I have spent a large chunk of my life researching the life of Johann Bessler and trying to find as much written information about him, as possible. Bessler lived about three hundred years ago so clearly the only evidence we have available for study is handwritten or printed. Letters, newspapers and official reports plus drawings and illustrations is all we have, provided mostly by witnesses, or the inventor himself. I have tried to find every single document that relates to Bessler and I am pretty sure I’ve either published all of them or I have copies of other documents which are illegible for now. These latter documents are of more personal nature and do not offer any hope of further revelations about his wheels, although they do provide more information about his life after he left Kassel.
So it is kind of amusing to see people searching for new information in the documents I’ve already published. They seek invisible nuances of meaning in numerous pieces of text, suggesting inaccurate translations, or ambiguity or coded messages in seemingly straight forward prose. I think that this is because they have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out the secret of Bessler’s wheel, and are now scraping the barrel looking for some clue that everyone else missed. I understand why.
Bessler encouraged us to scour his works looking for hidden information, by implying in a number of ways that he had hidden information in his works. I know this is true and I have found much that was hidden, but for now I will just say that the information is real, it is there but in some cases it is not easy to find. Some clues are easy to find but have proved impossible to solve, so far. Others are there but their ambiguity is so confusing that not only is it difficult to know if they are a clue, but also if you have the correct interpretation even if they are indeed a clue. In my opinion the translations are generally correct. I know there have been disagreements over the precise translation of certain words, but I cannot find any advantage in changing or correcting those words, it does not seem to make any difference in our understanding of what Bessler meant.
One thing Bessler was very good at was providing a clue which once solved gave the correct answer twice so that you knew you had it right if you got both versions. I read almost daily, suggestions as to what Bessler intended us to understand from some clue or other and yet the discussion flows so far away from what the inventor was trying to tell us, that I’m tempted to jump in and point them in the right direction. But I never do because I’m still trying to finish my version of Bessler’s wheel and having got so far I’m determined to finish it. As I have said countless times, if it fails I will share everything; all the clues and what they mean and how they relate to the wheel. They are clear, easily understood but their construction is absolutely amazing. We often say Bessler was a genius for designing and building his wheel, well that is only half the story; his ingenuity in hiding the design of his wheel in plain sight of the world for more than 300 years is simply staggering.
Bessler must have intended from the very beginning to have included secret information about his wheel, but the reason for this seems difficult to determine. He set out to sell his machine for 100,000 Thaler. Obviously he was intent on selling it so why did he feel the need to include clues that would reveal how his machine worked? Surely he must have realised that someone might decipher his clues and learn his secret, before he had managed to secure full payment for the device.
It was obviously so difficult to find and decipher the clues, that perhaps he considered post humus acknowledgement of the discovery acceptable, but if that is so did he fear that his chance of getting payment was remote right from the beginning? That seems unlikely also, he was a born salesman and to my mind optimism is a key ingredient. So why did he risk his clues being discovered and deciphered?
It’s possible that his knowledge of codes and ciphers and all the religious, philosophical and esoteric traditions that were flourishing in his day persuaded him to embed much of this practice into his works, in the form of clues to the structure of his wheels, in the hope that his fame would outlast his lifetime.
It’s possible that his knowledge of codes and ciphers and all the religious, philosophical and esoteric traditions that were flourishing in his day persuaded him to embed much of this practice into his works, in the form of clues to the structure of his wheels, in the hope that his fame would outlast his lifetime.
JC
