Someone emailed me the other day suggesting that Johann Bessler might have used invisible ink either under his portrait, in Maschinen Tractate or even in Das Triumphirende or one of his other publications. My first reaction was instant dismissal of the idea, but later I thought it might be interesting to investigate what was known about such things at that time just to see if it was even a possibility.
Surprisingly there is plenty of evidence that the subject was widely understood and used in particular by those in high office. No lesser person than Mary Queen of Scots while in prison plotted to over throw Queen Elizabeth I and used invisible ink in her letters to her co-conspirators to convey her wishes.
The history of invisible ink goes back more than 2,000 years and was used by the ancient Greeks and Romans. The first record of it comes from Pliny the Elder in the first century AD, who mentioned using the milk of the tithymalus plant as an invisible ink in his Natural History. Invisible ink continued to be used during the Renaissance; statesmen used it in their letters, and Ovid references the practice in his Art of Love. Giovanni Battista della Porta, an Italian polymath, developed a formula for invisible ink. Many others, including Roger Bacon and John Dee, were familiar with its use.
For our purposes one of the most interesting facts is that Prague was a hot bed of ciphers and codes and the constant ethnic tensions between the Jesuits and the Jews who lived there resulted in the need for secure communications between those on opposing sides who still wished to consult each other and invisible ink was a common method used.
Remember Bessler's account of his time in Prague when he conversed with the Jesuit priest:-
"You seem to be a clever, skilful and strong young fellow, and if you're interested we could join forces together with God, in the hope that He would let us make this discovery. Now as it happens, I know a wise man who, on proper reflection, could well help us, and it would be a good idea if you were to go to see him frequently, as it is no longer really fitting for me to do so, because I've been seen too often recently going into the Hebrew quarter, creeping to see some Rabbi or other. It doesn't take our Brothers long to sniff such a thing out! Since you and I seem to be at one in these matters I think you will be a perfectly satisfactory substitute for me on these journeys - we'll keep the whole thing a secret, shall we?"
It has always seemed to me that the two priests used Bessler for their own purposes besides helping him with his search for the secret of perpetual motion. Later he wrote of the Rabbi:-
"He also taught me hieroglyphics, the language of Nature and the writings of the Angels."
Interestingly, in 1705 a mysterious female German alchemist seems to have been the first person to identify bismuth-cobalt as a valuable substance from which to make invisible ink. This alchemist was also the anonymous author of three books, including one with the alluring title 'On the Key to the Cabinet of the Secret Treasure Room of Nature', which included a discussion of the changing bismuth-cobalt colours. That book title seems to ring closely with Bessler's 'language of nature', and given his extremely open and curious mind I am certain that Bessler was taught, or taught himself, the art of making and using invisible ink.
Given his obvious interest and extensive use of several different kinds of codes and his self-evident determination to provide many clues, some of which I know refer exclusively to the design of his wheel, it seems perfectly possible, after all, that he might have used invisible ink somewhere.
So it's not impossible that he might have written on some pages in invisible ink. Unfortunately I no longer own an original manuscript by Bessler so any research into the possibility will have to be done by another. I'm undecided about its use by Bessler, but I decided to fly a kite, to see if anyone thinks there might be something in this idea.
(To fly a kite, is a term used in politics in certain English-speaking countries to describe a tactic, whereby a politician, usually through the media and often by way of an intentional leak, raises an idea to gauge the general and public reaction to it.)
NB The mysterious female alchemist was thought to be Dorothea Juliana Walchin. Her findings were supported by George Ernst Stahl (1659-1734) a well-known German chemist and physician. I mention this because there was a lot of research being carried out at that time into the use of dies for writing, printing and painting - and invisible ink.
JC
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Invisible ink?! That one never occurred to me. However, I don't think Bessler would have used it because, if he had, then he wouldn't have needed to burn and bury all of the schematics for his wheel following his arrest. No, I'm very convinced that the secret mechanics of his wheels has been sitting out in plain sight for three hundred years now and is, effectively, invisible because very few even suspects it's there. I've located what I believe are the specific clues Bessler left us, but, even so, they are very difficult to properly interpret. I have to literally guess what a proper interpretation is and then build a computer model to see if it looks plausible. It's taken years of work to get what I now have and I still need the final piece of this jigsaw puzzle of clues he left that would allow me to say "Yes, this is definitely it!" Well, I have something now that is looking very promising. I'll begin testing it later today.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Ken, although I don't rule out the possibility of an experimental note on some page of his MT. It would be too difficult to inscribe every published work with the same invisible clue.
