A Miscellany of Metaphors in AP XLVI

There is an intriguing passage in Johann Bessler’s book, Apologia Poetica, Chapter LXVI,( page 295,  in my version of the English translation, which follows on from the original German, also referred to as AP).  It is in the form of free verse and is composed of a list of phrases, mainly metaphorical, which Bessler seems to hint might supply clues to the way his wheel worked.

I'm reluctant to put my own interpretations on the meaning of the phrases, but I think it worthwhile to risk it to get some feedback.  I make no claim for accuracy, these are only my current suggestions and my thoughts hop from one idea to another and if anyone can get closer to the intended meaning please feel free to add your thoughts. The passage is introduced by the  following words:-

“Those who are keen to ask questions should ask them of this little book. My work will not be revealed prematurely. Should anyone wish to speculate about the truth, let him just ponder on the rich pageantry of words which I now cause to shower down upon him! 

The above introduction seems to imply that the book AP, contains some answers.  He also says his work won't be revealed prematurely, which also implies that it will be eventually.

Let a Gärtner be no breaker of fences, even if a Wagner leaves ruts in the road.

Gärtner can mean gardener so he is saying don't let the gardener break any fences - Wagner means wagon, and he warns that wagoners damage the roads by leaving ruts in the roads, both phrases relate to the two men's attempts to damage Bessler's reputation.

For greed is an evil plant.                                                    
Greed/money is the root of all evil

An anvil receives many blows. 
A driver drives. 
A runner runs.
The seer sees.
The buyer buys.
The rain drips down.
Snow falls. 
The shotgun shoots.
The bow twangs.

The above eight phrases describe the various forces available.  An anvil receives forceful impacts; a driver steers and whips a horse onward; a runner runs freely; the eye sees, it is a passive force; the buyer pays for his goods with items or cash of equal value; rain drips down slowly; snow falls lightly; the shot gun shoots explosively, and the bow twangs elastically..

A great fat herd of fat, lazy, plump horses wanders aimlessly.
This could apply to a point in rotation where the weights are neither pushing nor pulling, just hanging.
 
The flail would rather be with the thresher than with the scholar. 
The flail/whip/cane moves upwards faster than it moves downwards.

Children play with heavy clubs among the broken columns.
I think this could describe the actions of weighted levers, similar to items C and D on the Toys page.

Acrobats and shadow-boxers are as fleet and nimble as the wind.
Fast moving mechanisms.
 
The cunning cat slinks silently along and snatches nice juicy mice.
The dog creeps out of his kennel just as far as his chain will stretch. 
He knows how to please by playing with his little toys and nick-knacks.
He wags his tail, creeps through the hoop and is rewarded with pats on his paws by the stiff fops who watch him.
I think these are metaphors for the various actions of the mechanisms. hye will only be understood once the real mechanisms can be watched in action.

A wheel appears on the scene - is it really a wheel, for it does not have the normal type of rim. It revolves, but without other wheels inside or outside, and without weights, wind, or springs.
Seen sideways or full-face it is as resplendent as a peacock's tail. It turns to the right and to the left; it spins around in any possible direction, whether laden or empty.
 A poetic description of the wheel.


All things belong to one of the three kingdoms (animal, vegetable, matter) and - you have the physical evidence in front of you. Without such things as sulphur, salt and mercury all things will soon come to a standstill - the qualities of the elements are necessary to keep things going. Saturn, Mars and Jupiter are ready to join in any battle. Even the things we eat do not lose their

elemental influence - for it spreads itself through every limb and sinew of our bodies.
I think this could be an attempt to explain the actions and origins of the force he called 'heaviness', but we call 'gravity'.

A crab crawls from side to side. It is sound, for it is designed thus.
This describes the actions of the storks bill

Poltergeists often wander freely through locked doors.
This describes how gravity can have an effect on all matter, resting or falling.

But softly! - speak softly of all the marvels, lest the enemy grows wise! He will drench me with his spittle so that I will lose my temper and, in a sudden fit, cast aside the mantle that conceals my wheel! But he shall be thwarted in his desires! His snapping will not bring me to that point! Let that be brought home to him, for rather, I shall now magnanimously set down in my book the following specific questions which have in recent days been sent to me in the hand of One who is of high rank. 
A warning to himself not to give too much away - I wish!


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, (chronic regional pain syndrome), FND (functional neurological disorder) and EDS. (Ehlers-Danlos syndrome) .

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

https://www.gofundme.com/help-our-amy-to-walk-again

JC

The Triumphant Orffyrean Perpetual Motion Finally Explained! by Ken Behrendt

Sometimes I struggle to find a topic to write about and have had to resort to reposting “The Legend of Bessler’s Wheel”!  I don’t like to repeat stuff because it becomes boring but at least I can put something up which might catch the attention of someone who is/was unaware of Bessler.

