HAPPY NEW YEAR! ..Welcome Bessler's Wheel in 2019.

My usual New Year message expresses the hope that the coming year will see the solution to Johann Bessler's Wheel, but this time I'm actually predicting that the solution will be found!

In a previous post I asked if Johann Bessler foretold the year of the reappearance of his wheel? I asked this because he published a panegyric to Karl, the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, dated 2019.  This seemed an odd date to seemingly pluck out of the air for no apparent reason, but it did relate to the year 1719 when he published it, although 300 years out!  He also dated others, 1519, 1619, 1819 and 1919.  Hedging his bets? Some people have suggested that Bessler obtained knowledge of the future of his wheel from his subconscious mind.   I’m sure it was a coincidence, but a happy one for us because I am firmly convinced that this year, 2019, will see the reappearance of a working Bessler wheel.

In recent years I have become fairly confident that I knew how his wheel worked, but not in precise detail.  I shared my design with someone who pointed out the defects in the design, and any doubts I had about its validity were confirmed. However this year I have been familiar with the current design for several months but have been unable to do much of any work on it due to other more urgent calls on my time but  I have had plenty of time to dwell on it, consider it and turn it over and over in my mind. Once the new year is under way I intend to work hard on completing the device according to the design I have worked out from Johann Bessler's clues.

But as I always say, I've been wrong before and I could be wrong again. But I have deciphered many clues and I'm confident that my interpretations are correct, which is why I feel more confident than I have ever been before that this coming year will see Bessler's wheel working once again.  Later this year I will publish what I know, with or without an actual working model, including photos of it. Then I shall publish the book I've been working on for the last few years, explaining all of the clues I have deciphered and why they lead to the solution.

So....fingers crossed Bessler's Wheel might just reappear in 2019.

JC

Why did Johann Bessler Use So Many Codes?

Enormous amounts of text have been published concerning Johann Bessler's clues. I am as guilty as anyone in publishing my own findings, views and opinions. But as time has passed I believe I have come to understand Bessler's purpose in placing so many apparently pointless pieces of code in every conceivable place and in every kind of code known to man, or so it seems.  So why is there so much of it, when none of it appears to be of any use in discovering the solution?

The reason is, in my opinion, that Bessler wanted to make sure that someone who was familiar with a particular code would recognise a bit of it when he saw it and realise that perhaps there was more to be discovered. But it would take a considerable amount of effort to discover the final message for the simple reason that Johann Bessler contrived a new code system unique to himself, and one that would take anyone unfamiliar with the field of codes, forever if not several years of trying, to solve it.  But an expert in the field of cryptography might more quickly decipher the hidden message.

Consequently we perceive an avalanche of codes each of which is a recognised form of cipher, each capable of attracting the attention of someone with a special knowledge of that particular type of code.  I suggest he did this because he wasn't sure if anyone would even suspect the existence of coded information, or to put it another way, he wanted to attract the attention of anyone with a good knowledge of codes.  He could have stated that there was coded information within his books, but if it was too simple, that might have resulted in someone deciphering the information before he had sold his secret.

So we have alphanumeric, alphabetic substitution, Caesar shifts, Rosicrucian, Baconian, Hebrew Atbash and Albam, Pythagorian and Plato codes, geometric and algebraic codes, chronograms and  John Dee's Language of Angels; the list seems endless and yet pointless if there is no forward progress in deciphering his meaning.  But the whole purpose was get someone to look for a different code and then try deciphering it. But are there any other codes? There is indeed Johann Bessler's own ingenious code, so far undeciphered and barely recognised. The details of one of them that I have worked on can be seen here http://www.orffyreus.net/ 

Unfortunately I haven't made any progress in deciphering it other than that which I have decribed on the web site. From the evidence I have described, the existence of the code is undeniable.

Others I have found and interpreted can be seen at http://www.theorffyreuscode.com/ 

I believe I have managed to decipher one of them, but it is a work in progress and one I first began to understand about two or three years ago.  I am confident that I am making progress and what ever happens, 2019 seem to be the most appropriat year to publish it.

JC

Was Bessler Prescient About the Year 2019?

Here we are on the brink of 2019 and, as I have done every year since I don’t know when, I think that this coming year we will succeed in replicating Bessler’s wheel.  This next piece of information causes a frisson of expectation.  

I have a copy of a document, a panegyric addressed to Karl annually, but it has something unique.  As many will know, Bessler was very fond of chronograms, which is a phrase or inscription in which letters such as M, C, X, L, and V can be read as Roman numerals giving a date. He provides dozens and dozens of them in some of his documents and curious as they are they don’t appear to hold any coded information.

