I expect everyone knows I believe Bessler’s wheel had five mechanisms. Before you move on and dismiss what I’m going to write, just hang on for a moment. I’m satisfied with my current and long held belief for excellent reasons, the majority of which you don’t know.
Imagine you are Bessler and you have this amazing secret which you believe is worth a fortune, but you can’t tell anyone anything about it, because you want to sell it first. You decide that you are going to publish details of the secret but hidden in such a way that no one will ever find out unless you reveal the way to decipher it. You believe that there are three possible outcomes.
Firstly you sell the machine and it’s secret and you decipher all the ciphers and publish the coded information and the world will gradually realise how exceedingly clever you have been.
Secondly, you never find a buyer and you die with the secret intact. But you have sold many copies of your books. You have inserted various comments that the books contain secret information about the Perpetual Motion machine and a clever person can study the books and eventually decipher the clues and discover the secret.
Lastly, someone else discovers the same solution and publishes it. You prove your priority by demonstrating the clues and codes published in your three books containing all the information, from years before.
It wasn’t just the money he wanted, Johann Bessler sought recognition, which is why he went to so much trouble encoding information in various ways, adding secondary codes for confirmation in many places. He stated that he would rather die without having sold his secret, than just give it away.
To continue imagining you are seeing things as if you were Bessler; before you even go public with your invention, you have planned everything. First you adopt a pseudonym, but it’s not just an assumed name, it’s a clever contrivance, ostensibly to disguise your real name, but actually since everyone knows your real name, it appears to be a stage name. Simple codes were in popular use at the time, and it was very obvious that Bessler chose an easily deciphered code name, using a well known code such as the Caesar shift, to call himself Orffyreus.
Why? Because the use of a simple code in his assumed name, plus the few words of encouragement to readers of his books to search for the encoded secret, was intended to make people like myself and others, search for the coded information and decipher it. Exactly what we have been trying to do for many years.
At the end of the day, we know that Bessler invented a way to obtain continuous rotation enabled by the force of gravity. We know he left secret information which was designed to show us how his machine worked. Why on earth would we ignore this wealth of clues and codes and hints and struggle onwards dismissing this treasure trove of information?
I’ll post some of the clues I’ve uncovered and deciphered in another post, most of which I haven’t shared before.
JC
Nice to see that this blog came back to life again! I checked in several times last year and earlier this year and it looked like a ghost town with no one posting. I actually thought for a while that it had died like so many other blogs have over the years which would be a true tragedy because of the excellent job it does in promoting interest in Bessler and his wheels.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with JC that there is much that can be learned from Bessler's pseudonym of "Orffyreus". The most important letter in it is the one that is right in the exact center of the word which is the letter Y. As some may recall, I have found many clues in Bessler's drawings over the years, especially those in MT, which indicate that the levers he used in his wheels had the shape of that particular letter. Bessler considered this lever shape so important that he made sure that he placed the letter symbolizing it right in the middle of his professional name!
The capital letter O at the beginning of the word is almost hypnotic like the "All Seeing Eye of God" and I've seen Bessler write it with a small diacritic dot at its center. That letter, of course, represents the external drum of one of his pm wheels and the dot is its axle. But, it is also the symbol for the metal gold in alchemy and the Sun in astrology. That could have been Bessler's way of saying his wheels were worth a large amount of gold and could run, if maintained, as long as the Sun shines! Gold is also referred to as a "noble metal" because of its durability, rarity, and value. These are all qualities that could be used to describe Bessler's wheels.
The letter group OR has an alphanumeric sum of 33 and that is a number associated with Jesus in the Christian gospels (33 AD was the year of his execution, etc.). Bessler claimed that the secret of his wheels was contained in the sayings of Jesus and I can point to some of the verses that Bessler had in mind when he said that.
Next, look at the prominent two letter F's to the immediate left of the letter Y. F is the 6th letter of the alphabet. If you multiply the F alphanumeric values, you get 6 x 6 = 36. Supposedly, the prototype wheel that worked for Bessler was only 36 inches in diameter. If you add the F's you get 6 + 6 = 12 which was the diameter, in feet, of his last two wheels. The first public demonstration of one of his wheels was given on June 6th or the 6th day of the 6th month. Amazing what meaning can be found in only two letters in his professional name!
The four letter group to the right of the central letter Y is REUS and the sum of its alphanumeric values is 63. This is a VERY important number that describes what could be a critical orientation of one of his wheels' internal parts but I don't have time to give the details now. It is yet another number which appears hidden regularly in his drawings.
Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying the cooler autumn weather and preparing for the coming winter solstice celebrations. This December 21st will, for those living north of our planet's equator, be the shortest day of the year accompanied by the longest night as the Sun at its daytime zenith appears at its lowest southern elevation. Because of the decreased solar illumination in the weeks around that day, many experience a condition called SAD or "Seasonal Affective Disorder" which also seems to have afflicted Bessler. According to what I found on the internet, the symptoms can include "persistent low mood, lack of energy, loss of interest in activities, oversleeping, weight gain, and difficulty concentrating". I have found that one treatment for this problem that always works for me is to buy myself a nice gift! Yes, something I've wanted all year long but denied myself because of various reasons (like a pile of bills that needed to be paid off first!). So, if one is afflicted by this troublesome condition, I recommend he treat himself for a change...one deserves it especially if he's been racking his brain trying to solve the Bessler wheel mystery all year long.
Sayer of Sooths
SoS is back! You haven't been here since last year and have been missed. Please do share any new clues you can with us. When it comes to finding them in Bessler's drawings your PI (psychic intelligence that is) puts AI to shame! I'm still stunned by that severed head clue you found hidden in the toys page. You were the only one who saw it and alerted us to it. Welcome back!
Delete112
Delete"So, if one is afflicted by this troublesome condition, I recommend he treat himself for a change..."
DeleteI intend to "treat" myself by staying stinking drunk from the middle of December through to the middle of next January. When my wife invites her relatives over for Christmas dinner, I shall be doubling my intake of "medicine"!
Hi, SoS. I also remember you and some of those amazing clues you uncovered in the past. Glad to see your back because it makes this blog seem like old times again. I knew there was a letter "y" in "Orffyreus" but I didn't notice it was dead center in the word. Bessler must have put it there on purpose for a reason that was important to him. Your "Y shape lever theory" could explain it. To add to what anon 03:42 said, any new clues you've found for us will be most appreciated. Also happy "winter solstice" to you too!
