Thursday 18 January 2024

The True Story of Johann Bessler’s Perpetual Motion Machine

I am temporarily curtailing my frequent blogs in order to concentrate on building a working model of Bessler’s perpetual motion machine.  I have interpreted sufficient clues to make a device which is based upon his own machine.  I will publish the result as soon as I can.

In the mean time please read the following account of his life.

JC

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 16 January 2024

UPDATE - and BESSLER’s Wheel Today.

 My own project to build a version of Bessler's wheel in order to prove that I know how to do so, is progressing slowly and steadily.  I’m using old bits and pieces from previous attempts and having to adapt them to their new purpose which is probably slowing things down, but it is less costly than buying in new material. 

Now that I have accepted that nothing will prove the design other than an actual working model, I have enjoyed being in my workshop again, but I wish the temperature outside would warm up a lot.  It’s currently -4 degrees Centigrade which is equal to 24.8 degrees Fahrenheit and I can’t  heat the garage enough to make any difference.  But I wrap up and it’s not so bad.

The wheel is three feet in diameter, marked out in fifths, like a pentagram. There are five mechanisms and five weights.  I am working on constructing the levers which isn’t too problematic.  I can see where the cords will pass and I have the ten pulleys marked out approximately.

I thought the cords might present a problem because there would be times in their action when the cord would loosen, and I would have to design some way of gathering the loose cord to hold it ready to tighten again.  I considered attaching the pulleys to a spring loaded short lever, but in the end I found that it won’t be a problem because the falling weight which will pull the pre-falling weight just 30 degrees, acts at exactly the same time as the pre-falling weight, so the cord always remains taut.  Both actions are simultaneous.

—————————————————————————————————————-

On another matter, I see the comments previously have cast doubt on the power obtainable from Bessler’s wheel.  Bessler himself said he believed a wheel of some 20 ells in diameter would be possible.  

From my book about Bessler, “ John Rowley, master of mechanicks, for making a dam before and behind the engine, for clearing the old foundation, for setting down a new frame, 26 foot long and 11 foot high, broad enough for the twelve foot wheel for the new wheel of twenty-four foot diameter and twelve foot broad; for the new brass engine with brasses to the crank, forcing rods and a new crank et. . . £740.”  

From this we can see such a large wheel was readily achievable 

A 20 ell diameter wheel would be about 37 feet wide, and Bessler was obviously answering a simple question about what might be achievable. But  having a wheel of such a large diameter is not necessary, when you could mount several wheels on a single axle, thus multiplying the potential output many times over, while keeping the diameter smaller.  Modern designs would adapt a wheel to minimise the space required. 

Wind turbines can be over 300 feet high and more than 200 feet wide  Steam turbines can weight hundreds of tons, by comparison Bessler wheels could be effective at much smaller sizes.

It has often been commented that the reason he never sold his machine was because it wasn’t as powerful as competing methods such as water wheels and wind mills,  one reason for his failure to sell his machine was because of his terms of sale.  He demanded the money up front before anyone could look inside the device - an understandable precaution. No one was prepared to risk that.  The Czar of Russia, Peter the Great, was prepared to accept such a deal, although if Bessler had been found cheating, there is no doubt he would have demanded the ultimate sanction of execution.  Unfortunately Peter died on the way to Kassel.

The other reason that his wheel was never sold was because no one could find a practical use for it.  Windmills and water wheels had accomplished all that people needed and Bessler’s wheel was unproven.  The only use which was considered was in removing water from flooded mines and that was solved by Newcomen’s Beam engine which began to remove water from Cornish mines in about 1705. This system used a piston pump, something unavailable to Bessler’s wheel.  Although ingenious, Bessler’s machine would never find a practical use until our time, when we need a cheap, 24/7 device for producing electricity anywhere in the world.

JC

Thursday 11 January 2024

Are We the Last of a Dying Breed? - Not If I can Help It!

