The True Story of Johann Bessler’s Perpetual Motion Machine.

The Legend of Johann 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 77). 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.

Not long after I was able to read the English translations of his books, I became convinced that Bessler had embedded a number of clues in his books. These took the form of hints in the text, but also in a number of drawings he published. Subsequently I found suggestions by the author that studying his books would reveal more information about his wheel.


For some ideas about Bessler’s code why not visit my web sites at http://www.theorffyreuscode.com/

Take a look at my work on his “Declaration of Faith” at http://www.orffyreus.net/

Also please view my video at https://youtu.be/5BWVKtpuzn0

It gives a brief account both the legend and some more detail about some of the codes.

The problem of obtaining a fair reward for all his hard work 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. He implied that he was prepared to die without selling the secret and that he believed that posthumous acknowledgement was preferable to being robbed of his secret while he yet lived.


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 his codes and I am confident that I have the complete design.


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's three published books are entitled "Grundlicher Bericht", "Apologia Poetica" and "Das Triumphirende...". I have called Bessler's collection of 141 drawings “Maschinen Tractate”, but it was originally found in the form of a number of loosely collected 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 use them in his planned school for apprentices.

You can order copies of the books from my website at www.free-energy.co.uk

Or from the top of the right side panel under the heading ‘Bessler’s Books’.

There are also links lower down on the right side panel.

As I often say, the solution to this device is needed now. Anything that might help cleanse the planet of pollution and help to reduce green house gas emissions, by providing a clean cheap alternative energy source should encouraged in its discovery and development to counter global warming.

JC

Suppose You Succeed! What’s Next?

What will you do if you succeed in building a device which is based on the same concept as Bessler’s wheel, or appears to be similar?  I know that I have different thoughts about the best way forward, and I change my mind from time to time.

I guess it depends on what you hope to get out of it, or even if you don’t want anything material, you just want it out there.  Most of us, in my opinion, want security for the future for themselves and their families, which means some kind of financial reward.  Others would like recognition as the rescuer of the lost Bessler technology; some would like acknowledgement of their part in its resurrection without the attendant fame.

Those who did not want anything other than seeing the machine recognised as a unique source of free and clean energy, would willingly share it with one or more people as long as their anonymity was maintained.

I understand and sympathise with all of these scenarios, as I have considered each and every one of them at length over many years. But in the end I came to the conclusion that family gets to put their point of view above all the others and security for your loved ones whether, old, middle-aged, youthful, child or baby; or friends, neighbours or people you admire or want to help - they all have a stake in your decisions and will likely affect what course you take.

So financial reward looks the most likely deciding factor in my opinion -  you might disagree, probably will - so how would you deal with success?

Many of us have expressed the opinion that patenting is the right way to go.  I have always believed that it would be a mistake for reasons I have explained many times here and I don’t want to go into it in detail again.  Others think that licensing a patent is one way do it, but licensing a product without a patent can be done if you know how to do it correctly. One approach is to get a provisional patent, where you'll pay a specific fee and complete a form. When you show it to possible buyers, you'll put the words "patent pending" on the item. You won't have to go through a complicated process of getting a patent this way and are still able to protect the invention from potential competitors who might steal your idea.

Another way to sell a product without needing to get a patent is to work with an invention submission company. There are many companies out there that offer help to inventors for a fee. A variety of services are offered, and some help you just get a patent  while others will help you with possible sales. 

Courtesy of https://www.upcounsel.com/licensing-a-product-without-a-patent

There are so many other ways to earn yourself what ever financial reward you believe you deserve. Interviews for  books and magazines both digital and printed; TV, radio; forums, social media.  Of course there may be documentaries and films. The possibilities are endless.

I mentioned films and one popular discussion point  over the years has been the important but difficult decision as to who would be the best actor to play Bessler. I have my ideas but I’ll wait and see if there are any suggestions.  😁

JC

Johann Bessler’s Legacies.

Bessler’s wheel is one obvious legacy and although there are some who believe that it’s potential power output is too limited to be of practical use, I disagree.  You only have to look at the enormous windmills which are spreading like a rash across the green hills of this country to see that it’s a matter of scale. As Bessler suggested, you could have several wheels in series mounted on the same axle to multiply the output.  The other legacy is buried within Bessler’s publications.

