Some Johann Bessler Information Sources

Here, and on my web sites, I  have always provided links to web sites which in my opinion contain useful information about Johann Bessler and his Perpetual Motion machines.  But from my own experience (and inclinations!) most people ignore the links either because they can't be bothered to look or decide to go there next time - and familiarity with the links tends to lead to their increasing invisibility!

So here is a brief run down on what is on my websites, plus a couple of others containing excellent information and some official sources.

www.free-energy.co.uk  I had a choice back in 1996 of having .com or .co.uk and I chose wrong! This was my first web site.  It contains a brief account of the legend of Johann Bessler plus links to purchase either printed or digital copies of my book plus the four books by Bessler including English translations.  Short descriptions of each book are also provided.

There are also links to Christian Wagner's extremely critical reviews of Bessler's wheel, but it makes interesting reading- especially as it was written by one of Bessler's hated 'enemies'.

http://www.theorffyreuscode.com./. This one contains numerous examples of Bessler's codes and their meaning.  I have tried to be objective but where I think my interpretation is more speculative I have said so.  The one thing you can take from this web site is that Bessler definitely used codes and pointed them out, all we have to do is decide whether the other undeciphered codes contain real information which would help us reconstruct his wheel.  From personal experience I can state with complete conviction, yes, there is good information available for those who have the endurance and determination to find it.

http://www.gravitymill.com/. This site is more general and repeats information about the books.  I have included a brief account of my intentions in having the books and web sites which I hope you will read.

http://www.orffyreus.net/  I found so much coded information in Chapter 55 of Apologia Poetica that I had to devote a whole web site to describe my findings.  I know there are people around the world who use this information as a starting point in attempting to decipher the text.

http://www.orffyreus.org/  A few years ago I visited Kassel, Fuerstenberg and Karlshafen and took time to see the windmill which Bessler was building when he fell to his death.  This website contains some of my pictures and some interior ones from an estate agency who offered the original building for sale.

http://www.besslerswheel.com/  I tried to explain as much as I could about my current thinking at the time, about the principles behind Bessler's wheel. I discovered the little known sport of 'kiiking' native to Estonia, which involves swinging on a special device in which a swing is suspended from metal rods, so they are rigid and the rider can swing right over the top of the swing, provided his feet are securely fixed to the seat!  An examination of the rider technique supplies good information which can be used in designing Bessler's wheel.

http://www.gravitywheel.com/    This just a place where I intend to publish my reconstruction of Bessler's wheel - physical or virtual.  In other words if I succeed it will all be here wih video, pictures and explanations, and if I don't then I'll share everything I've discovered that I haven't published - and believe me it's a lot!

http://www.besslerwheel.com/  This is the place to go to discuss all thing Bessler.  It has loads of information as well and numerous links to original sources.

http://www.orffyre.com./  This is the best source for accurate information about the dimensions of each of Bessler's wheels, plus you get access to the reworked and updated digital drawings by Bessler which compose his Maschinen Tractate .

http://www.besslerrad.de/    This the best German language site and is full of information about the people and the times Bessler lived through.  It has pictures of everyone who became involved in the Bessler legend and also includes photos of the various places he visited.

It must be obvious that from the beginning I gathered a few web sites with meaningful names, but it's an expensive game and I have let several go. What's the point of owning numerous domain names, I have more than enough still? 

JC

Gravity, Wind and Water - Conservative or Continuous forces

This subject crops up from time to time.  A regular poster on besslerwheel forum has long maintained that gravity is like the wind and this is an analogy I too have suggested on many of my websites for several years.  But people simply don't get it.

They argue that gravity is nothing like wind and just because wind drives windmills the same cannot be said of gravity.  It is common knowedge that the heat from the sun creates varying air pressures, causing high pressure areas to rush to fill in lower pressure ones, hence the wind.  But how each force originates is not part of the argument. Yes, they are different physical forces, and indeed wind applies force to the external surface of an object whereas gravity applies its force to the atoms which make up the material of the object.