DeleteThanks for the welcome back greetings anons 03:42 and 19:05. I had only intended to briefly drop in to see if this blog was finally up and running again. When I saw that it was and what the topic was, I just couldn't resist making a quick comment on the numerological significance of Bessler's professional name of "Orffyreus" before heading out again. However, since you both seem to want even more new clues from me on this visit, I will try to oblige.
DeleteAbout a month or so ago I found some "hidden in plain sight" type clues in one of the DT drawings that you two (and hopefully others) may find of interest. I'm very busy at the moment, but if I get a chance during the next few days I'll see if I can post a drawing showing you where they are located. Be prepared for a nice surprise...and don't worry, this time it's not another severed head!
Sayer of Sooths
I learned in the past not to bet against you SoS. I'll be looking forward to any new clues you can provide. Glad to read there will be no more chopped off heads this time!
DeleteWhenever SoS shows up it puts me in the mood to play with numbers. I agree with his analysis of Orffyreus and noticed something. As he said the OR part is 33 and the FF part is 12. That adds to 45. IF Bessler used eight weights on levers in his wheels spaced evenly around the axle then they would be 45 degrees apart. The REUS part is 63. The Y is in the center of the word so it could also represent the axle of a wheel. If so then we see the over balance. 45 on one side and 63 on the other. This could be Bessler telling us his wheels were always out of balance.
DeleteI'm not a numbers guy, but I have something to add. It involves words that can be made from some of the letter groups in Bessler's pseudonym Orffyreus. I also play scrabble a lot!
DeleteOrffyr in Welsh means July in English and July is the 7th month. Bessler liked this number because it's lucky and mentioned in the Bible. Did he know Welsh? Didn't he travel to Britain once?
Fyre in Danish means Fire in English. Fire is a source of energy and so was Bessler's wheels. He also wanted to replace coal and wood fire powered machines with his pm wheels. Did he know Danish?
Eus in French means Had in English. Was that Bessler's way of telling everyone that he had the solution of pm?
Orfeus in Czech means Orpheus in English. Orpheus was a Greek musician who could play magical music that charmed all living things. Wasn't Bessler into music? Orpheus descended into the Underworld to get his wife back. Wasn't there some legend about an ever turn wheel down there...a pm wheel? Didn't Bessler once use the name of Orpheus instead of Orffyreus?
These could all just be coincidences, but if Bessler knew the various languages I'm sure he would have been aware of them.
Hello again, everyone! You will find the new clues I promised posted below in two parts. Hope you find them of interest.
DeleteSayer of Sooths
That's what I like about you SoS....promises made = promises kept!
DeleteHi John, as usual, I look forward to your future posts. I would greatly appreciate you answering this question somewhere : is there any reliable evidence that Bessler's brother knew the secret? And do we know if is brother outlived him? Thanks.
ReplyDeletedon’t know if Gottfried was allowed to know the secret of the wheel’s construction, but it would seem difficult to keep him ignorant. Knowing of Bessler’s apparent paranoia, I imagine he would have made Gottfried swear an oath to keep silent. There were four more brother, three of whom died in infancy, but nothing is known about them to date. We know that Bessler’s parents went to live with him at Carlshafen, I suppose they might have brought the remaining brother with them. Bessler was about 34 and Gottfried about 27 when they lived at Hesse Kassel.
ReplyDeleteJC
Part 1 of 2
ReplyDeleteA day or so ago, I promised to post some new
"hidden in plain sight" clues here for those who requested them. So here they are:
Take a good long look at the second drawing of the Weissenstein Castle wheel in DT. In particular, study the right half of that figure that shows the full circular side of the 12 foot diameter drum of the wheel as a crank attached to its axle raises and then lowers a metal drive rod to make a big visible pendulum swing from side to side. Notice anything that looks odd in the drawing? No? I didn't either until I studied it more carefully.
When you do study it more carefully you will see that the ball shaped weight at the left end of the huge compound pendulum's upper cross bar is slamming up against the ceiling! Because there are two such pendulums (the other is hidden behind the drum and out of sight), that would mean that, as the wheel's drum completed a single rotation, the four ball weights would, one after another, hit the ceiling four times in four different locations. Since the wheel was found to turn at 26 rpm's when running freely, that would mean that during each minute the four ball weights would bang against the ceiling a total of 104 times! Many in the past who noticed this detail in the drawing may have thought it explained the thumping sounds that the wheel made as it turned. But, no, those sounds came from inside the drum and not from the two pendulums' four ball weights banging against the ceiling. If any of the four ball weights of the real pendulums that Bessler attached to the Weissenstein Castle wheel had actually impacted the ceiling as the drum rotated and as shown in the DT drawing, then, depending upon which was weakest, either its cross bar, its cross bar's pivot rod, its drive rod, or its axle crank would have been damaged. So, this could not be allowed to happen with the real wheel's two giant pendulums. Why then did Bessler show it happening in his DT drawing?
In this quick Paint sketch I made, it becomes obvious why Bessler shows that ball weight smacking against the ceiling in his drawing:
https://i.postimg.cc/Y9Q25rH2/Banging-Ball-Wt-Clue.jpg
Sayer of Sooths
(continued and concluded in Part 2 of 2)
Part 2 of 2
DeleteBessler is using the depicted impact to draw the reader's attention to something near the impact point on the ceiling. Look carefully and you will see that the ball weight hits directly under the capital letter W in the Latin word "Weissensteiniani" in the title above the drawing. The letter W looks like it is formed from two letter V's that have their sides overlapped between the letters to form the letter X. A numerologist would immediately recognize this as a way of writing V X V. In his various drawings, Bessler usually treats the letter V like the Roman numeral V and gives it an alphanumeric value equal to the value of that Roman numeral or 5 instead of the usual alphanumeric value for the letter V which is 22 since it is the 22nd letter of both the English and German alphabets. The X formed by the overlapping of the two V's is, however, used here as the same symbol for multiplication in arithmetic. So, numerologically speaking, Bessler's W = V X V = 5 x 5 = 25. This value of 25 happens to be the alphanumeric value of the letter Y and this was another way that Bessler stresses the importance of this number to the design of his wheel's hidden mechanics.
Since the W is near the ball weight of the large swinging pendulum in the drawing, that pendulum can be considered as a symbol for the much smaller levers that he used inside of his wheels' drums. He is telling us with this letter W clue that he placed near the giant pendulum's ceiling impacting ball weight that his levers inside the drum were shaped like the letter Y.
Need more proof of Bessler's use of Y shaped levers?