I’ve always felt I was destined to find the solution to Bessler’s wheel. Ever since I read the story of  ‘The Wheel of Orffyreus’, as written by Rupert T. Gould, in his book, ‘Oddities’, I knew in my heart that here was a story I could tell and a mystery I could try to solve.  Although that was more than 50 years ago, and despite all the years during which I researched the life and times of Johann Bessler, I never doubted that I would discover the secret of Bessler’s Perpetual Motion machine.  But between knowing you have the answer and proving it lies a significant gap!

I’m sure that everyone else who is working in this field feels the same, but over the years gradually, bit by bit, I’ve discovered and understood many of Bessler’s clues, hints, inferences and apparently non-sensical text. There is one thing to take away from what I’ve learned about Johann Bessler - well actually several things - but in his publications there are no mistakes, everything in them is deliberate even if it looks wrong.  There are no errors and therefore anything that might seem crazy is actually a clue to be identified, interpreted and understood.  It is also true that many of these apparent mistakes or odd phrasings that are actually clues, also contain two or even three ways of getting the same answer. This is how he confirmed if you were on the right track.

Having said that, I’m still learning, discovering new nuances of each clue which can sometimes lead you on to a new discovery. In my opinion, once the solution is revealed and the amazing mind that found it originally, and then hid it in plain sight, with very few overt indications, all those who sneered and jeered and dismissed his claims as fanciful nonsense, will be astounded and amazed at the beauty, intricacy yet simplicity of his work.  His geometrical connections and inferences will become a subject of study in years to come as more and more clues and codes are identified and deciphered.

One other thing I’d like to comment on; the apparent paradox of being so extremely secretive about his machine and how it worked, that he dare not even utter a single word which might give away his secret - and yet placing literally hundreds of clues which if solved could reveal the secret of his perpetual motion machine. Why?  In my opinion, he was confident that no one would ever decipher his clues, so the point must have been either to have given public lectures demonstrating his clever use of the codes and the general obfuscation which hid the clues - or he hoped to sell a book detailing all his clues and how to understand them - or he intended to use the clues and codes in his apprentices school. Why else?

JC

Johann Bessler and His Wonderful Machine

Some people believe that Johann Bessler built a machine that could turn continuously enabled purely by the effect of gravity on several weights.  

These weights were configured in such a way that the wheel was permanently out of balance.  This feature of the wheel is supported by several witnesses at different times to the fact that the wheel had to be tied down, or locked, once it was brought to a stop. Once released it would immediately begin to turn again, quickly reaching its top speed when not under load, of around 50 rpm. Among numerous tests he also allowed one wheel to turn for 54 days.  I am one of those who believe Bessler’s, so-called Perpetual Motion machine, was genuine.

Of course I’m familiar with the immediate response of all those (everyone else!) who’ve been taught that such machines are impossible but there is so much more to this story than meets the eye.  Right from the beginning, aged about 15 years old, I was convinced that Bessler’s machine was genuine. But at such a young age it might be suspected that I was naive, ignorant or easily misled etc, but no, the facts documented in the legend are not open to dispute, and therefore they should be examined by teams of funded researchers. A quick and fair study of the facts will convince anyone of the truth.

Fortunately there is an amazing group of people from all around the world who share a common belief that Bessler’s claims were genuine and that the machine needs to reappear now, just at the time it is most needed - to provide clean, free energy. They (you) are striving to find the secret of Bessler’s wheel.

The vast number of people have no idea that Bessler’s wheel even existed, let alone that it worked.  The struggle to get official recognition that his machine was genuine is proving to be a momentous task, and it is widely acknowledged by his supporters that there is really only one way to get that recognition and that requires a working model to be revealed in all the media that abounds in our world.

When I first began to publish my books about and by Johann Bessler, I imagined the world would be fascinated by my work.  I was convinced that within a very short span of time Bessler wheels would have been invented; there’d be thousands of them in every country generating electricity; the combustion engine would rapidly becoming obsolete; windmills redundant; climate change halted; pollution reduced. I was wrong; I was too impatient, but we will get there……eventually.

JC