Did Bessler's wheel arrive too late or too early?

The timing of Bessler's discovery, after some ten years research, was unfortunate - 6th June 1712.

Denis Papin's experimental steam cylinder and piston was published in 1690 and he finally left Kassel in 1707.  After more than ten years his research culminated in 1704, with a ship powered by his steam engine, mechanically linked to paddles.  He died in London in 1712.

In 1698 Thomas Savery patented a steam-powered pump.  It was not as powerful as the Newcomen engine.

In 1712 Thomas Newcomen built the first successful steam engine in the world which was used for pumping water from coal mines. Savery's original patent of July 1698 gave 14 years' protection; the next year, 1699, an Act of Parliament was passed which extended his protection for a further 21 years.

Savery's patent covered all engines that raised water by fire and Newcomen was forced to go into partnership with Savery. By 1712, arrangements had been made with Newcomen to develop Newcomen's more advanced design of steam engine, which was marketed under Savery's patent. Newcomen's engine used the piston concept invented in 1690 by the Frenchman Denis Papin to produce the first steam engine capable of raising water from deep mines.

Unfortunately for him, the work of these men accidentally conspired to rob Bessler of his rightful place among the engine pioneers of .the 18th Century.  Their machines were designed and built by creditable 'gentlemen' and backed by establishment and  members of the Royal Society in London..

I often wonder what might have happened if the others had not been there when Bessler exhibited his machine - and if he had sold it!

Some people have speculated that it was because we experienced the steam age which, via the internal combustion engine, led to the petroleum age and hence the discovery of the many other benefits from the expansion of research into crude oil, and that we might have omitted that era if we had taken hold of Bessler's wheel and thus side-stepped much that we take for granted?  My personal opinion is that combustion engines would still have prevailed.

Even as far back as 1673, Huygens carried out experiments with a basic form of internal combustion engine, fuelled by gunpowder, and although he never succeeded in building one that worked, his attempts were helpful to those that were successful.  It seems to me perfectly reasonable to think that all the same engines and their fuels would have been developed in more or less the same time period as happened, with or without Bessler's wheel. 

JC

Bessler's double portrait - what was the purpose?

Recent comments about Bessler's two portraits caused me to review my thoughts about them.  The second portrait appears to show someone in front of an organ along with a number of instruments which could belong to the organ-building industry or an alchemist or heaven knows what else.  The reason why I tend to favour the organ-builder as the intended subject is because Bessler built organs and attributed much of his success to his knowledge of their construction.

What ever the intention, it is clear that the hole which has been cut so precisely in the second portrait to permit his face in the first portrait to show through with such startling accuracy, seems to me at least to indicate two things.  Firstly the second portait already existed, or was commissioned by him; and secondly the first portrait was deliberately designed and executed to allow the precise positioning of his face to match that of the second portrait.

[EDIT  - I forgot to say that I think the second portrait was not comissioned by Bessler because it has some text underneath it which has been carefully altered to convey a different meaning.  So in my opinion the picture had already been produced some while before Bessler decided to use it.]

There are only six examples of the double portraits known to date and they are all produced with the same precision.  This suggests that both portraits were designed to appear together and the first one was deliberately drawn with the subject's head an exact match to both size and position of that in the second one. Presumably Bessler wished to present himself in two lights, firstly as the persona in the first portrait and then as an alternative one in the second.  The two personas (or personae if you prefer) being different ones. 

Now I have commented before on the slightly odd look to Bessler's left arm and hand in the first portrait; it appears to be almost a disembodied part of Bessler himself.  Also there is the impression that the arm originally was intended to come down from his left shoulder at a higher angle, meeting near to his right hand at approximately the same level.  Bessler's coat or cloak shows slight rumpling along the higher line as if it originally contained the arm.  

In my opinion the arm was later corrected to its current lower position to allow the inclusion of the alignment with the pentagram as shown in my web site at http://www.theorffyreuscode.com/html/bessler_s_portrait.html

There are further speculations about the portrait at http://www.theorffyreuscode.com/html/2nd_portrait.html which may be of interest in considering the meaning of the symbols in the first portrait.

The main question in my mind is this; what information do people think the symbols in the first portrait are intended to convey?  A jar or gourd, a skull and a book.  Any suggestions?

JC

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Big Ben's pendulum and an old English penny - variable parameters - the key to Bessler's wheel.

I have long held the belief that the principle which drives Bessler's wheel will prove to derive from the action of parametric oscillation.  The swing, otherwise known as a pendulum, is an extremely sensitive device and perhaps the following facts will demonstrate its power and inspire a solution?

Consider the following.  The clock tower soon to be known as the Elizabeth Tower in a tribute to Queen Elizabeth in her Diamond Jubilee year, but currently known as 'Big Ben' after the bell which sounds the hours, is 316 feet tall.  It holds the largest four-faced chiming clock in the world and is the third-tallest free-standing clock tower.

The four clock dials are 180 feet above ground and each is 23 feet in diameter.

The hour hands each weigh 661 pounds are almost nine feet long and the minute hands are 14 feet long, but they weigh only 220 pounds, being made of a lighter material.  

The clock is regulated by a pendulum which is 13 feet long, weighs 660 pounds (over a third of a ton) and beats every 2 seconds.

On top of the pendulum bob is a small stack of old penny coins; these are to adjust the time of the clock. Adding just one coin has the effect of minutely lifting the position of the pendulum's centre of mass, reducing the effective length of the pendulum rod and hence increasing the rate at which the pendulum swings. Adding or removing a penny from the bob will change the clock's speed by 0.4 seconds per day.

Adding and then removing the penny daily would not result in any discernable continuous motion but in Bessler's wheel however such variation applied on a larger scale to a pendulum - as happenes in a swing by a child swinging its legs and upper body to increase oscillation - or in 'kiiking' - will generate rotation. 

If such a mighty piece of machinery can be affected by the removal or replacement of one penny, surely we can come up with some visionary means of achieving success with Bessler's wheel.

JC

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Did Bessler leave clues to the wheel to obtain post humous recognition?

Although I was unable to comment from Spain, I read all your posts and it seemed to me that there is some uncertainty about whether or not Bessler intended to leave clues for us after his death, in case he was unable to sell his wheel.

The following quote seems to imply that there is information in Apologia Poetica which answers certain questions the reader may have.  It also says that the answers will not be revealed soon:-

"Those who are keen to ask questions should ask them of this little book. My work will not be revealed prematurely." (Chapter XLVI page 295 Apologia Poetica) 

Also there is the comment on the front of his Maschinen Tractate, "I burned and buried all papers that prove the possibility. However, I have left all demonstrations and experiments since it would be difficult for anybody to see or learn anything about a perpetual motion from them or to decide whether there was any truth in them because no illustration by itself contains a description of the motion; however, taking various illustrations together and combining them with a discerning mind, it will indeed be possible to look for a movement and, finally to find one in them." (Front page of Maschinen Tractate).

That also supports the idea that he intended that people should learn how his machine worked. 

Elsewhere he bemoaned the fact that no one took his claims seriously and if he failed to find a purchaser for his machine then he would be content with post humous recognition. One can infer from this that he had left some means of showing us how his wheel worked.

There is of course, my own work on decoding what seem to me to be obviously clues, and I don't think there can be any doubt that that is what they are meant to be.  But I understand that many will feel that those that I have published may seem of little help, but there is a much more to come which reveal a lot more information.  Having said that, I am unaware of anything in Bessler's portraits other than what I have posted on my web site at www.theorffyreuscode.com and I shall be very interested to learn what it is that TG believes he has discovered within them.

JC

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