Then look at the shape of the large compound pendulum itself that is a symbol for the smaller levers inside of his wheels' drums. It can be thought of as made up of two giant letters. The metal cross bar with its attached wooden piece that goes down to the spindle shaped bob weight (blue in my sketch) forms the letter T. The two diagonal metal support rods from the ends of the cross bar that go down to the spindle shaped weight (yellow in my sketch) form the letter V. T has an alphanumeric value of 20 and V which, again using its Roman numeral value as its alphanumeric value, has an alphanumeric value of 5. Add them together and you get 20 + 5 = 25 again!
Still need more proof?
Okay, look at the right side of the pendulum. The diagonal support rod there (yellow in my sketch) and the upper portion of the pendulum drive rod (orange in my sketch) form...the letter Y again!
These three clues would seem to support what anon 19:05 above called my "Y shape lever theory" and, imo, they cannot just be casually dismissed as coincidental. Their presence in the same drawing shows me that they were put there on purpose by Bessler.
However, these are only three of the previously unrecognized clues that can be found in this particular DT drawing. There are also other clues present in it that will have to await future comments by me about them (or by someone else who also manages to find them) before they can finally be fully revealed.
Enjoy the new clues everyone...
Sayer of Sooths
(End of Part 2 of 2 and conclusion)
Welcome back, Sos. It looks like you are still in fine form when it comes to your clue hunting in the B drawings. I admit I never noticed any of your latest clues. Imo, you do make a convincing case for B's wheels using Y shaped levers. My question is why that shape instead of just straight ones which is what I've seen everyone else use?
Delete@anon2:12
DeleteI also wondered why Bessler would use Y shaped levers instead of straight ones. I think the reason is he learned after 10 years of constant failures that he could not make an overbalanced pm wheel work using straight levers. Maybe his connected principle of cords between levers only worked with the Y shape levers? What other reason could he have for being so obsessed with the letter Y?
Like you I never noticed SoS's three new clues for us before. If you look close at that curved crank in the DT drawing you will see that (assuming the drum is turning cw) it has not yet pulled that orange rod down as far as it could. That means that the left end of the pendulum's cross piece has not yet lifted the ball weight as high as it could. This definitely implies that the ball weight is about to smash into the ceiling. I agree with SoS that if that was to happen with the actual Kassal wheel, then the result would be bad...something would have to break to relieve the strain in the parts between the crank and the ball weight although the drum would probably survive.
Thanks, SoS! I've kept track of your many clues and drawings over the years and give each a name. I've made these three new clues into two clues and named them "The Ceiling Banging Weight Clue" and "The Kassal Wheel Y Shape Lever Clues". My list keeps growing!
DeleteHmm...these latest revelations from SoS look convincing to me but lead to an interesting situation. Assuming that SoS is right about Bessler using Y shape levers inside the drums of his wheels (and as anon 06:57 suggests, those wheels could not work without using that particular lever shape), that means that if John's design does not use the same shape levers, then logically it cannot be the design Bessler used! Of course we still don't know exactly what John's levers look like, but, assuming his levers are not Y shaped and he still remains convinced that he does have Bessler's design, then I'll be curious to see how he explains away SoS's "Y shape lever theory" to justify his (John's) pentagonal wheel lever shape whatever it might be.
DeleteAnon 23:50 wrote "Of course we still don't know exactly what John's levers look like..."
DeleteAnd you will continue to NOT know exactly what John's levers look like because, as I predicted last month, none of us will ever see them! He recently mentioned that he will reveal all just as soon as he is "out of options". The reality is that he NEVER will be out of options. Even after he gives up on his current build...maybe some time early next year just before his 81st birthday...he will simply consider himself as only being TEMPORARILY out of options and will not reveal anything then because he'll be waiting for some new options to occur to him in another month or so after he studies the Bessler drawings some more.
What have we seen from him so far this year? Just a photo of some scrap parts on a table top and nothing that could be simmed. Do NOT expect that situation to ever change. Oh, but he's going to soon reveal some clues that he "hasn't shared before" you say. Lol! That's just his latest "bright shiny object" to distract us with like the "Bessler workaround" was last month! I predict all we will get from him are more sporadic blogs about angles, Euclid, and pentagons whose only actual purpose will be to appease those who are growing increasingly annoyed by his continuing distractions, procrastinations, and posturings.
Mark my words, we will NEVER see anything from him that can be simmed!
Harsh! But I understand your frustration anon 07:29. You will see what I’ve been building and I’m tempted to show you, but I’m this close I’m working on a very small problem that I think/hope I can solve. If not, all will be revealed asap.
DeleteJC
John...don't let guys like anon 07:29 rattle you. It's best if you take your time and do a better job constructing your wheel than do a rush job to satisfy some anxious anons on the internet. Suppose you do have B's design and then you discarded it because, having done a sloppy rush job on it, it didn't work, but it would have worked if you'd put more effort into it?
DeleteYes, don't rush it, but, otoh, you can't take forever to reveal it. I think sometime early next year would be good since the holidays will be over by then. If you can't get it running by then due to the low quality of the build, then reveal it and maybe some accurate simming will show that it is in fact a runner. If not, then maybe some modifications will occur to others that you never would have thought of that would lead to working sims for it. You will still get the bulk of the credit for the discovery although, of course, you will have to share some with anyone who improved upon what you revealed to turn it into a runner. So what? Isn't the most important thing to finally solve the B wheel mystery? So, your ego trip will only be, say, 90% instead of 100%. So what? That's certainly better than 0% which is what you will get if you keep sitting on your design and unfortunately drop dead while doing so. As someone noted in a past comment here, "Father Time waits for no one". None of us has forever to work on our wheels.
Thanks for the new clues, SoS. I'm thinking that you are right about the ball weight under the letter W clue. But, I suspect that Bessler got the idea for that clue because at one time he may have considered having the pendulum cross bar ball weights actually smack the ceiling to produce noises so as to mask the sounds coming out of the Kassal wheel's drum. The ceiling impacts would, as you wrote, be equal to 4 x 26 or 104. The drum, as we know, made 8 sounds per rotation so that is 8 x 26 or 208 sounds. The extra 104 from the ceiling impacts would certainly have confused anyone trying to listen to and count the drum sounds in an effort to reverse engineer Bessler's secret pm mechanisms.
DeleteBut, as you wrote, making the ceiling sounds with impacting weights would have been dangerous and could have damaged the wheel. Suppose Bessler was demonstrating it to a potential buyer and one of the pendulums suddenly came apart?! Someone standing too close to a swinging pendulum at that time could have been seriously injured.
