Saturday 29 April 2023

Johann Bessler’s Tilted Pentagram.

One of the curious features of the pentagram embedded in the Weissenstein wheel shown in Johann Bessler’s Das Triumphans book, (and at the top of my blog) is that it is slightly tilted.  Given that he provides a strong indication that the pentagram is deliberate by including two of Euclid’s pentagram construction steps within the illustration, how come it ended up tilted?

In the illustration below I’ve shown the Weissenstein wheel with Euclid’s 11th proposition, next to it which ran thus::-

“To inscribe an equilateral and equiangular pentagon in a given circle….”

Below I refer to the padlock line (blue) which follows the diameter of the wheel.  I also use the rope line (red) which shows the path of the rope which actually passes behind the wheel.

By including the padlock line (blue) which clearly bisects the angle of 36 degrees formed by CAD at the point where the rope line (in red) meets the padlock line, implies that the result was deliberate and therefore for him to produce a tilted pentagram, either he introduced a deliberate error,  or he deliberately included it as another clue towards an eventual solution.  He emphasised the precision of the pentagram by drawing attention to the base of the triangle where it overlies a succession of hatching lines which are perfectly aligned with it.

Of course he might just have drawn the rope line in the wrong place or at the wrong angle, that could create a tilted pentagram; but given his skills in drawing, measuring etc, that is too unlikely to consider.

Knowing Bessler and his habit of including more than one solution to each clue, I’m sure that he tilted the pentagram for a reason. The rope line should form an angle of 54 degrees with the central pillar upright, 54 being an multiple of 18 degrees like every angle in the pentagram, but it is hard to be sure if it hits that angle.  I considered that he might have altered the angle to 55 degrees but such a small difference would be easily missed missed and I concluded that he didn’t. 

I tried many times over the years to make the pentagram sit straight with the upper chord exactly horizontal,  but failed and it wasn’t until I discovered a second clue which explained how and why the pentagram had a tilt. I’ll explain why it’s tilted in my next blog, next week.

I’m away up north with my granddaughter Amy until the next week.  She’s just hit 3.5 million followers, amy pohl on TikTok. 

JC


Saturday 22 April 2023

Is This the Real Solution to Climate Change? Yes, Absolutely!

 The Legend of Johann Bessler’s Perpetual Motion Machine.


There is so much talk about the problems the world faces, due to climate change.  Activists demonstrate and protest, demanding governments take action.  Many people question what can be done to cause real changes, but there is one change that is waiting to be discovered.  Something that could have a real impact on limiting climate change is by changing the way we generate electricity.

Amazingly there is a solution just waiting to be rediscovered.  Rediscovered?  Yes, incredibly the solution was found more than 300 years ago but was lost when the inventor died.  Recent research has unearthed information on the machine and how it worked encoded in certain books he published.

Sceptics have argued that the device wouldn’t generate electricity in any useful way, but this is not true.  All machines are scalable and one of these devices which are cheap to build and use energy which is freely available anywhere on the planet, could remove the need for fossil fuel totally.  Electric cars are making large inroads on the consumption of diesel, and home heating can eliminate the need for coal and gas.  

Let me explain…..

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 78). 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 realised 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 enough information about his wheel,to allow “someone with an acute and discerning mind, to build one”.

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 also my own account of Bessler’s life is also available from the links. It is called "Perpetual Motion; An Ancient Mystery Solved?" 

This biography contains a wealth of information about Bessler himself, as well as many quotes by Bessler and letters to him or about him from many interested parties. It tells of his life up to and including his years with Karl the Landgrave of Hesse Kassel, and what happened to him later.

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


Tuesday 18 April 2023

The Intriguing Riddle of the Letter-Numbers.

I know I’ve said this before but I find it puzzling to say the least, that the sheer ubiquity of the thinly veiled insinuations by Johann Bessler, that somehow the number five is of tremendous importance, seems to be largely ignored. Equally perplexing is the opposite adherence to just one other clue that mentions on a single occasion, “….the sound of about eight weights landing on the side towards which wheel turned”. It’s my impression that Bessler-world spends an inordinate amount of time fixated on this supposed fact, while ignoring Bessler’s admission that he had, on occasion, muffled the sound with felt.

Back in the late 1990’s I found the pentagram in Bessler’s first illustration in GB, and that eventually led me to track the ubiquitous number 5s through out his publications. 

He altered his forenames from Elias Bessler to Johann Ernst Elias Bessler.  This, coupled with the adoption of his strange pseudonym, Orffyreus through the application of the ancient Hebrew code, atbash, as it was known, led me to do the same to his initials and convert JEEB to WRRO..