This particular one includes the year.........2019! He also wrote them for 1519, 1619, 1719, 1819.and 1919.  But why 2019?

 Here is a close up of the part for 2019,

 As you can see, there are plenty of chronograms which each add up the relevant year they are attached to.  I have attempted a translation of each piece of text but there seems little of import, as far as I can tell.

Each of the above has a quote from the Bible, but using just the one for the year 2019, Hebews 13;5 it says,

 "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

So, nothing but sound religious advice, but my suspicious mind still suspects that there could be more to this than meets the eye. But years of paranoia on my part probably affects my opinion!

Anyway there it is for your perusal.  Any opinions welcomed.

JC

Maybe Bessler’s Wheel COULD Solve Global Warming.

Sir David Attenborough at COP24, Katowice, warns, 

“Civilisations are going to collapse and much of nature will be wiped out to extinction if humanity doesn't take urgent action on climate change.”

The warning came as Sir David took the "People's Seat" at the opening of the conference, as part of a UN initiative that aims to give normal people a voice at the international climate talks.

Sometimes it feels though I live on another  planet - maybe I do! I read and hear all the warnings about global warming and I think maybe we have something which might help to reduce it or at least bring the rise in temperature to a stop.  I know that the central aim of the Paris agreement was to strengthen and accelerate a global response effort in combatting the threat of climate change.  How did they intend to achieve this?

1) Keep global temperature rise “well below”, 2 degrees C, or 3.6 degrees F, above pre-industrial levels by 2100.

2) Pursue efforts to limit temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees C.

3) Limit green house gases emitted by human activity.

The rest is political nonsense; rich countries aiding poorer countries by providing “climate finance”; demanding contributions of at least 100 billion dollars towards upgrading their production facilities etc.  147 countries have ratified the agreement. The four biggest emitters of greenhouse gases - India, China, US and the European Union had signed up for it but the US has since changed its mind.

But even the biggest or the smallest emitters simply cannot comply with the agreement, so this is just so much hot air with little chance of achieving anything close.  The less developed areas of the world need their old fashioned technology before they can even contemplate spending more money than they can afford to update their industrial processes.

This website https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/  provides a good balanced view, even discussing the theory that the global warming might be caused by periodic increases in the sun's output. They offer a good argument against this being a factor in global warming, and although I admit I still subscribed to that view, their evidence is pretty convincing.

There IS a potential solution!  Bessler’s Wheel could eventually replace massive amounts of fossil burning technology.  147 countries ratified the Paris agreement, but in my opinion they can indeed talk the talk, but they simply can’t walk the walk, without knowing or finding some additional way of generating electricity (for instance) A brave aspiration but impractical without pre-industrial technology such as Bessler's wheel!

 JC

Today, 30th November,1745, Johann Bessler Fell to his Death.

Johann Bessler stood on the top of his latest project, a huge windmill designed to grind corn in the village of Fürstenberg. The windmill was of an unusual design, having a vertical axis which meant it could turn in the wind regardless of which direction the wind came from.

It was designed to be supported on a massive lower structure and although it was never finished it was expected to rise some 50 feet in height.  Unfortunately for Bessler, the committee who requisitioned the device insisted that it must be built on the lower levels of the hillside within the village itself.  This position was too sheltered according to Bessler and he argued that it should be positioned on top of the hill where it could take advantage of the winds which blew more strongly and consistently.  But the local authority insisted and Bessler complied.
 http://www.orffyreus.org/              see interior and exterior photos, and floor plan

Bessler was struggling to finance the build and despite frequent letters to the council leaders for more building materials, as well as additional funding, little help was forthcoming.  Some letters he wrote have survived and it clear from them that he was regarded as something of a nuisance and his employers were unwilling to put themselves out on his behalf.

On November 30th, 1745, Johann Bessler fell to his death from the top of the half-built windmill. We know that he and his family were starving and cold.  It was late in the year and the prospects of completing his windmill looked increasingly poor and even if he had managed to complete, his own opinion was that it might not have been as effective in the milder winds in the village.

