome to this blog if you are new here.

      I agree that the "Parted Wig Clue" can be difficult to accept at first, but it is only one of MANY such "hard to accept" clues that Bessler left for us in the two DT portraits. They all, however, eventually lead one to a SINGLE design which, of course, I am now convinced I have and am testing. In general, I have found that the closer in proximity a clue is to Bessler faces in the portraits, the MORE important it is. Unfortunately, I am done discussing these matters here and now realize what a BIG mistake I made in doing so. This should lower the probability of any future "bickering" taking place.

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    2. I have made progress in spite of it all . But I'm not giving clues to the design .
      The fact is , the design , being simple , does not require such speculation .

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  21. TG, where does it say that the opinion of 1 man, makes the belief of all others?
    I, for instance, am still interested in hearing your version of the puzzle being solved.

    And remember: even Bessler himself continued, despite of all the ridicule and personal attacks, accusing him of being a trickster.

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    Replies
    1. "...where does it say that the opinion of 1 man, makes the belief of all others?"

      The opinion of 1 man CAN determine the beliefs of MANY other men (and women) IF that 1 man's opinion happens to be right and WORK!

      We've had MANY opinions in the field of PM research over the millenia, but, to my knowledge, ONLY 2 of them were ever been right and worked. In any event, I do NOT claim to be the originator of any of the opinions I express about Bessler's wheels here. I am only the lowly messenger boy who is trying to deliver the message that the Master provided in the DT portraits. Unfortunately, message delivery can be a despised occupation to those who are not ready to receive the message!

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  22. I've altered how the comments appear. Let me know if this is preferable or should we try something else or return to the old one.

    JC

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  23. Hmmm...suddenly going from the tan colored main blog page to this white comments page is a bit of a shock to the optic nerves. Maybe I could get used to it in time, but at this point in time I think I still prefer the former color scheme.

    But, I definitely do like being able to use HTML tags. If the tag for image insertion works, we can then begin inserting a sketch with our comments to help clarify things!

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  24. I may have disapproved of this new comments page too soon. That last comment I made showed up here so fast that I thought I had a high speed connection for a second there! I'm starting to like the new look!

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  25. Problems! Now when the comments page appears in a new window, it's a reduced size window that I can't click and drag the borders of to enlarge. It now occupies only about 1/6 of my monitor area and makes all of the comments looked cramped on top of each other. Arrggghhh...

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  26. I really like it when people come together and share ideas.
    Great blog, continue the good work!

    Also visit my website buy cheap health insurance

    ReplyDelete

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...