E being the 5th letter of the alphabet, chimed with the pentagram being a circle of fifths, and there were two of them. This also connected with his comment in AP, that his weights operated in pairs. 

The letter J, the tenth letter of the alphabet, seemed superfluous, however once I applied the atbash cipher to JEEB and got WRRO, I understood the presence of the J and W.  The W can be seen to be composed of two Roman number 5s. Bessler always wrote his Ws as two interlinked Vs, suggesting again two 5s, or two fifths, were working together as a pair.

Notice the names of his sworn enemies, their surname initial and then their whole surname in the above picture from AP, Gartner, Wagner and Bosz.

The letter R is the 18th letter of the alphabet and is also the basic number used in the pentagram.  In fact every number in the pentagram is a multiple of that figure - 18, 36, 54, 72, 90 and 108. All of these are used in Bessler’s wheel. Notice there are two letter Rs in the images of his signature below, supporting the letter O. One for each  direction.

The letter O, serves Bessler well as a representation of his wheel, with a dot in the middle representing the wheel itself, it is known as a circumpunct,


A circumpunct is a circle with a dot or point in its centre. Bessler used it in place of the letter 'O' in Orffyreus, in almost all of his abbreviated signatures as well as many of his full ones.  The above two are typical examples. Amongst many other meanings it represents the sun and was the alchemical symbol for gold.

The above examples of coding that Bessler was able to use have one thing in common, they have proved remarkably convenient and apt for his purposes. How fortunate that the 5th letter E should have as it’s atbash equivalent the letter R, the 18th letter.  5 and 18, the basic numbers of the pentagram.  He chose the letter J, the 10th letter because it’s atbash equivalent is W to provide the information that two 5s were interlinked as pairs.  The letter O, the atbash equivalent of his B for Bessler, within the same cipher provided the circumpunct, the perfect symbol for his wheel.  

These simple facts raised questions in my mind.  Was it just coincidence that E/5 and R/18 were each in their precise positions alphabetically, to imply a relationship with the pentagram - or was there some other factor or agent which positioned those two letter/numbers to both be present at the right place?  One way to see if there was anything other than coincidence would be to see how long the alphabet has been in the same order.

It seems, from a brief search, that the alphabet order has always been the same.  This is because it was taught to children while they were learning to read and they taught their children and so on.  Of course letters were added and removed from time to time dependent on the language used.  But it can be traced back almost 2000 years before CE and those letters remained in their current position for at least 4000 years - but that doesn’t answer the question.  

One theory suggests every letter had a number with it in order to keep it in the right position, and the numbers were dropped over time.  But the atbash cipher wouldn’t work if the number/ letters were in a different position, which suggests that the placing was deliberately chosen. 

Someone, at some point, thousands of years ago arranged the order of the alphabet and it hasn’t changed much in most cases.  It would be interesting to find some confirmation that E/5 and R/18 were placed in their positions for the reason I suggested - or is that a stretch too far and it’s just a coincidence!

There is more to this than meets the eye and it’s something that may help us unravel Bessler’s puzzling “Declaration of Faith” in chapter 55 of his “Apologia Poetica”.  He placed 141 abbreviated Bible references at the end of short lines of text, which seem unconnected to the subject matter in the references.  Some of the references do not exist; for instance, in some cases the number of verses quoted are more than can be found. 

I’m currently investigating the output of Christian Weise, Bessler’s teacher who published ideas about the use of number/letter alphabets; also David Heinichen, promoter of his “Circle of Fifths” and the composer JS Bach and “the Riddle of the Number-Alphabet”.  The latter three knew each other, lived within a short distance of each other and at the same time. All three people were involved in the theory of music and the last two wrote extensively on the use of letter/numbers in both music and texts.

JC

Monday 10 April 2023

Update - Things Are Looking Up!

Finally the builders have left and I’m getting ready to move into my new workshop.  Originally they estimated finishing in January, but a few events  conspired to cause delays.

There’s one wall of bare plaster which I’m painting, then I’m building a work bench to fix to the end wall. I’ve got some of my wheel parts ready for assembly but I’m going to build a test rig just to test the action of one mechanism, which I’m confident will act as I designed it to.  I know how overconfident I sound but the truth is the prime mover is so simple to understand, once you know, it’s a forehead slapping moment…..


I have drawn the mechanisms on computer and also on paper.  There are five mechanisms, each with one weight.  There are ten small pulleys to guide five lengths of cord.  There are no springs. The Toys  page holds much information as do the drawings in GB and DT.  AP and DT also hold some good textual pieces of information.  For me there is little information in the rest of MT, but more may surface once the correct configuration is known.

