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 the outside of it, but it’s internal workings were kept hidden. This was because the inventor feared that his design would be copied and someone else might obtain credit for all his years of hard work looking for the solution. He followed the advice from the famous scientist, Gottfried Leibniz, who was able to examine the device, and recommended a number of demonstrations and tests designed to prove the validity of his machine without giving away the secret of its design.
A blog about Johann Bessler and the Orffyreus Code and my efforts to decipher it. I'll comment on things connected with it and anything I think might be of interest to anyone else.
The ‘Bessler’s Books’ button at the top of the right side panel, will take you to a page giving access to all Bessler’s books. Simply click ‘home’ to come back to my blog.
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Tuesday 26 July 2022
The True Story of Johann Bessler’s Perpetual Motion Machine.
Sunday 24 July 2022
Proof of Pentagram in the Merseburg & Weissenstein Drawings
Friday 15 July 2022
Johann Bessler’s Connectedness Principle - Apologies!
It seems that my blog about Johann Bessler’s Connectedness Principle met with considerable scepticism which I was disappointed to see, but I’m not surprised. I wrote my ideas without any supporting information or drawings and I think that this is not the place to do this unless I do it properly.
I am absolutely determined to publish everything as soon as I can but doing it a bit at a time will not convince anyone. So I’ve removed the details of the blog for now, but I will return to the subject later.
I am extremely busy with stuff to do with my recent house move and while the weather here is brilliant for what I have to do outside, I’m working hard during daylight hours and I’m too knackered in the evening to write or draw anything Bessler-related. I’m 77 years old but very fit (for my age!) and this work is all-consuming. I fell off a ladder a couple of days ago, nothing broken but a bit of bruising. I was reducing the height and depth of a 12 foot high laurel hedge and I and the ladder tipped backwards, depositing me on the lawn. Once I’ve caught up with these things which are so occupying my time and I have my workshop operating again, I shall return to my blog with more and better information.
Thanks for all your comments, but for now I must get on and finish with these mundane jobs so I can concentrate on the important things like Bessler’s wheel.
JC.
Tuesday 5 July 2022
Johann Bessler’s Perpetual Motion Machine Worked!
We generally refer to Johann Bessler’s wheel as a Perpetual Motion machine or device, but such machines are consistently said to be impossible and therefore Bessler must have been a fraud. However the evidence that he was genuine is remarkably convincing so how do we explain this apparent paradox?
Maybe it depends on the definition of perpetual motion. I think we are familiar with these definitions but do they apply to Bessler’s wheel? The answer must be ‘no’ for two reasons. Firstly such devices are impossible and would violate the law of conservation of energy, therefor his machine was not a perpetual motion device. Secondly the definition of perpetual motion states that in such a hypothetical machine there is no external source of energy, and Bessler said his machine was dependant on the actions of a number of weights, this implies that the weights actually supplied the energy to rotate the wheel continuously. The only potential source of energy from outside the machine was gravity- or rather, the effect of gravity on the weights.
Even Bessler pointed out that his machine could not be described as ‘perpetual’ for reasons such wear and tear, old age, accidental damage etc. ‘Continuous motion ’ seems a better term to me, it removes the unreasonable word ‘Perpetual’ which implies that it will turn for ever regardless of how many thousands of years!
But gravity is not an energy source. This is true but it is a force and can enable a weight to fall in a special configuration which may seem as though gravity had provided the energy. The energy is a property of the mass and it’s interaction with our planet and for instance waterwheels are driven by falling water, enabled by gravity.
But so far no one has found a way to design a system which allows the fallen weights to return to their former position ready to fall again - no one except Johann Bessler.
We have been repeatedly told that there is no design which can accommodate such an action, but is this true? I assume that Bessler succeeded therefore there is a special arrangement which allows the fallen weights to return to their pre-fall position, ready to repeat and repeat.
The energy provided comes from the action of gravity on the weights, so there is no mystery where the energy comes from. For repeat falls to be possible there must be a particular inclusive action by a part of the mechanism. Repeat falls are also vital for continuous overbalancing.
Bessler described the action of the wheel in this way.
“ …these weights are themselves the PM device, the ‘essential constituent parts’ which must of necessity continue to exercise their motive force (derived from the PM principle) indefinitely – so long as they keep away from the centre of gravity. To this end they are enclosed (page 21) in a structure or framework, and co-ordinated in such a way that not only are they prevented from attaining their desired equilibrium or ‘point of rest’, but they must for ever seek it, thereby developing an impressive velocity which is proportional to their mass and to the dimensions of their housing. This velocity is sufficient for the heaviness movingk and raising of loads applied to the axis of rotation.”
Bessler mentions this “PM principle” many times and it is this that provided the answer to the problem of returning the weights to their starting position. It is hard to see what else provided the energy when he states so clearly that the weights themselves “are the essential constituent parts…”, only gravity could provide the force which moved the weights.
The word gravity or gravitas used by Newton simply meant heaviness but he did not invent the word, but was the author of a crucial "shift of meaning": previously "gravity" denoted a quality, after Newton, a force. You could say that gravity formerly meant, the tendency of objects to fall toward the center of the earth but after Newton it meant the tendency of two objects to attract each other.
Given the successful tests, and the word of a highly respected man who inspected the interior of the machine - and Bessler’s own words, how can anyone doubt the veracity of his claims? But you have to put aside your prejudices and consider the facts. Was his machine a fake? Was the Landgrave of Hesse Kassel fooled, a man who had supervised the experiments by Denis Papin for ten years at the castle, before Bessler arrived, as well as being an honest broker during the 30 years war involving many European countries and their rulers? The answer must be a resounding no.
In the end, a perpetual motion (pm) machine is defined as needing no external source of energy, which is ridiculous, but means that Bessler’s wheel was definitely not a pm device. He ascribed the source of energy to moving weights, enabled by gravitational force. This is possible provided the fallen weights can be returned using the actions of the other weights.
Bessler found the solution and so can we.
JC
Johann Bessler, aka Orffyreus, and his Perpetual Motion Machine
Some fifty years ago, after I had established (to my satisfaction at least) that Bessler’s claim to have invented a perpetual motion machine...
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There are a number of images taken from Johann Bessler’s books which appear to support my previous post on Bessler’s Wheel Revealed. I shal...
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So the end of the year approaches and I’m still building my Bessler-Collins wheel. I’m trying to finish it before New Years Eve, but if I do...
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It still surprises me that some people dismiss the possibility of gravity being the chief originator of movement in Johann Bessler’s wheel. ...