Johann Bessler's Wheel and the Orffyreus Code

The Legend of Bessler's wheel.

  

On 6th June, 1712, in Germany, Johann Bessler (also known by his pseudonym, Orffyreus) announced that after many years of failure, he had succeeded in designing and building a perpetual motion machine.  For more than fourteen years he exhibited his machine and allowed people to thoroughly examine it.  Following advice from the famous scientist, Gottfried Leibniz, he devised a number of demonstrations and tests designed to prove the validity of his machine without giving away the secret of its design.

After more than thirty years he died in poverty.  He had asked for a huge sum of money for the secret, £20,000 which was an amount only affordable by kings and princes, and although many were interested, none were prepared to agree to the terms of the deal. Bessler required that he be given the money and the buyer take the machine without verifying that it worked.  Those who sought to purchase the wheel, for that was the form the machine took, insisted that they see the secret mechanism before they parted with the money. Bessler feared that once the design was known the buyers could simply walk away knowing how to build his machine and he would get nothing for his trouble.

This problem was anticipated by Bessler and he took extraordinary measures to ensure that his secret was safe, but he encoded all the information needed to reconstruct the machine in a small number of books that he published. It is well-known that he was prepared to die without selling the secret and that he believed that post humus acknowledgement was preferable to being robbed of his secret while he yet lived.

I became curious about the legend of Bessler’s Wheel, while still in my teens, and have spent most of my life researching the life of Johann Bessler (I’m now 74).  I obtained copies of all his books and had them translated into English and self-published them, in the hope that either myself or someone else might solve the secret and present it to the world in this time of pollution, global warming and increasingly limited energy resources.

It has recently become clear that Bessler had knowledge of the history of codes and adopted several completely different ones to disguise information within his publications.  I have made considerable advances in deciphering one of his codes.  Due to unfortunate family circumstances I am currently struggling to find the time to complete the build I have undertaken but I shall return to it as soon as possible and I sincerely believe that 2019 will see the reconstruction of Bessler’s wheel.

Johann Bessler published three books, and digital copies of these with English translations may be obtained from the links to the right of this blog.  In addition there is a copy of his unpublished document containing some 141 drawings - and my own account of Bessler’s life is also available from the links.  It is called "Perpetual Motion; An Ancient Mystery Solved?"  Bessler published three books; "Grundlicher Bericht", "Apologia Poetica" and "Das Triumphirende..."

I have also published Bessler's collection of 141 drawings and I have called it Maschinen Tractate, but it was originally found in the form of a number drawings of perpetual motion designs. Many of these have handwritten notes attached and I have published the best English translation of them that I was able to get. Bessler never published these drawings but clearly intended to do so at some point.

For some ideas about Bessler’s code why not visit one of my web sites at www.theorffyreuscode.com

One last thing.  Perpetual Motion machines have been utterly proscribed and Johann Bessler’s claims ridiculed - however, it seems that more than a handful of scientists have now come to the conclusion that it might theoretically be possible to design a mechanical system which is continuously out-of-balance and therefore will turn continuously using the repeated fall of weights for energy.  Gravity but not directly.  These open-minded people remain tight lipped for now, awaiting proof of their hypothesis. 

And on another matter: 

My granddaughter Amy is in a rehab clinic trying to recover from a series of diseases which suddenly afflicted her about eighteen months ago.  They are CRPS, FND and EDS.  Sorry for the alphabet abbreviations but you can google them if you are curious.

Please share the following link and/or donate if you wish to aid my granddaughter's treatment.

www.helpamy.co.uk/

JC

50 years of Research into the Life of Johann Bessler.

Over the last few years I have acquired a fairly thick skin and I try to ignore the unflattering comments that are occasionally aimed in my direction.  Some recent suggestions about my character are disrespectful and I feel that I should try to set the record straight.

I've spent all my spare time over the last 50 years or so researching the legend of Bessler's wheel.  As a result of my research I self-published a biography of Bessler, Perpetual Motion, An Ancient Mystery Solved?

