When the impossible becomes possible.

I don't know how many people who chance upon this blog, have actually heard of Johann Bessler and his claims to have built several perpetual motion machines, but of one thing I'm certain - the vast majority will have learned that such a thing is impossible and would utterly confound the laws of science if such a device were ever able to see the light of day and work.  

The history of science is littered with the corpses of those knowledgeable people who delivered their prognostications after much observation, experimentation and deliberation.  There is a veritable cornucopia of websites listing these sad, deluded experts who knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that some things were impossible, only to be proven wrong within a surprisingly short time.  There is therefore no need for me to detail any, but I found an interesting trend noted in a magazine of no lesser standing than the International Business Times and I have provided a brief extract which seems to support my contention that, like the advice, 'don't believe everything you read in the papers', you should not believe everything the scientists tell us:-

"A rise in the number of studies published in scientific journals has been accompanied by a surge in retraction notices, casting into doubt findings that influence everything from government grants to prescriptions written for patients, a Wall Street Journal analysis found.

Citing data compiled by Thomson Reuters, the Journal found a steep rise in retraction notices in peer-reviewed research journals, from just 22 in 2001 to 339 last year. The number of papers published in such journals rose 44 percent in the same time frame. The article pointed to other studies finding that fraud and misconduct were becoming increasingly prevalent.

The article noted that new scientific studies look to past research for guidance, so that a flawed study can cause a cascade of faulty or fruitless research: for example, when the renowned Mayo Clinic had found that data about using the immune system to fight cancer had been fabricated, seventeen scholarly papers published in nine research journals had to be retracted.

In addition, doctors rely on research to prescribe the most effective treatment. An ultimately discredited study suggesting that two high blood pressure drugs worked better in concert led doctors to put more than 100,000 patients on a treatment schedule that may offer no benefits and dangerous side effects.

Part of the problem is that scientists are locked in competition for the prestige and money that flows from being published in a recognized journal.

"The stakes are so high," said the Lancet's editor, Richard Horton. "A single paper in Lancet and you get your chair and you get your money. It's your passport to success."

This report concerns us today but why should it not apply to the last three hundred years too?  There is plenty of evidence out there proving that many established beliefs are later found to be wrong.  I underlined one particularly damming point, 'new scientific studies look to past research for guidance, so that a flawed study can cause a cascade of faulty or fruitless research'.  Isn't that exactly the problem we face here.  Previous conclusions about the viability of Bessler's wheel have effectively wiped out any sensible consideration of its potential as an alternative means of generating electricity?

I have found so much circumstantial evidence that Bessler's wheel really worked, that I am certain that this legend is going to prove possible and that a large quantity of egg is going to appear on many a professional scientist....and I can't wait!

JC

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Wheel update and Bessler's education.

I'm updating my progress with the latest version of Bessler's wheel because I've had a lot of emails in response to the magazine article, asking about the wheel and when I expect to finish it, and I haven't updated this recently.

The current MDF disc is three feet in diameter, and has five mechanisms attached to it, or at least it will have.  Each mechanism comprises 6 varying lengths of aluminium, three lead weights, and is attached to the disc at two points which is capable of swiveling.  There is another piece to the mechanism which I prefer to leave out for now.

I have returned to the idea of five mechanisms for good reasons and so far the two I have finished and attached perform as designed,  The individual pieces of alumininium have to be cut to size and drilled and filed prior to assembly, and I'm finding that this is the fiddly bit which is taking me so long.

Bessler said, "If I arrange to have just one cross-bar in the machine, it revolves very slowly, just as if it can hardly turn itself at all, but, on the contrary, when I arrange several bars, pulleys and weights, the machine revolves much faster,"  I take this word cross-bar to refer to part of the mechanism, and.  his constant reference to the number five persuades me that five refers to his conclusion that this is the most mechanisms he can fit in (on one side of the disc) and the most effective in applying their weight enough to turn the wheel.

I made a comment recently that Bessler may have had access to historical documents, but upon reflection I doubt if he was able to get hold of any books prior to is arrival at Kassel, some three years after his initial success in building his wheel.  He did have the benefit of a surprisingly good education given his lowly status as a peasant's son, but he had already shown signs of a lively and enquiring mind and that is why he was accepted as a pupil by Christian Weise, a well-known and highly respected teacher.

Bessler says he was taught field surveying, which seems an odd claim, but a valuable one for that era.  It suggests he understood areas and volumes and topography.  It also implies that he was taught the ancient Greek's discoveries by Aristotle and Archimedes, such as moments of force and inertia.  Copernicus' discoveries and those of Jean Buridan on impetus were almost certainly taught at school, so that only leaves centrifugal and centripetal force about which Huygens, Leibniz and Newton commented.  Bessler does mention Huygens and I suspect he was aware of that discussion also.

Add to this knowledge the vast amount of practical applications he studied during his research into the various crafts  and you get the idea that he had an intensely practical mind and an ability to understand easily the engineering aspects of all these mechanical apparatus.

JC

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Bessler's weight-driven wheel

Welcome to those who have dropped by, following the Vice magazine article, you can read it again at

 http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/has-this-british-engineer-discovered-the-secret-to-infinite-energy

Having spent a lot of the last 40 years researching the documented history of Johann Bessler I have found and published enough circumstantial evidence to prove, if this was a court of law, that Bessler's claims were genuine and he was not a fraudster.  There is just one obstacle in the way of complete vindication and that is the convention that gravity cannot be used as a source of energy.  I have no argument with that viewpoint but there must obviously be an answer that encompasses both positions and I believe I have found it.

