The mysterious inclusion of 684 x’s scattered in an apparently random fashion at the ends of many of the 7000 plus lines of poetry which compose the Apologia Poetica, has been the subject of some debate. In fact these x’s are actually abbreviations for the phrase et cetera, and one might think that that is a satisfactory explanation for their presence, but 684 seems an excessive use of the Latin expression and their numbers are reduced to a normal amount, less than ten, in his subsequent book, Das Triumphirende. The presence of 28 &c's in addition to the et ceteras used, would seem to make the necessity of using the Latin abbreviation redundant, anyway.
The presence of so many et ceteras and the various hints at the existence of a hidden message within the Apologia Poetica lead one inevitably to question the large number of these abbreviations. In some cases there are as many as seven consecutive lines each ending in the Latin expression.
There are 397 et ceteras in part one of Apologia Poetica, and 287 in part two, totalling 684. I have omitted the &c's and the many NB’s and NB’s because I am uncertain about their relevance to a secret message. But just for the record there are 9 + 19 = 28 &c’s, and 20 + 176 = 196 NB’s. Anyway in preparation for devising his code, Bessler must have written his text and then looked for a way to hide it within his existing work. I assumed that he then circled or underlined the letters or words he sought for his text and then used some method to identify the line containing that letter or word. I suggest that he marked this line by placing the et cetera sign at the end of it. There is no mileage, in my opinion, in trying to read something in the positioniong of these abbreviations, either from the front or the back of the page; their positioning is too similar to each other for any one to detect any subtle differences.
The next step was to leave some means of guiding us to the correct letter or word on that line. I tried various ways of identifying a letter or word, but came to the conclusion that a letter was too time consuming and as he had a plethora of suitable words to pick from, why make his job more difficult if he could use full words and still hide them. If one assumes an average of five letters per word then from a total of 684 ‘et ceteras’, he had about 137 words to complete his secret message, whereas if each et cetera indicated a whole word he would have potentially 684! I suspect the answer lies somewhere between those two figures.
The method he used to hide his words had to be very strong. This becomes even more obvious when you consider such passages as this one on page 27 of the Apologia Poetica, which has no fewer than six consecutive lines with the et cetera 'X' at the end.
If each lines contained a word from his text in the order in which it naturally ocurred, it would not take long to find the identifier and hence the whole coded message could be read. And that is not the only page containing six or more consecutive lines with et ceteras at their ends. An additional clue may be found in the presence of double et ceteras which appear in part two of Apologia Poetica. Here are a couple below:-
Note the second one is positioned just after two blanks. The missing word is ‘Schelmen’ meaning ‘rogue’ or ‘rascall’. For further information on the use of the blanks visit my web site at www.theorffyreuscode.com
I then wondered if the meaning and even the position of the et ceteras themselves were irrelevant. Maybe the secret lay in the number of them per page. If there was just one et cetera on a page, maybe that meant 'line one' held the missing word. As a check I looked at the title page which has one et cetera on it and assumed ‘one’ et cetera meant line ‘one’. The first word is ORFFYREI which looks promising, but then it all goes wrong again. In the subsequent page with et ceteras on it, nothing else supports this idea. I tried various alternatives such as counting lines from the top on odd pages and from the bottom on even ones, but no dice.
But consider this, if each page which has one or more et ceteras on it, is meant to hide one complete word, there are potentially 226 words. That is the number of pages which have et ceteras on them. I feel that this way lies the solution. It is too tempting to be drawn into considering the line with the et cetera on it rather than just counting how may X's there are and using that number to find the word.
One more thing might be worth taking into account. The whole book is written in rhyming couplets except for part of Chapter 55, which I have discussed at www.orffyreus.net - maybe there is some way to assign the number of et ceteras to a couplet?
Good luck to those who are persuing this line of enquiry, and I know there are several, from my email correspondence.
JC
10a2c5d26e15f6g7h10ik12l3m6n14o14r5s17tu6v5w4y4-3,’.
Before I would get too excited about all of those X's revealing some secret message hidden in Bessler's AP, I would first consider the following:
ReplyDelete1.) Since AP is a long rhyming couplet type poem, are these X's found at the ends of OTHER similar German poems written by OTHER poets around the time that Bessler wrote AP? If so, then this was obviously some standard literary device that they ALL happened to use at that time. Just because we do not understand its purpose today does not mean that it did not have some quite prosaic explanation which all readers of poetry back then would have understood.