I don't think Bessler actually removed the pendulums when a buyer was present. He probably just detached their drive rods from the cranks which could be easily done even though the cranks would have been about 7 feet off the floor. Completely removing a pendulum would have needed a lot more effort that would have needed to be provided by several of Carl's servants. Each of those pendulums was like 11 or so feet long and must have weighed around 100 pounds or more. Doesn't sound like a one man job to me. Probably two or three servants would have been needed.
The pendulums only appear in Bessler's book engravings and are mentioned in the numbered and lettered legends that go with them. They were never physically seen by anyone, either attached to any wheel, or standing nearby to be installed. The water screw at Kassel and the stampers attached to earlier wheels were observed doing work and being driven by the wheels, as was the lifting of boxes of bricks with a rope around the axle.
Delete@anon 01:15
DeleteChatGPT disagrees with you! I asked it if Bessler ever attached pendulums to his wheels and it answered:
"1. Pendulums Were Attached to Later Wheels
In descriptions of his later machines — particularly the Kassel (Weissenstein Castle) wheel (1717–1718) — Bessler’s wheel was observed to have two pendulums mounted externally on either side of the axle.
These pendulums were seen by several witnesses, including Landgrave Karl of Hesse-Kassel, and are mentioned in Bessler’s own promotional pamphlets and witness affidavits."
IIRC, after the Weissenstein Castle test, Bessler distributed a pamphlet to announce its success and in that pamphlet he mentions that that wheel had a pendulum attached to each side of it (thus, two pendulums) that controlled its motion. I think the purpose of those pendulums was to slow the wheel down whenever it had to run for a long time so as to reduce the wear and tear on its internal parts. That meant a wheel could run longer before requiring servicing (part replacement or lubrication). Bessler must have dreaded the possibility of one of his wheels stalling out while he was demonstrating it to a potential buyer. The modern equivalent would be a used car salesman who couldn't start the engine of some overpriced vehicle he was try to sell a watching customer!
Oops! I forgot to add this extra part from ChatGPT:
Delete"3. In His Own Words
While he did not publish explicit mechanical details, Bessler referred to pendulums in his writings such as Apologia Poetica (1716) and Das Triumphirende Perpetuum Mobile (1719).
In essence, he wrote that “the external pendula serve only for regulation, not for the cause of motion” (paraphrased from German)."
Lol! I think anon 01:15 is really JC using an unsigned comment! Along with his five lever obsession, he's had an anti-pendulum obsession for years for some reason known only to him. Why would B have gone to the trouble of showing various pendulums attached to the wheels in his drawings if he never used them? That makes no sense especially considering that he knew that his critics would use their presence in the drawings to claim they were somehow powering his wheels (like maybe he was secretly using strong lodestones at the ends of some sort of seesaw type device located on the floor right above the iron ball weights on the pendulum cross bars to alternately attract them and thereby "pump" the pendulums to make the wheel turn).
DeleteThanks. I’m not getting any younger, so I have to release what I know soon, but I’m still hoping to complete this task I set myself before it’s too late!
DeleteJC
I'm also a believer that Bessler attached pendulums to his largest wheels. Although they turned the slowest, their internal weights and such would have been heavier and subject to faster wear. The pendulums slowing the wheels down was Bessler's way of compensating for that. Plus, I think swinging pendulums probably made his public demonstrations look more impressive.
DeleteYears ago Ken B made an interesting video showing the effect of attaching the two compound pendulums to the axle of the Merseburg wheel which you can see here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhC3zrzTdKs
He believes that they slowed that wheel's speed down from 40 to only 16 rpm's which, if the "wear and tear theory" is correct, would extend the service life of the wheel by 40/16 = 2.5x or 250%. If a part failed on average inside the wheel after it ran for, say, a week without using the pendulums, then with them, it could run for 2.5 weeks before a failure was expected to happen.
He uses the term "inertial braking" to describe how the pendulums worked. I'd never heard of that before but apparently it means that the wheel's axle cranks were constantly trying to accelerate the speed of the CoG of the two pendulums as it moved from one side of the wheel to the other and then suddenly reversed direction, but the pendulums resisted that and tried to keep their own natural fixed frequency and speed of swinging. The result was that the inertia of the two pendulums acted as constant drag on the axle. If you look at the CoG symbol of the left side wheel with the pendulums in his video, you will notice that it always follows a horizontal line as it moves left to right and back again. It neither rises nor falls so the pendulums neither take nor return any energy to the rotating wheel. How Bessler came up with something like this is beyond me, but I think maybe it came out of his work with organs?
I wrote the above before I saw your latest comment anon 04:05. The pendulums have a purpose but it has nothing to do with any actual wheel that was publicly exhibited. They are in the drawings so draw your own conclusions.
DeleteJC
That's right JC. As the previous Anon 1:15 said the pendulums were never recorded as seen by anyone at any exhibition or test. And because they are in the engravings suggests their inclusion in the drawings is for an entirely different purpose. None of the wheels displayed needed speed regulating so that was a statement of convenience. They possibly are included in the drawings to indicate coded geometric information, and yin and yang symmetries.
DeleteHere's a tract published by Bessler to promote the Kassal wheel. In item #4 he describes the pendulums and it sounds like they could be disconnected from the axle cranks like anon 23:44 suggested. It also says their purpose was to slow the wheel down.
Delete"New Message of the Curious and well-passed Run-test
of the newly built Orffyre Perpetual Mobile,on the Weissenstein castle near Cassel, since 12 Novembre of the previous 1717th Year partly into the
(present) 1718th Year, for 8 whole weeks:
To arrive at the nature of the machine along with its effect, it being similar
presently in appearance to the perpetual mobile shown in Merseburg. Even as
it must reside in a single chamber, it admittedly cannot have a diameter larger
than 12 feet. Being present at this machine one will observe that such:
(1). It is half a foot thicker than in Merseberg, so has a profile of one and a
half feet.
(2). The axle is 6 feet long and 8 inches on average.
(3). The large heavy oak timber stampers are made to stand at the wall, and
are raised by lifting slats.
(4). To each side is located a pendulum, which is to cause it to run more
slowly, yet they are often seen hanged away from the machine.
(5). Again, like in Merseburg, a heavy chest full of stones outside the castle,
will be drawn upwards very high to the window, pulled by a thread groove
mechanism.
(6). All Doubt of an external drive has by now become self evident, and
thereby dazed & so on."
I can't imagine anyone reading this and then reaching the conclusion that the pendulums were only shown in drawings for some sort of symbolic reasons. Bessler says they were there and used to slow the wheel down. That's good enough for me!
