John Theophilus Desaguliers (12 March 1683 – 29 February 1744) was a French-born British natural philosopher, clergyman, engineer and freemason who was elected to the Royal Society in 1714 as experimental assistant to Isaac Newton. He is familiar to us as the recipient of Fischer von Erlach's letter describing Bessler's wheel, and for his public lectures decrying the possibility of a perpetual motion machine as constructed by Johann Bessler.
As a Freemason, Desaguliers was responsible for the establishment of the first Grand Lodge formed in London in 1717 and served as their third Grand Master in 1719 and was later three times Deputy Grand Master. He helped James Anderson draw up the rules in the "Constitutions of the Freemasons", published in 1723, and he was active in the establishment of a Masonic charity.
During a lecture trip to the Netherlands in 1731 Desaguliers initiated into Freemasonry Francis, Duke of Lorraine (1708 – 65) who later became Holy Roman Emperor. Desaguliers also presided when Frederick, Prince of Wales, became a Freemason in 1737, and he additionally became a chaplain to the Prince. But there is no record of him approaching Karl the Landgrave, with the intention of initiating him into the brotherhood, and anyway the dates do not support such a conjecture.
Obviously Karl the Landgrave was not involved in Free-masonry, although his grandson Prince Karl, the brother of Wilhelm I of Hessen-Kassel was a Grand Master. Both were the sons of Frederick II of Hessen-Kassel, from his wife, Mary of Hanover, Princess of Great Britain, daughter of George II King of England. His grandson, also named Karl, was the Freemason, not Karl the Landgrave; this has led to the confusion over the Landgrave's alleged membership of this organisation. This was in the 1780s, some forty years after Bessler's death.
The point is that neither Bessler nor his patron, Karl the Landgrave were concerned in any way with the Freemasons.
However Bessler did spend time with a Jesuit priest and a Jewish Rabbi in the ancient city of Prague. There he learned something about Egyptian hieroglyphics, the Book of Nature and the Language of Angels. These subjects have been difficult to identify, but John Dee and his sidekick, Edward Kelley wrote a book supposedly in the language of angels, Enochian, which appears to be a coded document, but it has proved impossible to decipher, that is if it was intended to be. Kelley met an untimely end in Prague when his promise to turn straw into gold failed and he was imprisoned and died a prisoner in late 1597/early 1598 of injuries received while attempting to escape.
What might Bessler have learned in Prague? My personal belief is that he learned something of the religious beliefs of both the Rabbi and the Jesuit priest. He also learned about encoding messages which the Rabbi and the priest used in their communications with each other. The chronogram was a common feature on building and epitaphs in Germany of that period and popular also among the Jews and Romans in both times past and during the early 18th century. Clearly this subject must have been explored during his stay in Prague because it seems as though Bessler became obsessed with the chronogram.
Bessler visited Prague in about 1700, in 1696 Prague’s Jewish community was shaken by the show trial of the alleged murderers of 12-year-old Shim‘on Abeles, which marked the culmination of Jesuit efforts to Christianize Prague’s Jews. Bessler, writing about the Rabbi, relates how "the Jew was a good Christian! He was a great exponent of the teachings of Nicodemus, and all in all I learned more with him in a short time than most people learn in many years." This curious description of the Jew being a good Christian may relate to the comment above which describes the culmination of the Jesuit efforts to Christianize Prague's Jews at roughly the time Bessler was there.
Earlier Bessler describes how "a Jesuit came to see me - perhaps the most learned priest I'd ever met - and soon we were great friends". It is possible that the Jesuit and the Rabbi had been discussing the Christianization of the Jews in Prague and from what Bessler said, perhaps the Rabbi was open-minded about the situation. Their discussions may have influenced Bessler and later led to the publication of his ideas about uniting the Christian religions.
The above comments seem to indicate that Bessler was more than just an inventor hoping for get-rich-quick success. He was a thinker, open-minded about religion, but still a committed Christian. In his list of 141 Bible quotations in Apologia Poetica, many of the references do not come from the Protestant bible either of that time nor currently. Othes refer to books only in the Roman Catholic version and some from the Hebrew bible, which seems to support the idea that he was an interdenominational Christian.
JC
What might Bessler have learned in Prague? My personal belief is that he learned something of the religious beliefs of both the Rabbi and the Jesuit priest. He also learned about encoding messages which the Rabbi and the priest used in their communications with each other. The chronogram was a common feature on building and epitaphs in Germany of that period and popular also among the Jews and Romans in both times past and during the early 18th century. Clearly this subject must have been explored during his stay in Prague because it seems as though Bessler became obsessed with the chronogram.