DeleteJC
I think if invisible ink was a known method back then, why would Bessler risk using it ? I doubt he did. JMHO
ReplyDeleteGood point jso, it would have been risky in one of his published works and, as I said earlier, too tedious to repeat through all the print. But MT wasn't published and I just wondered if he might have added something to it, knowing, towards the end, that it wouldn't be published. Having burnt or buried anything that might have given away his secret prematurely, I could imagine him adding something either in text or perhaps a line within a drawing. Very speculative, I admit, but just possible?
DeleteJC
I can just see it now. A Bessler researcher confidently striding into the Kassel University Library and demanding to see their collection of MT drawings and other Bessler documents so that he can spray them with various chemicals in an effort to make a hidden schematic of his secret pm wheel mechanism appear after three centuries! My prediction is that, approximately 30 seconds later, he would be flying out of their front door head first!
ReplyDeleteAt the same time the University Liberian would be saying " Who Told You That "
DeleteNo I thought they might take a hot iron to heat the pages! Just kidding, these days the can use UV lamps and other such things for instance.
Delete'If you need to detect marks that are invisible to the human eye, luminescence sensors are ideal. They can detect all kinds of fluorescent substances, even if the marks are only faint.
At the press of a button, marks with a higher luminescence than their background are detected. In this standard mode, the sensor works in light switching mode. You can make fine adjustments to ensure reliable results for very small difference between the background and marks.
Depending on the device type, Balluff luminescence sensors can detect marks on any surface and against any background. Luminescence sensors with different light sources are also available. With UV, external lamps are no longer required. In addition, the sensing range (9 to 18 mm) can be further increased with additional lenses. And with high-power UV LEDs, long distances and restricted installation conditions can be accommodated using adaptable fiber optics.'
But anyway I think it would be a very long shot to try and find anything.
JC
I think the librarians at the Kassel library would even balk at the use of UV light on their archival documents. They might think that high frequency light might negatively affect the regular black ink used on the letters and drawings. The only way I could see something like this being done was if it was done by the librarian personnel themselves, but one would have to make a very strong case for it being done to them. Meanwhile, I'm keeping my focus on those DT portraits. There's much more there than meets the eye!
ReplyDeleteIs it possible that all the clues were invisible, and someone filled the blanks in wrong.
DeleteVery funny Uneqk! I'm kind of leaning away from that idea. It seems slightly unlikely! lol
DeleteJC
John, the language of nature is the language used in "the Book of Nature." One question: If you believe you have discovered and can read the Orffyrean code, and can build a wheel according to the descriptions found in the codes, why do you think there was a need for invisible ink?
ReplyDeleteI didn't think there was a need for invisible ink Øystein, it was just that seeing as Bessler used alphanumeric, alphabetic substitution, and codes of his own devising plus some extremely subtle drawing codes, perhaps he might have toyed with the idea of using invisible ink too. But as I said above, I doubt if it was a practical solution for the published books and if there was any at all it would be in his unpublished documents such as MT.
ReplyDeleteJC
I don't think alchemy was one of Bessler's areas of expertise which would seem to be needed by someone compounding different types of invisible ink. He was into mechanics, numerology, religion, and mysticism. But, he truly was totally obsessed with the possibility of mechanical pm and that obsession drove him on for years to finally achieve a working design. In the past years, my research has come to a focus on his two DT portraits which I believe do contain some of the critical details necessary for someone to duplicate one of his wheels. But, those details are very subtly given and are meaningless to anyone who is not actively trying to build a wheel. I think Bessler intended them to serve as a guide to someone in the future who would be as fanatical as he when it came to constructing an imbalanced pm wheel. Now, in the 21st century it is possible to be as fanatical as Bessler when it comes to wheel construction, but to do it I've found that using modeling - simulation software is the answer. One can construct a model wheel, then add and subtract as necessary from it in a matter of minutes. Then the whole thing can be tested to see if it is managing to maintain its imbalance as it rotates. What would take days to weeks in a shop to construct can be done in minutes and, in the vast majority of cases, the simulations will be very accurate and reliable.