Johann Bessler aka Orffyreus, left us his record of his search for the secret of building a perpetual motion machine.  He published three books which I have republished with English  translations included.  After his death a box was found containing 141 pictures of PM machines which failed but led him on to success.  These pictures are believed to have formed part of a syllabus to be used in his intended school of apprentices.  These too, have also been published with English translations of his notes where ever possible.

There  are both digital and printed copies of all of these available.  I also published my account of his life and his search for the secret.  I sought each and every document issued during his life which was written to him, by him, for him or about him.  These included numerous letter and newspaper articles. During the many years I spent researching him, I also built many wheels in an attempt to find the same secret. 

My books have been sold to many people around the world. This blog has been going for nine years and my books and my websites were first online or published back in 1996, almost 30 years ago!  

So why has there been zero interest in a machine that could provide cheap/free electricity any where and everywhere?  The answer lies in the utter inability of modern scientists, technologists, natural philosophers, researchers, inventors, amateurs, professionals, historians, boffins, experts, scholars, academics……..you get my point ….to consider that a major triumph lies waiting in the wings to step up and become the biggest solution to the energy crisis in history and the potential to ameliorate the effects of climate change here and now. No one, but no one, thinks for a millisecond that there is any thing to be had from these historic pages which are full of emotional complaining, grumbling, crying for attention to come and witness his amazing invention. 

We few who battle to find Bessler’s solution are a dying breed.  Most of us are of an age where we no longer work, we lead quiet lives in retirement, our focus of attention centres on finding the solution that Bessler found.

We have noted that the interests of those younger than us grew up in the high tech world which was born and flourished after we had already moved beyond its current vigour, too late for some of us to catch up.  But we were fed on mechanical machines, building, repairing, studying. But that era has passed on, with higher technical demands placed on those whose expertise is required to maintain and build and improve.

In the end it’s down to use to build a working model of Bessler’s wheel, it’s the only thing that will answer all the question, and make people sit up and take notice.

After all the information I have accumulated I still have one complaint that I find so frustrating.  The witnesses to the wheel gave us only the bald facts.  

Where is an exact description of the noise from the wheels? They didn’t describe the cracks they could see through in the wheel.  Was the sound from the Kassel wheel exactly eight or was there another softer sound? Were the thumps equally apart or was there a gap at one point in each rotation? You can see where I’m going with this, I remain convinced that the wheels work only with an odd number of mechanisms. 

The same complaint applies to all the wheels but as my old friend Mike used to say, “it’s Hobson’s choice - it is what it is, take it or leave it.”

JC

Saturday 6 January 2024

Johann Bessler’s Device Offers Clean, Free Energy

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

Wednesday 3 January 2024

Additional Imagery in Support Bessler’s Wheel.

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 shall occasionally post some here.

One of the things that caught my attention in my physical build is the appearance of the mechanism reminding me of a peacocks tail. It’s just one mechanism but it does bring that image to mind.  I’ll post a picture of one of the mechanisms which demonstrates that.

The second thing is the clues which I know many people dismiss, but Bessler must have thought it worthwhile to include them, and he had a purpose in doing so. Here is an example of one of them.

JEEB, (his initials), J is the 10th letter, two letters E, which are the 5th letter. He added the J and one of the Es to his forename when he succeeded in building his first PM wheel. 

JEEB using the Caesar shift becomes WRRO. R is the 18th letter. W 23rd letter which doesn’t seem important but it might appear to be there for the following reason, W is composed of two Roman numerals, V meaning 5.

Apart from that the letter ‘J’ seems almost superfluous.  He gave us two ‘E’s which gives is 5 and 18, and the pentagram, why the letter ‘J’.

He often, (dozens of times) hand wrote the letter W as shown below as two Roman numerals linked together, and you can see it twice in the accompanying passage. Why did he want to show them linked?

The last picture I included include the ‘W’ in the scissors and although it may not look very obvious from my drawing it is very clear in my physical build.