2.) To tell you the truth, those "X's" don't even look like "X's" to me! They look more like "2c's" to me and could well be some sort of instruction by Bessler to his printer on how to display the PRINTED text of AP's poetry.
Perhaps Bessler wrote the lines of AP's poetry and put all of those "X's" or "2c's" after the lines to tell his printer that set the type exactly where to SKIP lines between the lines of poetry. In other words, "2c" actually meant "drop down 2 lines after the end of this line". Maybe the Master printer was busy at the time and just assigned the task to a new apprentice who was unfamiliar with the meaning of the symbol as applied to poetry and then just set the type for AP with all of the spacing instructions included at the ends of the lines! Bessler would probably have had a fit when he saw the published work, but by then, because of cost considerations or publication deadlines, he was forced to use the corrupted text for AP since it did not really interfer with the meaning of the poetry although it certainly did give its printed appearance a bit of a cramped look. There would obviously be less of these symbols in DT because that work was not a poem.
I really think that this alledged code is "much ado about nothing" and I would not personally invest that much time in trying to analyze it. I need INSTRUCTIONS to guide my modeling, not undecipherable codes. Ultimately, if something hidden in the Bessler literature does not translate DIRECTLY into a RECOGNIZABLE image of a wheel's internal mechanism, a VERY DETAILED verbal description of the internal mechanism (such as I try to give in many of my comments here), or a set of PRECISE mathematical relationships among the component parts of its internal mechanism (as found in the DT portraits), then it is of ZERO value to me.
Sorry to sound so negative, John, because I realize that you must have put a considerable amount of time into trying to make sense of all of those "X's". Your effort IS appreciated. Unfortunately, however, not all mysteries have a solution that is destined to be found and they can become a great source of frustration to those with "inquiring" minds.
You can be as negative as you like TG, clearly you didn't read the blog properly or you would see what the X's stand for.
ReplyDeleteJC
John, I think I read your blog entry correctly. You are trying to use the abundance of "X's" in AP to find particular words on EACH page with them that, when assembled, will yield some understandable message: presumerably, providing the "secret" of Bessler's wheels.
DeleteThe most logical solution I can see decoding this alleged hidden message, IF it actually exists (and I have my doubts about that), is to assume that the 226 pages which EACH contain one or more "X's" on it contains ONE word of a 226 word message. To find that word, you would simply count the number of "X's" on that page and use that quantity to find the one word on the page actually used in the message by counting that many words from the beginning word of the first line of the page...or maybe from the first word of the second line of the page...or maybe from the first word of the third line of the page...or so on! In such an encryption scheme it is irrelevant WHICH lines have the "X's" after them. All that counts is the total quantity of "X's" on a page.
However, I would not always begin counting from the first word at the top of each of the pages. Knowing Bessler, one might have to start counting backwards from the last word on the page to obtain the message's hidden word! OR, Bessler might have decided to scramble the order that one must use to find the message's hidden word for a particular page. For example, if the page number was EVEN, then one might start counting FORWARD from the FIRST word and, if the page number was ODD, he would start counting BACKWARDS from the LAST word...or vice versa!
In any event, good luck trying to make something out of all of this. I think if I REALLY had to, I could give a VERY detailed qualitative description of Bessler's secret OB PM gravity wheel design using only 226 words, but it would be a "challenge" (just as trying to keep my comments short here is!!!). The qualitative description part would not be that difficult to come up with, but, in order to produce a working wheel, one needs MORE than that. He needs to have some QUANTITATIVE details about the shape of the weighted levers and the points on them to which the interconnecting cords and their tensioning springs must be attached. He needs to know how far for the drum's axle the pivots for the various weighted levers are located. He needs to know the spring constants or k values used on EACH of the TWO sets of springs contained within the drum. Fortunately, ALL of this information IS available from the DT portrait clues.
I think somebody should set up a computer program to try all the possible combinations and output the results, then a human can read them to see if any make sense - you only need to read the first two to three words of each combination to see if it's remotely intelligible.
ReplyDeleteThat's what computers are for!
I basically agree. Maybe there are a few good cryptanalysts somewhere out there who would be interested in tackling this problem, if only they knew about it. After all, a huge amount of effort and time, including computer time, has been spent by both professionals and amateurs trying to decipher the notorious Voynich manuscript, without much success. Unlike that document, at least Bessler wrote in known characters in a known language!
