One bit of work done by gravity, is one packet of energy used.

I have been asked to clarify what I mean by the phrase, 'a packet of energy' used on my website at http://www.besslerswheel.com/html/conservative_force.html

If I drop a book on the floor I say that its fall has consumed one packet of  gravitational energy.  If I drop two books on the floor at the same time there will still be only one packet of energy used, but if the two books drop one after the other then two packets of energy have been used.  If a very heavy dictionary and small pocket diary fall at the same time only one packet of energy has been used.  So the number of packets of energy used depends purely on whether they happened to fall  together or separately.

If I drop a bag of billiard balls on the floor, I can calculate how much energy was used by weighing the bag of balls and measuring how far they fell -  weight times vertical fall gives us a figure indicating the work done by gravity.  I could also weigh the bag and each ball separately and work out how much work was done for each item.  If I then added those figures together the resulting total would be the same as for the bag of balls. So it doesn’t matter how far they fell or how heavy they were - all we are interested in knowing is whether they fell together or separately and that is why I call the amount of work done by gravity, a packet of energy consumed.

The reason I use this phrase is to try to explain how one half of a pair of weights can move the other half without coming into conflict with the conservative nature of gravity. Their falls do not happen at the same time and therefore their new positions can be used advantageously to rotate the wheel.!

I realize of course that this phrase is normally used in connection with photons or gravitons but in this instance there is no direct connection with that concept.

JC

The Bessler-Collins gravitywheel.

There was a comment on here and I've had some emails asking me why my wheel is taking so long.  People have said that it sounded very complex - maybe too complex to be similar to Bessler's wheel.  So with only 21 days left 'til the 300th anniversary I'm sharing some of the details of its build although I doubt you will find it very illuminating - it's not meant to be - yet!

I think I shall finish it in time but I'm not quite there yet.  I am committed to being away for a couple of weeks at the beginning of June so I may save the result 'til I return - or I may not - it probably depends on whether it works or not!  I'm disappointed to be away on the very day we should be remembering Bessler's first exhibition but it can't be helped. Families make arrangements without considering the possibility that they might clash with an important date in my Bessler calendar!

The backplate on which it's all mounted is three feet wide.  There are five mechanisms for reasons I understand but which are not immediately obvious at first sight.  Each mechanism has ten parts plus two weights, so in total the whole wheel has 60 parts, plus the axle.  I wish it had eleven parts per mechanism then it would total 55!

The axle runs all the way through the wheel - for those who have suggested that it didn't.  The mechanisms employ the 'kiiking' principle and the wheel is designed to turn in one direction only.

There are no springs employed in my version although I could find a use for them if required, but the scissor linkage otherwise known as "stork's bill", or" lazy tongs" is present.

The method of working is readily apparent to a casual observer however longer study would be necessary to appreciate the finer points of detail without which it would fail.  If it works, the wheel will begin to spin spontaneously as soon as any brake mechanism that might be applied is released.

The main reason why it has taken so long is that although I had the basic principle, there were some parts of the mechanism whose precise design arrangement was open to interpretation so I had to test each configuration to determine which worked the best.  I have now got the mechanism arrangement I think works best so all I have to do is complete all five and test the wheel. 

I'm convinced that even if it doesn't work the principle is sound and will lead to someone succeeding in making a working wheel. Watch this space.

JC

Gravity lies at the heart of all movement on the planet.

In yesterday's post I was trying to say that the traditional explanations of why gravity cannot be used to drive a wheel continuously, must be wrong because the evidence that Bessler's wheel was genuine is so compelling.  I wanted to get away from the oft-parroted words we learn from text books, wikipedia etc., and think for ourselves. 

I have tried the well-tested route of analogies, one of Eric Laithwaite's favourite ways of explaining things, but people still get side-tracked into irrelevant details.  They simply don't get the allusion to gravity being analogous to the wind.  The origin of the wind is always introduced no matter how many times I say 'you have to look at this as a local effect'.

Instead of trotting out the same old stuff, why don't we think about the problem and use our commons sense?

Gravity is continuous, we know that because when we drop something it falls to the floor - it happens every time!  

I can pick up a book off the floor and replace it on a shelf and restore the potential energy lost in sending the book to the floor.

Let's say I fire a rifle horizontally, the bullet hits the ground 500 yards away at a point level with the ground I'm standing on.  At the same time I drop another bullet from my hand level with the rifle and both bullets hit the ground at the same time.  Gravity was only responsible for making the bullet drop to the ground.

Those are the features which define a conservative force.  It is a continuous force; energy lost by it is capable of being restored by reversing what happened; and it is not necessary to take into account the path of a fallen object when calculating the work done by gravity.

Now it is always said that for those reasons gravity cannot be used as we wish to use it.  But each of those definitions can apply to wind and water currents, so why separate them from gravity?