To find the answer we must first reduce the component parts of the puzzle to their most basic level.  First we should consider what Bessler said about the internal parts of the wheel,  "In Das Triumphans", he stated that, "these weights are themselves the Perpetual Motion device, the ‘essential constituent parts’ which must of necessity continue to exercise their motive force, (derived from the PM principle) indefinitely – so long as they keep away from the centre of gravity."  Baron von Fischer, who examined the wheel for a considerable length of time described hearing "the sound of about eight weights landing on the side toward which the wheel turned".  We can conclude that there are weights and they move within the wheel.

The presence of moving weights certainly implies that gravity was a necessary adjunct to the rotation of the wheel, but does that indicate that gravity was the energy source?  Not necessarily, but obviously if the machine were taken away from earth's gravitational pull, the weights would not move therefore we must assume that it was a vital ingredient.

Reducing the parts of an automobile engine to their most basic part can help understand the solution.  The final act before any movement of the piston, is the explosion of a gasoline/air mixture in the combustion chamber.  This is what actually moves the piston and thus the crankshaft.  The petrol provides the means to cause an explosion, along with air and a spark.  In this case the piston is analogous to the weights.  Each is the actual moving part and, in the case of the piston, it is enabled to move by an explosion; and  gravity enables the weights to move.

Though we may call it a gasoline engine it's really an internal combustion engine which could in theory be fed by any combustible fuel.  In the same way, the weights which overbalance the wheel by becoming, as Bessler put it, 'away from the centre of gravity', could in theory be driven outwards by a piston, so the weight is moved by the piston instead of gravity, or it could be moved by an electric solenoid, both systems could be made to work, in theory, and yet the wheel would still turn under the influence of gravity, because the piston had thrown the wheel out of balance, by moving the weights.

So we can see that gravity causes the weights to move into a position which causes the wheel to overbalance.  We also see that other methods might be used to move the weights and the wheel would still overbalance, so there is no reason why we cannot have a weight-driven wheel...so far.

In the auto engine the piston position has to be reversed in order to fire again, and so too, do the weights in Bessler's wheel.  He solved that problem and was able, by finding the correct configuration, to have the weights move inwards and outwards at the right time.  He showed how to achieve this in one of his 150 or so drawings, but at this point I prefer not to reveal which.  I hope to finish the current test model soon.

JC

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My interview with Vice Magazine.

I was asked if I would do a telephone interview last Tuesday with a free-lance journalist for Vice magazine!  I immediately conjured up images of the kind of magazine it might be, but thought, 'hell, any publicity is good publicity!' 

As it happens it isn't that kind at all. It has a readership of 100,000 plus, per month in the UK and over a million world-wide.  The actual interview took about 45 minutes and yet you could read the article in five minutes; obviously it was hugely abbreviated and, as a writer myself, I understand the rigours journalists are required to adhere to, keep it short, succinct and sensationalise anything that needs it. But that headline I shall have to live with!  I only responded to the question, 'do you believe you have the solution?', with 'yes, of course and I am building a wheel to prove it,' which is what I've been doing for most of my life, so far without success.  Having said that I have made great strides forward in understanding how it would be possible, so the answer is correct, I do believe I have the solution and I expect to prove it very shortly,

I was amused to learn the following, from one comment about the article, and I quote:

Betteridge's law of headlines is an adage that states: "Any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no." It is named after Ian Betteridge, a British technology journalist, although the general concept is much older. The observation has also been called "Davis' law", or just the "journalistic principle". In the field of particle physics, the concept has been referred to as Hinchliffe's Rule.

Betteridge explained the concept in a February 2009 article:

 This story is a great demonstration of my maxim that any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word "no". The reason why journalists use that style of headline is that they know the story is probably bullshit, and don’t actually have the sources and facts to back it up, but still want to run it.

Although the interview has been greatly abbreviated, there is nothing there that I didn't say, but it is amazing, when you read your own words, how you cannot help wishing you could have another go at saying what you meant!  Any way I'm pleased overall with what was said and if it can bring more people to believe that Bessler was genuine then that is good.  This magazine is largely read by the younger generation and there are too many of us oldies stil trying to solve this puzzle and fresh younger views can only help to reach the answer to this enduring puzzle..

A German publisher is going to publish my original book in German, hopefully in October and this article fits in quite well with that.  I note that there is a German version of the magazine and perhaps they will include me in it? 

Finally, I was amazed to see that the very first comment on the article was a reference to Walter White, otherwise known as Heisenberg in the TV series 'Breaking Bad'.  My family have been referring to me as Heisenberg ever since we all saw the series - and sadly, I've got a Heisenberg T shirt!  I always thought the resemblance was minimla but obviously there is more to this than meets the eye., but I'm not sure that Bryan Cranston (who plays Heisenberg) would be as flattered as I am by the suggested similarity.

He looks a lot meaner than I do!

One more thing, the pictures of Bessler which you can see in the background of the a photo of my workshop are produced by my long time friend, ovyyus at http://www.orffyre.com./

You read the magazine article at

 http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/has-this-british-engineer-discovered-the-secret-to-infinite-energy

JC

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