There seems to be a lot of interest in Ken Behrendt’s book about Bessler, but I haven’t read it so I can’t comment from personal knowledge, but I welcome the fact that there is a book out there attempting to bring fresh information about the inventor.  Although I haven’t actually read the book, I was able to flip through various pages thanks to google books and I studied a number of Behrendt’s drawings relating to Bessler’s portrait, 

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ykGHDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT812&lpg=PT812&dq=ken+berendt+orffyreus&source=bl&ots=oPCmyqUYTt&sig=ACfU3U1s5GQGD9fuL8mX1LPz1RQsqLr3xQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjvs-OP_ODjAhUVRhUIHReuAKkQ6AEwDXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=ken%20berendt%20orffyreus&f=false.  

He has done an amazing job of extracting information from both portraits;  I use the word ‘amazing’ because the information he has found is so utterly at odds with the information which I have found elsewhere in Bessler’s publications that I cannot reconcile the two  hypotheses.  Unless there are two completely different concepts, unrelated to each other, one of them is wrong - or both are.

Strong words, and I mean no disrespect to Ken, and until I publish my own theory I cannot support my conclusions.  I’m pleased that Ken published his book and I encourage people to read it, I intend to buy a copy if only to check to see if my initial opinion is supported by the evidence he has found.  It provides a good subject for discussion and it introduces some new ideas about Bessler’s wheel which have been lacking lately.  Until my own work is published Ken’s is the only new piece of information out there.  I’m not sure how long it is since I published my books but it has been many years.

Here is a link to Ken’s book -
https://www.amazon.com/Triumphant-Orffyrean-Perpetual-Finally-Explained/dp/1546276459

JC

Perhaps It’s the Journey, Not the Destination?

They say you should enjoy the journey, maybe more than the destination, but in my opinion the journey would look a lot more interesting from the destination! There are moments of utter exultation when you think you've cracked it, only to be followed by weeks of plodding trial and error. Trial and error can't be avoided sometimes, even when you have a firm design in mind, in fact when you think about it our entire research and experimentation is one long series of trials and errors!

I have received many offers of help over many years, to try to find the solution to Bessler’s wheel, and a recent comment gave me cause to reflect upon my constant refusal to accept such offers, no matter how well-intentioned.   Why do I not wish to be “helped”?

A long time ago, before even the BW forum came into existence, a small group of us joined together to try to brainstorm a solution.  We were situated in different countries so could only converse by email, but it was fun and exciting but ultimately we hit a wall.  Too many different ideas and opinions clashing.  We went our separate ways although some are still in touch.

“Help” is a misleading word, conjuring up images of success, but usually it comes with ramifications.  Initially the offer is free, but no one in my opinion could accept such help without, for instance, acknowledging such help, if the “help” resulted in a successful design.  Such acknowledgement is the thin end of a wedge leading to confusion over who did what and who deserves credit, and in the end there is potential for continual dispute.  Best avoided.

On occasion I have received, uninvited, designs and plans for a PM device, fortunately the concepts are unworkable and can be easily dismissed, but what if they had been valid?  I used the word “fortunately” deliberately because I would prefer to avoid any confusion in case of a resulting working device.  My response to such offers has to be carefully written, in the words of the sign which used to hang behind the bar in English pubs, “don’t ask for credit, a refusal often offends”.  I usually recommend that they try to build a rough model themselves or find someone who can do it for them.

But in the end, I work alone, preferring to build my devices, altering them as I see fit, and covering a lot of ground on the way and owing nothing to anyone.  I suspect, although I don’t know it for certain, that most of us are the same.  Some seek fame and fortune, some merely acknowledgement and I know of some who just would wish to publish their success anonymously, but most work alone, even if they often visit the BW forum or even my little world of this blog.

I only work on building wheels, although I have try to get to grips with simulations and animations,  but I took no pleasure from such endeavors.  To design a sim requires a finished design whereas building to a design allows minor or even major alterations which can become obvious in an instance during the build.  In my own experience for instance, a mechanism might require a slight alteration in its angle of response which you can immediately understand once you see it in action and the required alteration can be made in a few minutes.

One thing I've noticed over the years, some people post pictures of their ongoing builds and I have to admit they are often beautiful creations, unlike my own which appear to be cobbled together out of old oft-used parts from a previous iteration; and that's precisely what they are.  But why spend so much times and effort to build something of such artistry before you know if it will work?  Of course if I should succeed in building a working Bessler wheel, I shall have to build a new one of greater attractiveness, and hide the prototype out of sight, or should I boldly display it in all its rough and ready informality?  

The build continues, albeit at a snails pace!

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, (chronic regional pain syndrome), FND (functional neurological disorder) and EDS. (Ehlers-Danlos syndrome) .

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

https://www.gofundme.com/help-our-amy-to-walk-again

JC

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