Many researchers are convinced that Bessler's wheel contained springs for some undetermined use and I agree that there probably were. Bessler stated that there were no springs such as are used in clocks and all the usual uses for which his opponents implied. They suggested that without the springs the wheel would quickly come to a stop. I have noted many times that Bessler suggests that there might have been springs but they were not crucial to the wheel's operation.
In my own work on this project I have noted that there are situation where a spring could be useful. If you have a lever with a weight on the end and the wheel is rotated by hand to a position where the weighted lever is ready to fall, it has reached what I shall call, the pre-fall position. At that point you hand-rotate the wheel one or two degrees and the weight falls, right? But in a real time scenario the wheel is rotating, let us say, under its own steam, or you have given it a push so that it rotates, the weighted lever does not fall just after the same pre-fall position that it did when you hand-turned the wheel. It goes on for perhaps another 10 or 15 degrees before it grudgingly falls.
In this instance I have placed a weak spring with a fairly long amount of travel in it for the weighted lever to land on and compress. It is, as I say, very soft and when the wheel and its lever continues to rotate to the next pre-fall position, the inclination for the lever to fall is activated more immediately because the load holding the spring compressed weakens as the lever approaches the pre-fall position, giving it a little push to bring about the fall.
This fact is due to the wheel's rotation while the lever is about to fall. When stationary the lever responds to the next incremental degree of rotation and falls; when the wheel is already in rotation the combination of wheel travel and lever-tipping is merged so that the lever is actually falling while its position on the wheel is also falling.
Another way to engender a faster response in the fall of the lever, is to find the pre-fall position first, and then set the lever forward a few degrees so that it begins its fall ahead of the pre-fall point at which its position on the wheel begins to fall. This does of course limit the amount of travel available for inducing overbalance, but even the smallest difference should be sufficient to overbalance the wheel.
My apologies if this is difficult to explain but it is a genuine problem and solution. I suggested many years ago that the amount of travel by the weights would prove to be limited for just this reason. Those who sought success by designing weights to move a maximum amount from inner to outer would be sure to suffer failure in a working model.
As a committed hands-on builder, I am sceptical about simulation software revealing the above facts and so I continue to build. I am sure that many will jump to the defence of simulation, but I am sure that such niggles will prove invisible unless the input includes such variables.
JC
10a2c5d26e15f6g7h10ik12l3m6n14o14r5s17tu6v5w4y4-3,’.
10a2c5d26e15f6g7h10ik12l3m6n14o14r5s17tu6v5w4y4-3,’.
"I have noted many times that Bessler suggests that there might have been springs but they were not crucial to the wheel's operation." I'd like to know about some of those "suggestions" Bessler made. If you are right about your interpretation of these suggestions, then it proves a "weights only" imbalanced pm wheel is possible. If you are wrong, then anybody pursuing "weights only" imbalanced pm wheels is wasting their time! It sounds to me like you are already using some spring tension in your designs and have discovered how they can be used to store energy from one part of a wheel where it would be ordinarily be wasted in the production of sound and heat and then deliver and release that energy in another part of the wheel where it can be used, for example, to provide a little extra torque to help a sluggish weight carrying lever reach its reset position at the correct time. Ultimately, it all comes down to one simple goal: finding a way to keep the center of mass of all of an imbalanced pm wheel's weights on the wheel's descending side while the wheel accelerates. If that can be done, then the wheel, like Bessler's, will be self-starting from a standstill. If one can not do that, then he will find himself having to push start his designs or having to have them start from some "primed" position each time. Any acceleration of the wheel thereafter will be dependent upon utilizing such things as centrifugal force to shift its internal weights to maintain a temporary imbalance or even using outside "assisting" power sources to continue their motion all the while hoping that the amount of energy produced by the wheel will exceed anything it needs to "borrow" from its environment to remain in motion.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who does a fair bit of simulation, I have to agree that there are cases where simulations don't agree with reality. One example is a gyroscope with torque applied to its output axis. Both the textbooks and finite-element 3D simulation software predict that the result will be non-gyroscopic, i.e. that resistance to the torque input will be the same regardless of whether the gyro rotor is spinning or not. But that is not what happens with a real physical gyroscope.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you John, getting the thing to fall when you want when moving is a tough problem. On my latest wheel design, using a spring to nudge it, problem is then you have to lift against the spring as well as the weight to raise it back up for the remainder of the circle. But you have got me thinking, what if I can figure out a way to get the spring to only come into effect when needed and stay out of the way the rest of the time, as i am writing this, I think I now have a way to do just that. You stir the imagination. Yes, another step toward world domination, aaah, I mean helping the world.
