A Short Preview About My Planned Reveal of Bessler’s Wheel.

I’ve taken some photos of my wheel, and I’m colouring the parts to make the descriptions more readily understood.  This is being done on the assumption that either it isn’t finished by February 5th, this year, or it doesn’t work.  There could be two or three reasons why it doesn’t work.  Firstly,  maybe I’ve made a mistake in some calculations causing it to lock up; or secondly it doesn’t work because my whole concept is totally wrong.  Obviously I don’t seriously believe that, but I have to admit it is a possibility, however convinced I am that I’m right. 

The most likely reason why it might not work is simply the difficulty of building it the way I have.  Many excellent models I have seen over the years have gained my admiration, not so much for the attempted solution to Bessler’s wheel, but for the craftsmanship exhibited in the way they have been constructed.  If I had built in  three dimensions the whole structure would have been much more robust and rigid and not, like mine, prone to lateral sway and/or locking up, amongst other faults.  My wheel consists of a single three foot diameter of MDF, (Medium Density Fibreboard). Every anchor and pivot is a bolt fixed through the MDF. Each weighted lever rotates about a single bolt fixed through the MDF.  The levers should be double to rule out lateral sway;  the pivots should be supported at top and bottom, not just the bottom.  I got into the habit of thinking; check the design first by building something cheap and cheerful, and if it works then build something of better quality. Anyway, time will tell if it works and then others can test the design.

So it seems to me that I should explain the concept first, explaining  what is usually referred to as the work-around.  By this I mean overcoming the age old problem of producing a device which is made to rotate and do work.  This is to be achieved by designing a unique configuration using the fall of a limited number of identical weights, attached inside a wheel, which cause it to rotate continuously.  The work-around requires that the device is able lift the fallen weights back up to their pre-fall position, with no external input or assistance and no subterfuge.

There are many people who have studied this problem and built endless models, who believe there is a special configuration still to be found which will prove to be the answer, and also confirm Bessler’s claims to have found the solution and proved it over 300 years ago.  I believe I’ve found it, thanks to Bessler’s clues, but if it fails please don’t dismiss the “work-around” it’s correct even if the build doesn’t  work.

JC

UPDATE and Progress Report.

I’ve finished writing the text of the full explanation of how I believe Johann Bessler’s gravity-enabled wheel worked.  I’ve read and reread it umpteen times and I don’t think I can improve it much more.  But it definitely needs drawings and/or photos added, to make it fully understandable, which is what I’m working on at the moment.

I only got into my workshop a few days ago after being away over Christmas with my family, visiting my granddaughter, Amy.  She is a disabled TikTok influencer with over 4 million followers.  She has always supported me, in my efforts to solve Bessler’s wheel and in fact she only recently lost her beloved Hungarian Vizsla whom she named Bessler!  He was ten years old but had health problems. 

So, I’ve got a bit longer before I have to share what I’ve got, (yes I know - whether it’s finished or not and whether it works or not).  I will share my solution, as promised and include several photos of the wheel.

Anyway back to the task in hand.  I’m adding some short pieces of aluminium screwed into the backplate but bent over to catch and guide any weighted levers which are still subject to lateral sway - and occasionally miss the stop, ending locked up and immovable.  Same problem at the other end of some of the levers, which sometimes lock up in their contracted position, in their case a suitably placed bolt stops their over contracting.

I mention these minor but annoying matters because these additional features will probably be visible in the photos and add confusion to what might appear to be an already complex mechanism.  It’s not that complex and the once you see it in action, you will understand how it works.

So I’m confident about the design but not so much with the build, but I’ll do my best to finish it so you can all get to understand it, and make simulation or actual models.  Imagine being the first since Bessler to make a successful gravity-enabled continuously rotating wheel, capable of doing work.

Thanks,

JC

How Bessler’s Clues Hold the Wheel’s Design,

I’ve always been surprised that, given the huge number of clues I have found, deciphered and published, apparently nobody has ever taken my information about Bessler’s codes any further.  Of course I realise that without a drawing showing the exact configuration of the internal mechanisms, no one could know exactly how it worked and therefore no drawings have appeared.  

One of the things I revealed was the pentagram hidden in the first drawing in Das Triumphirende. (DT).   I thought that the obvious way forward with that knowledge would be to assume that at least one segment of the pentagram could hold vital information. It does but you have to work at it.  

There are other factors which have to be appreciated and worked out but the information is all there.  There is also vital information in the other three images in (DT).  The image in Apologia Poetica also contained information but was limited to having a pentagram secreted within it.  There are numerous other pieces of information buried within all three of his books, but I don’t include Maschinen Tracte (MT) because it was never published and any encoded stuff was included for discussion purposes among his future students.

Examine the picture below.  It demonstrates what I mean by ‘hidden in plain sight’, a favourite’ technique used by Bessler in many places.  This one appeared in Johann Bessler’s Das Triumpant Orffyrean Perpetual Motion book. It was a second version of the original design which was included in his first booklet, Grundlicher Bericht. There are a few differences between the two versions but mostly I use the second drawing to illustrate my finds.

In the picture note the six columns or pillars, not including the main one supporting the wheel.  The tops of two of them (numbered 4) are drawn in three dimensions, numbered 4, but the other four, numbered 12, are two dimensional and their tops are indicated by my short red lines. The latter act as datum points. The two on either side of the central pillar provide pointers to enlarge the circumference of the wheel. 

The green line which is extended from the left side of the picture and aligns with the centre of the wheel, indicates one of two possible diameter lines. Two lines each drawn 18 degrees apart from the lower end of the green line conform to Euclid’s pentagram construction advice. The yellow line at 18 degrees from the green diameter line crosses the wheels edge at exactly the point where the hidden rope emerges from behind the wheel.

