My wheels are too small!

My efforts to replicate Besslers wheel have been delayed over the last couple of weeks by a medical emergency in the family but I'm back on it now. I had got fed up with constantly finding that my mechanisms got entangled with each other because I made them too large and/or placed them too close to each other. This is a problem that has beset me frequently in the past. However, I'm sure that if I place them slightly further out and therefore less close together this will not reduce their effect ... if they work!

To put it another way, if they would have worked where I originally placed them, then in theory they should work in the new position and the worst that might happene is a reduction in power. We'll see!

The reason it has taken me so long to make this change is due to my habit of using and reusing the same pieces of material to make the mechanisms even for different designs,and fixing them to the same size wooden discs. I had a several of these discs all the same size and the pieces of steel I used were also of a certain length and I only altered them reluctantly.

This crazy false economy led to the mechanisms often being just a little too large for the space they occupied, with the result that they frequently got entangled with the adjacent one or locked up. The various pieces are so full of holes anyway, that if I continue to use them, they will just fall apart, and this also applies to the wooden disc that everything is mounted on. I finally accepted that I needed everything on a bigger scale and with more space to operate.

It is probably thought that making the mechanisms the right size from the start is an obvious and simple thing to achieve, but the trouble is that usually I do not know how much leverage it will take to lift a weight for a particular design, until I build it, and then to discover that there is not quite enough room to accomodate the length of lever required, means either redesigning another part of the mechanism to reduce its size, or enlarging the space available by using a larger disc.

I had made a partial move towards new material but using the same sized disc still limited the space. I now have a much larger disc and I'm using some new aluminum and steel for the mechanisms and hoping that this time everything works without locking up. Of course it may not drive the wheel but at least it should operate as I designed it.

JC

More Bessler findings at http://www.mikeyned.com/

I used to be in a small research group called called BORG, which stood Bessler Orffyreus Research Group. We thought we might succeed where others had failed in finding the solution to Bessler's wheel by trying to brain-storm a solution. For a while it was stimulating and exhilarating and we thought we might succeed, but as time went by, one by one, we began to drop out. The enterprise eventually ran out of steam and we went our separate ways. Unfortunately I lost everything to do with that episode due to a computer malfunction

One member of that group was a guy called Mikey Ned who has been a long time researcher into this subject. He has recently updated it at http://www.mikeyned.com/ and it has some interesting things to say about the measurement scales used in Bessler's drawings.

I have always been puzzled that no one appears to take any notice of Bessler's most widely known drawings. I refer to those which appear in Das Triumphirende. Each drawing has a purpose and they are stuffed so full of clues of an obvious kind, that it seems, to me at least, equally obvious that there are other clues of a more subtle kind.

I could mention for instance the presence of the pendulums (or pendula if you want the correct term). No witness ever recorded seeing them although they were mentioned by Bessler. Their presence was explained by a rather weak rationalsation which was really unnecessary. The reason for their presence is obvious to me even if it isn't to others. If you zoom in on a good scan of the drawings it is possible to see the great care taken with every line in each drawing.

It's interesting for me to see what someone else has posted about their own studies into this area of research because I sometimes think I'm the only one who has tried to make sense of the drawings which Bessler clearly laboured over. Those drawing are not just decorative they hold a wealth of clues and if we can only extend our knowledge of what is in them there is just a chance we can solve this puzzle that way instead of trying to do the way Bessler did, through a mixture of intuition and trial and error.

Good job, Mikey!

 

JC

Angular Momentum to Linear Momentum - and back again?

Sometimes when looking for a solution to a mechanical problem it helps to reverse the sequence of events required - or as Professor Eric Laithwaite liked to do, consider an analogy.

What we seek is a way of converting the downward linear force of gravity into rotational motion. As a means of seeking a solution for those of us who believe Bessler's wheel operated purely by gravitational force, perhap it might help to study the work of those whose ambition is to reverse the process. They wish to generate a unidirectional or linear force from a rapidly rotating weighted lever. There are a number of sites devoted to the experiments http://jnaudin.free.fr/html/IPEmain.htm for instance.

Now whether or not you believe it can be achieved, and I do, it is a fact is it not, that if Bessler's wheel is successfully built and is proved to be driven by gravity, and a working model demonstrated, then it follows that an engine that converts angular momentum to linear momentum can also be developed, since the action or process of one must be the reverse of the other.

Such an engine would have its own extraordinary abilities.  It could move over land and water and rise upwards against gravity.  Space drive with no emissions.

JC

Who best to play Bessler?

It has been remarked on more than one occasion that the story of Johann Bessler's life would make an excellent movie. It has already been made into an opera although I have not seen it, and it seems to me that a movie about the inventor would have all the ingredients needed to make a worldwide box office success.

There is lust, greed, jealousy, theft, hatred, love, a hunt for treasure, black magic, murder, corruption in high places and conspiracy - all set against the background of one man's struggle for recognition and a prize worth millions of dollars in today's money - not to mention a solution to today's energy and pollution problems. Need I say more?

And who is to play this tenacious, conceited, highly ingenious, emotional and troubled man? This is something I have pondered on at length for several years. For most of that time I wanted a British actor to play him, because I think they are the best actors, generally speaking. It requires someone who can express ingenuity, determination, obsession, triumph, paranoia and suspicion and blind fury - and yet call for the tenderest outpouring of love on occasion and be motivated by an overwhelming commitment to his religious belief.

That was until the other day when I saw Robert Downey Jr. and recognised his outstanding talent. He seems to have the look of Bessler sometimes. I now have him as my favourite for the part, unless someone else betters him in that unique role. - and someone probably will.

JC