Obsessed with Solving the Bessler codes?

I've suggested that Johann Bessler was obsessed with the number 5 because so many times it is revealed in his written works, in simple ciphers.  The clues leading to these ciphers are obvious and undeniable and it seems obvious that he was trying to convey some information to us but exactly what has remained a matter for conjecture with no hard established proof to support any kind of conclusion.

It has also been observed that I sometimes seem equally obsessed with the number 5, but the word obsession simply describes  'a persistent preoccupation, idea, or feeling'.  Nothing wrong with that and I freely admit to it.  The key is to not let it rule your life to the exclusion of all else.  If Bessler felt is was important for us to understand the importance of the number 5 then surely it is worth pursuing every avenue to discover what he was trying to say.

I had for many years become convinced that it referred to the number of mechanisms in the machine and tried to make wheels which had five of my mechanisms inside but none have worked - and there seemed little point in continuing that course if I only needed, say one or two or three just to prove my concept was valid.  Recently my designs have led me to conclude that having five mechanism is just too complex a configuration and considering the 4 inch depth of the first wheel I scrapped the idea of five and settled down to just trying to make one crossing 'barely turn the wheel' as Bessler put it.

Recent discoveries have led me to think that the five does indeed refer to the pentagram but not in an obvious way and you won't find it depicted in the successful configuration.  It's presence might even be invisible to the eye unless you know what you are looking for, and I think its presence is coincidental and not calculable in advance, however I think that knowledge of the pentagram will help to configure the mechanism.

These thoughts are really nothing more than speculation and not provable at this point although I hope to do so eventually.  The reasons for my belief in this is that the pentagonal numbers show up in unexpected ways, and sometimes adding two apparently disparate numbers results in a pentagonal number, and you find part of a pentagon in the configuration.  

In fact the idea that there had to be five mechanisms has been rejected by most of us and I must admit that the idea that this was what Bessler was trying to put across seems way to simple a concept to spend so much time and effort in suggesting by cunning turns of phrase and alphanumeric clues.

To demonstrate how easy it is to be sidetracked by incorrect assumptions, here's a little game I played last night to help me sleep.  OBSESSED?

O = Orffyreus

B= Bessler ;  or OB= Over balanced

S = 18th letter of Bessler's 24 letter alphabet.  18 is the smallest angle used in the pentagram and the one for which every other is a multiple.

E = Could be his two initials for Ernst Elias, and the fifth letter - twice.

SS = Looks a bit like 55, as used for the 55 verses in chapter 55 of his Apologia Poetica - and of course it's the 18th letter and twice 18 is 36 another pentagonal number

E = 5th letter and the number 5 was Bessler's obsession.

D = Latin numeral for 500, includes 5 and two O's to represent Bessler's wheel as he did, although his had a point in the middle to make a circumpunct.


I suspect that most of us are mildly obsessed with solving this puzzle  and we won't give up.

You can play this game with any words and make 2 plus 2 = 5!

JC

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