ReplyDeleteHi Ken, I don’t dismiss the idea of springs, and the approach you suggest - “overbalanced wheels using lever carried weights that are coordinated with ropes and which are critically dependent upon spring tension for the shifting” - is simple, as it should be, and makes sense.
ReplyDeleteI know your design is inspired by Bessler’s portrait clues, but I wonder if you have explored Just L. Herder’s use of springs in the lever/spring arrangements known as “gravity equilibrators” ?
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.researchgate.net%2Fprofile%2FJust_Herder%2Fpublication%2F238364346_Two_Spatial_Gravity_Equilibra-tors%2Flinks%2F0deec531344b1a251d000000.pdf&ei=NwXMVPK9BdH2yQSEoIHoCA&usg=AFQjCNE4r5CqOw4bka2yXU6KQAS7pbVMFA&sig2=xE0JbTsmKhqBI6FR_s_Miw&bvm=bv.85076809,d.aWw
I don't recall mentioning that I also work with the portrait clues, but that is certainly the case. I have found a wealth of information in them that I believe few others are aware of at this time. I can't go into them in much detail here except to say that they provide the shape of the levers that Bessler used, the various points on the levers to which the coordinating ropes and springs were attached, and even the spring constants used. Of course, this critically important information needed to reconstruct one of his wheels was very carefully hidden within the geometry and lettering used in the portraits. To the casual observer they will mean absolutely nothing. However, to the most serious of Bessler students they will prove to be a gold mine of never before suspected information. I can't say any more about it now except to say that I continue to study them and consider them of paramount importance. Also, thanks for the link to Herder's paper on his "gravity equilibrators". Yes, it's possible to use various arrangement of springs and levers to neutralize the weight of an object such as the extended arms for reading lamps, etc. Bessler also uses a combination of spring tension and counter weighing to cause levers on the wheel's ascending side to become effectively weightless (but not massless, of course). Once that is done it's an easy matter to cause those levers to "fly up in a flash" as Bessler said they did in his wheels. I currently believe that I have the exact shape and size of the levers he used and the locations within a drum at which their pivots were located. My levers are also perfectly coordinated with each other so that, if they shift smoothly and continuously throughout a 45 segment of drum rotation, then the center of mass of weights and levers will remain fixed at a certain location, more or less, on the wheel's descending side and will give the torques implied by the official testing done on his wheels. What I am still struggling with is finding the correct spring constants, tensions, and attachment points for the springs that will allow that previously mentioned smooth and continuous shifting to take place. I have something now that looks very good and I hope to be able to report some good news soon.
DeleteTechnoguy
ReplyDeleteI have a little good new to report. I think that, finally, I have the correct interpretation of the clues that Bessler left regarding the spring constants of the springs he used in his wheels. At this point in time, I believe I can confidently state that there were two springs attached to each lever and I think I now know where in the drum their other ends were attached. The nice thing about this new arrangement of springs I'm exploring is that the springs are kept safely away from the rest of the coordinating ropes that link adjacent levers together. I'm now working on a modification of my standard wheel to incorporate this new approach. So far, it's looking very impressive. What I have now shows a wheel whose internal parts were very carefully planned as to their shapes and locations. No two ropes inside of the wheel ever touch each other as the wheel rotates. If this is "the" design Bessler used then it is both simple and a true marvel of precision as to the arrangement of its parts. I should know in a few days.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, here's a bit of a puzzle for the serious Bessler researcher to ponder. In the second portrait there is a mercury thermometer mounted on the wall behind Bessler. What is the temperature indicated on this thermometer and what is its significance?