DeleteThere is yet another question to consider about this alleged hidden message in the text of AP which is: WHAT was Bessler's INTENTION in placing such a coded message into the work?
ReplyDeleteIF there is a coded message, then it's quite possible that it has NOTHING to do with revealing the secret mechanics of his OB PM gravity wheels! It might be a message concerning his religious or political beliefs. Maybe it was a prayer to God for having given him the secret mechanism that finally worked. Maybe he was secretly into black magic (I highly doubt this) and the message was a Satanic curse he placed on his detractors! Maybe, like Nostradamus, Bessler was making a prediction about the future of Europe or the world. If any of these were the case, then such a message, while certainly interesting, would be of no value to a reverse engineering Bessler mobilist.
IF, indeed, the message was intended to establish Bessler's priority to the mechanical principles upon which his wheels worked, then the encoding could not be that difficult to understand because, at some future date, in order to refute the claim of priority of a rival mobilist who had just managed to duplicate THE same design Bessler found, Bessler would have to be able to point to the AP text and show people how he had encoded the description of his wheel's mechanism. If the encoding was too elaborate and difficult to decode, then others might just think that he was making things up as he went along by extracting some words here and there that roughly described his rival's working wheel mechanism. I doubt if anything too difficult to decode would convince anybody that Bessler had actually been there first.
IF I was trying to find this alledged hidden message, I would simply placed the number of "X's" on each page containing them at the top of the page and, then, starting at the beginning of AP, page by page count that number of words from the beginning of the first line. If I did not get a sentence that made sense, I'd repeat the process starting my word count from the second line of each page. If that did not work, I'd start at the first page and begin counting from the first word of the third line and so on down the pages. No results, repeat, but try it from the last word of the last line of each page. It's even possible that one must do this starting from the last word of the last line on the LAST page of AP and work backwards!
I don't think one needs to go to the trouble of inputting all of the AP text into a computer to perform this analysis. IF the coded message is, indeed, there AND it was intended to establish priority to his wheel's mechanics, then the encoding will be fairly simple and one should be able to find it with a few hours of effort. IF that does not work, then I'd write it off as either NON-existent or so deeply encoded that it probably does NOT relate to Bessler secret wheel mechanics but to some other esoteric beliefs of his.
While you all are counting X's or not I'll be building Bessler's device . I started today .
ReplyDeleteI won't be counting "X's" or "2c's" because I just do not have the time for it. But, JC seems fascinated by this possibility and I wish him the best of luck.
DeleteGlad to read that you are starting to build something. Do you have any anticipated completion date yet?
I won't be counting X's either Chris (although I do think there IS probably some Bessler clue there too, but I'm happy to leave that stuff to JC and others)I would rather watch paint dry!
DeleteGlad to hear you started building today, good luck!
Sincerely,
JW
Forgive me butI think you're in for a bit of a shock old boy!
ReplyDeleteShock?! Does your wheel incorporate electrical principles? LOL!
DeleteSeriously, though, whenever I see such enthusiasm, I know a mobilist is getting close to a "moment of truth" test for his latest build. Hope it is successful!
Shock me then... Trevor ! ????
ReplyDeleteChris, good to hear that you are building! I just finished my latest small table top model - disapointment... I think it needs to be bigger. Small models are too finicky and probably too light for the design I am following. I suspect that is what Trevor is hinting at: you might not get it running. Well, never give up. I am now designing a larger model.
ReplyDeleteSorry to read that your latest effort turned into another "non-runner". That tends to be the rule rather than the exception in our relentless quest for PM.
DeleteI recommend one's table top model be a minimum of 36 inches in diameter which was the same size as the prototype Bessler had his "House of Richters" experience with.
"Sorry to read that your latest effort turned into another "non-runner". That tends to be the rule rather than the exception in our relentless quest for PM."
DeleteYes, it does "tend" to be that way, doesn't it... seeing as if somebody had found the solution we wouldn't be discussing all of this...
Thanks for your gems of wisdom, TG. Where would we be without you.
Here's another "gem":
DeleteI have known several mobilists over the years who, after decades of NO results, became somewhat bitter about the entire subject, often wondering why they had spent so much time chasing after the chimera of PM only to come up empty-handed in the end. This unfortunate possible scenario is something that EVERY mobilist must come to terms with, including ME. I often wonder if the "drive" that keeps us mobilists in perpetual motion chasing after a working design is not just our way of avoiding the day we most very HIGHLY likely will have to admit to themselves AND the world that we are NOT destined to find a solution and thereby reap the many psychological rewards of having done so.