Bessler visited Prague in about 1700, in 1696 Prague’s Jewish community was shaken by the show trial of the alleged murderers of 12-year-old Shim‘on Abeles, which marked the culmination of Jesuit efforts to Christianize Prague’s Jews. Bessler, writing about the Rabbi, relates how "the Jew was a good Christian! He was a great exponent of the teachings of Nicodemus, and all in all I learned more with him in a short time than most people learn in many years." This curious description of the Jew being a good Christian may relate to the comment above which describes the culmination of the Jesuit efforts to Christianize Prague's Jews at roughly the time Bessler was there.
Earlier Bessler describes how "a Jesuit came to see me - perhaps the most learned priest I'd ever met - and soon we were great friends". It is possible that the Jesuit and the Rabbi had been discussing the Christianization of the Jews in Prague and from what Bessler said, perhaps the Rabbi was open-minded about the situation. Their discussions may have influenced Bessler and later led to the publication of his ideas about uniting the Christian religions.
The above comments seem to indicate that Bessler was more than just an inventor hoping for get-rich-quick success. He was a thinker, open-minded about religion, but still a committed Christian. In his list of 141 Bible quotations in Apologia Poetica, many of the references do not come from the Protestant bible either of that time nor currently. Othes refer to books only in the Roman Catholic version and some from the Hebrew bible, which seems to support the idea that he was an interdenominational Christian.
JC
I've often wondered exactly what particular brand of Christianity Bessler practiced. But, from this blog it's obvious to me he was "doing his own thing" when it came to that religion. Bessler was so "into" Bible verses that he probably had his own interpretation of everything which he hoped he could spread to the rest of humanity so they could, like him, finally see "the light". Well, back in those days the churches in Germany were rather strict about the beliefs of their parishioners; one was either 100% following what the clergy of his church were teaching or he was 100% out of the church. Bessler probably quickly found himself persona non grata in all of his local churches and felt more comfortable practicing his beliefs privately. This would also explain why he tended to gravitate to individuals like rabbis and Jesuits who tended to be more liberal in their approach to religion. I found that the Jesuits, in particular, were really into science and Bessler would naturally have wanted to associate with them. Here's some information about the interests of the Jesuits:
ReplyDelete"[The Jesuits] contributed to the development of pendulum clocks, pantographs, barometers, reflecting telescopes and microscopes, to scientific fields as various as magnetism, optics and electricity. They observed, in some cases before anyone else, the colored bands on Jupiter’s surface, the Andromeda nebula and Saturn’s rings. They theorized about the circulation of the blood (independently of Harvey), the theoretical possibility of flight, the way the moon effected the tides, and the wave-like nature of light. Star maps of the southern hemisphere, symbolic logic, flood-control measures on the Po and Adige rivers, introducing plus and minus signs into Italian mathematics – all were typical Jesuit achievements, and scientists as influential as Fermat, Huygens, Leibniz and Newton were not alone in counting Jesuits among their most prized correspondents."
Note that even Leibniz and Newton were involved with the Jesuits!
I am so pleased to hear that John!
ReplyDeleteAs opposed to Free-masonry, with Christianity there are no secrets, it is open and free to all.
'with Christianity there are no secrets,'
Delete!
Anyone else here from the Bearenstein bear / 'e Gravesande universe ?
ReplyDeleteChristianity is different here.
With the "good Christian" comment, Bessler was simply saying that the man was a "mensch" - a good character, is all he meant. Far from suggesting he was some kind of converso, he was acknowledging that Chistianity had no monopoly on good moral stature.
ReplyDeleteInitiatives to "Christianise the Jews" always had sinister undertones, and usually didn't end well. It was (and is) a hard sell for any strictly monothiestic culture - especially one so intricately and inextricably shaped by the kinds of strictures it imposes - but moreso, it would be the ultimate sell-out to a culture priding and defining itself on a history of perseverence against such influences. My reading is that Bessler was expressing a "live and let live" sentiment - more egalitarian than evangelical. The rabbi was a good conservative, not a radical theologian.