I also published four books authored by Bessler complete with translations into English, they are, Gruendlicher Bericht,  Apologia Poetica,  Das Triumphirende and Maschinen Tractate.  I don't know any German so I had to have the translations done for me.

I obtained a large amount of information over many years from English and German libraries consisting newspaper reports, letters and other documents. Still no German language skills, so more translation needed.

My first website went up in 1998 and I had to teach myself about computers and the internet and book publishing, I was an aircraft engineer back then and there wasn’t much call for computer literacy, nor internet savvy or self-publishing back in the 1990s.  

I've published several websites disclosing my findings on Bessler's codes etc, my ideas about how Bessler's wheel worked, kiiking, the remain of his windmill etc.

My intention then was to put as much information about the legend of Bessler’s wheel, out there as I possibly could.  Nothing’s changed and all I wanted then, as now, is for someone to succeed, me if possible, but anyone would do. I have already said that if I was to succeed, I don't wan't to patent it, I would just publish the whole thing freely so that no one could patent it.

I made a commitment to publish on a certain date which seemed achievable, but I failed to make it.  I’ve apologised and I gave my reasons.   I won’t be making any more commitments to do something on a certain date.  I don’t think I’ve broken any promises other than one I just mentioned.  This project has cost a lot of money and in no way has it financed holidays to Spain etc, and I utterly refute all the unpleasant comments and suggestions posted here lately.

JC

Johann Bessler the Showman.

When Johann Bessler discovered the secret of free, clean and simple energy generation, he didn’t concern himself with the ‘expert’s opinion that what he was claiming was impossible.  He knew instinctively if he could work out the correct arrangement of weights his wheel would spin.  He understood that the energy which made his wheels turn came from the weights, and they were made to fall and create an out of balance wheel by the action of gravity on them.  There was nothing magical about it, it was the natural heaviness of all things which had mass.  The heavier a weight was the more potential energy it had. 

When he found the right arrangement, the wheel began to rotate.  He had to stop it by force, which means that if he released it, it would begin to spin again, therefore it must have been permanently out of balance. Obviously to conserve the machine he fitted a brake so that it would not wear out its parts when not required to move.

It is not logical to suggest that he stopped it in a certain position so that it would begin to spin as soon as the brake was released.  There was no such position available, otherwise the wheel could not even begin to spin continuously and without permanent imbalance there would portions of each rotation which would present as slowing down and then speeding back up.  More than one witness remarked on the extremely steady and even rotation of the wheel.

We know that the wheel could be slowed down under load.  Early witnesses to the first wheel at Gera, were allowed to adjust the speed by means of a bolt which could be screwed in or out as desired, to apply a braking pressure.  We also know that the largest wheel, at Kassel, turned at 26 rpm, whenturning freely, but slowed to 20 rpm when lifting the box of bricks.  Again this is logical and not a negative factor, all machines tend to slow when under load.

I note that there are a few negative opinions expressed here about the potential of Bessler’s wheel.   No one can possibly know at this stage what potential there may be in this device, nor what other uses it may be adapted to.  We judge the potential power of Bessler’s wheel by the tests demonstrated over 300 years ago, but we cannot make accurate assumptions based on so little information.  Wolff suggested that the four times pulleys visible at the Merseburg test were needed to lift the box of stones, but we don’t know if that was necessary for the lift, or merely to slow it down for the witnesses.

That is just one example of the dangers of trying to assess the wheel’s potential from limited evidence.  That wheel turned at almost twice the speed of the Kassel wheel, although it was the same size but only just under a foot thick...why?  Did Bessler deliberately design it to turn slower?

The Merseburg wheel had an axle of just under six inches (5.6inches) and it turned at around 40 rpm although some reports indicated a speed of 50 rpm, perhaps when unloaded. A 5.6 inch axle has a circumference of 17.58 inches, so for a rope wrapped around the wheel it would travel 17.58 inches for each turn of the wheel.  40 turns would lift a weight more than 58 feet in one minute,  to the top of the Schloss Merseburg.