And yet not a single witness described seeing the pendulums, and there are some really detailed descriptions of the device. The wheel didn’t need slowing down because without any sign of the pendulums being visible the wheel still turned slowly - about half the speed of the earlier ones.
DeletePlus there is another better reason for their inclusion in the drawings.
JC
I have no doubt that the pendulums in Bessler's drawing can have symbolic meanings as SoS's latest reveal of clues above well proved, but I think it's a mistake to think they did not actually physically exist and be used as JC seems to believe. Bessler constantly mentions them in his writings such as this from page 57 of Gründlicher Bericht ("Thorough Report"):
Delete"N.8. Are the 2 pendula for balance, which allow the motion to continue, but without hindering the running, but which can be taken down, yes, but which in truth hinder the speed of revolution, if they are attached, very slightly."
If one believes they did not actually exist, then one has to believe that Bessler was lying when he wrote and published descriptions of his wheels. I know he was deceptive, but an outright liar? No, that I cannot believe. He was way too religious for that, imo.
If those who wrote about the details of Bessler's wheels were told that the pendulums were not important to its operation and actually saw the wheels running with the pendulums detached from them, then it's reasonable that they would leave them out of their descriptions as being extraneous. They also did not give detailed descriptions of the rooms containing the wheels because, again, it had nothing to do with the operation of his wheels. I think we have to keep in mind that, despite JC's efforts, we most likely do not have all of the writings that were made about Bessler's wheels. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. There could be witness descriptions of the pendulums only we haven't seen them yet...and may never.
The point is his various wheels were witnessed running steadily and doing specific work tasks, never with any dual external counterpoised pendulums attached. Clearly they were not required. They appear center stage in his various publications drawings.
DeleteThose who claim Bessler never actually used pendulums on his wheels did not do a thorough enough search of the available literature about those wheels. Because of my personal interest in the subject, I have done such a search and recently came across this affidavit that PROVES Bessler actually attached physical pendulums to his wheels and used them during demonstrations. Hopefully, this will settle the matter once and for all:
Delete"AFFIDAVIT OF INJURY BY MECHANICAL DEVICE
Anno Domini 1719
I, Bartholomew Heskitt, wheelwright of Fürstenberg, do hereby attest that on the 14th day of May in the Year of Our Lord 1719, whilst observing Herr Johann Bessler’s great perpetual motion wheel at Weissenstein Castle — a machine of twelve feet in breadth and fearful ingenuity — I was struck most grievously in the groin by a lead pendulum weight which did swing forth from the side of the device without warning. I had approached but modestly close, seeking a better look, when the weight did lash out and smite me where no man would wish to be smitten.
The pain was instant and terrible. I fell to the floor gasping like a bellows, and have since walked with a limp and suffered much personal discomfort. I make this affidavit freely, that others may learn to admire such infernal devices from a respectful distance, and to warn that curiosity near Bessler’s wheel may cost a man dearly in pride and posterity.
Signed this 16th day of May, 1719,
Bartholomew Heskitt (his mark X)
Witnessed by:
Otto Kranz, Clerk to the Magistrate of Fürstenberg"
Apparently convincing …..but there were no pendulums visible on any of the wheels, whether attached or detached.
DeleteJC
Thanks, anon 07:01! I've never seen that document before. Now we know for a fact that Bessler used actual pendulums on his wheels.
DeletePoor Heskitt. He probably could not work as a wheelwright for months after such an unpleasant accident. Hopefully, Bessler gave him a generous compensation for his injury to make up for his lost income as well as pain and suffering. I'm sure after that unpleasant incident Bessler would never again attach the pendulums during his demonstrations and maybe even permanently removed them. That explains why we have no other eyewitness accounts of them.
Ouch! There's an important safety message in this painful incident. When you finally get your wheel running do NOT attach any pendulums to it!
DeleteMore proof for those who might still need it!
Delete"Leipziger Post-Zeitung, published for week of 20th - 26th February, 1718
In a interview made after her visit to Weissenstein Castle, Frau Margaretha Albrecht, a merchant's widow from Kassal, recounted her astonishment upon witnessing Doctor Johann Bessler’s famed perpetual motion wheel. "I saw it with mine own eyes, turning without touch or wind," she said, her voice trembling with awe. "The great wheel, near twelve feet across, did steadily swing its two side pendulums and turned with such force that even strong men could not halt it easily after it began. I know not what secret drives it, but it seemed to move as if by the hand of God Himself." Her account echoes growing fascination and skepticism among the learned men of Saxony, who flock to Kassal to glimpse the mysterious invention."
I never thought my blog would be the victim of fake news, but clearly this virus has spread. No more of this rubbish please, it’s simply muddying the waters and most of us are trying to solve Besslers wheel!
DeleteJC
I agree 100%! Yes, less "fake news" around here like that Bessler never actually connected real pendulums to his wheels even though he repeatedly claimed he did and illustrated them or that his wheels did not use eight weights even though witnesses could hear and count eight weights hitting on a wheel's descending side per wheel rotation. We who are truly serious about solving the Bessler wheel mystery need a lot less of that kind of nonsense!
DeleteNo you cannt be serious about solving the Bessler wheel mystery.
DeleteJC
Whether or not Bessler attached actual physical pendulums to his wheels is most likely irrelevant to their operation (like most I believe he did). However, how many weighted levers he used inside his wheels is probably very relevant. There may be physical reasons why lower numbers of levers, like JC's five, will not work while higher numbers of levers, like most others eight, will work. If so, then this should become apparent when the sims of JC's design are made assuming it's finally revealed (and some here doubt that will ever happen). Meanwhile, he should be considering what he will do if it is shown that five levers are unworkable. Will he be able to switch to another number of levers or will he just give up and quit all future PM wheel chasing? I think by the end of the next year we will know the answer to that question.
DeleteRest assured anon 19:12, 5 is the minimum number of weighted levers required, as for how many more, I believe 7 or 9 is most likely. Padded fell helps to deaden the sound of some, to add confusion.
DeleteJC
Lol! Amazing how you skipped 8!
DeleteThe problem with an odd number of weighted levers is that every half rotation there is one more weight on the ascending side than on the descending side. Even if the wheel can maintain a constant torque during rotation, it will be a pulsating torque. From what I've read about Bessler's wheels, they all had constant torque which implies the same number of weighted levers on both sides of the axle which means an even number of them was used. I don't think 4 would be enough. Maybe 6 or 8. Ultimately, assuming one is using an even number of weighted levers, the secret will be in the shape of the levers used. I always keep in mind Bessler's note to MT 10 which, in part, said:
"The principle is good, but the figure is not yet complete until I delineate it much differently at the appropriate place and indicate the correct handle construction."
