Johann Bessler promoted his wheel as a solution to flooding in mines and also for pumping water for use in 'Gentlemen's pleasure gardens' and other uses in various manufacturing processes. It has been suggested that Karl might have been considering the wheel as a means of returning the water to the top of his famous water cascade. In fact it is extremely unlikely that he harboured such thoughts given his years overseeing the experiments of Denis Papin which concerned a number of steam-related inventions. He was familiar with the shortcomings of such constructions and it is doubtful that he thought Bessler's wheel was capable of pumping anything without the aid of steam or some other unrelated discovery. The unpleasant truth is that Bessler's wheel would not have been capable of providing a solution to either the mining problem nor the cascade and would have been of limited use to the other suggestions. At that time it would just have been a novelty. Today we see potential in a number of areas, particularly in the generation of electricity, which opens up its potential to an enormous degree.
In spite of the above negative aspects there were plenty of rich princes who would have paid a lot of money to have the machine to display to their visitors. Andreas Gartner's whole life involved designing and building intricate machines for the entertainment of his wealthy patrons, for which he was well-paid, so I think Bessler could have sold his machine if only he had found a way to negotiate a settlement .
By making it drive an archimedes screw Bessler hoped to demonstrate its potential as a pump, but in reality it isn't a pump so much as a water lifter, and a limited one at that. They were used in Holland to assist in draining water from land and everywhere for irrigation, but they were man or animal-powered. Nevertheless, I think he might have had a market there, where low lifts were needed.
Karl's cascade measured almost 600 feet in height and it needed about 92,000 gallons of water to flow from the Hercules monument at the top all the way down to the big lake by the castle, where a fountain pumped water over 160 feet into the air. This whole system relied on natural pressure from reservoirs at the top of the hill and underground pipes whose locks were opened manually. Once the reservoirs were empty the cascade dried up, so could only be operated occasionally once they were refilled by rainfall. One can see the potential benefit of finding a way to return the water to the top but I don't think even today there could be an easy or cheap solution, and certainly not with an archimedes screw!
Today during the summer, twice a week the cascade is allowed to run for a few minutes. That is to conserve enough water for another display of the cascade,in case of drought, and the same applied in Karl's day.
The competitor for Bessler was Newcomen's beam engine which was first run about 1714. This machine devoured coal ravenously and produced huge clouds of smoke but it did work and many mines installed them. It drew 10 gallons of water per stroke and ran at approximately twelve strokes a minute, so pumped about 120 gallons a minute, good for draining mines but obviously still inadequate for Karl's cascade. A rough calculation suggests it would take about 64 hours of continuous pumping to replenish 92000 gallons and that would only lift the water a quarter of the height needed.
Newcomen's engine could pull water up from a depth of about 140 feet, Bessler's wheel attached to an archimedes screw was limited by the length of the screw, a few feet.
Newcomen's engine could pull water up from a depth of about 140 feet, Bessler's wheel attached to an archimedes screw was limited by the length of the screw, a few feet.
So Bessler's wheel could have been little more than a novelty at the time but not so today and were he here he could rightly ask for a trifling £100,000 and more for the secret and the machine. He was born too soon, but what if he had sold the wheel? For several years it would have remained a toy-thing of the rich, but eventually someone would have taken hold of his wheel and attached it to an electrical generator and history would have been made - perhaps Michael Faraday in 1821, would have recognised the potential in Bessler's wheel and made the connection.
JC
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