I visited the small town of  Fürstenberg in2002 and was able to visit the windmill.  It has survived ‘til now because of the huge sandstone blocks used to construct the walls.  There is little if anything left, of Bessler’s work inside although the external features are obviously according to his design. Subsequent to his death the windmill was provided as a home for the new porcelain industry which had its beginnings then.  The town of  Fürstenberg became famous for the quality of its porcelain which it has been producing since 1747.
https://www.fuerstenberg-porzellan.com/info-en/english/manufactory/history/

We can gain some idea of Bessler's predicament through this short extract from a letter he wrote  to his superior just seven months before his death;

      "I have written often and many times to you, Highly Honourable Sire, but I have not received any answer.  Meanwhile, I lack strength and will, through hunger, grief, frost and chill, because for a long time I have not received a single piece of wood from the District Magistrate.  Indeed, I have often had only dry bread to eat and water to drink.  However, at last, thank God, I have had the good luck to finish preparing the model of perpetual motion which was commissioned from England, as demanded by the Senior District Magistrate, von Mannsberg.  It was ready at midnight on April 14th, "

Notice that he  had finished a model of his perpeual motion machine (italicised in the above quote).  The model was commissioned by his landlord, Baron Anton von Mansberg, a senior member of King George's cabinet and resident in London. Unfortunately any plans von Mannsberg might have had to examine Bessler's machine were doomed by the fact that all government officials were forbidden or strongly advised not travel to the continent.  This was during 1745 and for a couple of years after, due to the threat of invasion of England by France, on behalf of the Jacobite rebellion.  By the time that danger had passed Johann Bessler had died and his machine was lost to us.

I wonder what might have happened if the Jacobites had not prevented von Mansberg's return to his home and he had been able to carry out a thorough examination of Bessler's wheel.  He was a wealthy man and held a powerfu position within the government and he was also a member of the Royal Society.  If he had become convinced of Bessler's sincerity a deal might have been struck and a gradual spread of sales of the machine, similar to the way the use of Thomas Newcomen's engine spread, might nhave happened.  Newcomen'sengines sprouted out all over Great Britain and Europe and I could see something similar happening if Bessler's wheel had been sold.  A greater expansion than Newcomen's engine might have happened because of the complexity of the Newcomen engine when compared to Bessler's wheel.

Might not this have affected our modern lives in many ways? One thinks of pollution and global warming etc,. usually blamed on the burning of fossil fuels.

JC

Do We Really Need to Break the Laws of Physics?

It has often been suggested that in order for Bessler's wheel to work, the design must break the laws of physics.

Firstly, if we believe Bessler told the truth then we must seek the solution so that  we can reconstruct his wheel.  The prize for humanity is incalculable, reducing dependence  on fossil fuels, pollution from the burning of fossil fuels; provision of a free source of energy; warmth for cold climates, air conditioning for hot climates; irrigation for desert regions and reduction of transportation costs by land and sea, to name but a few.

Do we honestly believe that Bessler’s wheel worked in some mysterious way which somehow not only broke the established laws of physics, but did so with impunity?  The so-called “Laws”  are conclusions based on repeated scientific experiments and observation over many years which have become accepted universally within the scientific community.  We must accept that however unlikely it may seem, his wheel worked according to long established principles.

Just because our calculations appear to rule out any possibility of any of the laws of physics permitting such a device to work, does not mean that we have thought of every angle, point of view or approach that might resolve this apparent paradox.

But it is only a paradox if we continue to say that Bessler's wheel  cannot work because it would defy some physical law.  Obviously it didn't and we know it worked, therefore we are missing something.  What ever that something is, it is very simple and easy to understand, because Karl the Landgrave stated as much.

JC

1969 to Present - Where Has The Time Gone?

Aged about fifteen, I wandered into the school library one cold, damp afternoon, bored and looking for something interesting to read, not really expecting to find anything but always hopeful.  I found this dusty old book entitled ‘Oddities’, and leafed through it in a kind of disinterested way.  About a hour later I suddenly remembered where I was and what I should be doing!  I grabbed the book and headed out, having already decided that I must finish the book.

The book was by Lieutenant Rupert T. Gould, well-known for his books on unexplained facts.  He was also an expert restorer of marine chronometers, the most famous being those invented by John Harrison, the man who solved the problem of finding a ship’s longitudinal position at sea.  Harrison won the famous British Board of Longitude prize of £20,000 - the same amount of money sought by Johann Bessler for the secret of his perpetual motion machine.  The reward was offered by the British Government through the 1714 Longitude Act which was the first time the government used legislation to address a specific scientific problem.