The Rabbi's enthusiasm for the teachings of Nicodemus doesn't necessarily imply sympathies for Christian beliefs - it is questionable whether Nicodemus himself was a convert, while on the other hand he was the member of the Sanhedrin who requested that Jesus be heard, whereupon by his own rejection of the court's authority he excommunicated himself from Judaism, instead choosing to be condemned to Roman justice, a la "death by cop"... So Nicodemus is a key figure in the parting of the two faiths, and his significance to the rabbi's views on inter-faith reconciliation could be interpreted in contrasting ways..
Interdenominational, or just.. liberal, i think.
It seems to me that you are rebelling against any kind of apparent discipline that true Christianity might imply.
DeleteFar from it; Christianity, although separate from worldliness, is totally free from any kind of legal bondage.
This means; we are free to partake in any activity or food and drink, but we are not slaves to them.
This comes from the assurance of knowing that we are once and for all reconciled to God through Christ.
I agree Mr V, that Bessler's comment about the Rabbi being a good Jew does not necessarily mean that he was converting or even considering converting to Christianity. My main point was that it is known that the Jesuits wished/tried to convert the Jews of Prague to Christianity, and Bessler becoming friends with both men was probably the target of persuasion of conflicting religious views which must have give him cause to reassess his own Protestant beliefs, Perhaps this episode formed the inspiration for his later attempts to promote the uniting of the various religious doctrines that were all based on or around Jesus Christ.
DeleteJC
Yes, that sounds plausible John.
DeleteMeanwhile, I've just completed the testing of my model #1421 and, yet again, only found failure although it did seem to run a bit longer before the keel set in. I'm still convinced that I have the correct spring constants and weight masses that Bessler used, and now my attention has been drawn to the mass of the levers themselves. I've decided to double them and see if this improves the situation. I need to have a design where the interconnected weighted levers from the 9:00 position of the drum over to those on the drum's descending side are in a precisely balanced state so that the 7:30 lever's weight will be able to smoothly shift them as that lever's pivot travels with the drum through 45 degrees and that lever's weight swings in toward the axle. If this can be done, then the design should keep the center of mass of the entire wheel constantly on the drum's descending side to provide a constant accelerating torque to the axle. Well, maybe this modification will, finally, be the one I need for success.
DeleteAs far as Bessler's religion is concerned, I recall reading somewhere that he claimed that the "principle" of his wheel can be found in the words of Jesus. Well, I got a "red letter" edition of the King James Version of the Bible and checked out everything Jesus is supposed to have said. I could find nothing which sounded like any sort of mechanical principle.
Bessler made some special statements in Apologia, with references to biblical events and similarity to biblical events.
DeleteYou will find that he compare his invention to both the last supper and the resurrection etc.
Before you can understand why he did this, you may need some years of heavy research into the secret language, the secret truths and the secret methods of the times.
So there seems to be a parallel "world" of truths out there, never written in clear text in any book. Not found in any SINGLE picture or page.It seems like Bessler knew this very well.
Good luck.
@Trevor - i didn't mean to imply Jews resisted conversion because they thought it would be a cop out.. but you've brought up the other reason Nicodemus would've been relevent at the time; the perenial controversy of the poltical power and worldiness of the established churches (not just Catholic but Anglican etc.).. the nature of the "kingdom of heaven" would've been a focal debate of the church/state dichotomy and questions of ultimate authority - common ground between Protestants and Jews.
Delete@Ken,
DeleteA quotation for the wheel...
"All who lift themselves up will be brought low, and those who make themselves low will be lifted up.” (Luke 18:14.)
Let's seek and we shall find...
Thanks for that, MG. That verse could, in Bessler's mind, suggest the motion of the weights in his wheels as they traveled up and over the drum's 12 o'clock position and then went down around around the 6:00 position.
DeleteI also found this one in John 7:38:
"He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."
This to Bessler might have meant that if he kept his religious faith in God or Jesus, then he would be able to find a design that would continuously appear to be alive such as his imbalanced pm wheels and could even run a water pump continuously to create the effect of "living water". Interestingly, later he designed a fountain that would continuously spray water into the air. Its pump would, of course, have been powered by one of his pm wheels. Again, we see here another example of "living water".
