Bessler Really Was Ahead Of His Time.

Johann Bessler invented his perpetual motion machine in 1712.  His timing was unfortunate because it had to compete with the beginning of the Steam era.  Thomas Newcomen’s engine was so much more powerful and clearly it meshed with the then current understanding of steam in the world of science and it too, surfaced in 1712 too,  an unhappy coincidence for Bessler.

The science of steam had a prehistory of successful experiments among whose work Denis Papins stands out. But despite a common curiosity about perpetual motion machines there were no successful demonstration to presage Bessler’s claims.  The age of steam arrived and proceeded to develop at an alarming rate.

Once the steam era had developed to the limit of its own technology, the age of the internal combustion engine took over and the power of electricity dawned and between the three of them poor old Bessler's wheel never stood a chance, even if the men of science had accepted it.  I suppose I should mention nuclear power here but as we shall see, the earlier three sources of power are nearing the end of their useful life unless a purer cleaner form of energy can be found.  The huge effect of pollution from all three resources is considered with some trepidation as global warming begins to make its effect palpable.  Continuously more strident calls are being made for a reduction in the producton of pollution, including the invention of ways of dealing with nuclear waste.  This is believed to be achievable with the introduction of a clean, alternative energy.

So here we are our tiny niche of Besslerites, believing in his perpetual motion machine, and maybe we have the answer at our finger tips.  Whether the solution is found and proven this year or next, it is imminent.  Will his 300 year old invention blossom forth introducing a new era of power from the force of gravity, a clean, low technology available in any location around the world?   Independant of local conditions, flowing water, the wind, the tides, geothermal or any of the old power sources.

Is this coincidence?  If Bessler had not found the solution in 1712, would we have even bothered to search for it today?  If his wheel had been sold during Bessler's life would it have had any effect on the development of the burgeoning steam, oil, electricity and nuclear powers?  Isn't it perfect timing for the solution to be found now when the world seeks an alternative clean, cheap energy to run all those amazing devices which were the outcome of the three earlier stages of power development?

This whole scenario looks like a long planned series of events which are designed to end with Bessler's gravity wheel, but only after hundreds of years of development of the earlier forms of energy.  Would we have got where we are today without the commercial development of steam engines, petrol-driven vehicles, electric trains, ships and aircraft?  Perhaps we had to forgo Bessler's dream in order to get to where we are now, before we could take steps to use our discoveries but power them in a different way to bring to a stop global warming?

What of Bessler's final panagyric to his sponsor, Karl, dated 2019, another coincidence? Was it some subconscious nudge to publish something dated 300 years hence?  It was not a decision taken with any awareness, just a lucky occurence like many coincidences which litter our lives.  How often we note that something almost always insignificant happened and say, "that was lucky!"  But sometimes it almost feels as if some guiding hand was at work.

Few people know of an accident I had in my mid twenties when my car's brakes failed and I went over a very steep and high embankment.  My car flew through the air before it hit upside down and rolled several times.  I was thrown out (pre seat belt days) when the door burst open on the intial impact, and apart from a brief period of unconsciousness I recovered uninjured.  My car was not so lucky and was written off.  For many months afterwards I felt euphoric due to my amazing escape from what looked like certain death and was convinced I was destined for some important purpose. Perhaps that time has come.

JC

After 50 Years, I Still Believe in Johann Bessler - Why?

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.

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

Johann Bessler’s Bi-directional Wheels.

Following a suggested topic for my blog I have decided to offer my current thinking on Besslers one-way and two-way wheels.

Briefly, when Bessler first exhibited his first two perpetual motion machines, or ‘wheels’ as most of us tend to call them, he was accused of tricking his audience with a device which required winding up.  Proving that this was not true presented  a problem.

One idea which he  took from Leibniz and arranged was the two month endurance test under lock and key and guard, but he needed something more immediate.  His idea was to try to make the wheel able to turn in either direction, and I think he decided to build a wheel with mirror image mechanisms which would be capable of turning the wheel in either direction.

In order to test the feasibility of this idea I constructed a model of a Savonius windmill which has a vertical axle.  This is analagous to Bessler's wheel although using a different force.  Thus the wind blows horizontally turning the windmill in one direction.  The Savonius rotor consists of two or three or more scoops. Looking down on the rotor from above, a two-scoop machine would look like an "S" shape in cross section. Because of the curvature, the scoops experience less drag when moving against the wind than when moving with the wind.  Anemometers, used for measuring wind speed,  are also similar in design, although some have three and four scoops.