 I always thought it unnecessary to add the ‘J’ and therefore the ‘W’ when he had already informed us of the importance of the two ‘E’s, but the ‘W’ as shown in the printed extract shown above mimics the W in my drawing. Notice how the centre of the ‘W’ has crossed lines as in the drawing.

Bessler used any opportunity to put a veiled reference to these numbers. I should also point out that the 2G’s, refers to his enemy in chief Andreas Gärtner. The 2 W’s refers to another enemy, Christian Wagner, the two B’s refer to the third enemy, Johann Gottfried Borlach.

NB - I only noticed the presence of the ‘W’ in my last picture a couple of weeks ago but I’m certain that it is one of the reasons he included the letter ‘J’ in his initials.

JC



Monday 1 January 2024

Bessler’s Wheel Revealed

Finally I’m going to share what I know, and what I think I know, about the solution to Bessler’s wheel. This will be a bit shorter than my intended document, because today, 29th December 2023, I accidentally deleted several pages of explanations, and I can’t get them back and I can’t remember everything I wrote!

This might not be such a bad thing as the “Big Reveal” was getting too big! I will try to curtail my enthusiasm for giving too much detail.  After all, all you really want to know is “how did Bessler’s Wheel work? And how close to Bessler’s is the design I’m going to share with you?  Is it the same as Bessler’s.  I think at the end you will think that it is a bit closer.

My skills in MS Paint are fairly basic so I’ll combine paint and drawings and text to try to explain what I know.

We know Johann Bessler would rather have died without being paid for his secret, than have given it away because he said so in Apologia Poetica  (AP). He also intimated that the answers could found in his books.  But how would he hide information in books in plain sight without anyone realising and discovering the secret for them selves?

There is a lot of undeciphered code in the books but the most illuminating items are the illustrations in those books. “A picture is worth a thousand words" is an adage in multiple languages meaning that complex and sometimes multiple ideas can be conveyed by a single still image, which conveys its meaning or essence more effectively than a mere verbal description.   In Bessler’s case the opposite seems almost true.  His pictures look bland and boring and inaccurate but they contain real information disguised in an ingenious way.

PART ONE

Bessler took an inordinate amount of trouble to hide the importance of the number five in plain sight.  Despite its ubiquity the majority of people seem to have dismissed its seeming importance and continued on their search for the solution, relying on the witness report of eight thumping noises from the Kassel wheel.

I searched for and found geometric and numerical patterns within all of the inventor’s publications.  I found pentagons in various places. Most significantly in his first two books, Grundlicher Bericht (GB) and Das Triumphirende(DT) Two of them in DT indicated parts of the mechanism hidden in one segment of the pentagram.

Bessler also buried within his copious amounts of writing, many clues presented almost as an off-the-cuff comments, but deliberately sown into the text to catch the eye of any serious researcher.