ReplyDeleteBad news to report today. I finally tested my latest design which I was convinced would be "it". It wasn't "it". But, I've rechecked all of my clues and found possible new interpretations of some of them and am now modifying my model to test these out. What's so bizarre about this is that one never knows if success will come with his next model or if it will never come. I'm sure there are two springs on each of his levers and I'm also sure that I have the correct connection points for one of those springs and its correct k value. It's that second spring whose parameters continue to elude me. It's almost like hunting some very clever prey in a dense jungle who knows every move you are likely to make and has a counter move for it. Very evasive. But, I'm hoping to finally corner and trap it if I can just stay patient and keep my focus on the target. I know it's there, but it's an expert at hiding itself.
Hi john,
ReplyDeleteOver the course of time that you have been working on Bessler's wheel do you write notes of your own regarding your progress.I only ask because in my own early notes before I had a working wheel I wrote things down that now contradicts how it works. Is it possible that some of Bessler's clues are things he wrote before he actually had a working wheel? one of the main points is Bessler's one way wheel was self starting and I believe anything that moves must be pushed by something else. Take a automobile the engine runs fine but it needs a battery to get it going. If you look back at your own notes do they differ?
Can you confirm Bessler's wheel was self starting.
This is simply for my own research,
Many thanks.
Uneqk, your writings is a somehow confusing for me, do you have running wheel or not?
DeleteI used to keep notes but as I progressed, I learned where I went wrong and as the notes were getting more and more and untidy I more or less stopped. Also when I read them thye seem obsolete and out dated and I have thrown them out. Now I just write myself a note sometimes to check this or that, but that's all.
DeleteYes Bessler's first two wheel were self-starting and this was because they were in a continual state of imbalance.
Look what he says about it:-
"these weights are themselves the PM device, the ‘essential constituent parts’ which must of necessity continue to exercise their motive force (derived from the PM principle) indefinitely – so long as they keep away from the centre of gravity. To this end they are enclosed in a structure or framework, and coordinated in such a way that not only are they prevented from attaining their desired equilibrium or ‘point of rest’, but they must for ever seek it, thereby developing an impressive velocity which is proportional to their mass and to the dimensions of their housing."
Of course this applied to the later two way wheels but I have always believed that the basic concept was the same for all his wheels.
JC
Thanks for coming back to me John.
DeleteLooks like I must have a completely different system.
Vincent,
ReplyDeleteYes, had running for over 6 months on and off. The mechanism's are the problem, which is now being made. Take a car engine you no how it works, Now Make One. It's not easy, especially when its the first of it's kind. All will be revealed in about 2 months.
Thank's Uneqk, I my self will know next week if my device will work or not and it's not a wheel, if it work's, than i can start build the wheel with or without weights.
DeleteToday I reviewed the models I've been making and went back about one hundred models. What's preventing my design from working is now only a single problem: my ascending side levers, particularly the one that travel's from the drum's 9 o'clock to its 10:30 position, do not rise fast enough. Unless that rapid ascent takes place, the center of mass of all of the levers and their attached weights will not remain on the drum's descending side as it rotates. That is the problem I need to solve in a nutshell and it all comes down to the action of one spring! Consequently, I'm now focusing as much time and attention as I can spare onto those graphical clues Bessler left that describe that second spring. I now think I have its correct k value, but not where on the levers and the drum it is attached. This is probably the last clue that must be properly interpreted before one finally arrives at "the" design that Bessler used. It's been a long trip to get this far and I feel a little like someone who just climbed to the top of a very high mountain, yet must make one final climb up its last very steep and slippery peak before I can plant my flag on its top. Well, not there yet, but I can see the peak up ahead of me and its a very exhilarating experience indeed. I should know in a few days if I'm finally going to make it.
ReplyDeleteWhen scientific discoveries are made by researchers and scientists , how do they record their discoveries , with invisible ink !
ReplyDeleteI think that Bessler actually recorded his mechanical pm discoveries in two places. The first was a series of diagrams that he intended to provide the buyer of his invention with and, after the sale, to include in the published complete version of MT. Most unfortunately, the invention was never sold and that version of MT was never published. The diagrams were, following his arrest on false charges, finally burned and buried and the version of MT we now have is not the complete one. But, there is one remaining published description of the mechanism he discovered that made an imbalanced pm wheel possible. I believe I've located that published material and am working on interpreting it now. Parts of it are mathematical and geometrical in nature and parts involve a fascinating alphanumeric coding system Bessler used. Believe me, what Bessler did leave us is not written in invisible ink, but for about 99.9999999 % of those viewing the material, it might as well be! Without a correct interpretation of these unsuspected clues, I believe that the average Bessler researcher will not ever be able to discover his secret mechanism. If that was possible, then it would have been done centuries ago. And, that discovery is absolutely critical if the Bessler story is become anything more than interesting, but ultimately useless, folklore. I'm hoping to have some very good news to announce before summer of this year.