It's too bad that we don't have any of Bessler's writings that explain what he meant when he mentioned that the words of Jesus described the workings of his wheels or of what he meant when, as quoted by Wagner, he stated that the children in the lane "play" with the principle his wheels use. I have thought much about what such a children's game would be that would demonstrate how Bessler's wheels worked and came up with only two possibilities. One would be some sort of see-saw in which the children, in order to be able to continuously alternately rock up and down at each end, would, assuming the fulcrum stayed in the middle of the length of the board they used, have to carefully balance the weights of the children on opposite ends of the board. Perhaps one older, heavyset kid on one end would be counter balanced by two younger lighter kids at the other end. Thus, this analogy would suggest the extremely delicate counter balancing of the weighted levers starting at the 9 o'clock position of the drum by the levers and their attached stretched springs going over to the drum's descending side. The second game that is a candidate involves the use of a metal barrel hoop. Kids would get one of these rolling and then run after it with a stick and apply a lifting force to its the lower half of its ascending back side in order to help the hoop maintain its rolling speed and stability. If this is the kids' game Bessler referred to, then the analogy to his wheels might be that their displaced centers of mass created a constant torque on them that kept them turning despite any load resistance applied to their axles.
Ken, that is the most profound analogous contribution you have made so far; keep it up!
DeleteTo Ken.
DeleteQuote: "It's too bad that we don't have any of Bessler's writings that explain what he meant when he mentioned that the words of Jesus described the workings of his wheels or of what he meant when, as quoted by Wagner, he stated that the children in the lane "play" with the principle his wheels use".
"To bad we don`t have any of Besslers writings" ?? I know you don`t like to study Bessler papers, (like they don`t exist), but why do you think Bessler dedicated a whole page of his unpublished book, describing just toys?"
Why do you say that Bessler never described toys? And then, why do go on into lengthy description of some other toys, never described by Bessler?
Tip: Bessler described toys, figure out why he chose THEM, don`t go on and invent new ones..
Of course, we do have much writing by Bessler, Oystein. My point was that the "words of Jesus" and the principles "played with by children in the lane" which are mentioned are not fully explained. Also, not fully explained is the invigorating dream he had that preceded his discovery of the particular imbalanced pm wheel design he found in early 1712 that finally worked. I'm not "inventing" any of this.
DeleteAs for the "toys page", Bessler only tells us that it is a "Children's game in which there is something extraordinary for anyone who knows how to apply the game in a different way." From its central position in the illustration, it's clear to me that he is referring to the hand held pantograph type toy which causes one of the two hammer men to hit the anvil between them while the other raises his hammer and prepares to strike next. The child playing with this toy can make the two hammer men take turns hitting the anvil just as real workmen might do in a foundry of some sort. I think what Bessler is telling the reader with his toys page is that something similar was taking place inside of his wheels. As levers carrying weights at their ends on the ascending side swung in toward the central axle of the drum, other levers were swinging away from the axle. In a sense, since these levers had lead weights affixed to their free ends, they sort of looked like hammers. The toy Bessler selected to illustrate this action indicates that it required a precise mechanical linkage between the levers in his wheels. Well, I realized a long time ago that this linkage was achieved solely through the use of ropes that interconnected a wheel's eight weighted levers and served to coordinate their motions. I believe I currently have the correct lever shape, size, and pivot locations that he used in his design as well as the correct rope arrangement, weight mass, and spring constants, yet I have still not been able to duplicate that precise interconnected motion his toy page hints at. Currently, I am altering the mass of the levers a bit since that seems to be what is causing my current models to keel instead of accelerate continuously. All of the parts in Bessler's imbalanced pm wheel mechanism must be very carefully balanced and one must be using all of the exact same component parameters that he used or one will achieve only nothing!
Oh, and that top at the bottom of the toys page is also interesting. At the time that Bessler made those drawings, the motion of spinning bodies like tops was not yet fully understood. Perhaps Bessler included this mysterious little toy so that readers would know that even if something, like a spinning top that appears to defy gravity, that seems to be impossible can still exist and be real, then, maybe, something like his pm wheels which likewise seem to be impossible could also exist and be real. Then again, maybe the top there suggests that any wheel whose center of mass can be made to remain out of balance must rotate continuously. In the case of a rotating top, when its center of mass is displaced from its axis of rotation by an outside force, it will begin to undergo a slow and constant wobble known as "precession". In the case of Bessler's wheels, their unique mechanics continuously adjusted the arrangement of the weighted levers during drum rotation to always put their center of masses just a little ways onto the a wheel's descending side so as to create a constant torque that would accelerate the wheel or keep it turning at constant speed as its axle ran any outside machinery attached to it.
I fully agree with your last comment John. I could go into detail, but this will be explained in the book.
ReplyDelete