Gould included an account of ‘The Wheel of Orffyreus’, which, since those long ago days, I have come to realise, is the best account of Bessler’s wheel, (up to my own, of course!)  My own research confirmed everything he wrote about, but of course, back in 1930, he did not have the tools for research that we have now. Gould described the accusations Bessler’s maid fabricated against him and it was in her description of how she was made to turn the wheel that I first saw a glimmer of light, which I latterly understood to be proof that she lied.  It was that tiny crack in the wall of professional scepticism by the members of the elite scientific, rich and powerful men of those days that allowed me to see an alternative to the narrative that had sealed Bessler’s fate and perpetuated the idea that he was a criminal.

That brief sudden moment of clarity engendered by the impossibility of the maid’s claims against Bessler remained with me for several years until I realised I would get no resolution to my concerns until I had either tried to build a perpetual motion machine myself, or tried to find out more about Johann Bessler.

The first research involved obtaining as much information as possible from the British Museum Library, including some of Bessler’s original publications and other documents referring or relating to him.  The immediate problem confronting me was that I had no German, neither the modern kind nor the 300 year old kind.  Unphased by this seemingly insurmountable problem at the naive age of about 24, I wrote a letter to a local paper requesting assistance of anyone prepared to translate some old German documents free of charge.  Amazingly I received offers of help from six or seven people.  I settled on one man, Mike Senior, who became a life long friend but who, sadly, passed away a couple of years ago.  He was an ex-school teacher who left because he complained the kids didn't want to learn.  He had degrees in 18th C German, classic Greek and Latin plus Astrophysics and Botany!  He was a regular contributer to various  scholarly magazines and had solutions to some of the most complex  puzzles particularly those of a mathematical nature. Everything of Bessler’s which I have published was translated by Mike, other than the notes accompanying Maschinen Tractate which accomplished by fellow researcher from the USA.

I would say that since the age of 24 I have been involved in Bessler research and as I will be 74, next year, that is approaching 50 years.  I have constructed countless models each built in the hope that it would spin continuously driven purely by the force of gravity causing the falling of weights inside the wheel. Have I ever felt like giving up?  No, never because I know Bessler succeeded and it is therefore possible.

The concept is simple and Karl the Landgrave was surprised no-one had thought of it before, so it s only a matter of time.  I would have thought 50 years was time enough!

It's only been during the last three or four years that I have begun to understand how he did it, but even then it has been a hard fought battle to find some of his clues and work them out, and correct the false first impressions I got. So far all those clues found and interpreted by many people do not seem to have any relevance to a solution and only time will tell if mine are any better.   So next year?  I've lost count of the times I've suggested that, but confidence is high!

JC

My Wheel is Still a Work in Progress.

I often get emails asking me how my own build is going and when do I expect to finish it.  I have corresponded with some writers to discuss these and other points they raised and have tried to answer them as best I can without giving anything away;  and that particular point is frequently criticised!

I have claimed during the last couple of years or so,  that I know how Bessler’s wheel worked and that I’m building a prototype, but some people complain that I should wait no longer but immediately publish what I know now, in case something should happen to me before the information is released. They also accuse me of being selfish by not sharing this information.

Fine, I admit to being selfish.  I do want to be the first since Johann Bessler to demonstrate his wheel by showing a working model.  I do want to be acknowledged as the discoverer of his secret.  But I also believe that the majority of people researching this subject share the same desire, but even so, I would be content if someone else should succeed before me, either with a working model or a set of instructions showing how it worked.  In the end it’s important that this technology is released to the world.  And that brings me to my other response to the criticism that the information might be lost if I should depart this life before I had completed my build.  I have almost completed a full account of the information required to build Bessler’s wheel and I am currently engaged in making sure that the information is released in the event of my early demise.

I once (or twice!) published the claim that I knew how Bessler’s wheel worked  on some forums and got told to publish or shut up.  I realised how very irritating it is when people say that and keep the information to themselves.  So why am I doing it here and now?  It’s part of a response to many people who have emailed me with several questions.  It’s also because, as someone pointed out, this is my space.and I can write what I like, but to do so on public spaces not under my jurisdiction is rude, ill-mannered and breaks the rules of etiquette.  I don't know if that's true but I'll abide by the advice.

My wheel progresses slowly for several reasons.  Family illnesses intrude taking up time I could  use building, but my family comes first.  I have made some changes in the material I used to make the mechanisms. Initially I always used mild steel strips and they were predrilled with a number of holes not unlike meccano, but the thin strips of the steel I subsequently bought were still too thick, not for the actual mechanism to work but because there are are close to one hundred holes to be drilled and each one was taking too long to drill through and the drill bits were becoming blunt and the holes off centre etc, etc.  I subsequently tried using styrene but that was also unsuitable. So I’m back to using aluminium, but initially I could not find any which was both thin enough and narrow enough for my purposes.  Finally I found a source, so I shall continue to work on it as and when I can.

