The search for the secret of Johann Bessler’s wheel has continued for at least fifty years to my personal knowledge and the secret of Perpetual Motion has been sought for hundreds maybe thousands of years. So what is it that spurs people on to try to complete this quest despite the considerable amount of evidence that they/we are wasting our time?
I know from my own experience and from others I have spoken with, that despite the firm assurance that a machine that derived its energy from the continuous action of gravity on weights was impossible, we all of us “know” instinctively that the experts are wrong. There seems to be a personal conviction inside the mind of everyone of us that there is a configuration of weights which can move under the influence of gravity and overbalance the wheel. I have no doubts at all that this is possible and that Johann Bessler found the way to do it.
The people who “know” with equal sincerity to ourselves that we are wrong, glibly spout the old arguments against our convictions, without giving the slightest attention to the very strong evidence, albeit circumstantial, that Johann Bessler’s wheel worked. A small but vital part of the theories taught as fact are no more reliable than our own beliefs in Bessler, but whereas the evidence that gravity-enabled wheels are only theorised to be impossible we have the much more convincing evidence that one at least actually worked. If only one machine ever satisfied the requirements of a gravity-enabled machine, then they are possible and the theories being taught in school are wrong and misleading.
"Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-94), the German physicist, was able to convince the scientists of the world, at the tender age of twenty-six, that the First Law was a valid assumption when, in 1847, he presented before the Physical Society of Berlin a paper entitled ‘On the Conservation of Energy’. He began his analysis by declaring that perpetual motion machines were axiomatically impossible. Helmholtz did not have to prove his axiom since it was enough to confirm that no one had yet succeeded in building a successful perpetual motion." (Perpetual Motion; The History of an Obsession by Arthur Orde-Hume 1977) "An axiom or postulate is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments". Wikipedia.
"Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-94), the German physicist, was able to convince the scientists of the world, at the tender age of twenty-six, that the First Law was a valid assumption when, in 1847, he presented before the Physical Society of Berlin a paper entitled ‘On the Conservation of Energy’. He began his analysis by declaring that perpetual motion machines were axiomatically impossible. Helmholtz did not have to prove his axiom since it was enough to confirm that no one had yet succeeded in building a successful perpetual motion." (Perpetual Motion; The History of an Obsession by Arthur Orde-Hume 1977) "An axiom or postulate is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments". Wikipedia.
Helmholtz published a statement that a machine such as Bessler's couldn't exist because no one had ever made one, and yet we are publishing a hypothesis that they can exist because Bessler made one. From wikipedia. "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, positive evidence is distinct from a lack of evidence or ignorance of that which should have been found already, had it existed".
Bessler sought to prove that his wheel worked as he claimed, using clever a arrangement of weights. The renowned scientist, Gottfried Leibniz, visited the inventor twice and was convinced that the wheel was genuine although he did not know if it was perpetual motion, because like most people, he did not believe that it was possible, nevertheless he was satisfied that Bessler’s wheel has something of value in it and said it would be a shame if such a valuable invention should be lost.
Leibniz offered some advice on how Bessler could try to provide the best possible evidence that his wheel was genuine. He suggested that the inventor permit a highly respected person be allowed to view the interior to provide unequivocal evidence of the machines validity; secondly he should try to persuade this person to hold an endurance of one month test under lock and key to again add to the proof required; and lastly to arrange an official examination by senior members of the establishment to again add further evidence of the machines validity. He also proposed a number of demonstrations to run during the official tests. Lastly he recommended the translocation of the wheel during the official examinations so that those present could satisfy themselves that there were no secret connections to some hidden method of propulsion, whatever that might be.
Leibniz was a frequent visitor to the court of Karl the Landgrave's cousin, Moritz-Wilhelm, Duke of Zeitz, and the offer of Karl's patronage was inspired by Moritz -Wilhelm's many conversations with Leibniz. Kassel is only 117 miles from Zeitz and one often taken in those days by horse and carriage.
All of these suggestions were carried out and it is difficult to imagine anything else he could have done to prove his claims. It is also difficult to work out how he could have conned all those people without being found out. It has often been commented that even today it would be difficult if not impossible to reproduce all of Bessler's tests and examinations using only the materials available at that time.
The month's endurance test stretched to two months at Bessler's insistance but it did depend upon the honesty of Karl the Landgrave, as did his verification of the internal workings of the wheel, but his reputation was beyond reproach and he had nothing to gain and much to lose by becoming involved in a scam.
So, returning to the question in the title of this blog; why am I satisfied beyond a shadow of doubt that Johann Bessler's claims were genuine? For all the reason described above, plus an instinctive subconscious knowledge that I know that it can be done.
JC