This is why I think the story of Bessler is so very important. It provides all mobilists, whether of the Bessler or NON-Bessler type, SOME hope that a solution IS possible and that all of the "self-appointed and self-annointed" skeptics out there are WRONG. That bright ray of hope can keep one motivated even when ALL of his efforts for past DECADES have been fruitless.
Yesterday, I got to handle the axle from the Merseburg wheel!
ReplyDeleteWell...not exactly. I was finishing the cleanup of the debris that landed on my property during hurricane "Sandy" which consisted of about a ton or so of dead branches and tree limbs that were "spiced" with a mixture of other garbage containing such things as my nearest neighbor's roof shingles! I had previously cut up the larger tree limbs with a chain saw and left these heaviest pieces for last with the intention of dragging them off to a secluded spot to form a pile that would naturally biodegrade over time. Yesterday the job was completed as the largest pieces were all finally removed.
As I removed these larger pieces of previously cut sections of tree limbs, I suddenly came across a piece that was about 6 inches in diameter x 6 feet in length. It was almost perfectly cylindrical in shape and all of the bark had been stripped off of it when it hit the ground. I thought it looked familiar and then realized that it was almost identical to the Merseburg wheel's axle! While I had simply lifted the other pieces of large cut tree limb debris by their ends and dragged them off to their refuse pile (thus using leverage to halve the weight I had to lift), I decided to leave the Merseburg wheel "axle" aside for last.
Finally, with the Sun setting rapidly, I decided to see if I could lift "my" Merseburg wheel's axle piece with BOTH hands in order to judge how difficult such a feat would have been for Bessler if he had had to do this as he singlehandedly (to maintain secrecy, of course) installed the axle piece into the center of his two-directional wheel's drum which he would previously have constructed.
My Merseburg wheel's axle was definitely heavy...I estimate a weight of 60 to 70 lbs. BUT, I did find that, after lifting one of its ends, I could then slide my hands toward the center of piece and, with a concerted effort, lift it to chest height and then finally carefully and slowly raise it up about a foot over my head if I placed my hands about two feet apart near the center of the piece. This would have been the same movement that Bessler would have used (assuming that he did not use an overhead hoist of some sort) as he lifted his wheel's axle and then began sliding it sideways into the center opening of the two-directional wheel's drum which would have been resting on the floor and braced to keep it from falling over onto one of its faces. It CAN be done without mechanical aid by a single person who is "in shape" which, as a carpenter, Bessler certainly would have been.
Okay I will Chris but what I meant was that a hands on model is harder because one has to be spot on with the engineering accuracy.
ReplyDeleteI'm just glad you guys are actually building and Mimi,size does not count but the bigger wheels will of course turn more slowly.
Trevor , make sure to document it very thoroughly , because Wagner will try to claim he invented it .
Delete"...because Wagner will try to claim he invented it."
DeleteI often wonder how Wagner would have reacted if, to satisify his burning curiosity, he had managed to find a spare 4,000 thalers and, after taking the requisite vows of nonuse and nondisclosure, paid Bessler for the privilege of viewing the interior of the Merseburg wheel. How would he have been able to rationalize what he was seeing with his previous 100% certitude that Bessler's wheel was just a wind up hoax? I suspect that if this had happened, Wagner would have been honest enough to do a 180 degree reversal in his beliefs and rhetoric and then have become one of Bessler's strongest advocates.
Justsomeone says: I am not sure about that. Jealousy is a funny thing.
ReplyDeleteWagner will turn beetroot red with jealousy .
ReplyDeletePART I:
ReplyDeleteMore "good" news to report!
After another marathon session of computer modeling / simulation and "higher level" DT portrait analysis earlier today with my 4:1 scale model of one of the one-directional "sub wheels" used inside of Bessler's Merseburg wheel to give it bi-directionality, I think I've made a very important breakthrough which means that I'm now 99.9% of the way to the end of the "right track" that finally leads to a SUCCESSFUL duplication of the secret OB PM gravity wheel design that Bessler found and used!
