Tuesday 27 September 2022

Is Johann Bessler’s Secret to be Found in Maschinen Tractate?

I think that the arrival of a working version of Johann Bessler’s wheel is imminent.  There is so much new research into his Maschinen Tractate (MT) going on, particularly in the Besslerwheel forum, that the chances of success have never been higher.  The whole purpose of the drawings and notes in that document was for the education of apprentices attending Bessler’s planned school for teaching various trades.  Given his obvious intention to leave clues to his wheel extant after his death, plus of course the hastily scribbled note on the front of the document, it is clear that the answer can be found within those pages.

The note on the front cover, famously read,  NB. May 1, 1733. Due to the arrest, I burned and buried all papers that prove the possibility. However, I have left all demonstrations and experiments, since it would be difficult for anybody to see or learn anything about a perpetual motion from them or to decide whether there was any truth in them because no illustration by itself contains a description of the motion; however, taking various illustrations together and combining them with a discerning mind, it will indeed be possible to look for a movement and, finally to find one in them."

There are other indications of his plan to encourage the reader to study the various drawings and through a comprehensive study of all them,  discover maybe one real movement or action which will lead to the solution. There are 141 drawings in total with the first 55 accompanied by brief notes each one about the adjacent drawing.  

I have made much of the clues and hints in his other three books, but have paid less attention to those in MT, but the current discussions about the drawings has raised considerable interest and I’m now pursuing a more thorough investigation of the MT drawings. There are a number of additional clues which seem to indicate something important but although you can make sense of what they could or might mean, it’s hard to confirm. I’ve discussed some of them in my web site at www.theorffyreuscode.com

Such urgent action by Bessler must have been caused by something that he felt endangered his secret and therefore he might have lost sole possession of the one thing that gave him hope for a his school, sound financial future, and fame.  He declares that it was due to an arrest, but having been written in May 1733 doesn’t necessarily mean that he was arrested at that date but could have been responding to an earlier event which made him reconsider what information might be found in his files.

You can acquire a copy of MT plus English translation from the panel on the right, towards the bottom or from the top where is says “Bessler’s books and a. Biography” .

JC

Thursday 22 September 2022

Bessler’s Wheel, Hope for the Future of This Planet.

This task we have each set ourselves, to discover the secret of Johann Bessler’s wheel, absorbs many of our waking moments, involves us, divides us, challenges us and yet we love it, are obsessed by it and cannot resist the draw of being the one who finally succeeds in unravelling the tangled web of clues, codes, hints and numerous drawings all designed to fixate our minds on the final answer.

This, I know, applies to me and many others and yet this whole dense perplexity drives us forwards in spite of the scientific orthodoxy that what we seek to achieve is impossible according to the laws of science.

The reason we continue to research and develop ideas in our unending pursuit of the truth about Bessler’s wheel is because, despite the wall of scepticism that greets our every suggestion, we firmly believe that there is the strongest documentary evidence that Bessler’s so-called Perpetual Motion machine actually existed, was thoroughly examined and tested over many years, by hundreds of people, most of whom were highly sceptical about the inventor’s claims. Not a single person found evidence of fraud.

Not only that, but Bessler himself gained mostly notoriety and yet despite being hounded throughout his life, never gave up on his firm stance that he had only told the truth that his wheel was genuine.  His pain and anguish caused by his detractors can be easily detected throughout his self-published books.  His constant refrain is that he is attacked for his determination to convince people that his claims were valid.  He identifies three ‘enemies’,  and they in their turn continue to make demands which he refuses to accede to for fear of revealing the secret of his machine.

So here we are, living on a planet which it is believed is being slowly cooked by the carbon dioxide emissions generated by our own actions in burning fossil fuels through various means over the last two hundred years or so.  Numerous ingenious solutions are offered but all are expensive to produce as well as maintain.  All have serious disadvantages of one kind or another, yet throughout these pages we constantly press for the minimal acceptance that we might have a potential solution, but there is no one of a senior respected position within the scientific community who dare take that, admittedly dangerous step, in favour of a complete and thorough examination of our case.  

The results could have a dramatic effect on the problem of global warming.  It is roughly estimated that even if we stopped all carbon emissions today, it would take a about 1000 years for temperatures to plateau but nevertheless the steady decrease of emission that would stop even a tenth of one degree would slow or reduce the effects we fear, such as sea levels rising, strange weather anomalies and population migration.

JC

Monday 12 September 2022

Johann Bessler, aka Orffyreus, his Perpetual Motion Files.

 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.


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 a number of years Karl aged and it was decided that after so long it was time the inventor left 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 thought 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 before the buyer was allowed to view the internal workings of the machine. But 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 and 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 

Take a look at my work on his “Declaration of Faith” at 

Also please view my video at 

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 

Printed books direct from the printer can be obtained from here

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.

These books contain the most important information available if you seek to find the solution to Bessler’s wheel.

JC

Sunday 4 September 2022

UPDATE - A Working Wheel?

This is just a short blog to update you on my efforts towards completing a working Bessler wheel.  I used to procrastinate but not any more, I’m desperate to finish it and test it, but my intentions have been thwarted, because I’m so busy working on the house and the garden. Since we moved I’ve lost 13 pounds without dieting!

We moved house four months ago and I hoped  to be in a new workshop soon after, but there has been so much to do that my plans have had to be put on hold.  So frustrating!  But slowly we are getting on top of the many tasks and I can get back to trying to build my version of Bessler’s wheel. I call it ‘my version’, because we cannot know for sure whether it’s the same design as his or not, but of course I believe it will be - and if possible I will prove it.

I’m aware that time is passing and I’m getting old,  and just in case I’m right and my wheel is similar in design to Bessler’s, I should share what I know now ….. but I still want to confirm to my own satisfaction, that I’m right!  Once I’ve tested it I will share everything.

I decided several years ago that if I succeeded in building a working model of Bessler’s wheel I wouldn’t attempt to patent it, it’s a waste of time and money - even if it was possible.  I would just publish the details widely and let nature take its course and in time the world will find it, use it and develop it into something really useful, practical, cheap and clean.

I am putting a back-up system into place that will publish everything I have if I become unable to do so for any reason.

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...