You would think that after so many years of building these wheels that I would be highly organised and not suffer from such basic problems, but I had been using the same raw material for many years, cannibalising former builds to save time and expense.  When the time came and I was 100 per cent positive that I had the correct design on paper I thought it right to use new untainted material for my final prototype!

One more thing which is a follow-up to my previous blog, someone emailed me about how to proceed when a wheel is found to work and they suggested using monetised YouTube and pointing me towards some information about potential income. It was suggested that the successful wheel-maker could place a video of his wheel and earn a fortune. But I think that those days when some people were earning more than 10 million dollars are over because regulation has been tightened up and the big advertisers who used to place ads are stopping because their ads sometimes appeared along side videos.they felt were unsuitable for their image.  I guess the time to look into that is when you have a working model - and a video of it.

JC

If It Works! What Next?

When your wheel finally works, spinning continuously, with nothing more than the force of gravity enabling its action, what will you do, how will you proceed? Your options would appear to include sharing the secret freely or patenting the design, or finding a sponsor to help develop the machine into a commercial project.

I suppose it depends on whether you want a lot of money, or just enough, or if you dont need any - and when do you want it, immediately or can you wait a couple of years? Also do you want fame, or just acknowledgement for your achievement, or are you content to remain anonymous?

These questions fill the minds of all those hundreds of people who have and still are seeking the solution to Bessler’s wheel.  You only have to look back at the history of the search for perpetual motion to discover that the same concerns occupied their minds from the earliest times. So what is the answer?

I have never liked the patent system for this device.  It costs money to patent and yes, you may say that you will receive many times it’s cost over the years,  even if you have to wait a couple of years. But  there are more concerns; such simple technology invites copycat machines, patent infringements and patented improvements, each of which can leave you in the starting blocks, while your competitors rake in their rewards.  Policing patent infringements is a costly and lengthy task with little chance of financial compensation, even if you only go for a limited patent protection instead of worldwide patent protection.

Licensing the use of a patent is a possibility but could still fall foul of patent infringements and patented improvements.  A patent licensing agreement is a legal contract that grants the licensee certain rights regarding the use or sale of your patented invention. Licensing agreements can be: exclusive - giving the licence holder the sole right to exploit the patent.

So what’s the best course of action?  I have my own optionse and there are numerous possibilities for anyone who wants sufficient financial rewards to live comfortably and help out members of his or her family.  The worldwide media is hungry for stories and will pay for them,. The term "media", includes print media (books, magazines, newspapers), television, radio, movies, video games, music, cell phones, various kinds of software, and the Internet. All of these mediums are like a voracious animal and each requires feeding many times, and they pay well.

So my advice is avoid patents and share the information you have, as widely as you can. What ever design you make public, will always be improved upon, so thinking that by publishing the design, no one can patent it, doesn't necessarily apply to any improvement, but at least the basic concept will be out there and cannot be unpublished.

JC

Gravity Power

It is ironic that despite our best efforts to interest the rest of the world in our search for the solution to Bessler’s wheel, there are others who are also inventing gravity-powered devices, which however require winding  up in some way.

I liked this simple idea for emergency lighting;

 https://www.theengineer.co.uk/issues/march-2015-online/gravity-powered-lamp-scoops-150k-award/

We are all familiar  with weight-driven clocks and apparently the earliest weight-driven mechanical 

clock was installed in 1283 at Dunstable Priory in Bedfordshire, England. But of course the ability or necessity to be able calculate the passing of time goes back at least 5000 years to the Babylonians

I’ve seen a number of unique ways of achieving clock time as well as producing light but the levitating nixie clock is unique!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lasermad/time-flies-levitating-nixie-clock

And this free standing gravity lamp is impressively hi-tech, but it still needs resetting.

https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-tech/sustainable/gravity-powered-lamp1.htm

There is also a lot of research going on to find the best way to store gravitationally generated electricity.  This is all very nice and I'm pleased that the idea of using gravity to generate electricity is universally accepted, it seems such a small step to make that gravity power continuous instead of having to rewind or reset the mechanisms after each action has been completed.

Numerous articles are published demanding new and more research into alternative energy sources; or seeking to make windmills more efficient, smaller and less obtrusive, applying the same principles to solar panels.  To we amateurs, who continue to try to solve and thus prove Bessler's wheel was legitimate, all these articles seem to be ignoring and avoiding any consideration of what seems to us to be the perfect solution to our energy/pollution problems.