When Wolff visited Merseburg he commented on the pulley system and included it in his report,  suggesting that this might indicate that the wheel was not very powerful.  But there are a couple of  things to bear in mind about this report.

Firstly Wolff was on the brink of accepting an offer of a very senior position with the Czar of Russia, Peter the Great, and we know that the Czar was planning to buy Bessler’s wheel, and Wolff stated that he could improve the performance of the wheel if he were allowed to have access to it in his new position. So take his apparent dismissal of the wheel's power with a large pinch of salt.

Secondly, Bessler was the consummate showman and having noted Wolff’s comments about the pulleys he designed a wheel which moved more slowly but with the same amount of power.  I think Bessler added the pulleys at Merseburg, to slow down the lift because a one minute lift created its own problems.

For a start Bessler needed his brother down in the castle yard to load the chest of  bricks to the rope and shout when he was ready. Someone had to tell Bessler when to stop the wheel when the box reached the pulley, outside the window. Then he needed to reverse the lift back down to his brother and stop the wheel before it completely unravelled from the axle.  A second demonstration immediately could be arranged and repeated as often as wished, but how much better if he slowed the lift down fourfold. More time for each lift, more time for the witnesses to study the wheel in action, and fewer demonstrations necessary to show its lifting power without any loss in performance.

Also with  all the witnesses crowded into the machine room, watching Bessler, and peering out the windows to see the load going up and down, it must have been difficult to satisfy everyone present. No wonder he decided to make the wheel at Kassel turn more slowly. He did state that he could make wheels with different speeds and lifting capabilities and of various sizes.

One more thing; we note that the chest held about 70 lbs of stones.  Have you ever lifted 70lbs? The average hold luggage on an aircraft is about 50lbs, so 70lbs is probably more than sufficient to make the point.

JC

Johann Bessler’s Need for Recognition.

Ever since I came to the conclusion that Johann Bessler’s wheel was genuine, I have tried to find the solution.  I used to lie awake at night, and imagine designing a solution and then building it in my spare time, out of balsa wood, lolly/popsicle sticks, glue, cardboard, sticky tape, marbles and meccano.  I graduated to wood and ali/steel etc, but I was never attracted to simulations because for me the actual building of the mechanism gave me ideas for alternative designs, and alterations that might help.  Nothing did though, but it didn’t put me off.

I tried to put myself in Bessler’s shoes; I reasoned that if he was genuine then it seemed extremely unlikely that he would not have had some fall back position, failsafe  or backstop, with which he could either prove that he had the solution before anyone else, or just to show his wheel was real....or do so after his death.

Bessler was careful about maintaining secrecy about how his wheel worked, dismantling it each time he moved house, and yet trying to prove that it was not a fake by demonstrating tests which might only be possible if his claims were true, in front of prominent citizens and rulers.  It is clear from his publications that he was desperate to gain acceptance from the world at large and those publications contain several hints and ambiguous pieces of advice which add support to the idea that everything anyone needed to know was hidden within those books.

In which case there must have been some system either published or waiting to be found (such as Maschinen Tractate) which would provide some or all of the proof required.  I looked for and found a wealth of clues, codes, and ambiguous hints at their existence.

I have posted many of the hints and suggestions at actual code, but none of it provides anything useful in seeking the solution, their sole purpose is to tell anyone who will listen that the information is out there and it is waiting for the right person to find it, decipher it and make a working wheel.

I say none of it is useful in finding the solution, but that is not entirely true.Some of the clues are very useful but cloaked in ambiguity. They provide additional informaton which as far as I am aware no one has so far decoded, apart from myself.

I'm considering placing a piece of coded information again on my blog, which contains information about one or two of those piecs of information along with their explanation, I just have to work out an indecipherable code!  The reason being, like Bessler, I want to be able to prove that I got the answer before someone else gets it and publishs it.  For that reason I understand Bessler's motivation in encoding so much information.

JC