As many may recall from JC's previous blog entry, I mentioned that I had discovered that there were actually TWO different sets of springs used inside of each of Bessler's one-directional wheels or two-directional wheel's one-directional "sub wheels". I referred to these as the "primary" and "secondary" sets of springs and concluded that they had different spring constants or k values and that they also served different functions inside of his wheels during each 45 degree increment of drum rotation. Indeed, I was able to proudly proclaim that I NOW had COMPLETE details about the primary springs including their function, attachment points, and k value. Their k value for the FULL SCALE Merseburg wheel was, via trial and error testing, determined to be exactly 16 lbs/in (corresponding to only 1.00000 lb/in for my smaller 4:1 scale, 36 inch diameter model wheel with its eight 1 ounce weights) and I was even able to show the location of the 2nd DT portrait clue that verified this technical detail. However, I confessed at that time that I still knew next to nothing about the secondary springs that were also attached to each of a one-directional sub wheel's 8 weighted levers.
That situation has now changed! I believe that I now ALSO possess COMPLETE understanding about the secondary springs as well. Most importantly, it WAS only my PREVIOUS lack of knowledge of the secondary springs that appeared to be preventing me from completing 100% of my journey down the "right track" to FINALLY solving the Bessler wheel mystery!
Basically, I now realize that the function of the secondary springs was to provide ADDITIONAL counter balancing to only a SINGLE weighted lever: the one that moves between a CW rotating drum's 9:00 and 10:30 positions. A wheel will NOT work without these secondary springs in it. From VERY careful testing I've found that their k value is 32 lbs/in for the full scale Merseburg wheel (and 2.00000 lbs/in for my 4:1 model wheel) which means that they have EXACTLY TWICE the spring constant value of the primary springs that Bessler used in this wheel. When a spring of this k value was attached to the weighted lever of the Merseburg wheel whose pivot was located at the 9:00 position of the drum, it would PERFECTLY counter balance the 4 lb weight at the end of the lever and one could actually lift the weight with a SINGLE finger! It was this precise counter balancing which allowed those 9:00 going to 10:30 weights to "rise in a flash" as Bessler admitted they did.
PART II:
ReplyDeleteI've said previously that I would not go beyond using TWO springs per weighted lever, but with this recent discovery, I'm realizing that I may have to go to three springs per weighed lever. The reason is that, since the secondary springs have exactly TWICE the k values as the primary springs, one can just use two of the springs used for the primary set to serve, when mounted together in parallel to the weighted levers, as ONE of the secondary springs they each require. This then simplifies wheel construction by allowing ALL of the springs used to have the SAME physical properties although, unfortunately, it also increases the number of springs in a wheel by 50%. With this approach, EACH of the one-directional sub wheels of the Merseburg wheel would contain 24 identical springs with k = 16 lbs / in and the entire two-directional wheel's drum would contain a total of 48 springs. That's a LOT of springs, but one must remember that they are distributed around the periphery of a drum that is 12 ft in diameter and over 37 feet in circumerence. That works out to an average of only about 1.3 springs per foot of circumference.
When I discovered this k value of 32 lbs/in for the Merseburg wheel's secondary set of springs, I immediately went to the DT portraits to see it the value had been encoded into them by Bessler. It took several HOURS of hunting around, but THERE IT WAS! This is why I am so excited over this finding.
If things go well, then I MAY have some EXTREMELY "good" news to report in a few more days!
In the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g60ZCcquCl8&feature=related Prof Laithwaite challenges (at 07:17) "Let those who say I cannot make a body lighter than it is, come and pull holes in that one."
ReplyDeleteI have now modelled his experiment, a counterbalanced gyroscope with an extra joint in its axle. Yes, an equal, or even a lighter balance weight (29.7kg) does lift a heavier gyro (30kg), and yes, energy is gained from precession about the vertical axis, but unfortunately there is no net energy gain, at least in the model. The portion of the axle carrying the gyro tilts downwards slightly, so the distance the gyro rises overall is a bit less than the balance weight falls.
I just re-checked the link. To be fair, Laithwaite actually says "...make a body *appear* lighter than it is..."
