Update on the Johann Bessler blog.

I was reluctant to add a step to allow access to commenting on my blog, but the amount of anonymous nonsense being posted has forced my hand.  It isn't just that though; the number of spam comments containing links to other sites has risen too much for me to waste time deleting them.  I have tried from the start of this blog, to allow anyone to comment as they see fit, with only a request for moderate language to be used, with no problem.  

The comments are restricted in length by blogger.com, and I think this is a reasonable requirement, there is still enough room to say what you want to say usually.  This restriction can be overcome by posting longer comments in two parts, but this is meant to be used sparingly, otherwise they woudn't restrict their length.

I thought that people would enjoy commenting on things I posted but I was quite happy for the comments to stray off subject, just as they do on the forum.  To me the important thing is for people who would like to discuss Bessler to have somewhere they can just comment or express a view or an opinion, as an alternative to the forum.

I shall continue to publish blogs as the mood takes me but I'm sure there will be a fall in the number of comments posted, but the visitors continue to run at over 150 a day, so I'm sure that people will still read my words even if they can't be bothered to sign on with their google password, so they can comment.  There have been 286,697 pageviews since I began, which is small beer for the professional bloggers who probably get that many in a day, but I'm happy with that - for the moment!

When I began this blog I never thought I would be able to find something to write about very often, but it's surprising how subjects pop up, sometimes through emails, or other comments or from my own research.

Looking at the stats I see that the vast majority of readers come from the USA, surprisingly Poland comes second and the UK third.  Australia and France more orless the same in next place.  I tend to use Chrome as a browser but surprisingly, the most popular browser used to visit my blog is Firefox, then Internet Explorer and then Safari.  Among the Operating Systems used, windows is the most popular but the use of the Ipad is increasing at a huge rate and the other tablet systems are right there just behind them so I guess this means that more and more people are accessing blogs through their iphones and similar devices.

Finally I'm sorry I have included the password step but I think it was overdue.

JC

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Why Bessler smashed his wheel to pieces.

I was asked recently why Johann Bessler was reported as having smashed each of his wheels, before leaving a town.  Bessler  said, for example, at Gera, "Soon I was being plagued by crowds of Sunday visitors, some of whom were fairly rough and boisterous, and I couldn't even eat in peace. I made a firm resolve that as long as I was in control of matters, no wheel would ever turn an inch on Sunday. Certain enemies of mine got to hear of this, and began to congregate outside in ever-greater numbers, shouting and jeering. It got so bad that finally, in a rage, I smashed the machine into a thousand pieces, and vowed to seek peace and quiet elsewhere".

And then at his next chosen venue, "somehow it all went wrong, and finally having to leave Draschwitz, I smashed my wheel to pieces".

Finally, in a scientific publication, Neue Zeitungen von Gelehrten Sachen, which was published by the Mencke family in Leipzig, in the April issue of 1722, page 344 it said, "In Kassel, Mr Orffyreus, who is Commercial Councillor to His Highness the Landgrave, has destroyed his Perpetuum Mobile that, prior to this, stood at the Landgrave's Castle of Weissenstein. He did this after he had suffered a serious illness, and after he had received a house in Karlshafen."

But it wasn't just Bessler's words, one of the Zeitz Councillors, Johann Zollman, wrote in a letter to Leibniz, "even in his anger he should not have destroyed his machine but should rather have dismounted and dis-assembled it."

This is a fair point and  I have previopusly suggested  that it was simply easier and safer to transport the wheel in pieces rather than trying to move it whole, because robbers might be tempted to try to steal it.

But this does not explain the words "smashed into a thousand pieces" - I thought at first that this was due to Bessler's sense of drama, included to show how thoroughly angry and upset he was at his treament by the crowds.  However on subsequent consideration I realise why he destroyed each of his wheels before moving on.

Travel over land in the 17th century was restricted to stagecoach, for those wealthy enough to afford such luxury, or horseback with the same proviso - you had to be wealthy to own a horse.  The alternative was .. you walked.  Bessler was only provided with transport when he was retained by Karl, the Landgrave, to move him and his wife and their belongings to Kassel - we have a copy of the charges incurred.  That distance was 151 miles from Merseberg to Kassel, but the distances Bessler had travelled between towns prior to his employment at Kassel was considerably shorter, Gera to Draschwitz - 21 miles, Draschwitz to Merseberg 25 miles.