ReplyDelete"and, after the sale, to include in the published complete version of MT."
ReplyDeleteYou're aware that after a sale he wouldn't have been able to publish the secret?
Why not? This was 1712 not 2015. The secret would have become widely known very quickly. Thomas Newcomen inventor of the Newcomen engine went to great lengths to keep his technology sect but it still got out. Including the MT would have been icing on the cake.
ReplyDeleteJC
A sale would surely have included all rights to the secret. What good would a deal for a secret PM be if it didn't remain a secret? A buyer would have only been able to use the technology in secret as well; under guarded facilities, not mass produced. One of several reasons he couldn't make a sale.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's why Bessler said that when the secret is revealed, he is afraid that people will complain that the idea is so simple it is not worth the asking price. Another shot in his business foot.
I disagree, Bessler only offered his wheel for sale to wealthy princes because they were the only ones who had enough money and also because they were philanthropists. Peter the Great was only interested in getting hold of the secret for the benefit of Russia, most other rulers were the same. Bessler had several potential buyers, none of whom were interested in keeping the secret of the wheel's construction to themselves.
DeleteThe negotiations always failed because of Bessler's fear of giving away the secret without getting payment first. The buyers had the same problem, in reverse. They would not pay before they had verified the validity of Bessler's claims - check mate.
Bessler knew he only had one chance to get a load of money from the first and only buyer because he knew they would release the secret of its construction once they had it.
JC
You mean stalemate?
DeleteIf they wouldn't pay before they had verified the validity of his claims, then that doesn't speak well of the documents of authenticity signed by the scientists and others, does it? What value did they add to the proceedings, if they were ignored by the buyers?
If the buyers were only in it for the philanthropy, then a sale wouldn't have depended on who got the money would it? If it was a PM, Bessler would have gotten it deservedly. If it wasn't a PM, which the buyers suspected, Bessler would have still gotten it, and the buyers would have to keep the secret. Kind of like what happened to Karl. Hint, hint.
I think that just as soon as Bessler got the money for his invention, he would not have given a damn what happened to the buyer and his wheel afterwards. Protecting it would be the buyer's headache while Bessler would be enjoying the money. Most likely Bessler figured that anybody rich enough to afford his asking price would also have the political clout to make sure that the invention was not copied and sold without the buyer's permission and a percentage of the profits. Such a buyer would have to be in a country with patent protection or a personal friend of some monarch who, if he found out the invention was copied by any "unauthorized" individuals, would make sure that the copies were destroyed and the transgressors severely "chastised"!
DeleteRight, so Bessler would be unable to publish the secret. He sold it to either the patent owner or the personal friend of some monarch.
ReplyDeleteWell, even if Bessler had managed to sell his invention, eventually, the secret would have come out along with the fact that Bessler was the original investor. I see no real harm in publishing the secret after a sale just so long as the buyer could maintain a monopoly on the production and sale of the wheels until he finally recovered his investment plus a very healthy profit. Even after he was paid his 100,000 deutchthalers for the wheel, I doubt if Bessler would have just sat back for the rest of his life and kept quiet about it all. He would have wanted some fame and recognition and openly publishing the secret would give him that. Plus, I think he wanted people to know how he did it so that they might one day improve upon it.
DeleteA buyer would only have been able to maintain a monopoly on the production and sale of the wheels if he had a patent and, or, a friendly monarch and Bessler not publishing the secret and causing harm that way. If he had managed a sale, the terms would have included the requirement that Bessler sit back for the rest of his life and keep quiet, I'm quite sure about that. If you sell an invention, you're selling all rights to it as well. Millions of dollars on the table remember. But he (and Karl, who had the connections) didn't manage a sale.
ReplyDeleteSo here we are.
Yes, It's really a shame that he could not sell it. But, I think the real problem is that those examining his wheels realized how limited their constant power output was. His 12 foot diameter Kassel wheel could only pump water to a height of about a foot and a half. Potential buyers were looking for some sort of pump that could drain a flooded coal mine by pumping the water to a height of several hundred feet. It's very interesting how a guy named Thomas Newcomen over in England invented the steam engine in 1712 which was the same year Bessler demonstrated his first wheel over in Gera, Germany. Those examining Bessler's wheels realized that they could not compete with a coal fired steam engine, but still thought, possibly, they might be able to drain the mines where the coal was being extracted to power the newly invented steam engine! Sadly, even that would have been beyond their capacity. But, if his invention had sold, then maybe it could have been improved into a serious competitor with the steam engine. Having a source of power that does not itself consume conventional fuel is a rather attractive feature. Hopefully, if my (or someone else's) research is successful, then those future attempts to improve the power output of Bessler's wheels may finally take place. It that proves impossible, then I think they would still make a very interesting device that will enchant the world...especially the world of mechanical engineers.
