My Poems - Written During the Long Years of Research into Bessler’s Life

I’m certainly no poet, but having written several over the years, I decided to post them all here in one go! My apologies for the quality, but I enjoy trying to put down ideas with the occasional light touch of humour.  This is by no means all I’ve written and I’ll probably put down some more.

One more thing, if you would like to obtain copies of my biography about Bessler, plus four books by him, with full English translations please click on this link.

https://johncollinsnews.blogspot.com/p/johann-besslers-books-and-biography.html

For an excellent discussion forum for all things relating to Johann Bessler aka Orffyreus visit 

https://www.besslerwheel.com/forum/index.php?

I

All these poems have a theme,  but firstly let me set the scene.

When I was young I read a story that filled my head with dreams of glory.

Johann Bessler’s sole intent, a non-stop wheel he would invent.

Triumphant after toil untold, he sought to sell it for silver and gold.

People came to see the wheel, witnessing that it was real.

Though offers came from men of wealth, they did not buy because they felt 

the terms of sale were too unfair, they left with nought but empty air.

The cash must be upon the table before the buyer was even able

To study the inside of the wheel  and it’s secret at last reveal.

Perpetual Motion was proscribed, a possibility denied.

Yet Bessler proved it possible to make a wheel unstoppable

It was the first, no precedent, turned non-stop ‘twas self-evident,

Witnessed by the man from Hesse, unimpeachable - nothing less.

He saw the inside of the wheel, he understood, said it was real.

Somehow Helmholtz got it wrong, and so I’ve spent a lifetime long

Looking for the hidden secret, but where did Johann Bessler keep it?

II

My first poem about Johann Bessler aka Orffyreus

This Ancient Mystery, I have sought, for many years, to solve and thought

The secret of the wheel's construction lay beyond mere skilled deduction.

So I brought the world's attention to this greatest missed invention. 

Hoped some rare ability'd retrieve this fair facility.

Yet scarcely had the thought occurred before I realised how absurd

It was that I should have the notion I could solve Perpetual Motion

This Ancient Mystery's merely myth, credited by those whose kith

And kin forgot what they had learned, that energy spent must first be earned.

Despite this fact there was some doubt - did Bessler find a way about

This obstacle to energy, and find a force that's pure and free? 

Long ago my doubts were dashed, for certain inspiration flashed, 

The energy whose source I sought was all around - its cost was naught.

And wherein lies this bold solution that will solve the world's pollution?

The answer lies in Gravity, a field of energy that's free.

Conservative - its attitude to work is that its magnitude

Remains the same. It does not stop. It's constant and it makes things drop.

It’s said that this is contrary to what we think is verity, 

Gravity cannot be used and those who think so are confused.

It matters not who's right or wrong - the clues have been there all along.

Bessler wrote in ciphers rare and paranoid, he did not dare

Reveal a clue - changed his ambition - sought posthumous recognition.

Text and image, cryptic instruction, showing us complete construction. 

His secret solved will be the key to giving us free energy.

If you believe this can't be true, suspend your judgement - see if you

Can find a fault in what you read about the proof, with which I plead. 

 My aim is clear, intent is strong, to show that Bessler has been wronged.

III

Another More Poems

Perpetual motion?  It’s a lie

That’s what they taught us, so don’t  try

To understand, how Bessler found 

A way to make his wheels spin round.

But if that’s true then he’s a fraud,

The evidence we have is flawed,

But there are things that don’t add up

Things which tell us don’t give up.

You see I think that Bessler’s wheel

Was not a fake, no, it was real.

He said the motion came from weights 

But I think this misstates the case.

Deftly he abbreviated

Clues that each weight gravitated

Falling down then shooting higher

Each weight moving like a flyer.

The clues are there before our eyes

The mechanisms come alive,

Each one connects to the one next door

One goes up and one to the floor.

The evidence is very strong

Bessler’s claims cannot be wrong.

It’s just because we do not know

Exactly how he made it go.

