I recently posted a response to a comment, pointing out that I had been recommending the study of parametric oscillation as an aid to solving Bessler's wheel, on the undermentioned web site for some years. I was surprised therefore, to receive a number of emails telling me that they had never been to the website as they didn't know about it!
This has surprised me, as all the links to my websites are there in the side panel to your right as you are reading this.
I guess that the problem lies in the similarity of the domain name with Scott Ellis's besslerwheel.com website, which is an excellent site with a forum dedicated to Bessler. People may have thought it was a link to his web site and having been there already, ignored it. My domain name has an 's' on the end of 'Bessler', and his doesn't.
So just to be clear, the website details my theory about how Bessler's wheel worked using parametric oscillation, or swinging, and I describe 'kiiking', an Estonian version of swinging which in my opinion provides additional information.
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Okay, so I checked out your sound-alike site's parametric oscillation theory for Bessler's wheels. First you start out by saying:
ReplyDelete"To date, designs have mostly relied on the understanding that moving weights closer to, or further from, the centre of rotation, depending on whether the particular side of the wheel is rising or falling, would overbalance the wheel. This, it is still believed, will, with the correct manipulation of a number of weights, by various means, lead to continuous rotation. After more than 300 years of failures designed in accordance with this system, one must conclude that it is wrong."
So you're telling us there that Bessler's wheels were NOT OB.
Then you suggest that Bessler wheels used the same principle as employed in the Estonian sport of "kiiking" or "swinging":
"The adjacent drawing fig 1, attempts to show this technique. There are four figures each standing on a seat. The one nearest to the 4.30 position has bent his knees to lower his centre of gravity. The other three have straight legs and a centre of gravity which is closer to the swing pivot."
Whether you call this "parametric oscillation" or any other name, it is STILL just the creation of an OB state in a rotating system!
In the actual sport of kiiking, of course, there would only be one athlete swinging around the swing's pivot. The athlete, by stooping on the descending side and standing on the ascending side is just shifting the AVERAGE position of his CoM during a complete revolution about the swing's pivot point onto the swing's descending side. The EXACT same process takes place in an OB wheel with the exception that it is far more efficient because the CoM of the wheel's weights is CONSTANTLY maintained on the wheel's descending side.
Just because no one other than Bessler has made an OB wheel work in the last 300 years does not mean that he did not use this principle or that it is impossible to implement. To me it just means that it is not easy to do and so far no one has yet found the correct mechanism to do it (but, I'm VERY close!).
I have to agree with JC's "after 300 years of failures" comment.
ReplyDeleteIf we are to look seriously at parametric oscillation, the first question is "what parameter(s) should we be varying?" In my comment of 13 October I suggested gravity itself (or more precisely the resolved component of gravity along the allowable line of action of two paired weights). I'll look further into that, as time permits.
I found a nice kiiking video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWbcsEDrmFE
@TG: I think what John is trying to say is that we need to try to achieve a state of resonance, not just shifting weights. Achieving resonance is what makes it powerful and effective. In other words: it's all in the timing.
ReplyDelete@Arktos: Now thats a very good observation. Thanks for the video, too.
Andre wrote: "I think what John is trying to say is that we need to try to achieve a state of resonance, not just shifting weights. Achieving resonance is what makes it powerful and effective. In other words: it's all in the timing."
ReplyDeleteI DO agree that timing is VERY important and that was the whole purpose of Bessler's "Connectedness Principle": to "coordinate" the shifting motions of the weighted levers within a one-directional wheel's drum so that their CoM would remain on the descending side during drum rotation. His wheels were OB at all times when running and so is a kiiking sportsmen as his swing rotates about its pivot.
When (IF!) JC finally releases his "pentagrammatic" wheel design, everyone will finally see that, ultimately, in order to work it MUST maintain the OB of its weight's CoM on its descending side. There will be no talk of "parametric oscillations" or "gravity wind" at that time. The design will not just magically create a reactionless driving inertia or torque within the wheel without OB because such an inertia or torque would be a violation of Newton's 3rd Law of motion which I STILL accept as valid!