A Potential Solution to Climate Change.
We are being bombarded with news of natural disasters from all around the globe; record high temperatures, forest fires, floods, melting icecaps, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes. All of these are happening with increasing frequency and intensity. The cause is said be global warming. This is attributed to the greenhouse effect and the blame for that is laid firmly at the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation.
More often and louder is the clamour for something to be done on a global scale. Everyone seems to be in agreement, we need a way of producing cheap, clean energy but what? I won’t cover the multitude of ideas and methods being used or suggested - in my opinion these are all temporary or location critical measures which don’t really alleviate the problem.
I’ve had this blog since 2009 and I’ve suggested that Bessler’s wheel could provide a source of cheap, clean, low tech energy in at least a dozen blogs over the years but out there in the real world, no one ever takes any notice! Why? Because they have been taught that his machine was impossible and therefore must have been a fraud.
There is plenty of excellent evidence that it was genuine which is why thousands of individuals all over the world are striving to duplicate his machine. This device could generate electricity using just the force of gravity, but of course without a working model to prove it, it is dismissed as wild fantasy, and a chance to start to combat the effects of global warming missed.
But just in case someone, somewhere happens to chance upon this blog and decides to find out more about Johann Bessler, aka Orffyreus, I’m repeating the story of his machine below. Maybe it might attract the attention of an open-minded researcher who has the backing of an engineering facility. I would be amazed if that happened, but let’s face it; it has to happen some time, and the sooner the better.
In the mean time we lone amateurs continue to experiment, analyse and investigate, building our models on a shoestring, hoping for success, while the world around us continues to burn, flood and shake it’s foundations.
So here is the story of Johann Bessler’s amazing machine.
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, who was able to examine the device, he devised a number of demonstrations and tests designed to prove the validity of his machine without giving away the secret of its design.
Karl the Landgrave of Hesse permitted Bessler to live, work and exhibit his machine at the prince's castle of Weissenstein. Karl was a man of unimpeachable reputation and he insisted on being allowed to verify the inventor's claims before he allowed Bessler to take up residence. This the inventor reluctantly agreed to and once he had examined the machine to his own satisfaction Karl authorised the publication of his approval of the machine. For several years Bessler was visited by numerous people of varying status, scientists, ministers and royalty. Several official examinations were carried out and each time the examiners concluded that the inventor's claims were genuine.
Over several years Karl aged and it was decided that the inventor should leave the castle and he was granted accommodation in the nearby town of Karlshafen. Despite the strong circumstantial evidence that his machine was genuine, Bessler failed to secure a sale and after more than thirty years he died in poverty. His death came after he fell from a windmill he had been commissioned to build. The windmill was an interesting design using a vertical axle which allowed it to benefit from winds from any directions.
He had asked for a huge sum of money for the secret of his perpetual motion machine, £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 viewing the internal workings. 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.
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 76). 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.
Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”