If Bessler had to walk from town to town he could not have brought much with him, certainly not the wheel, even disassembled it would have been too big.  So he was forced to destroy each wheel when he moved, so that no clue remained to hint at how it worked.  The last comment   Each move was probably no more than a day's walk, maybe two, given the non-existance of proper roads at that time.

Confirmation, in a way, is supplied by the news item above which explains that Bessler destroyed the Kassel wheel after being given a house in Karlshafen.  He was leaving and the wheel had to be detroyed.

You might think it unlikely that people would routinely walk many miles to get somewhere, but an extreme example of the time was Andrew Hay, who travelled six times to Italy to buy up original paintings to sell on in London auction houses, twice walking all the way there and back!  He also walked to France and back fourteen times and retired in 1740 an extremely wealthy man.

JC

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Where have all the new Bessler fans gone?

On reading this back it looks a little like a narcicistic journey back in time (my time) and I apologise for this impression. I was mulling over the fact that far fewer new people come to investigate Bessler than did  years ago, at least not in the numbers they used to, and I wondered why.  I think the reason is that certain forums which existed then, have gone and there is now a surfeit of them on every subject under the sun.

When I first tried to get people interested in my biography of Johann Bessler, back in 1997, one of the first people I contacted was Jerry Decker of  http://www.keelynet.com/.  Jerry Decker has long been devoted to the quest for authentic free energy, gravity control and electronic health technologies for about 20 years.

KeelyNet began as a BBS (forum) in 1988 and moved to the Internet in 1994, having inspired many other websites along the way, as well as promoting the active sharing of useful and interesting information related to both orthodox and alternative science. His contribution was invaluable to me.  He requested a copy of my book, read it, loved it and went public with it in a way that I could never have dreamed of.  Mind you, it generated a lot of bad responses as well as good, from the establishment corner, but it toughened my attitude to negativity in a way that allows me to deal with the nay-sayers easily and ignore those who try to denigrate my contributions to the legend of Bessler's wheel.

The 'flame wars' started right at the beginning - see this:- http://www.keelynet.com/energy/orflame1.htm

And here's his brief moment of optimism in 1997! http://www.keelynet.com/orrmast.htm

Unfortunately Jerry Decker's forum has gone, although he continues to comment on twitter at https://twitter.com/zpeman and report on things that grab his attention.

The Nexus magaxine became interested - http://www.nexusmagazine.com/ - (Nexus New Times in the USA) and devoted a couple of issues to my book about Bessler.  Their aim was and is to present hard-to-get, ignored and suppressed information on the subjects of health, science, the unexplained, world events and history.  They too helped to spread the news about Johann Bessler.  See the item on page 53 of their 1998 Christmas issue below.

Then Infinite Energy Magazine came along in the shape of Editor-in-chief, Gene Mallove who I mentioned recently.  One of the world's foremost proponents of new energy was killed on May 14, 2004. Dr. Eugene Mallove was the founder and editor of the magazine Infinite Energy.

Issue 21 Review of Perpetual Motion: An Ancient Mystery Solved? (John Collins)

by Eugene Mallove, Mike Carrell, and Thomas Phipps.

Interview with John Collins by Susan Seddon

Bessler's Wheel - An Explanation? by Steve O'Donnell

Issue 23 Response by John Collins to IE #21 Reviews of his book Perpetual Motion: An Ancient Mystery Solved?

I also did about 5 Radio Interviews but they were broadcast within the UK, so resulted in little interest  outside of this country.  The Italian documentary has informed the Itallians but unfortunately the film is not so far available in English and until it is I doubt there will be much more than that.

Finally you can read reviews of my book by  Peter Lindemann, D.Sc., Brian O'Leary (former NASA astronaut), Eugene Mallove, former editor-in-chief of Infinite Energy Magazine and Hal Fox of New Energy News.

So I conclude that without the global news media such as Nexus Magazine, Infinite Energy Magazine and the Keelynet forum, there is little to be done to attract more new people to our cause.  Jerry Decker took part in the discussions on his forum which helped to direct attention to what ever took his fancy.  Not so with other forums and I guess we are just going to have to solve this ourselves!

JC

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Suggestions for Posts wanted.

Writing posts for others to read is an enjoyable past time for me, but am I writing about the things you guys are interested in knowing or discussing?

I would be interested to get some suggestions for subjects to cover so I can keep your interest and maybe gather a few more readers and commenters.

Let's have some ideas - please?  :)

JC

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