All it takes is one respected scientist to read up on Bessler's work or visit this forum and others like it and become convinced that the facts support further consideration, and promotes new research.

JC

Reduce Global Warming with Bessler's Wheels.

We live in strange times.  Global warming leading to freak weather; heat waves, torrential rain, hurricanes, sumamies, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and each seemingly more intense.

We are told that greenhouse gas produced from vehicle exhausts and other fossil burning devices is the cause of the gradual warming up of our planet earth.  But then there are some who blame it on the fluctuations in the sun’s heat output and can point to previous historical cold and warm periods each matched closely to the sunspot activity.

Regardless of who is correct, events seem to be conspiring to a point where we are about to become desperate for a solution to an alternative way of producing electricity.  The burning of fossil fuel and its dangerous side effects is becoming an increasingly unacceptable risk to human life.  The remaining sources of fossil fuels is diminishing and will either run out or be too expensive to recover. None of the alternatives are universally practical, be it solar panels, windmills, geothermal energy, tidal etc, etc.  Each has its merits but each also has its negative aspects.  Nuclear power is of limited benefit considering the difficulty of dealing with its waste products and its huge expense.

Global temperatures will continue to rise as long as we continue to burn fossil fuels, therefore electricity is the most important and user-friendly power source available to us today and tomorrow - if only there was a way to generate it without the need to locate in a sunny or windy or coastal waterway etc.

The following abbreviated exctract comes from an article published by the Union of Concerned Scientists

"To effectively address these growing climate risks — and ensure a reliable supply of electricity for years to come — we must take steps today to improve our aging electricity infrastructure and reduce the carbon emissions that are driving up the planet's temperature.

Ramping up renewable energy is a key component of this effort, both to make our electricity system more resilient and reliable in the short-term, and to curb climate change over the long-term.

Smaller-scale, more distributed power: Renewable technologies like wind-turbines and rooftop solar panels are small, distributed, and often weather storms and heat waves better than conventional power plants. If individual turbines or solar panels are damaged, the impact on the grid is far less than if a large coal or nuclear plant goes off-line."

Small-scale  generaters looks like a perfect description of Bessler's wheel.  

We need to solve the puzzle of Bessler's wheel now, and stop burning fossil fuels as quickly as possible to bring global warming to a stop. Clearly it will be like trying to bring a huge ship to a stop but we have to start soon and the sooner the better.

For more on the subject see 
https://blog.ucsusa.org/adam-markham/half-a-degree-of-warming-could-mean-species-extinction
 

JC

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Johann Bessler and the Orffyreus Code

I’m temporarily recycling a previous post about the Legend of Bessler’s wheel,  because I need to concentrate on finishing my own attempted reconstruction of his machine.

At my age I find time seems to be accelerating and weeks shoot past and I seem to have accomplished very little.  I am determined to finish it really soon so I can prove to myself, at least, that I am right and that there are sufficient clues from Bessler to permit anyone to build his wheel. Success would mean that the design I’m working on would match his, which I know many people doubt is possible.  Obviously I will post the information here first, if it works - or even if it doesn’t.

Please feel free to comment if you wish and I will try to check back daily.

So here it is again, the Legend of Bessler's wheel.

On 6th June, 1712, in Germany, Johann Bessler (also known by his pseudonym, Orffyreus) announced that after many years of failure, he had succeeded in designing and building a perpetual motion machine.  For more than fourteen years he exhibited his machine and allowed people to thoroughly examine it.  Following advice from the famous scientist, Gottfried Leibniz, he devised a number of demonstrations and tests designed to prove the validity of his machine without giving away the secret of its design.

After more than thirty years he died in poverty.  He had asked for a huge sum of money for the secret, £20,000 which was an amount only affordable by kings and princes, and although many were interested, none were prepared to agree to the terms of the deal. Bessler required that he be given the money and the buyer take the machine without verifying that it worked.  Those who sought to purchase the wheel, for that was the form the machine took, insisted that they see the secret mechanism before they parted with the money. Bessler feared that once the design was known the buyers could simply walk away knowing how to build his machine and he would get nothing for his trouble.

This problem was anticipated by Bessler and he took extraordinary measures to ensure that his secret was safe, but he encoded all the information needed to reconstruct the machine in a small number of books that he published. It is well-known that he was prepared to die without selling the secret and that he believed that post humus acknowledgement was preferable to being robbed of his secret while he yet lived.