Confirmation is provided by the other two datum points which align with the purple 18-degree line and the hatching lines on the wheel and the capital letter M. If you draw a line similar to the purple line but aligning the left sides of the two red lines, the alignment is perfect with the hash marking in the wheel. I think that both lines finish in the same place but obviously they can’t both do that as well as align perfectly with the hash markings.

Notice that the outer circle now includes the left side of the ‘T’ pendulum, the point of the padlock, and touches the bottom and right edges of the rectangular border of the drawing.

The padlock in this version is numbered 42 instead of 24; a typo?  No, it indicates that the drawing must be turned upside down.  

While we are on that subject,  notice the shadows under the main wheel drawing are shown on the left as they should be, given that the window is above the wheel to the right, but why then are the shadows under the sideways-on wheel shown on the right as if the window was above it on the left, which it clearly isn’t. This tells that the wheel needs to be turned upside down but also from left to right or right left, to create a mirror image which would place the shadows  correctly. The division point where the two half images separate is at the foot of the left hand pillar, numbered 12.

That’s all for now.

JC

Meaningful Numbers?

I know there are some who comment here in this blog on apparently meaningful numbers, relating to Bessler and his wheel.  

Here are some other apparently meaningful numbers -  5, 2, 55

Tomorrow is my 52nd wedding anniversary. 

Next month is my birthday 5th February, another 52

Bessler added two more forenames to give JEEB, alphanumerically 10, 5, 5, 2

Using the Caesar shift as Bessler did gives WRRO, alphanumerically 23, 18, 18 , 15.

The O represents his wheel, the two Rs can be seen supporting the wheel in the picture at the top of this page, notice they point in two different directions to indicate two-way wheels. In confirmation of this the word “RATH” meaning Councillor is written backwards. There other pieces of information hidden in the picture

The W has two purposes; firstly it is composed of two Roman number 5s, a favourite game he played in his many chronograms,  double 5.  Secondly it has an extremely important role in his wheel, enough said for now!

Apologia Poetica was planned as one book, but he added part 2 to defend against his enemy’s accusations. Part one ended with chapter 55. It included a code embedded in this chapter composed of 55 verses.

The 5s relate to the number of mechanisms in his wheel.

The 18s relate to the pentagram/pentacle embedded in his wheel, all of the angles in the pentagram are multiples of the number 18.

The O with its small inner circle is the wheel and axle. “It is also known as a circumpunct, The circumpunct (☉) is an ancient, universal symbol of a dot within a circle, representing concepts like the sun (Ra in Egypt, Apollo), gold (alchemy), God/the divine (Stoicism, Gnosticism), the universe, or a vector pointing outwards. Its meanings vary widely by context, from representing the unity of the cosmos and consciousness to a simple directional sign, making it one of humanity's oldest and most significant symbols”. (Courtesy of google.)

In the picture you can see Karl’s crown overseeing everything.

The two grasses are actually Arundo donax commonly used in organ reeds.  Bessler’s brother, Gottfried helped with thecconstruction of Bessler’s wheel, being an apprenticed organ maker, hence the inclusion of a reference to organs.

D.M.M.P.M I don’t have any confirmation of this, but I guess it stands for Doctor of Mathematics, Medicine, Perpetual Motion.

The number of letters used in the picture number 5 on the left including the central O, but on the right Bessler has cheated by making the double F of Orffyre into one letter, but also conjoined the two letters Y and R of Orffyre into one letter to total 5 including O again.

So I seem to have a numerical connection to Bessler and the timing seems just about right. Of course it’s just a coincidence - isn’t it?

JC

IT’S 2026 - HAPPY NEW YEAR TO MY CONTRIBUTER0

 

I wish all of us the best of luck this year, in our continued quest for the solution to Besslers Wheel.

I joined the Besslerwheel forum on November 5, 2003, and I suspect that in the New Year of 2004 I predicted that the solution Bessler’s wheel would be found in that year.  I also predicted success on this blog in every Happy New Year blog, probably since I started it.  I was always confident and yet beneath my confident manner, I didn’t actually know what the solution was or even if there really was one, but as George Michael sang it “you just gotta have faith!”

So now, when I say that I’m confident that this year, we will learn that there is a solution and I really do know what it is, I won’t disappoint!  I’ve written a complete description of how and why it is the solution, and I’m still working on finishing my Proof-of-Principle model,  which I hope to show working before my 81st Birthday, 5th February.  I am still adding some images to the description, because text is not enough.  When the wheel is finished I’ll post some pictures working or not.  This is the first time in my life, I know have the complete solution and I will share it as soon as possible.

I haven’t done much work on the PoP model, over Christmas, because of other activities.  As well as Christmas and visiting our far-flung family, all gathered up north, I’ve taken my wife to have surgery on a skin cancer on her face, to a hospital about an hour away, five times since the beginning of December.  The last appointment is next Monday and the surgeon has stated that she will have a 99% cure and full recovery.

If the solution is correct or some other person’s is better, or beats me to it, it will only be the second time in the whole of recorded history that the correct configuration has resulted in a working model.  If it’s mine, it will actually be Bessler’s wheel, and it will then be the only one ever recorded.  Yes the design is recorded in the four drawings in Das Triumphirende  (DT) but you just have to work through all the clues to eventually find it.  It’s taken me about 65 years since saw the first picture, although I didn’t start to really examine them until about 2010, 15 years ago.

Best wishes to you all,

JC