DeleteIt's really not that complicated to make a body APPEAR "lighter" and one does not have to resort to using gyroscopes to achieve this effect. All one has to do is attach counter weights or stretched / compressed springs to a body and that will serve to effectivley reduce its weight (but not its mass, of course). Such an approach plays an important role in Bessler's wheels and is the key to understanding how they worked. Recall this VERY important clue [my interpretation] from AP:
Delete"He shall be called a great craftsman who can easily lift a heavy object as would happen when one pound falls a distance of one quarter and thereby shoots four pounds up a distance of four quarters. Whoever can understand how this is done will soon be able to achieve perpetual motion, but whoever does not understand how this is done will only be wasting all of his effort." (AP, pg. 296)
Note that if 1 lb falls a distance designated as 1/4 and thereby lifts 4 lbs a distance designated as 4, then it APPEARS as though one was able to extract 64 times as much gravitational potential energy / mass from the falling weight as it actually loses! However, this would be a blatant violation of the "Law of Energy / Mass Conservation" and, thus, this stunt can really only be done if the rising 1 lb weight has been very carefully counter balanced by OTHER weights or springs whose falling or contraction / expansion actually supplies the extra gravitational potential energy / mass that the lifted 1 lb weight had to gain in order to rise.
Hmmm...it's a bit of an interesting "coincidence" that the number 64 comes out of that quote and, according to my current research, the k value of the primary springs used in Bessler's Merseburg wheel just happens to be 16 lbs/in or 64/4 lbs/in and the k value of the secondary springs just happens to be 32 lbs/in or 64/2 lbs/in! Maybe Bessler had these k values, which are BOTH simple fractions of 64 floating around in his mind after the construction of the Merseburg wheel and that is why the number 64 can be derived from this important AP quote?
What you see as skillful interpretation, I see as simple apophenia.
DeleteSorry Arktos, that last comment was not directed at you. It was meant as a reply to TG's comment.
DeleteArrgghhh...another correction to be made!
DeleteIn my comment above I wrote at the end of the third paragraph:
"...this stunt can really only be done if the rising 1 lb weight has been very carefully counter balanced by OTHER weights or springs whose falling or contraction / expansion actually supplies the extra gravitational potential energy / mass that the lifted 1 lb weight had to gain in order to rise."
That should have been:
"...this stunt can really only be done if the rising 4 lb weight has been very carefully counter balanced by OTHER weights or springs whose falling or contraction / expansion actually supplies the extra gravitational potential energy / mass that the lifted 4 lb weight had to gain in order to rise."
Sorry about that.
Also, an Anon accuses me of engaging in "apophenia" which is the act of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data.
My response to that is that YOU, Mr. Anon, obviously do yet have the best published translation of that Bessler quote that I referred to above (which, I believe, is due to a person named "Stewart"). IF you did have that best published translation, then I think you would find my interpretation of it to be quite logical, indeed, and not merely apophenic.
Another correction needed! Maybe I need to switch back to the caffeinated coffee again?!
DeleteThe response to Mr. Anon in my above comment should have read:
"...YOU, Mr. Anon, obviously do NOT yet have the best published translation of that Bessler quote..."
" indeed now it is in such a state that even that of a bad master hand without breaking anything big head things will be welded together and can ( before one is mistaken ) the manufacture of the work has occurred ... i thought this best my honorable artisans , honor hold ... in the middle time , god willing you'll go to work with more pleasure ."
ReplyDeleteI'd like at this point to thank Bessler for troubling himself so extensively , applying his mind and will to finding the solution to the age old search for perpetual motion , and not coming up empty like so many have . I began my search in a weird state of mind ( i felt i had some special information that would lead me to the solution ) but recently have had to humble myself to a craftsman's approach to the problem . I will be getting my hands dirty ... and loving every minute of it . To anyone I have offended along the way ,my humblest apologies . I am more than capable of building the essence of this device so do not worry Trevor , I am no pencil pusher . I've been putting my own vehicles together for ten years . I have been repairing computers since 99 . I have my own theory of gravity . I found out the realities of standing waves when I was 17 by building something that produces them acoustically . I'll be okay ... rest assured .
I wish you all the best you're gonna need it!
ReplyDeleteI can't seem to appreciate the particular kind of encouragement you are peddling .
ReplyDeleteJohn, I only have the little scraps of print on this page, and I'm not sure of the printing block quality of those days, but some of the full stops after the x's are different shapes.
ReplyDeleteSome are diamonds , some arrows, and some almost round.
I do agree with T.G. that they look like 2c's, mainly because all the other strokes on all the other letters are joined together.
Is it printing, or can someone really write that neatly ?
I bet everyone is pushing CTRL + now !
Just an observation that some may have missed, or is it more of Bessler's trees to obscure the wood ?
All this from the guy who thinks the Bible code may be a parts list ! Stephen Burke