The MT 10 wheel had curved "handles" which, imo, should have been translated better as "levers". Bessler says he will "delineate" them at "the appropriate place". "Delineate", again imo, should have been better translated as simply "draw". "The appropriate place", imo, was the end of MT where he intended to reveal the construction details of his pm wheels. Unfortunately, those drawings were removed and destroyed. "The correct handle construction" then could be translated as "the lever shape that allows one's pm wheel to work".
So, whether you (or anyone else) succeeds with 6, 8, 10, or 12 levers really comes down to whether or not you have the "correct" lever shape. Trying to find it by hit and miss manual wheel construction could take forever. Maybe Bessler cleverly hid the lever shape in his drawings somewhere, but good luck finding it (however, a guy like SoS might be able to find it since he's already convinced it had some sort of Y shape). With simming, however, one might be able to zero in on the correct lever shape in only a matter of a few dozen sims.
"With simming, however, one might be able to zero in on the correct lever shape in only a matter of a few dozen sims."
DeleteA few dozen sims?! Ken B supposedly had to make 2 THOUSAND sims over the course of a decade before he finally found what he considers "the" correct lever shape. I can't even imagine putting that kind of effort into a project. The record I recall prior to that was a guy a decade or so ago who showed up on BWF and said he had made 500 tries before he finally gave up, but I think he was doing hands on builds. If Bessler found it with only 100 builds, then he was actually VERY lucky. Like someone who buys 100 lottery tickets and wins the big jackpot prize with one of them.
And a working pm wheel is indeed a very BIG prize! Whoever gets it will be famous and considered on a par with guys like Edison and Tesla. It will be a major story in the world of science for years to come. However, will he get rich off of it? If Bessler is any example, then no But, you can't spend any wealth you accumulated after you die...it ALL goes into other people's pockets. BUT, they will get none of your fame...that stays YOURS forever...or should I say "perpetually"?!
Rotflmao! Try telling that guy who got hit in his nads by that heavy football shaped lead weight on the Kassal wheel that Bessler's pendulums were only "symbolic"!!! Lol! (I'm sure this was only a gag, but it's one of the funniest I've read in a long time.)
DeleteI omitted the eight weight because I know an odd number were used and I even reminded you that Bessler admitted to dampening the sound of impact to add confusion to conclusions! Obviously if he used nine and padded one you would hear the sounds of 8 weight landing.
DeleteJC
He could have used nine weights and padded only one of them? Why not all of them? Doesn't make sense to me. You say that you know that an odd number of weights were used which I assume is based on clues you've found. Maybe he actually used six weights along with two extra noise maker weights and no padding to make the eight sounds that were reported? Those two extra weights would have always been balanced against each other so they did not contribute to the torque of the wheel. I am another one here who will be looking forward to you finally revealing your design.
DeleteJ.E.E.B => wrt Roman Numeral substitution & Rot13 cipher => X V V O => or inside a wheel ..
ReplyDelete< x >
ReplyDeleteFinally, the most advanced form of AI can now actually look into the future and let us see what will happen years from now with 99.99% accuracy! With it we can now see John's workshop in the year 2035. He's 90 then and has finally built a working wheel although he still won't release any images of it. He wants to make sure that it's as perfect as possible before he finally "spills the beans" on it.
ReplyDeleteHowever, he had to make a few changes to it during the next decade. He eventually realized that it requires 6 mechs, not 5 after he found many previously missed clues that prove 6 is the right number of mechs. It's a true runner...but, he's noticed something odd about it. For some reason it only works when he lets some of his pet hamsters play near it (he really loves those furry little creatures and always has about a half dozen of them running around his home and even decorates his walls with photos of his favorite ones).
He's still trying to figure out why the hamsters, along with gravity, have that enabling effect on his wheel and is busy searching the Bessler writings and drawings looking for any clues about hamsters. However, the most important new clue everyone will miss for the next decade and eventually discovered is that, in the Rotokas language of the remote tribes of Papua New Guinea, the word "Orffyreus" actually means...hamster! Yes, those same little creatures that John loves so much. He and his followers will, of course, be totally stunned when they learn that they were the secret of Bessler's wheels all along! Little did they know that in his youth Bessler actually sailed to Papua New Guinea along with a group of Lutheran evangelists who wanted to convert the tribes there to Christianity. Most of them became victims of head hunters and were never seen again!
https://postimg.cc/BLry86yJ
Sadly, in Papua New Guinea in the future there are very few hamsters left because the natives there ate most of them! Apparently, they taste great when cooked with vegetables, wrapped in banana leaves, and smothered with coconut cream. Mmm...makes my mouth water just thinking about that. I'm going to take off for my nearest fast food restaurant now and try a double cheeseburger with lettuce, tomato, and plenty of mayo. Not exactly the same...but close enough.
You're a fibber anon 1:42! I grew up on an island in Papua New Guinea and happen to speak fluent Rotokas. Our word for hamster is not "Orffyreus", but either "Hamatas" or "Rotsi". However, I do agree they are delicious, but only if they are properly cooked.
DeleteWow! No wonder John's future pm wheel works! Never underestimate the raw, explosive energy of the mighty hamster:
Deletehttps://youtu.be/vB3eyTnUZPY
His little wheel is putting the one I'm working on to shame...
Excellent! I love the very beautiful first wheel, unfortunately my wheel lacks the majestic grandeur apparent in the picture.
DeleteI also was mightily impressed by the speed of the hamster in the second link. My wheel l will never approach the speed clearly apparent in this picture.
I hope the naysayers will be appropriately supportive in their comments when they see my wheel.
JC
Thanks for using AI to finally solve the Bessler wheel mystery for us, anon 01:42! It's all so obvious now. Bessler must have had a small herd of those critters at the bottom of the Kassal wheel. He had trained them so that, when he gave the drum a push in either direction, the hamsters would start running up the inner curved wall of the drum on that side. Bessler had heavy cylindrical lead weights located along the rim of the drum to increase its moment of inertia. As the hamsters ran, the wheel's speed would increase and, in time, it would develop enough rotKE to raise a load of stones right up the side of Weissenstein Castle! As a reward for their work, every once in a while Bessler would throw a couple handfuls of hamster feed into the drum through the patches on the back of it. Drip bottles filled with water would hang from the axle so the hamsters could take a drink during breaks in a demonstration.
