Thursday 7 April 2022

Johann Bessler and a Few Coincidences?

There seem to be some related features within Bessler’s documents which may be coincidental, or not - so I have tried to draw conclusions from them by assuming that they are deliberate.  I’m sure some will disagree but I think it worth pointing them out, just in case they were intended to catch our eye for some reason.

It’s sometimes easy to see things as coincidences rather than intentional occurrences.  For instance I like the fact that Bessler stresses the importance of the number 5, and 55.  My birthday is on the 5th day of month 2, obviously a coincidence, how could it be otherwise?  I was born in 1945, Bessler died in 1745 just another coincidence.  There is one more example which I’ll mention later. 

The document I have always referred to as the “Toys” page is numbered MT 138, 139, 140 and 141.  This is logical as it follows MT 137. There are actually five drawings on the page lettered A B C D and E plus what appears to be a late addition of a hand drawn figure with the number 5 adjacent. So we appear to have four pages, apparently with five drawings labelled with letters plus one more number 5.

At first sight I believed the intention was to show that this page was intended to replace four others, destroyed or buried, after his arrest.  But this assumes that either he was charged but not imprisoned otherwise he might not have had time to prepare for searches or confiscation of his documents, so the charges he was accused of made him hurry to take precautions against such actions against him.  This is possible, but why would he need to remind himself of four pages buried or destroyed?

The total of 141 is interesting.  It seems as though he wanted to get to that number and not beyond, but numbering the ‘Toys’ page 138 would seem to have been good enough.  141 is not a prime number and it’s only factors are 3 times 47.  If we turn to MT 47 we discover that inserted within  the drawing which is numbered 47, another number 47, twice in fact because one is the mirror image of the other so there are three number 47s present on the page. Is this a pointer to the number 141 or the reverse or is it just a coincidence?



Bessler’s ‘Declaration of Faith’ which appears in his “Apologia Poetica” chapter 55, contains numerous Bible references, 141 to be precise.  So if we assume the same link as before, what is the relevance of the number 47?  The first thing which occurred to me was Euclid’s 47th proposition. Was Bessler drawing attention to it for some reason.

In any right triangle, the sum of the squares of the two sides is equal to the square of the hypotenuse.” It’s also a 3, 4, 5 triangle, see below.  I’m sure I needn’t go into any detail about this, but the figure also relates to the Freemasons symbol as you can see further below. Maybe this was the connection he sought to hint at.



There other pointers to the Freemasons and I guess it’s up to people if they think the above is relevant.  But most likely, in my opinion it points to Pythagoras who is believed to be the originator of much of Euclid’s Propositions, and thus to geometry, which ties in with Bessler’s second portrait in his Das Triumphirende book (DT)

One other coincidence for now, which I wrote about in 2019.  I wrote “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, D, C, X, L, I, W 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 and why did he stop,there? It could have been the year his solution was discovered - what a coincidence that would have been.  If it had, everyone would have believed that Bessler had somehow predicted the future, but it didn’t happen, and if it had, it would still be just a coincidence.

In my experience I find that Bessler added more clues, hints and implications as and when they occurred to him, consequently one often comes across new and exciting ‘coincidences’ seemingly added almost as an afterthought.

Of course the following is just  a happy coincidence, my new house which I hope to move into before the end of this month is numbered 47.  No!  I wouldn’t buy a house because I liked its number!  And I’m not into the Freemasonry.

JC

30 comments:

  1. did you mean 141 is not a prime number?

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    1. Yes, thank you Jeff. I seem to have omitted the word ‘not’.

      JC

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  2. This short video will guide you all to the reasons that Bessler kept using the number 141 so much. It's significance to him goes far beyond what everyone here suspects...

    https://youtu.be/QG_Xdf0FIus

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    1. wow...everything that psychic said fits besselr perfectly!

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    2. Wikipedia .. Psalm 141 .. This psalm contains a prayer for deliverance from 'the enticements and the oppression of the wicked' and for seeking 'divine support to live a sinless life', probably a prayer of an ordinary worshipper,..

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    3. I have a simpler numerological interpretation of the number 141. Notice that if you subtract the last digit from the middle digit, you get 1(4 - 1) = 13. This could have been Bessler's way of focusing attention on MT 13 which I am convinced was the next to last design he was working on when he had his "rare dream" that energized him enough so could overcome his depression and then go on to get a similar, but modified wheel running successfully. MT 13 is the only drawing in all of MT that has a smiling face in it! Why? If it was the wheel that he finally turned into a runner, then it certainly would have put a nice happy smile on his face as well.

      Sayer of Sooths

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    4. Thank you for posting that information anon 17:43. I did read about the angel numbers but I’m not convinced that there is anything meaningful to be obtained from them. There are so many items about them on google I think the people behind them, must be well funded - but for me they are less verifiable than Bessler’s wheel without a working model, nor plans for one.

      So I think prefer my speculations, but I’m open to other suggestions.