In one example he wrote, “a great craftsman would be he who, as one pound falls a quarter, causes four pounds to shoot upwards four quarters.”  Note that within the quote he mentions that there are five weights, one plus four, and each one is equal to one pound.  Secondly, one pound falls a quarter.  How do we define what he meant by a quarter? In this case he was referring to a clock - something he also embedded, invisibly, in the first drawings in both Grundlicher Bericht and Das Triumphirende - and a quarter of an hour or fifteen minutes covers 90 degrees.  But how could this single right angle fall cause “ four pounds to shoot upwards four quarters”? 
We saw in the first part that the word ‘quarter', referred to, not just 90 degrees but also to a clock.  In the second part the word ‘quarter' also refers to a clock but this time he has confused us by using the words ‘four quarters’. ‘Four quarter’s equals ‘one whole hour’.  Each hour on a clock is divided into 30 degrees, so the words ‘four quarters’ meaning ‘one hour’ as used here equals thirty degrees.  To paraphrase Bessler’s words, “a great craftsman would be he who, as one pound falls 90 degrees, causes each of the other four pounds to shoot upwards 30 degrees.” 
You might also think it would have been better to have said that one pound falls 90 degrees, causes one pound to shoot upwards 30 degrees”, but that would have removed the information that five weights, and therefore five mechanisms were involved, so it had to be four weights plus the one. 
should point out that in previous blogs I have shown two other places where Bessler showed the same information, that is, a weight falling 90 degrees, causes another weight to shoot up the same 30 degrees.
In MT Bessler hints that other odd numbers will also work, by creating slightly different page numbers for the ones he was was pointing to.  So in addition to five mechanisms, he included seven, nine and eleven mechanisms. I think it possible that the Kassel wheel had nine mechanism and one of them was silenced with felt, hence “the sound of about eight weights landing on the side towards which the wheel turned”, as reported by Fischer von Erlach.
Why five mechanisms and how does it need such short sharp lift?
In the illustration below you see a wheel divided into five equal portions, a weighted lever in each one. The wheel turns clockwise. The weights fall through 90 degrees.  Each weighted lever is tilted forward 18 degrees.
In the next one the black weighted levers fall from their pre-fall position and once fallen, come to rest at the wheel’s edge.  As the wheel continues to turn the weighted levers begin a retrograde motion, rotating backwards as  wheel rotates forwards
The only problem arises when the weighted lever has fully returned to its starting point; it needs to be pulled outwards in order to be able fall again. It’s locked in and can’t fall.  As you can see in the picture there needs to be a cord connecting the mechanism to pull the locked in lever out by at least 30 degrees. 
Bessler and Wagner had a brief discussion in which Bessler wrote,  “ Even Wagner, wherever he is now, will have heard that one pound can cause the raising of more than one pound. He writes that, to date, no one has ever found a mechanical arrangement sufficient for the required task. He's right! So am I, and does anyone see why? What if I were to teach the proper method of mechanical application? Then people would say: "Now I understand!”
I think the picture below explains Bessler’s view - they were both right.
This looks promising but we all know it won’t work.  Why?  
Because it lacks the Bessler-Collins Connectedness Principle.
PART TWO
When Bessler briefly mentioned the principle we had no idea what it was.  Maybe a prime mover because he said several of the machines in Maschinen Tractate (MT)  wouldn’t work unless they had it included in the design. 
In the following description I decided to add my name to the title of this version for the following reason.  Although he mentioned it in his MT no one knew what it was, but I believe I have discovered the answer by studying and deducing what it must be. I decided to publish my idea but realised that if his own definition of the principle should surface, perhaps through someone deciphering some encoded text, it might be very different or just slightly divergent, I had better add my name to my version.  Because although his principle might be the same as mine, if his description of it turns up at some point, it will be useful to be able to differentiate between the two versions.  Anyway mine might be wrong or just different, but I don’t think it is.
So here is what I believe to be the Connectedness  Principle probably discovered by Johann Bessler, but also by me more than 300 years later.
Firstly, why did he use the word “connectedness”? He could have used a “connection” or “connect”. But those two words suggest a firm connection, whereas “connectedness” has a different nuance, a feeling of variable or intermittent contact.  What does that mean?
Considering the word “connectedness”, I thought that the connections must be between the weight and the pivot, the weight and the wheel or the pivot and the wheel.  It seemed to me that the connection between weight and the pivot as well as the one between the weight and the wheel had been explored an infinite number of times leading to a similar number of failures.  But the connection between the pivot and the wheel hasn’t been explored as far as I know, maybe it has but I haven’t seen it discussed.
In the picture above, all the weighted levers are connected to their pivots and able to swing and rotate about them.  The only variable lies in the position of the weight at certain times. I realised that it might be possible to arrange for the pivot itself to move from one position to another and back again.
The picture below is similar to the one above but I’ve added the results of enabling moveable pivots.  The red weights show the improved positions caused by moveable pivot points.  Notice the red weights have taken up different positions particularly at radius 5 and 1.
The red weight at radius 5 is actually too early and would arrive there when radius 5 is about half way closer to where radius 1 is.
So in my opinion the Bessler-Collins Connectedness Principle requires the designing of an odd number of weighted levers supported by moveable pivot points.  The lever itself should not be extended because the moving pivot will send the weight on its end to reach further back on the wheel’s edge.
Briefly then the pivot is attached to a moveable part of the mechanism.  When the lever begins to fall, it’s pivot begins to move sideways , causing the path of the weight to follow a straight sloping path. The weight lands much further back along the circumference creating more torque.  This makes the wheel rotate further than it would do with the simpler system shown above. 
I must stress that the moveable pivot must be attached to a moveable part of the mechanism not directly connected to the wheel. 
PART THREE
The following pictures demonstrate where and how Bessler provided the necessary information.
The green circle is required and touches the tops of the two supports. It’s encloses the left end of the horizontal part of the ‘T’ shaped pendulum. It also includes the padlock, and touches the bottom and right side of the picture.