DeleteWhen the wheel was finally sold to some suck...er, I mean "investor", Bessler would take the 100,000 thalers and give him the empty drum along with some cages filled with hamsters and a couple of sacks of hamster chow. Bessler would then claim he hadn't lied. His wheel did not use any form of mechanical contrivance to work and would be perpetual just as long as the new owner kept feeding and breeding hamsters. It was also just an overbalanced wheel as he had claimed. The overbalance, however, was created by the bodies of the hamsters and not by the lead weights inside the drum.
Damn clever that Bessler!
I've had several pet hamsters and they can move really fast when they want to. Their average running speed is about 5 miles per hour in wheel, but if one was the size of a human, he could probably reach a speed of around 60 miles per hour! Say, didn't someone on bwf calculate that the Kassal wheel's rim turned at a speed of about 5 miles per hour? Hmm...
DeleteI suspected it was hamsters all along! But they can put out a lot of #'s 1 and 2 especially if B used a small herd of them in the Kassal wheel. Where did that go? Did anyone report the potent smell of rodent urine while the wheels were being tested? Well, most people stank back then so maybe no one noticed.
DeleteThe Kassel wheel’s rim moved at just over ten miles per hour, about double your hamster’s wheel.
ReplyDeleteJC
Maybe the early 18th century hamsters ran faster than those ten years from now? The food they ate back then was probably loaded with more vitamins and minerals resulting in stronger leg muscles and higher running speeds.
DeleteMy quick calculation shows that, at 26 rpm, the rim of the Kassal wheel was moving at about 11.14 mph. With a rotation rate of 26 rpm and a mass of 1,000 pounds that had an average distance of 3 ft from the axle center, the Kassal wheel would have had a moment of inertia of 9,000 lb-ft^2. That means the wheel's rotational kinetic energy was 1036.8 ft-lb. That's enough energy to lift a 200 lb man 5.18 ft off the floor! A man weighing less would rise even higher. A child weighing 79.7 lb would be carried over the top of the wheel (which I assume was 13 ft above the floor)! Didn't someone try grabbing the moving rim of the Kassal wheel to see how high he was lifted? If so, I suspect that Bessler took a dim view of any visitors to see his wheel trying a stunt like that, but maybe he allowed it to show everyone how powerful his wheel was. He knew they would be telling their family and friends about it which would help spread the word about this remarkable invention and its abilities.
Delete'Kassel ... - letter from Joseph Fischer to J.T. Desaguliers, 1721
Delete" This wheel turns with astonishing rapidity, making twenty-six turns in a minute, when the axle works unrestricted. Having tied a cord to the axle, to turn an Archimedean screw for raising water, the wheel then made twenty turns a minute. This I noted several times by my watch, and I always found the same regularity.
I then stopped the wheel with much difficulty, holding on to the circumference with both hands. An attempt to stop it suddenly would raise a man from the ground.
But to my astonishment I observed that the rapidity of the wheel augmented little by little until it had made TWO TURNS, and then it regained its former speed, until I observed by my watch that it made the same twenty-six turns a minute as before, when acting freely; and twenty turns when it was attached to the screw to raise water. "
The wheel wasn't 1,000 lbs, considerably less. The Merseburg wheel was translocated by men carrying it between supports. Good luck getting a 1,000 lb wheel with large moment of inertia to accelerate to 26 rpm in only 2 turns. This suggests a small MOI. It also slowed considerably lifting and recirculating a small volume of water with a screw indicating it was near the limits of its power and able to maintain its rpm.
Actually, Fischer doesn't say the wheel reached 26 rpm's in ONLY two turns. He just says he observed the wheel gradually accelerating for two turns. THEN, indicating some time after the second turn was completed, it regained is former speed. We don't know how long it took the wheel to complete the first two turns or how much time AFTER that passed before it was again spinning at 26 rpm's. That extra required time could have been as much as 10 minutes or more. We don't even know how long it took for the wheel to complete the first two turns. That could have been several minutes. I'd agree with the "powerful wheel" believers if Fischer had written that the wheel completed two turns IN ONLY ONE MINUTE and reached a speed of 26 rpm's AT THAT TIME. But, he didn't.
DeleteI think that the 1,000 lb estimate by anon 04:16 might actually be low! (The results of his calculations, btw, are accurate.) The Merseburg wheel's drum was thinner than the Kassal wheel's drum and its weights (estimated to be about 4 lbs) were probably smaller than those used in the Kassal wheel. We don't know exactly how many men were involved in moving the lighter Merseburg wheel between sets of supports. Also, that translocation was only done AFTER its many lead weights had been removed to lighten it up. Those weights could have weighed hundreds of pounds.
Some students of Bessler's wheels want to believe that they had incredible power, but there is really no evidence of that. I think the real reason he had so much trouble finding a buyer was because, after a buyer had some engineers test a wheel, they realized that it had far less power than a conventional water or windmill. The big attraction was that it could run continuously (assuming no critical part failure), but the stiff price to acquire that technology was a big turn off for potential buyers. Of course, to increase the chance of a sale, Bessler would have been predicting that there was no limit to how powerful his wheels could be made and dismissing a test wheel's weak power output as due to it only being a model used for demonstrations.
Leibniz tested Bessler's Merseburg wheel for several hours and here is a quote from him dated October 5th, 1715:
''I do not think Mr. Gartner will easily discover Mr. Orffyreus' secret. I also do not think it is purely perpetual motion, because I believe that to be impossible. If it is, then the machine could be enlarged to give much greater power. But I suspect that there is some physical principle behind it because its power is quite limited.''
Leibniz was obviously impressed by Bessler's invention and claim to having achieved pm. But, I suspect he was not impressed with it being a practical invention for use in industry.
No Ken. And other witnesses say of the various wheels between 1 and 2 turns.
Delete' Merseburg ... - Certificate for wheel tested at Merseburg, signed 31st October, 1715
The machine was started by a very light push with just two fingers and accelerated as soon as one of the weights, hidden inside, began to fall. WITHIN about ONE revolution, the machine had acquired a strong and even rotation, even when a box was lifted, which had been filled with six whole bricks weighing together about seventy pounds.
I agree with anon 07:37. That certificate for the Merseburg wheel only says it was turning smoothly after the first rotation but it doesn't say it was at full speed. Also it doesn't tell us how long that one rotation took which could have been minutes. Don't be too surprised when someone finally manages to duplicate Bessler's wheels and finds out their low power makes them useless as a power source for our modern world.
DeleteYou have a severe case of denial , otherwise known as Confirmation Bias.
