At the beginning of November I posted a ‘curious fact’, about how Bessler sent Karl a special greeting each year, on his name day, full of thanks and praise for the Landgrave, these were full of his favourite chronograms, each including the date of the document. One curious feature was the discovery that he composed special editions dated 1519, 1619, 1719, 1819, 1919 and 2019! Perhaps he anticipate that it would take another 300 rears or so to decipher his clues and produce a working model of his wheel?
I promised to post photos of all twelve greetings in case anyone wanted to study them and see if they could find evidence that there was hidden information in them. The quality is not good but at least they are in public view and perhaps copies of the originals can be obtained.
The quality is not brilliant but you can enlarge them and maybe find the key to unravelling any kind of information hidden in the page. I might be wrong of course in which case these pages can remain available for future consideration or not.
Anyway I’ve wanted to publish these for a long time. Good luck.
JC
JC
Sorry, I don't read 18th century German. But, I do know how to find symbols in drawings like SoS taught me to do! I focused in on that drawing at the top of the second page of the poem and found some interesting symbols in it. Here's an enlargement of that drawing:
ReplyDeletehttps://i.postimg.cc/gJ8yYs15/Bessler-Poem-Drawing-Symbols.jpg
The two cherubim immediately caught my attention. We see them in another drawing which is that second portrait in DT where they are on the corners of the organ in the background. Cherubim were considered as little baby or child angels who delivered messages from God to humans and Bessler was convinced that God gave him the secret of pm. The two angels in the poem drawing are holding up a crown which I assume is for Karl. But, that circular crown is also, imo, a symbol for Bessler's pm wheels! It is made of gold and Bessler considered his wheels to be very valuable just like gold. On the rim of the crown there are symbols that look like springs and a suggestion that everything is connected together inside of his wheels. That interconnectedness is also suggested by the laurel leaf crown being held by the cherubim on the left. That second crown is another symbol for Bessler's wheels. Laurel leaf crowns were, in ancient times, given to someone to honor some great achievement of theirs. In this drawing they symbolize Bessler's great achievement of discovering a working pm wheel design.
There are also several Y shape symbols in the drawing which I and, of course, SoS are convinced was the shape of the levers Bessler used in his wheels. The most prominent one is formed by the leaves on the right side of the drawing.
There's probably more in this drawing that I missed. These were just my first impressions. I'd also like to be able to read an accurate English translation of this poem if it's ever available.
Disciple of SoS
Nice analysis, DoSoS. From studying your enlarged image I noticed something. Look at the center lion in the circle below the large gold crown held by the two angels. It's standing on its hind legs and wearing a crown and I assume it is supposed to represent Carl. Then I noticed it has TWO tails! I looked it up and this was something done to show that someone, like Carl, was courageous and honorable. But, IF the emblem was made up by Bessler, then he might have intended that center lion's crown to also represent his pm wheels. The twin tails could mean that his largest and most impressive wheels could turn in either of two directions. I'm just guessing about all this. (Btw. Your analysis of MT85 a few blogs back really impressed me.)
DeleteThe fact that this poem was written in 1719, after the construction of his largest wheel in 1717 thanks to his patron Karl, tells me that Bessler would have somehow mixed in symbols for his wheels while also stroking Karl's ego with his drawing. DoSoS's analysis of the big gold crown representing Bessler's pm wheels also makes sense especially since it has, as he shows in his uploaded image, a total of eight flowers which, obviously, could stand for eight mechs. John would probably only notice the front five flowers and immediately declare that meant Bessler's wheels used only five mechs!
DeleteThen there's that year of 1719. If you add the first two digits and subtract the last two digits, you get 1 + 7 = 8 and 9 - 1 = 8. That could mean that Bessler's two way wheels each contained two one way wheels with eight mechs each. Come to think of it, if you use the year 1717 you get 1 + 7 = 8 and 1 + 7 = 8! Also, if you subtract the digits you get 7 - 1 = 6 and 7 - 1 = 6. Two 6's. Bessler first publicly demonstrated a small one direction wheel in Gera on June, the 6th month, on the 6th day of that month. There's the two 6's again. Coincidence? When it comes to Bessler's clues, there are no coincidences! The problem is to accurately determine what is and is not a clue. Not an easy task and that's exactly how Bessler intended it to be!
DoSoS wrote "The most prominent one is formed by the leaves on the right side of the drawing."
DeleteI agree those leaves definitely form the letter Y. I noticed something about one of the leaves. The leaf on the left side is bent down and points to the ear of the right side angel. IIRC, there was a belief in the 18th century that dreams were caused by little angels or "cherubim" fluttering into the bedroom of a sleeping person and whispering things into his ear (actually sounds a little creepy to me). Bessler did say he had an "invigorating" dream that spurred him on to find a working pm wheel design. Maybe he thought an angel was sent from God to whisper that dream's images into his mind as he slept? Now we see part of a Y lever symbol pointing to someone's ear. Maybe this was Bessler's way of saying that the Y lever shape was whispered into his ear as he slept by a visiting angel? To bad he never described that dream in detail. But, maybe he didn't because, if he did, he'd be giving away the secret of his pm wheels!
The drawing is irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteThat is exactly what B wanted you to think.
Delete