The search for the answer to a perpetual motion machine has been going on for hundreds of years if not thousands, and yet we seem to be no nearer a solution now then anyone else has been, apart from Johann Bessler’s machine. How come he succeeded when no one else, as far as we know, even got near?
According to the man himself, he had two things things in his favour; firstly his extensive practical knowledge in the various trades commonly practised in his day; and secondly his freedom to work on the project all day, every day for as long as it took.
While I accept his expertise and probably his skillset in numerous trades was far in advance of the majority of people today, I’m not sure that that would give him much of an advantage over today’s wealth of information garnered from the internet. But there was one advantage he had over the rest of us and that was that each trade he learned required a hands-on approach, there was no way of learning from books or in a classroom, and I believe this gave him a unique practical knowledge not available to anyone else. He claimed expertise in each trade but I doubt that each of his mentors would have assessed his work as exemplary, although it could have been adequate, and he could have made good use of the knowledge gained.
Clearly Bessler had a quick and clear understanding of each of the crafts he learned and this stood him in good stead. But to return to the second advantage he claimed, that of being able to work exclusively on his project, he wasn’t married then so he only had to feed and house himself, but he had to acquire raw materials with which to build his mechanisms, which he would have to pay for, just as we do today. He still had to find ways to earn enough for all his needs and he had a reputation for having good medical knowledge, another skill he learned during his wandering years, and which he was called upon occasionally to practice, thus earning himself some income. He also claimed to be able to repair watches, probably mainly pocket and fob watches. With his experience in many areas of life, he had the means to earn enough for his purposes.
So when it comes down to it, his chief advantage seems to have been his experience in physically working in these trades. But later he decided to adopt the trade of organ maker, learning from his younger brother, Gottfried. This was a complicated and quite technical device but it used numerous items which Bessler found useful and adapted for his wheel. He did build some organs but it was only as a means to an end, and gave him knowledge not necessarily accessible elsewhere.
By reading the above you might think I have trivialised his skills as nothing more than those of a journeyman, but far from it. I believe he had a huge breadth of knowledge specific to his needs and the skills to apply them, but above all he had the intellectual ability to work out how to design and build a working model of his wheel. Following numerous trial and error experiments he gradually found his way to the correct mechanical arrangement.
His interests were not limited by his desire to build a perpetual motion machine. As we all know he died while constructing a windmill, but as was typical of Bessler he introduced the idea of a windmill with a vertical axle, allowing it to take advantage of the wind from any direction. He designed a carillon and wrote the music for it. He devised a submarine which could be moored under water with an air supply from one of his gravity wheels. He offered to design and build a leather tanning factory. He offered to build a fountain driven by his gravity wheel for “the amusement of gentlefolk”. There is so much more but these examples demonstrate the breadth and depth of his knowledge.
And when you see the true ingenuity of his coding system you will have no doubt that this man was no simple peasant but a misunderstood genius
PS - Don’t forget my granddaughter Amy needs your help, if you feel like donating to her crowdfunding site, your kindness will be gratefully received. My thanks go out to those generous people who have already donated. She is improving and our most fervent wish is that she can walk out of the clinic under her own steam, so-to-speak, hopefully before the end of this year.
Look at this
https://www.tiktok.com/@amyepohl/video/6825374007550905605?fbclid=IwAR1a79JP3xBtduq2RZbPP7dql-NvI_uqJ6_nA6Dx7iNE_5am9K44CqvlKks
And this https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-our-amy-to-walk-again
JC
And when you see the true ingenuity of his coding system you will have no doubt that this man was no simple peasant but a misunderstood genius
PS - Don’t forget my granddaughter Amy needs your help, if you feel like donating to her crowdfunding site, your kindness will be gratefully received. My thanks go out to those generous people who have already donated. She is improving and our most fervent wish is that she can walk out of the clinic under her own steam, so-to-speak, hopefully before the end of this year.
Look at this
https://www.tiktok.com/@amyepohl/video/6825374007550905605?fbclid=IwAR1a79JP3xBtduq2RZbPP7dql-NvI_uqJ6_nA6Dx7iNE_5am9K44CqvlKks
And this https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-our-amy-to-walk-again
JC
