What exactly is the Orffyreus Code?

The code consists of a number of pieces of information about Bessler's wheel, which the inventor included in much of his published works. This information was disguised so that it could not be easily recognised for what it was and deciphered before he had been rewarded.

Details of the wheel's construction form the majority of the information and one can only assume that the inventor did it for one or two possible reasons. One - he needed to have published information which he could point to in case some one else also found a solution to building a gravity converter to prove he was the first and two - he could leave proof that he had indeed discovered the solution if he should die before he had had a chance to obtain some kind of reward for his efforts. I tend to think the latter is the real reason because he actually mentions the possibility in one of his works.

There must too have been the hugely enjoyable prospect of being able to point to the clues after he had sold the secret and laugh at all the nay-sayers who said he was a fraud and that the proof had been in front of them all the time.

JC

Ironic surgery

The weather has been warmer for the last week - at last! I've done some jobs outside that have been waiting for me for months - since last November to be precise.

I went for a routine medical check up this time last year and my blood count was very low. "No problem", the Doc said, "but just to be sure we'll monitor it over the next three months". Well of course it didn't improve and so I was booked in for an x-ray and cat scan. "Ah ha!" They said, "there's a lump, but don't worry, it's probably nothing but just to be sure we'll book you in for a bronchoscopy". So I had a general anaesthetic and then they shoved lights, cameras and some kind of biopsy grabbing tool - which could not only cut and scrape but bring back whatever it found to the light of day and the pathology lab. - down my throat. After a couple of weeks they called me to say that they had good news and bad news. "Oh great!", I thought, "a doctor with a sense of humour," just what I need!"

"OK, so tell me the worst". "Its a tumour, but its a benign one". "Hurrah!" I exclaimed. "Ah well it's not all good news, you see it might turn nasty or grow bigger or just sit there doing nothing for years and then suddenly flare up. Best have it out".

"Riiigggghhhhtttt. So how big is it?" "Oh, only tiny really, maybe an inch by half an inch". "Oh thats no so bad. How do you get at it, keyhole surgery?" "No actually we'll go in from the back while you're under a general anaesthetic and takeout the the top third of your right lung". "What!!!!!"

So they did it on November 5th. I'm back and well enough but the ironic feature of this is that by the time I was operated on my blood count had returned to normal and was thought to be due to a bad chest infection I had been suffering from - not the tumour!

Book and wheel update

I must advise anyone who is interested in discussions about Johann Bessler to visit http://www.besslerwheel.com/ I have been a member since November 2003. and have found the forum very lively and the posts often inspirational to me. Although I post occasionally I must take some criticism because although people may find my books about Bessler interesting or useful, I have made little effort to post up information on any of my own attempts to find a solution.

Because of the extensive work involved in producing the follow-up book about Bessler, it might be thought that the main thrust of my work is towards the completion of the book, but in fact I have too often been diverted by sudden inspiration, sometimes found on the forum and have left the book untouched, preferring instead to spend time in my workshop, tinkering with new ideas. I know this has been intensely annoying to those who need more facts to establish exactly how Bessler's wheel worked, and I can only apologise and say that the wait will be worth it even though it has taken longer than it need have.

My own attempts to find the solution continues and some members of the forum will know that I stated, some while ago, that I knew the concept of how Bessler's wheel worked and was confident of building a working model. That situation is still the same and since then I have worked out exactly why his wheel worked without conflicting with any of the physical laws. I think that the solution to this assumed conflict is absurdly simple.

I have been unable to work on the wheel for the last two weeks due to family demands and before that it was too cold in my work shop, and before that I was still in post operative recovery following some fairly heavy surgery on one of my lungs! But ... I hope to return to the wheel work next week.

I shall test this last model to see if it has any merit .... if it hasn't I'll continue with my plan to post everything I know about the wheel to my long time correspondent in the USA. If he gives it his approval he will begin funded research to reconstruct the original Bessler's wheel.

JC

Overlapping mechanisms again.

Following a number of emails I received, I believe I should correct some impressions given by the previous post. I was not suggesting that I had an original idea that overlapping mechanisms might be the answer- I was just pointing out how common it is for people to design mechanisms which don't overlap.

As I have said elsewhere, I think I know what was in Bessler's wheel, and I can only use the word 'think', until I know for certain by building a model that works. Having said that and even though my design may or may not include an overlapping mechanism, I thought it might be useful to point out how few such designs include overlapping mechanisms. And there will be cases I'm sure, where even though the mechanism overlaps an adjacent one, that fact has no impact on the way the wheel works and it is just judicious use of all available space.

JC