Having built the test model I made it spin by placing a fan nearby.  Once I had tested my model, I placed another Savonius rotor on top of the first on the same vertical axle.  This one was a mirror image of the first and designed to turn in the opposite direction.

Once placed in the path of the wind from the fan, both windmills turned in opposite directions at the same time, on the same axle.  The next thing was to link the two windmills so that they could only rotate together, in the same direction.

When linked the two windmills remained stationary, just like Bessler's bi-directional wheel.   But as soon as the combined windmill was given a gentle push in either direction, the whole assembly began to rotate in which ever direction it was started, accelerating to about half the speed of each single windmill when not attached to its twin, again like Bessler's bi-directional wheel. This action mimics perfectly how Bessler’s bi-directional wheels performed.

In a Savonius windmill the concave surface has higher resistance to the wind than it’s opposite blade which presents a convex surface.  With two opposing surfaces facing the wind there is balance with neither giving way to the wind.  But when you give the assembly a push what happens?

Let us assume that you gave the upper rotor a gentle push, so that it moves with the wind while the other one, lower on the axle, resists. Giving it a push allows the side moving with the wind to take advantage of the wind while the opposing rotor is fighting against the wind.  The windmill takes the path of least resistance and so begins to turn faster while the other side resists but is only able apply a braking effect.

The backwards turning mirror image mechanism has resistance on both blades, whereas the opposite, forwards turning other mirror image mechanism, has none on one blade and limited resistance on the other blade. The side which moves with the wind has its convex side moving against the wind while it’s concave moves with the wind.  But the opposite side that moves against the wind is resistant as well - both concave and convex.  

So in my opinion Bessler tested that theory in the same way as I did, with a Savonius rotor. Of course Savonius hadn't invented his design then, but we know that Bessler was familiar with the concept because the windmill he fell to his death from was a vertical axle windmill.  There are some vertical axis windmill still functioning in Iran believed to be at least 1000 years of age (panemones), and for several centuries vertical axis windmills were also in use in China and Egypt..  It's possible that Bessler saw one in Italy during his travels, or even England, or Ireland.

JC

My Blog About Johann Bessler's Perpetual Motion Machine.

I've been writing this blog for nine years and it is becoming increasingly difficult to find something new to write about!  There is only one subject upon which I want to write and it is the one I choose not to do for now; my deciphering of Bessler's code.  I know from the emails I get that many people want me to explain where the clues are, what they mean and why, but I am determined to build a proof of principle machine before I publish my conclusions.  As I have said numerous times, if it fails I will then publish my conclusions because I think they are correct and it is possible that I might have made a simple error and the information will still lead to the correct solution.

I have good reasons for not publishing the information yet.  In the past I have speculated on what the clues might mean and have been criticised for not making it clear that my comments were just conjecture or theory and not fact.  So even though I may believe that I have found the solution, at this point I am not going to publish it, even if I clearly labelled it as speculation because I want it to be taken seriously - and that won’t happen without a working wheel. If, on the other hand, my construction does not work, then, rather than wait until proof arrives, I will publish under the title SPECULATION and explain in detail where the clues are, what they mean and why I think so.  This I will do because I don't want time to slip by again and nothing gets published, ever.

The problem with speculation is that without proof most people prefer their own ideas and tend to dismiss other people’s theories.  I have experienced this many times and have also dismissed the theories of others.  So unless I can present my conclusions as fact backed up by a working wheel - or show that some of the clues I have found can be demonstrated as valid, I will await the results of my Bessler wheel construction before publishing.

I am unwilling to close the blog down  until I am ready to publish everything, so if anyone has any ideas about a subject I could write in this blog, feel free to offer suggestions.  After 566 posts, some of which are returns to previous posts, my ideas are drying up.  Once my wheel has been built and tested there will be numerous posts but until then I will probably put the "Legend of Bessler's wheel",  back up but leave space for comments.

If you comment with a suggestion, please do not be offended if I either decline to write about the subject or don't respond with a comment, or there is a delay in responding. My time for all sorts of things are limited by my New Year's Resolution. I am now fully concentrating on building the wheel and after the last year in which I was unable to find the time to spend on it, I am commited to finishing it and airing my conclusions as soon as possible.

I shall be 74 next month and I have found that as I age, time seems to have speeded up and I am worried that I might not finish the build before I am unable to finish it.

I look forward to any suggestions but if there are none I shall be satisfied that I have not neglected anything of importance.

JC