Almost everyone has what one might call their own ‘thing’, maybe a hobby or an obsession, but it’s something that captures their attention and interest - and my own ‘thing’ involves trying to verify the claims of Johann Bessler (aka Orffyreus). After almost half a century of research in a number of famous institutions holding numerous ancient books and documents, I have been able to establish that in the years approaching 1712, Johann Bessler’s did indeed build a successful working model of a perpetual motion machine. Despite the assumption that such machines are impossible it has become obvious that his claims were genuine.
My first shadow of doubt about the establishment’s view on this matter came when I read an explanation attempting to show how his machine was faked; it was so badly written and so full of false assumptions and unbelievable mistakes, that I questioned the underlying evidence relied upon and I believe it was almost entirely guesswork.
Surely such a device if false, should be easy enough to prove an illicit imposition. Such fraudulent devices are the target of many investigators who are usually are well equipped to test the credibility of the claimant. Bessler frequently experienced such negative reactions at his first exhibitions, but was able, through the help of one of the most famous scientists of the era, Gottfried Leibniz, to plan a number of demonstrations which would prove to be impossible to reject, as convincing evidence of the inventor’s integrity.
In addition he permitted a man of unimpeachable reputation who was widely respected to examine the interior workings of the machine in order to confirm or deny its validity. Karl, the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel was able to verify Bessler’s claims. So what are we to make of this apparent paradox?
Between 1842 and 1847 Julius Robert von Mayer, James Prescott Joule and Herman von Helmholtz discovered and formulated the basics of what we refer to as the law of conservation of energy. Energy can’t be created or destroyed, it can only be transformed from form to another.
But in their denial of the possibility of a gravity enabled continuous motion machine, though their reasoning was logical it failed to take into account every possible configuration that might over ride their conclusion. This fallacy has been questioned countless times, and from a time long before it was first mooted. There are records of hundreds of attempts to produce a perpetual motion machine reliant on the force of gravity for its energy source.
One argument suggests that because no such machine has ever been invented, it must be impossible. If that conclusion were convincing most of the current inventions in use today would never have happened. But Johann Bessler did find the solution and there should therefore be a concerted attempt to find it again. The potential for such a device is unlimited in this era of climate change, pollution, and the limited sources of alternative energy.
Bessler encoded information in his books which he intended to be found and deciphered in the event of his death before he had sold his machine. It is available from this blog and my other web sites where each of his four books with full English translations are detailed. See the right hand panel for more information.
JC