But the important thing to note is the resulting effect is just the same.  If we picture wind as a stream of air moving across the earth's surface, a balloon floating in the air is driven along with the wind.  If you tied the balloon to a piece of string and attached the other end to an immovable object it would remain stationary relative to the wind until it was released when it would again travel with the wind.  You could take the balloon back upwind again, and repeat the same action.

The same thing works with gravity and a ball. The ball falls downwards under the force of gravity.  It can be picked up and put higher up so it can fall again. Gravity is a continuous force and so is the wind at the point at which it interacts with the balloon.

The same applies to a stream of water with a boat in it.  Each force can be shown to exhibit potential energy and kinetic energy. Forget where the water came from or how it and the wind originated, all that matters is what happens at the point of interaction with the object in question. No one knows how gravity happens although there are plenty of theories, but what we do know is gravity causes things to fall unless they are fixed in some way, on a shelf, hanging from a wire or held in your hand.  Streams of wind and water also cause things to move, and also have potential energy because they are continuous forces, and they can also convert potential energy to kinetic energy.

The term 'conservative force' is vague and conveys a slightly misleading impression.  'Conserve' originally meant 'preserve', so a 'conservative force' preserved its force and power, in other words it was and is a 'continuous force'.  So-called non-conservative forces are brief, explosive forces which cease once they have moved an object.  If I hit a ball with a tennis racquet that sends the ball through the air, it travels onward due to the impetus I gave it but it ceases to move once the energy given to it has been expended.  The same applies to billiards, pool and snooker balls, these are not conservative forces because their force is not conserved.

When I say that a conservative force is a 'continuous force', I mean that it is not a one-off explosive force but rather a lengthy, continuous force and although the length might be very short, it is still not the explosive force of a hit,  but rather an extended push.

So those who claim that gravity is a conservative force and therefore cannot be used in Bessler's wheel are utterly wrong; it has to be a conservative or continuous force otherwise it wouldn't work.

A windmill goes round because the wind applies force to the sails; a water turbine rotates because water pressure is applies to the turbine blades,  gravity wheel rotates because gravity applies force to the weights.  We don't call a windmill a sail wheel, and we don't call a gravity wheel a weight wheel, We refer to diesel, petrol of gas engines because they run on those fuels, but actually it's not the fuel but the internal combustion of that fuel which drives the pistons and hence the crankshaft.  It's not gravity that drives a gravity wheel but the weights which fall under the influence of gravity.

JC

Bessler's Evidence and his Critics.

There are three areas or shades of scepticism about Johannn Bessler's claims; there are those who follow the establishment line, that the scientific laws codified through more than 300 years, prove that such devices are impossible; then there are those who are willing to consider that Bessler's claims, based on the persuasive historical evidence, might be true and that perhaps there is a loop-hole in the physical laws which might permit a gravity-enabled wheel to spin continuously. Lastly there are those who were convinced either immediately or over a short period of time that Bessler's wheel was indeed possible, but who, after countless experimental designs have failed, have finally conceded that the establishment view is correct and they have given up on the project.

There is a small hard core of people who remain convinced that Bessler's wheel was genuine and that if they or someone can succeed in replicating it, it could provide a welcome addition to the sources of energy required today and in the future.  Failure after failure does not dim our optimism and despite numerous setbacks we continue to design, experiment and consider, ruminate and conjecture on numberless hypothetical mechanical arrangements, perpetually seeking that speculative loop-hole in the man-made laws of physics.

The evidence in support of Bessler can be categorised in three ways too.  Firstly the witness reports describing the tests that each wheel underwent.  Each demonstration required a tougher test for each subsequent wheel, and they in turn emerged in a more convincing format, larger dimensions and capable of lifting heavier objects. All of these tests were suggested and designed by Gottfried Leibniz, to convince the sceptics that Bessler's wheel had a genuine potential even if it wasn't technically a perpetual motion machine.  This caveat at the end of the previous senece, lends weight to his personal belief that what ever lay behind its motion, Johann Bessler was absolutely honest about his wheel.