I became curious about the legend of Bessler’s Wheel, while still in my teens, and have spent most of my life researching the life of Johann Bessler (I’m now 72).  I obtained copies of all his books and had them translated into English and self-published them, in the hope that either myself or someone else might solve the secret and present it to the world in this time of pollution, global warming and increasingly limited energy resources.

It has recently become clear that Bessler had a huge knowledge of the history of codes and adopted several completely different ones to disguise information within his publications.  I have made considerable advances in deciphering one of his codes; the simplest one, and I am confident that I have the complete design.  Due to unfortunate family circumstances I am currently unable to complete the build I have undertaken but shall return to it as soon as possible and I sincerely believe that 2018 will see the reconstruction of Bessler’s wheel.

Johann Bessler published three books, and digital copies of these with English translations may be obtained from the links to the right of this blog.  In addition there is a copy of his unpublished document containing some 141 drawings - and my own account of Bessler’s life is also available from the links.  It is called "Perpetual Motion; An Ancient Mystery Solved?"  Bessler published three books; "Grundlicher Bericht", "Apologia Poetica" and "Das Triumphirende..."

I have also published Bessler's collection of 141 drawings and I have called it Maschinen Tractate, but it was originally found in the form of a number drawings of perpetual motion designs. Many of these have handwritten notes attached and I have published the best English translation of them that I was able to get. Bessler never published these drawings but clearly intended to do so at some point.

For some ideas about Bessler’s code why not visit one of my web sites at www.theorffyreuscode.com

One last thing.  Perpetual Motion machines have been utterly proscribed and Johann Bessler’s claims ridiculed - however, it seems that more than a handful of scientists have now come to the conclusion that it might theoretically be possible to design a mechanical system which is continuously out-of-balance and therefore will turn continuously using the repeated fall of weights for energy.  Gravity but not directly.  These open-minded people remain tight lipped for now, awaiting proof of their hypothesis.

JC

Gottfried Bessler, a little speculation.

Following up my previous post, I’ve received a couple of emails pointing out that Gottfried Bessler, Johann’s brother, might be another potential source of information about Bessler’s wheel.  It seems to me that he could have had some knowledge of the machine’s construction, if so, its possible that he could  have passed it onto his children at some point.

Bessler says he first obtained assistance from a relative called Bessler, who worked as an artist, organ maker and turner.  In Johann Bessler’s account of Christian Wagner’s unscheduled examination of the wheel, which happened when Bessler had fallen and injured his head, he says that Gottfried allowed Wagner and Borlach to view and test the wheel. It seems safe to assume that he was referring to Gottfried when he called him his relative, and on the occasion of Wagner's visit, the original German refers to his assistant as “mein Matz” which has numerous meanings, but the most likely is “my little brother/toddler/squirt” etc.  In other words, a term of affection.  We know therefore, that Gottfried was his assistant from the beginning.

To show the wheel to the visitors, Gottfried must have had access to the machine.  As Johann was unwell and confined to his bed, the only way his brother was able to show Wagner and Borlach the wheel turning, was if he borrowed a key to get into the room containing the wheel - or he customarily had access to it anyway.

It seems unlikely that Gottfried could have assisted Bessler for two or three years without learning somethings about the wheel.  So if Gottfried knew how the wheel worked he probably had to swear on oath never to reveal it, and we know Bessler often used oaths to secure silence.  I imagine he might have been overawed by Johann enough to obey him. He was some eight years younger than his brother, about twenty-two or so and probably, happy to oblige his far more charismatic older brother.

But it is possible that he passed on what knowledge he had to his children, perhaps after Johann died. Unfortunately I don’t know if he had any, but I have contacted my source to see if he has any relevant information, but a brief search of various lists on line does not seem to help identify which of the many Besslers is the right one, if any of them are.  it is fairly certain that the information is available, but it may take a while to find it.

We know that apart from a brief visit to London, he lived most of the remainder of his life with Johann and their parents in, at first Kassel, and subsequently in Carlshafen.

There is one small detail which might be completely innocent, or it might be a hint at something of interest to Øystein? At one point in Apologia Poetica, Bessler makes reference to his blue-apron’d assistant,  which we know referred to Gottfried.   I did some research into the use of the term during Bessler’s era and there are references to Free Masons and their use of aprons and in particular, blue ones.  I’m not saying this is conclusive, merely possibly suggestive of a link.  It may also refer to apprentices, which of course also links to Free Masons, but also to indentured apprenticeships.

Blue aprons in modern times are closely linked to chefs  who wear them while learning to cook, and it is difficult to eliminate that relation from the one we seek which was evident over 300 years ago.