DeleteHere's a link to an image of Necomen's early steam engine:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Newcomen6325.png
Forget patents, they were worthless at the time, other than in England where even Newcomen was beaten to the patent by Captains Savery's less powerful steam engine. Bessler simply wanted to earn a large sum of money to invest in his apprenticeship school. He could not reveal the secret of his machine so he did the best he could which was to subject it to innumerable tests all witnessed by respectable knowledgeable 'experts'.
DeleteObviously their opinion could only relate to the tests so they could not say beyond a doubt that it was PM because they did not know the secret, so any potential buyer might be interested and accept their opinion that it performed like a PM wheel but he still could not know for certain.
It was, as I meant to say, stalemate, but Bessler had no other avenue to pursue. He knew that involving rulers and princes in a con was a highly dangerous occupation undoubtedly resulting in a beheading, so it seems unlikely to say the least that it was not what he claimed it was.
If I may so, dougsubous, you seem to lack information about Bessler's life, may I recommend my biography of him, there is a link to it in the side panel?
JC
Even today patent "protection" can be problematic. One of the major problems Bessler encountered was that he was trying to sell something considered impossible for an enormous amount of money. The mutual paranoia of both he and prospective buyers thinking the other was trying to rip him off tended to make a successful sale almost impossible. Perhaps Bessler should have tried a different approach. Instead of trying to sell his one wheel, why not just sell detailed plans to others that might want to construct their own wheels? In other words, "open source" his invention and hope to make his 100,000 deutchthalers over the course of time. Then as the money trickled in from that he could have worked on trying to improve his design. That way he could have had his fame and fortune and, no doubt, a lot of support from the intellectual heavy weights of his time such as Leibniz and, perhaps, even the great Newton himself. Well, we'll never know for sure what might have happened. One of my goals, should my approach prove successful, is to publish the design so that others can get to work building it and, hopefully, improving it.
DeleteHe was offered the option of having the money due, held by a third party, in escrow, who would make the payment once the wheel had been validated, but you can see how Bessler reacted - he simply didn't trust the arrangement and anyway the deal fell through due to other circumstances not relating directly to the deal.
DeleteJC
The only person that Bessler would have trusted as a third party in an escrow type arrangement would have been Count Karl. I think I remember that there was a deal that would have involved the czar of Russia, Peter "The Great". That deal, however, fell through because, just as he was getting ready to travel over to Kassel to buy Bessler's wheel, he suddenly died! I think there is some mystery about how he died, but it was not a political assassination. I think it was something weird like appendicitis or a flu or something. Too bad because Czar Peter would have had plenty of money for the purchase and Karl's assurance that the wheel was genuine would probably have been sufficient for him.
DeleteWhat information about his life is going to matter? Most of your book has been discussed either here or on the BW forum. The parts that are most important to determining what was going on aren't in any small details of his life, like what he and the monk talked about, etc.
DeleteKen ,for instance,thinks the two portraits are the only relevant items. Most of the topics on the forum are about the drawings, or the writings, or the wheel itself. The topics about his life yield little, other than he was interested in a lot of disciplines and dabbled in them. The argument gets made that maybe one of these disciplines is the answer, like his time spent on organs, or as a physician, etc. But no one has been able to definitely say the answer is there.
I didn't bring up the subject of patents, I was just replying to Ken. If the patent system was worthless, then a buyer's only other choice would have been to guard it as closely as Bessler did, as I outlined above. Meaning Bessler couldn't publish the secret, which was my original point.
I know about Peter the Great, it's been discussed here and on the forum as well. Too bad about that.
I think there might be something about this story that probably hasn't been found yet. I have an idea what it is.
Fair enough (ok to call you doug?)
DeleteI'm always interested in other people's ideas. Do you wish to share your idea?
JC
Yes that's ok. I changed it several times just for fun when you had to clamp down on the spam and stuff with a sign in account to post a comment.