The second category consists of Karl the Landgrave of Hesse Kassel, his personal opinion that the machine was genuine, based on his actual observation of the inner workings of the wheel - a condition of his patronage.  There is no doubt about Karl's integrity and thus no chance of collusion in a fraud, between the two men.  It must also be remembered that Karl was a knowledgeable amateur scientist himself.  He financially supported a number of ongoing experiments including a Denis Papin's steam engine, and the establishment of an observatory and also sent his court engineer to England to obtain information on the Newcomen engine.

The last category is often ignored but for me it is at least equally persuasive of Bessler's sincerity. I refer to his autobiographical account of his search for the solution to perpetual motion and the public reaction to his declaration of success in such a controversial field.  In 1715 he wrote a booklet called Apologia Poetica in which described in somewhat harrowing terms his upbringing, education and his ten year search for the secret of a gravity-enabled wheel.  He then describes the moment when he gained success; followed by marriage to a former girlfriend.  Up to that moment he was triumphant and full of optimism, but that mood didn't last.  The men he continually referred to as his enemies, had hassled him publically from the start of his first announcement that he had built a perpetual motion machine.  They published slanderous tracts claiming to know how the scam, as they saw it, was carried out.  These offensive comments were easily dismissed by examining the demonstrations, but mud sticks and it wasn't until Karl the Landgrave granted Bessler his protection that the public accusations stopped.

It is absolutely clear from Bessler's writing in Apologia Poetica, that Bessler was desperate to prove these enemie's accusations were lies.  His life was full of stress and he must have been in a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from these adverse and demanding circumstances.To us reading the words of all parties involved it is clear that Bessler felt humiliated, offended and desperate to clear his name, a requirement which should not have been necessary given Karl's verification and the demonstrations suggested by Leibniz. Nevertheless, although their criticism was muted while under Karl's protection, as soon as Bessler left Kassel to live in Karlshafen, they re-emerged with the same public complaints, this time trying to get Bessler arrested on a trumped up charge of fraud.  This was dismissed immediately by Karl who knew the truth.

So is it any wonder that his language in Apologia Poetica was from time to time full of bitterness and bile, hatred for his enemies and frequent appeals to God to witness his appalling mistreatment?

JC

Update

I'll be away in Spain for a few days but will still be able to comment etc.

I've built this new log cabin in which I originally intended to have as my new work shop but my wife thinks it's too good for sawing wood and drilling and cutting metal so I shall be using it to do the wheel design and write blogs etc, but the actual work will be carried out in the garage, now somewhat truncated as a part of the building alterations we have undergone in the last six months.

Here are some picturs of my log cabin under way so-to-speak .

There's nothing much in it yet, other than an old PC which has a lot of drawings on it.  But it will do for writing scripts.  The log cabin will be the place to make the video and I have begun to write the script.  The need to include plenty of images means I can use some for the paper I'm writing.  I call it a paper but really I just intend to publish it maybe as just a digital download or possible in hard copy, so it could be a book, and/or a website.

I've been drawing the wheel design onto a three foot MDF disc so I can drill the holes in the right places and attach the various levers and weights.  Although the garage is shorter than it was, I'm creating an additional storage area at the side of the house where I can put all the stuff which is taking up too much room in the garage at present.  It's not ideal, being long and narrow but it'll do and I'm putting a translucentt roof on, so I can see what's in there in a few months time when I've forgotten what I originally stored there!  It seems as though more work produces more work before I can begin the real wheel work!  

Even at this late stage in my Bessler research I had one of those blindingly obvious revelations which cleared up a question I had which had been bothering me for a long time and which now seems so simple I cannot understand why, after so many years of study I didn't see the reason for its presence.

These breakthroughs both small and miniscule add up to a significant amount of information which, if I had published back in 2008, without the new stuff, would have missd the mark by a mile and probably have been of little help to anyone.  Hopefully the new stuff will galvanise everyone into action!

I'll be back soon.

JC