Could Bessler have Given More Convincing Demonstrations?

We’ve often discussed Johann Bessler’s predicament; how could he convince a potential buyer that his claims that his wheel could turn continuously with no obvious external source of energy were genuine, without allowing the buyer access to the internal workings of the wheel?  Patent laws were at their very beginning and weak, short lived and open to abuse.  Many patents that were granted were either for unproven designs, or accidentally duplicated for different applicants - and provisionally for ten years, although both Newcomen and Savery had their patents extended before they ran out.

So what are the choices, and how do you prove that the machine is genuine?  Only by demonstrating what it can do; make it as easy as possible to show that there can be no connection with any external source of energy; run an endurance test to prove it can run continuously, provide alternative bearing sets open to thorough examination - and one more thing.  Find a person of unimpeachable reputation, who could not and would not allow himself to be associated with any fraudulent, criminal activity.  Persuade him to examine the machine and if he agrees that it is real, issue a certificate endorsing and approving the inventor’s claims.  Karl, the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel was such a man.  I’m not going to discuss the Karl’s impressive reputation here, it’s in my biography of Bessler, but he was well regarded throughout the various nations in Europe and was a trusted negotiator for peace among the various warring nations of the time.

These ideas came from the mind of Gottfried Leibniz in close discussion with Bessler and seem to have encouraged the inventor to go ahead with the plans in the hope that they would result in a sale.

Bessler was not alone in keeping the details of design secret.  Thomas Newcomen went to great lengths to keep the details of his steam engine design secret.

“In his ‘The Steam-Engine of Thomas Newcomen’, the author L.T.C. Rolt says that drainage in mines was just as big a problem on the continent as it was in Britain, and mines owners there were naturally interested in the Newcomen engine. 'A number of continentals visited Britain and at least one disguised himself as an artisan to discover the secrets of the engine.’”

“ The fame of this excellent pumping engine soon spread across England and many people came to see it, both from England and from foreign nations. All of them wanted to make use of the invention at their own mines and exerted themselves to acquire the knowledge needed to make and erect such a wonderful engine, but the inventors, Newcomen and Calley (Newcomen's original assistant) were exceedingly jealous and very anxious to preserve exclusively for themselves and their children, the knowledge of making and operating their invention, which had cost them such unprecedented toil. Even the Spanish ambassador to the Court of St. James's who came all the way from London with a large suite of foreigners, to see the engine, was not even allowed to enter the engine house however large a reward he offered and had to return very dissatisfied without having seen anything but the wonderful results, that this small engine was able to produce.'

Above quotations from my book, “Perpetual Motion, An Ancient Mystery Solved”.

Could Bessler have adopted a similar method?  I doubt it because his machine was so much simpler and cheaper to build, and whereas Newcomen insisted on providing relatives in the earlier installations to help operate and train the owners while controlling knowledge of the technology involved, Bessler’s machine was simple and easy to build and operate.  We know this because Karl commented thus.

He could only try what he did try, and apart from asking a lower price there isn’t much he could do to improve his chances of a sale.  Subsequently lowering the price might be thought of as an admission that he had asked too much in the first place which might make people think he was just greedy.

What is beyond question is that his wheel was enabled to turn continuously by the force of gravity on the weights.  This is an extraordinary situation; for more than 300 years we have been taught that what Bessler did is impossible.  Clearly it is not impossible and therefore what we have been taught is wrong.  At some point in the future a version of Bessler’s wheel will appear and the scientific institutions will have sit up and take notice.  I can’t wait!

JC