I know people are sceptical and I don’t blame them, I’ve been positive so many times before (haven’t we all?) but never like this.  For most of the last year, I’ve been writing up details of the clues and the reasons for the meanings I’ve taken from them.  My concern is to try to show what and where the information is in the books, and what it means, and try to avoid dubious interpretations.  I think that if the wheel works that should remove any doubt, but if it doesn’t, I’m still certain that it is very, very close. 

Much of my code breaking has centred on the number five which Johann Bessler appeared to be obsessed with.  I think the number five might have been the one word he was worried about accidentally revealing in case it might give his secret away.  But that does not appear to have happened and perhaps he wasn’t speaking literally, but meant any accidental slip of the tongue.  

Given the very simplicity of his wheel, I half expected someone else to stumble upon the truth about the Prime Mover, before I had a chance to test it out on a model, and although there has been much discussion about certain clues Bessler sprinkled all over his works, and I thought that they were getting close, the focus of the talk moved away.

My one determination is to build and test my design before I release it to the public.  I’m not interested in patents, IPs nor am I concerned at someone else using my/Bessler’s design for their own purposes.  Having spent most of my life chasing information about Bessler, I would like to think it that I did something worthwhile with my life that would be remembered after I’m gone. 

My translations and publications of everything to do with Bessler will still be available for years to come, and probably better translations will appear.  But I like the idea that all information currently discussed and quoted from, originated from my hand and was the source most commonly used in this field of research.

So at last, maybe I’ll succeed in building a proof of principle machine.

JC


Saturday 8 April 2023

The Legend of Johann 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 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 78). 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 realised 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 enough information about his wheel,to allow “someone with an acute and discerning mind, to build one”.

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 also my own account of Bessler’s life is also available from the links. It is called "Perpetual Motion; An Ancient Mystery Solved?" 

This biography contains a wealth of information about Bessler himself, as well as many quotes by Bessler and letters to him or about him from many interested parties. It tells of his life up to and including his years with Karl the Landgrave of Hesse Kassel, and what happened to him later.

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 2 April 2023

Ink Blots - Clues - Deliberate or Accidental?

It’s my opinion that too much importance is being placed on simple printing errors.  These ink spots are leading to wild speculation and I don’t think it has anything to do with Bessler’s intentions. However seeing as people wish to discuss them and their validity, I’m willing to leave the comments public. 

The same applies to the numerology comments.  But any comparison with Ken’s work will still receive the spam label.

I shall continue to dismiss inkblots and numerology as having any meaning here, but we’ll see how things go.  I’m not afraid to consider a well-argued comment in favour of either, but I’m sceptical of my acceptance of either.

The comments on this blog are covering what appears to be subtle clues in the ink block prints.  I don’t think they are deliberate, I’m sure they are accidental.  What follows is part of an article on ink block printing by a teacher of the subject.  Thanks to https://www.recoverie.com/blog/block-printing-mistakes

“ARE YOU MAKING THESE BLOCK PRINTING MISTAKES?

BLOCK PRINTING MISTAKE 1: USING TOO MUCH INK!

This is by FAR the most common block printing mistake I see people making, and really, it's the most unfortunate.

...because the fact is, the amount of ink you use will drastically change the end result of your block prints.

SO:

In order to attempt to remedy this, I decided to break down a few of the most common block printing mistakes I see people making when it comes to block printing. 



BLOCK PRINTING MISTAKE 1: USING TOO MUCH INK!

This is by FAR the most common block printing mistake I see people making, and really, it's the most unfortunate.

When you take the time to design and carve out such an intricate pattern, it's weird to think that people treat the ink side of things as such an afterthought...

...because the fact is, the amount of ink you use will drastically change the end result of your block prints.”

I haven’t included the rest of the article because it covers more modern practices, but it does suggest that what some people believe there are deliberate clues which are in fact simply over inking of the wood block.

As I commented in my previous blog, 

That is just a typical ink block printing error, a little too much ink in one area and you get a blot. These prints that Bessler left us were designed to be used with his students, and the actual wood ink blocks were kept so he could print some for every new class. So the paper prints were kept for his own purposes, showing what each ink block depicted so he could easily see which one he wished to use. A minor print error such as the so-called severed head is just that, nothing more, no hidden meaning, no secret warning. Obviously he would print better copies for his future students.”

Unfortunately the trolls and naysayers have, by their abusive comments, persuaded me to remove the anonymous comments feature. I shall continue to post this blog up to and including the period when I publish my information about Bessler’s wheel. I’m sorry for those who enjoyed commenting, I shall miss them.

JC

The Bessler - Orffyreus Perpetual Motion Machine.

Johann Bessler, aka Orffyreus, exhibited a perpetual motion machine in 1712. Of course it wasn’t a perpetual motion machine (PM for Perpetua...