      JC

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    5. Thank you SoS, it’s an interesting way of getting to 13, but there other ways of obtain any MT number, 1+4=5, 1+4+1=6, 14+1=15, etc.

      JC

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  3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/141_(number)

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    1. Thank you, I can assure all you I scoured google for any potential meanings for the number 141, but I still think that the most interesting thing about it, is that 3 x 47 = 141
      JC

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    2. Hmm...how about writing 141 as 141 = 3 x 47, but then adding the digits in 47 so you get 3 x (4 + 7) = 3 x (11) = 33 from it? That number, 33, also appears in MT 13 as the two letter "C's", each with an alphanumeric value of 3, that form the eyes of the smiling face in that wheel. 33 was the year that Jesus was crucified which is believed to have happened on Friday, April 3rd, 33 AD. Many also believe Jesus was 33 years old when he was crucified.

      I see this number 141 as evidence of Bessler's religious beliefs and also as a clue from him directing our attention to MT 13 in particular. No other drawing in MT gets that kind of religious symbolism attached to it. The MT 13 wheel's design must have been a very special to Bessler. Maybe it should be given a lot more consideration by those trying to duplicate Bessler's wheels?

      Sayer of Sooths

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    3. Lol! The more I look at that smiley MT13 wheel, the more it reminds me of "Grandfather Clock" from the old Captain Kangaroo Show which was a popular kids' show in the '50's in the US. The captain was played by Bob Keeshan. The clock's dial was animated with moving eyes and mouth and the captain could only talk with the clock when it was awake. At the beginning of this show you can see the captain having a brief conversation with the clock before it falls asleep on him:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Soz_E3jXXhY

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    4. Thx for the trip down memory lane, anon 02:34. I watched that show as a kid and I was fascinated by his talking grandfather clock. At that age I actually thought the clock was alive!

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    5. I also remember that talking grandfather clock, but I found him kind of scary. Good thing he couldn't move around and have arms and hands so he could grab at things around him!

      Bessler didn't like people comparing his wheels to clocks because that implied that his wheels had springs inside of them that needed to be wound up like those in clocks. Nothing inside of his wheels needed to be wound up to make them run. Only his skeptics like Wagner were certain that they did. But, Bessler did write that his wheels were alive in a way because they were self moving like animal life. Maybe he thought that God gave him the secret of putting a living soul into his wheels?

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  4. I’ll take another look SoS, I know others have speculated about MT 13, so I’ll see if I can see if there is anything special about it.

    JC

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    1. I had a look at MT 13 to refresh my memory and I don’t think there is any potential in its design, so it’s not a design I will reconsider.

      JC

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    2. Considering the MT13 as presented by B, I've been working on it a bit, and I think if I had to come back to it to save the world lol. I'd draw the weight as a marble descending towards noon and not as a weight ascending...

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    3. correction: If we consider the MT13 as presented by B, I worked a little on the subject, and I think that if I had to come back to it to save the world lol. I would draw the weight as a ball that descends towards 1pm and not as a weight that rises lifted by a pendulum...

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    4. I tend to agree with SoS about the importance of MT13. I think Bessler personally built it and was surprised when it didn't work as he expected it would. Basically it's just a ramp design with the little B wheel acting like a floating ramp. We all know how these ramp designs turn out. The torque of the wheel's overbalance isn't strong enough to fully lift any one of its levers. As it tries to lift a lever the wheel's overbalance is quickly lost and it just sits there motionless.

      I think the failure of MT13 made Bessler realize he had to find a different way to lift those levers headed toward 12 o'clock without ramps or contact with anything like the little B wheel attached to something stationary on the axle like that big crescent pendulum weight which forms the smiling mouth SoS mentioned. That meant using only using the torque of the other levers as they swung around inside of a turning wheel. To connect those levers together he had to use something like ropes between them. There is no other way unless you are going to use some arrangement of pulleys or rods.

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    5. Anon 20:16.

      Yes, you need to have a collection of levers whose attached end weights start out overbalanced and stay that way as their carrier drum rotates. That means that the levers have to be constantly swinging about their pivots during drum rotation in a very carefully coordinated way if the offset center of gravity of the weights is to remain stationary on the wheel's descending side during drum rotation and the torque on the axle is to remain constant.

      It sounds easy enough until you actually try to do it! I can see why it took B so long to find a design that worked. The big question I have always had is was B's design the only one that can work? He seems to suggest that it is. If he's right, then only one of those chasing a thousand different pm wheel designs today will have any hope of duplicating B's one workable design and that assumes that he is actually working on that design. If there are several designs that can work, then they may have been completed by other inventors in other centuries, but since they didn't write any books to promote them, they were all lost and we'll probably never know anything about them.

      I just wish B had been less stubborn and sold his invention for a lower and more affordable price. He could have saved a lot of future people a lot of hard and frustrating work and we all now could see if and how his original design would have been improved upon over the last three centuries.