Yesterday the sun was introduced again.  My fault, I mentioned it.  The thing is that the features of a conservative force mentioned above must be applied locally.  We don't know where gravity originates so we just need to look at how it manifests itself here on earth.  I tried to accommodate those who wish to include the sun in their argument by fixing on the fact that air is affected by gravity just as everything else is.  We know that the air is more dense closer to the earth's surface because of gravity.  It is analogous to the oceans of the planet.  If you dived to the bottom of the deepest ocean you would be crushed by the sheer weight of water above you, and a small bubble of air would escape from your flattened lungs and shoot towards the surface of the water.  

As it rose the bubble would get larger and larger.  Air at the surface of the eath is like that and as it rises each molecule gets larger and less dense.  

Yes the sun affects the air currents but gravity holds it down and would do so without the sun.  Solar energy may be responsible for the winds that blow, but gravity enables them to rise and fall, and create varying pressures. Gravity acts on molecules of whatever is with its field whether it's air, water or lumps of lead. The conservative force of gravity lies at the heart of all movement on the planet.

I wish everyone would accept Bessler's statement that the weights are themselves the PM device, the ‘essential constituent parts’".  Then we could go about trying to explain why that can be so.  I have tried and will continue to try to find the solution but sometimes I feel as if I'm banging my head against a wall of taught science.  No-one thinks for themselves any more but takes everything they are told for granted - parrot fashion.  I'm not saying that people don't understand what they have learned but sometimes it is easier to assume that that is all there is to the facts; there are no other factors to be considered, when perhaps a little lateral thinking might help us to understand how to solve the problem.

JC

The Elephant in the Room.

I think we are due for a sea change or should that be a paradigm shift?  A paradigm shift occurs when axioms, long trusted as self-evident truths, gradually get weakened by contradictory evidence previously ignored as being anomalous. The result usually involves a new way of thinking which accommodates the anomalies.  A sea change, in modern parlance, tends to indicate a complete change from what was thought to be true in the past, but it seems to be more of a transformation than a change.

It seems to me that there is an elephant in the room!  If an elephant was in a room it would be impossible to overlook; thus, people in the room who pretend the elephant is not there have chosen to avoid dealing with a looming big issue. There are certain inescapable facts attached to the Bessler legend which are ignored or circumvented, the result of which is that the possibility of using gravity as an energy source has been dismissed.

One, Karl the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel validated the wheel.  It is inconceivable that he would be involved in fraud.

Two, no evidence of fraud was ever found, and Bessler never stopped declaring his innocence.

Three, Bessler stated that "these weights are themselves the PM device, the ‘essential constituent parts’s".

Four, there are no other forces sufficient in either speed or strength, to react quickly enough or strongly enough to assist gravity in turning the wheel.

Conclusion, Bessler's wheel was enabled to turn by the force of gravity alone.

So let us suppose that the wheel was genuine and it depended on gravity alone.  We are told gravity is a conservative force and therefore incapable of supporting continuous rotation.  Why should that be so?  Wind is conservative, so is a stream, but they support continuous rotation.   I used to liken the action of  gravity to the wind, or a stream of water but people get too hung up on where the wind comes from, what causes it, the action of the sun etc., to consider the implications of that fact.

I think the sun is not the ultimate cause of the wind, gravity is.  Air can be warmed by volcanic action or man's actions so not necessarily the sun, but gravity is essential.

The passage of air molecules (mainly a  mixture of nitrogen oxygen and carbon dioxide)  from a higher pressure area to a lower one, is discerned as wind.  The lower pressure air results when its molecules are warmed and it expands and rises, leaving the surround molecules to rush into the potential vacuum which would result. When the air warms it expands and becomes less dense.  The higher you go the thinner the air becomes until there isn't enough to breathe. Why is that?  The simple reason is that the air is subject to gravity the same as everything else is.

Air close to the surface of the earth is at its densest with the molecules most tightly packed together.  When warmed the molecules move further apart so become less dense.  They also rise, squeezed upwards by the denser cooler air at ground level. 

In Bessler’s wheel the lead weights were composed of lead molecules.  It doesn't change shape unless heated to melting point so when used as a weight it is uniformly heavy unlike the more volatile air molecules. Gravity lies at the heart of  the motion of the air molecules and the sun is only responsible for warming them.  Without the action of gravity on our atmosphere there wouldn't be any wind - there wouldn't be any air either!.  Gravity enables the air molecules to move continuously creating the air currents which drive windmills.  And it’s gravity that enables the weights in Bessler’s wheel to rotate it continuously.

The air molecules which, in the wind drive the windmill and in the lead weights can drive the gravitywheel,.are each driven by the force of gravity.

JC