ReplyDeleteI think what hasn't been found is either a confession along with the trick he was using to keep the weights in motion (lifted), located somewhere besides the documents you've found, or, in the documents we do have, is the same confession and trick. It hasn't been found in those documents because, at least from what I've gathered here and on the forum, no one is looking for a trick. Most everyone wants to find what can't be found: a PM principle, usually based on the classic overbalanced, coordinated weight wheel, because that's how most interpret what Bessler said or drew (once I have all the parts in place; once I sort out the mechanics; I just need to tweak the spring constants, or the attachment points; I think I need to make the levers longer or shorter etc.).
I think what we should look at is any drawing or writing that shows something that could have been used as an actual "prime mover". And a prime mover is not a force, contrary to what Bessler might be implying. Force, to me, is a result of energy being transformed, so you could say force is a secondary mover in that sense. He said the solution is in there, so one of the drawings, or writings, must show or describe the prime mover, the actual energy being converted.
For example, when I am at rest in my chair, say, the forces acting on me are all equal. My body system is merely creating heat to keep me alive while at rest.The only path to motion for me is to unbalance one of those forces acting on me, so that the resulting force imbalance results in motion.
What has to happen before the forces can become unbalanced? Either I have to will myself with my mind to unbalance those forces with my muscular/skeletal/endocrine system, or someone standing next to me unbalances them for me with their muscular/skeletal endocrine system, or, the system I share with the earth would do it for me, such as an earthquake. Motions in any form share that one trait: a transformation of energy first, followed by a subsequent imbalance of forces, and thus, motion.
What about your idea? Do you still believe you've got it?
@Doug. You will see much speculation about Bessler's "prime mover" and it is often considered the secret of his wheels. In a sense, I believe it is, but it's not really that mysterious. Weights attached to levers on a wheel's ascending side simply swing in toward the axle and, in the process store lost gravitational potential energy by stretching springs attached to them. These inward swinging levers also help to directly lift the levers ahead of them while those levers are also simultaneously lifted by previously stretched springs which are in the process of contracting back to their original lengths. So, each wheel maintains the imbalance of its center of mass by using a continuous loss of gravitational energy on its ascending side to increase the gravitational potential energy of weights in other parts of the wheel. It's a very simple process, but it requires a very precise lever shape and use of spring tension. As usual, I believe I'm close to solving this and finding the exact mechanism Bessler used to achieve pm. Of course, I've been "close" many, many times before. Maybe my next model will work. One can only keep trying and praying. I know it can be done.
ReplyDeleteDoug, I have my ideas about what force is and from what you've said I think we are on the same wavelength. Some years ago,when I was using the wind as an analogy for gravitational force, I was picturing the wind as a result of higher pressure in one area having to expand into a lower pressure area and the wind was the result of the two differing pressures.
DeleteAir is subject to gravity just as everything else is, so it occupies the most space closest to the ground, or is densest there, but sunlight on one patch of air warms it and it expands, usually into a shady area where the air is cooler and lower in pressure, and that movement is felt as wind. The heat from the sun could be the prime mover of air because it warms it, but other things can warm it too; forest fires and volcanoes, for instance.
What I'm trying to say is that the air would be still, like your body in your example above, until some factor like heat unbalances the neutral forces causing it to move.
The weights on a gravity-driven wheel are at one point in balance and the wheel is stationary, until something changes. The only way that can happen in my opinion is if the wheel is unbalanced to start with. It means, then, that the wheel rotates and as it is about to come into balance again, something happens to one weight, re-establishing the imbalance again. So for a gravity-wheel to work there has to be some activity already in action, i.e. it is already rotating.
Yes to your last question, I am certain that I have the complete solution. What I'm discovering as I build the model, is that there are things that I have to overcome that were not known to me at the start but which I then find were detailed by Bessler but ignored by me at least, or just not noticed. The basic concept is intact but as you suggested, somewhat mockingly but nevertheless, accurately,(once I have all the parts in place; once I sort out the mechanics; I just need to tweak the spring constants, or the attachment points; I think I need to make the levers longer or shorter etc.) The truth is this is steep learning curve for me but one where I cn see the light at the end of the tunnel.
May I just add that I prefer not to state unequivocally that I will have succeeded this year,even though I believe it, because too many times before I have made similar statements only to find I was wrong, and because I have cast aspersions on others, in particular Trevor, for premature perpetuation! But I think it's OK for me to say so here on my own blog, but not on anyone else's forum.
JC
Aha!!!!!!!!! "Premature Perpetuation"!!!!!!!!
DeleteNow THAT, John, is hilarious!!!!!
My best to everyone!
Hutch