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  5. With regard to angel numbers, they were thought to have originated with Pythagoras, however he added various other effects to his mathematical and geometrical teaching. These were largely ignored until a certain Dow Balliot published a number of books in the subject in the 1800s, and subsequently Doreen Virtue published numerous books on Pythagoras’ work, and she coined the name ‘Angel Numbers’.

    Since she began her career as a New Age Numerology teacher of sorts, Doreen Virtue has since denounced her work and time in this field. She has since transformed her energy into following the Christian path and worked to have her name removed from nearly all of her previously published works.

    I think this affirms my belief that the whole system of angel numbers is a fraudulent invention and best ignored.

    JC

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    1. 141 could be representative of the 5 mechanisms, which you are pretty convinced of.
      If there are 5 weights and 4 are in the centre, then as one comes in one side, another goes out the other side.

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    2. Yes you might be right. I’ve tried every variation I can think of to try and find a reason for B to select the number 141 to stop at. He’s used a similar method before but it was easier to solve because there additional clues.

      JC

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  6. Here’s another remote possibility.
    1—3—8
    1—3—9
    1—4—0
    1—4—1
    —————-
    4-14-18 = 18, 18. = 36

    18 is the basic number of the pentagram, all angles are multiples of 18.

    JC

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  7. ? 47 is rotated 180 degrees not mirrored

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  8. MT47 is a really weird machine. The scissor mech on its right side looks like it was supposed to hoist all the metal balls that filled half of the compartments of the large wheel up to the top ball rack H in a single movement during half of the large wheel's rotation. Then, after the balls were unloaded there, the scissor mech would retract during the next half rotation of the large wheel so that it could pick up the next load of metal balls from the bottom ball rack I so it could again hoist them all up to ball rack H during the next half rotation of the large wheel. At all times the slots on the large wheel's descending side would be filled the metal balls.

    The design is mechanically complex and can never be self working as long as the number of balls being lifted per minute equals the number descending in the large wheel's rim slots per minute.

    It's strange that the drawing numbers were just carved into the wood printing block in that upside down, reversed way. Maybe Bessler got so distracted while making the block that he forgot to add the drawing number like he did in early MT drawings? That place he carved the two numbers was the only place still raised and large enough on the block where he could carve the numbers. Then again, maybe MT47 was made years before he planned to make MT and that was why it had no drawing number?

    Maybe having the two 47's rotated 180 degrees from each other was Bessler's way of telling the reader that the scissor mech on the right went up during 180 degrees of rotation of the large wheel and then came down during the next 180 degrees of its rotation?

    jason

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    1. Actually, there are scissor lifts on both sides of the large wheel and as one is collapsing to pick up another load of ball weights, the other one is expanding and carrying its load of ball weights up to the rack H. It's hard to make out the collapsed scissor lift on the left side of MT47 though.

      Bessler could have attached another rod B from the large wheel axle's right end crank down to the right side of the rocking arm D, but I guess he didn't think it was necessary. Seeing how complicated this contraption is shows me how desperate Bessler must have been to find something that worked.

      I found this 1660 wood cut print of Fludd's gravity mill design which Bessler probably also saw. It may have given him the idea for MT47 and other MT machines only he decided to use metal ball weights instead of water.

      http://www.windmillworld.com/mills/images/fludd1618.gif

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    2. I think I know exactly why Bessler labeled this MT drawing number 47!

      I counted the number of those little weight balls on the side of the large wheel facing us and it looks like 22. I then counted the number of balls on the top track "H" and it was 11. The number of balls on the bottom track looks like it's also 11. That means that the total number of balls in the machine is 44 and at any time half of them are on the wheel and descending. Also, whenever the lift on one side is dumping its 11 balls on track "H", the other lift is at its lowest position and collecting 11 balls from track "I".

      Bessler shows two number 47's on the bottom part of the drawing and I agree with Jason that he had to place them there because it was the only place to engrave the numbers. If you add the digits in 47 you get 4 + 7 = 11. I think this was his way of numerologically telling us that whenever 11 balls are being dumped on the top track "H" which is indicated by the upper and upside down 47, then 11 balls are being removed from the bottom track "I" indicated by the lower and right side up 47.

      I consider this yet another MT drawing where we see an example of Bessler's excellent numerological skills being used to convey information to us.

      Sayer of Sooths

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    3. Nice analysis as always, SoS. I checked and your counts of the little balls in MT 47 is accurate. Maybe only one in thousands looking at that drawing even bothered to count them like you did.

      I think this machine is one that Bessler actually built and then had the disappointment of seeing it couldn't work. If one's machine always lifts the same number of weights that it drops and they both travel through the same vertical distance, then those dropping weights better be losing more GPE than the rising weights are gaining or it can't be a runner. All the other OB wheels out there can't do that but somehow Bessler's could. The big question is how did he make the weights in his wheels do that?

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The True Story of Bessler’s Perpetual Motion Machine.

On  6th June, 1712, in Germany, Johann Bessler (also known by his pseudonym, Orffyreus) announced that after many years of failure, he had s...