Delete'Kassel ... - letter from Willem Jacob 'sGravesande to Sir Isaac Newton, 1721
" When I turned it but gently, it always stood still as soon as I took my hand away. But when I gave it any tolerable degree of velocity, I was always obliged to stop it again by force; for when I let it go, it acquired in two or three turns its GREATEST VELOCITY, after which it revolved at twenty-five or twenty-six times a minute. "
They all had very rapid ACCELERATION , but relatively low POWER in terms of energy density.
You sound like you are convinced that letter from 'sGravesande proves Bessler's wheels had rapid acceleration, but it really does not. When 'sGravesande released the wheel, we do not know how long it took for the wheel to complete the two or three turns before it reached its maximum speed again. It could have been several minutes. Also, such a start up of a two way wheel that had previously been turning at maximum speed and was then briefly stopped before again being released is not the same as the startup of a wheel which was initially stationary and then needed to be given a push to get it going. The two types of start up's most likely involved much different arrangements of a drum's internal parts allowing for a slightly faster start up of the briefly stopped two way wheel.
DeleteAnyway, all of this will not be determined until we finally have accurate replicas of B's wheels to test. Until then, it's best to try to avoid reading too much meaning into the often very ambiguous descriptions found in the B related literature. Such ambiguity tends to allow everyone to "see" the wheel they are expecting to see based on their particular understanding of mechanics, but not necessarily the actual wheel design that B had. I suspect this is exactly what B hoped would happen.
Sorry, I misunderstood that type of start up that 'sGravesande performed. It was the push start of an initially stationary wheel and not the release type start of a running wheel that was briefly brought to a stop and then released again. However, that does not change the situation. We do not have any time measurements about how long a wheel needed to turn before it reached maximum speed so we really don't know how rapidly they accelerated. With the amount of lead in B's two way wheels, I continue to be convinced that their accelerations were very sluggish.
DeleteAnon 7:37 said " We don't know how long it took the wheel to complete the first two turns or how much time AFTER that passed before it was again spinning at 26 rpm's. That extra required time could have been as much as 10 MINUTES OR MORE. We don't even know how long it took for the wheel to complete the first two turns. That could have been SEVERAL MINUTES. "
DeleteLOL. No observer bothered to note that the Kassel wheel took a quarter of an hour (or mention any time period) to reach a maximum velocity of 20 or 26 rpm in just 2 or 3 turns. Because it wasn't important. Especially since it was also subject to fit for work power related tests before the ultimate long duration test. The observers watching the tests and writing about it could I guess have watched snail racing while they waited.
' Draschwitz one-way wheel ... - Letter from Teuber to Leibniz, 19th January, 1714
" Upon the cord being released, the machine began to rotate with GREAT FORCE and noise, maintaining its speed without increasing or decreasing it for some considerable time. To stop the wheel and retie the cords required TREMENDOUS EFFORT. "
Let Anon 5:00 sim it .
DeleteI have to agree with anon 05:00. It's easy to get mislead by adjectives like "strong", "greatest", "swift", etc. But, without accurate time measurements, all of these are just subjective descriptions without objective time measurements to back them up. One, two, three rotations also mean nothing without the time measurements involved with them. The nature of the tests given to the Merseburg and Kassal wheels is also ambiguous. Yes, they could slowly lift a load of stones using a rope and pulley, but was this lift done immediately by a stationary wheel given a small push and starting to turn "under load"? Or, more likely, was the lift done after these wheels had been allowed to slowly build up to their maximum free running speeds after which a loop at the end of the lifting rope was snagged onto a bolt sticking out of the rotating wooden axle so as to then cause the rope to begin winding around the axle and lifting the stones? There is BIG difference in the amount of power one of his wheels would have to have to perform the two different types of lift. Again, we don't have enough details to decide. I wish we did and I wish Bessler's wheels were tremendously powerful, but wishing for something is not the same as having it. I accept the more conservative "weak wheel theory" and justify it because of how reluctant business people were to purchase his invention and not just because of the high price. They wanted to hear that the wheels were outputting mechanical energy on a par with what they were accustomed to getting from their water and windmills and, unfortunately, their professionals inspecting the wheels were not reporting that to them. Thus, no sale. Like anon 05:00 I don't think we'll be able to resolve this matter until and unless we have actual, accurate duplicates of Bessler's original wheel design to work with. Hopefully, that will happen soon.
Delete' Merseburg ... - Certificate for wheel tested at Merseburg, signed 31st October, 1715
Delete" The machine was started by a very light push with just two fingers and accelerated AS SOON AS one of the weights, hidden inside, began to fall. Within about one revolution, the machine had acquired a strong and even rotation, EVEN WHEN a box was lifted, which had been filled with six whole bricks weighing together about seventy pounds. The weight was lifted by means of a rope conducted through a window by means of a pulley, eight ells (14.8 feet) upwards to the roof, and several Clafter (1 Clafter is about 8.2 feet) down into the yard. The box was lifted as many times as requested. "
- Christian Wolff, letter to Leibniz, examination of Merseburg wheel, 19th December, 1715
" Furthermore, the machine may be of little value to the public unless it can be improved. At the moment it can lift a weight of sixty pounds, but to achieve this the pulley had to be reduced more than four times, making the lifting quite slow. "
' Merseburg ... - Leipzig Post Zeitungen, published for week of 24th - 30th June , 1715
" Having put into motion its own mechanism, the power is sufficient to raise high or pull a load of approximately one hundred weight. To demonstrate its effectiveness, FOUR STAMPERS of considerable weight have now been attached. They are lifted by means of eight cams fixed to the shaft, and at each revolution they are lifted twice. Consider how much more such a perpetuum mobile could do if, in the future, a larger one was constructed and by combining several machines have its power multiplied; or it could be applied to other mathematical inventions...
This new perpetual mobile has something unique and extremely valuable about it that was not found in the Draschwitz model; it can rotate in either direction as desired. As a result it can, turning to the left or the right, wind a load up or down, in or out as necessary. However, to start it, a preliminary push or help by hand is needed...'
'Kassel ... - letter from Joseph Fischer to J.T. Desaguliers, 1721
" But to my astonishment I observed that the rapidity of the wheel augmented little by little until it had made two turns, and then it regained its former speed, until I observed by my watch that it made the same twenty-six turns a minute as before, when acting freely; and twenty turns when it was ATTACHED TO THE SCREW to raise water. "
There is no objective time measurement from any witness of how long each wheel took to make between 1 to 3 turns to reach maximum velocity, loaded or unloaded. What is known is that some of the load tests like attaching stampers and water screws were actively attached from the moment the Merseburg and Kassel wheels were given a slight push start. This is not necessarily the case for the Merseburg box lift test though one report says it could accelerate from a push start with the box of bricks and rope attached at start up.