They still say its impossible

To make a wheel unstoppable

But Bessler did and so can we

It might be you, or maybe me?

IV

I was callow and thin of skin,

when first I found Orffyreus' spin;

the poisonous barbs of jeers and sneers

aimed at me by my erstwhile peers

did not a jot of difference make,

to my intention to forsake

those oft repeated laws of old

that we were vehemently sold - 

immutable and set in stone.

I, ignorant, set out alone

to prove those falsehoods once proposed,

accepted almost unopposed,

weaved in argument assumptive,

circular and quite presumptive,

conclusions made were not conclusive

and some agreed were too inclusive. 

For 60 years I've sought success,

wanting more than just a guess.

Helmholtz said non-stop rotation,

driven just by weights in motion,

had never ever been achieved,

and not by Bessler, who deceived.

The words of many witnesses

dismissed as so much witlessness,

by Helmholtz, who said that he had proved

no weight-driven wheel had ever moved   

without the aid of trickery,

chicanery and quackery.

Addressing such a case as this

a court of law might well dismiss

on grounds of lack of evidence

when set against such testaments, 

given by those who saw the wheel.

Concluding that his claims were real

required a leap of faith to prove,

that gravity wheels could never move.

V

Three hundred years ago, he saw

the conservation of energy law,

which had previously prevented

every thing that he'd invented,

such as wheels that turned forever

driven just by weight and lever, 

finally be circumvented.

The so-called experts who declared

that such devices are absurd,

proscribed their source as gravitation,

nor anything else in isolation,

and denied perpetual motion 

could still be a valid notion.

But given the ubiquity

of the earth's force, gravity,

how blind they are to evidence

that Bessler's wheel was common sense.

Gravity is not exclusive

permeating and diffusive,

it affects all in its compass, 

supplying weight and moving mass;

with the right configuration

it supplies from gravitation

wheels which turn continuously, 

simply driven by gravity.

Those scientists who vent their spleen,

who criticise us and demean

our strong belief that such machines

do not turn in isolation

but draw their strength from gravitation..........

are wrong!

VI

When I first read about Bessler’s Wheel

I wondered if it could have been real.

I put the question to the teacher

Who said my question was a feature 

Of lazy people who’s attitude 

Demonstrated their ineptitude

To understanding what they were taught.

But his response I never bought.

I never could accept the logic

Which denied the force gravitic

Which endlessly maintained its presence 

It always seemed just common sense

To find a way to tap this source

And put to use its driving force

That makes things heavy and makes things fall.

They say it’s not a source at all,

But we can use the way things drop

To make a wheel rotate non-stop

We need a mutual exchangement

Within two gravitised rearrangements .

One weight works in each division,

Five divisions to aid transmission

Work together to make the wheel turn

Why five and not four, eight or six?

 Five is the most that really fits.

Using the right configuration.

VII

A Circle of Fifths.

My apologies for this poem, for over-egging the importance of the number 5, but it was clearly of immense importance to Johann Bessler but for reasons unknown, it seems we ignore it at our peril, well not peril but surely we should be using his own strongest clues to replicate his machine!

Bessler embedded the number five

In his name so we’d realise 

How vital five is to nonstop drive.

If we ignore how Bessler strived

To make us value number five

We will always fail to derive

A spinning wheel with endless drive

Unless we follow his advice

To make our wheels have space for five

Equal compartments just for five

Single weights to number five

It’s obvious that we should try

Configurations based on five.

The reason for the need for five

is simple once you realise

The regular and even drive

Needs no pauses to come alive.

Bessler fitted full mechanisms five.

Fewer than five will cause a dive 

In the speed and it won’t revive.

The most of them he could contrive

To fit inside the wheel was five

All  the space was needed to thrive.

Any pause in action denied,

Giving the eveness described 

By countless witnesses advised.

All hesitation is denied

To make this non-stop wheel thrive.

John Collins ©️ 2024