The pendulum is too long as it is and the excess needs to be removed.  The remaining part of the pendulum fits inside the pentagon fifth portion.  The red and blue parts show the two positions the weighted lever must reach.  Before we examine this picture we must rotate it 180 degrees.  This is indicated by the apparent typo in the padlock, which is wrongly labelled 42, but should read 24.  I have argued many times that this is a deliberate act designed to inform us to turn the picture upside down.  Now I’ve done it.

In the above picture the detail contained within the red square on the right shows the similarity to the main mechanism, except that the end of the horizontal part of the ‘T’ pendulum  appears to be attached to a wall.  This I believe indicates that that part in the main mechanism is fixed to the wheel able to rotate about that point.  This suggestion is supported by the picture below, which shows detail from the GB and DT.  The left picture is from DT


There you can see that in the right picture, the semicircle is deliberately drawn wrongly.  

Returning to the upside down picture. The red part is in position to fall and the blue part shows it’s in the fallen position. I compared the lengths of the red and blue portions and they are equal.  But the blue portion finishes just up to the limit of Bessler’s original circle, shown by the black dot at its end. This supports the idea that the pivot must be able to move sideways to bring the weight up to the edge of the green circle.

As I said earlier, extending the lever will not work, the pivot point has to move. The following picture will show the structure of the mechanism which moves the pivot along with its lever and returns it at the correct moment in rotation. The long green rod is supporting the moving pivot and is able to move through an arc.  On the end of this rod is the weighted lever or pendulum that we have seen moving from an almost upright potion, 18 degrees from the radius, through 90 degrees to land on the edge of the wheel some way back close to the following radius.


The purple lever has a purple round weight on the outer end. It’s mass/weight is mainly carried by the green lever, which is anchored close to the axle.

The dark blue lever with the round purple empty weight shows roughly where the weighted lever would be if fully retracted.  It’s pivot point is close to the same point on the end of the green lever where it joins the purple one.

POST SCRIPT

Obviously this document is abbreviated to accommodate a complex explanation and some not-so-good illustrations.  There are a number of graphic clues I could add, plus of course I’ve omitted all reference to the Toys page.

I have posted the simplest design but there are other, possibly better ones which I’m going to post later in January.  The most important clue in my opinion, is the:-

Bessler-Collins Connectedness Principle

At the moment I don’t know if it’s the same as Bessler’s but I think it must be because it might be the one reason why so many designs have failed so far.

Why the odd number of mechanisms was required has always been obvious to me and I’ve never understood why it seemed as though nobody else agreed with me.

PS. I forgot to add this alternative design with double scissors to make the weight easier to reach further back along the wheel edge. I also connected the green lever to the wrong point on the double scissors.

There are some convincing clues in support of the above design, relating to his name.




JC

Copyright © 2024 John Collins

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...