JC

Johann Bessler's Family and his descendants?

Someone recently mentioned the possibility that there might be a living descendent of Bessler's who might have inherited some information about the wheel.  I'm not convinced that there is a chance that this might be possible, but I don't like to rule it out. So what follows is the only information I have to date on his parents, brother, wives and children. It may be that someone might be more familiar with ancestry research than I, and find the limited information below of use in their research.
 
Elias Bessler, (he assumed the other names Johann Ernst at a later date) was the son of the day-labourer Andreas Bessler, and his wife Maria, née  Maucke.  He was baptised in Zittau on 6^th May 1681; his parents having been married in Zittau on 11^th February 1680.   Customarily, baptism took place no more than three days after birth.

His brother, Gottfried, was baptised in Zittau on 26^th May 1688.  There were three other children who all died early or were still born.

Dr. Christian Schumann, the mayor and physician of Annaberg,was persuaded to ask  Bessler to heal his desperately ill daughter. The girl recovered and became Orffyreus’s wife.  Her name was Barbara Elisabeth Bessler née Schumann.  She died 10.05.1726 at the age of 40 from tuberculosis 

Bessler had four children with Barbara Schumann, they were;

1. Name unknown, died before 1726.

2. Maria Barbara Elisabeth, born 5.1.23, married George Conrad Gercke in 1735.  He was a widowed preacher.

3. Johanna Maria Christina, born 9.12.23, died 4.2.24 - aged just three weeks.

4. Carl Friedrich, born 6.10.25. His Godfather was the Landgrave, but he wasn't present at the baptizing. Died 5.5.26  aged seven months.

Infant mortality rate was high in those days regardless of class.  Karl and his wife Amelie, had
seventeen children, fourteen of whom lived long enough to have names, but only nine reached twenty years of age or more. 

 
On January 31st in 1731 Orffyreus married Catharina Elisabeth Krone (born in 1713)
They had five children only one of which survived to adulthood.as below

1. Johanna Magdalena Elisabeth, born 6.4.31

2. Johanna Wohlradina [very strange name] Sybilla, born 15.7.34, died 16.09.43

3. Catharina Conradina 30.10.37

4. Magdalena Catharina, 25.11.39

5 Margaretha Maria, 25.7.45, married Amtmann Kurtzbube in Fürstenberg.

Catharina Elisabeth Krone was the daughter of Castle blacksmith, Johann Adam Krone, who died 14.6.50 in the age of 76.

Besslers father, Andreas, died 19.6.27 in the age of 87, he lived with Bessler for his remailng years as did his mother, Maria.

His brother Gottfried, died 3.5.65 and was buried  in "Orffyreischen Begräbnishaus" (Bessler's crypt) 

'docfeelsgood', a well known and respected forum member of Besslerwheel forum, sadly no longer with us, was convinced that the court blacksmith, Adam Krone might have passed on the secret of the wheel's construction to his children because there is a letter in which, in return for his daugjhter's hand in marriage, Bessler would share everything about his wheel.  There is no evidence that he did so, but just in case there is such a possibility the only potential source might be Margaretha Maria, who married Amtmann Kurtzbube in Fürstenberg.  I do not know whether Adam krone had any other children, but that is also a possble avenue of research.

I think the following explains that 'Amtmann' is a title. ' 

The Amtmann was usually a member of the nobility or a cleric. In towns, he was also often a member of the wealthy classes amongst the citizenship. He resided in an Amthaus or Amtshaus and collected taxes from the district (Amtsbezirk), administered justice and maintained law and order with a small, armed unit.  [wikipedia]

Alternatively a search for any descendants of his first daughter’s marriage to George Conrad Gercke might be worth researching.

Good luck to anyone who wishes to take on this task, please share anything you discover even if it results in a dead end.

EDIT - Some additional informationhas come in from a similar post I made on BW forum.  'Helmholtz' posted the  following.

"1. There was another daughter called Dorothea Christina Sophie who married Emanuel Christian Wolff.
2. One of her sisters married Johann Georg Musi, Hofgeismar, who still lived in 1792.
3. Not Gottfried but his widow died in 1765 and was burried in Carlshaven. I think it would be more interesting if one could trace Gottfried, not Crone, because Gottfried was familiar to Bessler, not Crone.

It was one of Besslers "Privilegia" that he himself as well as his descendants & compagnons should be remitted from paying taxes. When Bessler impregnated Crone's 17-year-old daughter, it might have been a good compensation to call him a compagnon not to share any secrets (why should he?) but the exemption of taxes."


JC