Johann Bessler’s Use of Codes and Clues

Over my next few blogs I’ll be posting some more of Bessler’s clues and my interpretation of them, but firstly, a mystery; why did he decide to embed numerous clues and coded information in his publications?  Common sense would seem to indicate that no one would be able to decipher the coded information without Bessler’s help, and that wouldn’t happen until he had received payment for his device.  Logically once he had been paid he could reveal the method of encoding he used, so that everyone could read his explanation and know how his wheel worked.   But that might provoke anger in his purchaser.  He might not want the secret he had paid a fortune for, to be given away freely.  Perhaps his buyer would want a contract requiring Bessler’s continued silence about the machine for an agreed period?t

So even though he submitted to the demands of Karl, the Landgrave of Hesse, and permitted him access to the interior of the wheel, upon the swearing of an oath, and then Karl verified the machine and Bessler’s claim - why did he still need the information embedded secretly in his books? Karl had verified the perpetual motion machine as being genuine so Bessler had no need of a code.

It seems that no one was supposed to decipher that information before the inventor had received payment for his device.  Bessler must have been confident that his secret was safe and his code impossible to break, without his help. But if he sold the machine, again there seems no need for the code. 

When Bessler set out to discover how to design and build a Perpetual Motion (PM) machine, he had read that such a device would be ‘worth a ton of gold’.  But during the long years of research he also spent time considering how to actually obtain a large amount of money for the secret of his machine, should he be successful - sound familiar?

His first and over-riding concern was to keep the secret of his wheel’s construction secure, until he had won his ‘gold’.  Once he had constructed his working wheel he approached a number of wealthy persons of high repute, but he would not share his secret for fear of being cheated, which fact prevented him from obtaining documented verification of his claim. Eventually, as we know, Karl was allowed to examine the machine and verified it as genuine.

Given the amount of effort which is self-evident in Apologia Poetica I believe that for many months both before and after his first successful wheel, Bessler planned a publication extolling the virtues of his machine and an account of his journey to success.  This book, Apologia Poetica, would contain a number of clues and codes and would provide a printed back up of his machine’s design, albeit submerged among the texts. However, without the presence of any drawings the encoded textual message must have been extensive and very detailed.  If needed, he could call upon this message as evidence of the priority of his claim, should the need arise.  The message would have to be readily decipherable so it must have been reasonably easy to do once Bessler revealed the key.

This explains his decision to place coded information about the wheel in his books, long before he decided to allow Karl to see how his wheel worked, and why he put so much time and effort into developing and inserting his coded information, even though subsequently he had his claim validated by Karl.  He seems to have considered the possibility that he might never sell his machine and thus die without ever receiving acknowledgement for his achievement, so it had an additional purpose although not one he would have expected to happen.

The puzzle remains, why bother with such a devious code?  I have suggested that he needed some way of proving that he had found the secret by the date of publication of Apologia Poetica, but this leads to a further confusion. On the one hand he might not have been allowed to release information about his device once he had sold it, if that was the buyer’s instruction, but in that case he couldn’t reveal the code.  If the buyer was open to Bessler sharing his secret, then the codes wasn’t needed anyway. But perhaps the last possibility seems be the right one; if the wheel hadn’t been sold and another inventor claimed to have succeeded, then Bessler would reveal the means of deciphering the code embedded in the dated book, thus proving his priority.

In order to pique someone’s interest about the codes in case of illness, death, imprisonment or some other incapacitating event, he devised a straightforward clue to attract the curiosity of a knowledgeable person with the right credentials who would wish to dig deeper, and so he adopted the pseudonym, Orffyreus.

This he created from his name, Bessler, using a well-known mono-alphabetic substitution cipher called atbash,  originally used to encrypt the Hebrew alphabet.  The Caesar shift cipher was similar as is the modern algorithm known as ROT13.  The pseudonym was further refined by the addition of two extra forenames, Johann Ernst, in addition to his given name, Elias.  ‘Bessler’ was changed to ‘Orffyre’ which became ‘Orffyreus’ - an affectation used among the intelligentsia at that time.

I think the purpose of the codes and clues was two fold.  First he needed to protect his secret, hence the code; secondly he craved acceptance, recognition, respect, and admiration.  He would not stay quiet if someone else claimed to have invented a perpetual motion machine, before his own machine had been sold and this supports the idea that he was desperate for fame and fortune.

He also seems to have enjoyed teasing his audience with a number of ambiguous clues:  ‘look at me, see how clever I am! He seems to say, 

My next blog will clarify a number of factors relating to the wheels which may provide a better  impression of their power.

JC

                                   Copyright © 2021 John Collins

Documents re: Johann Bessler aka Orffyreus - Perpetual Motion.

I’m still in the middle of moving house so finding time to write my blogs and complete my work on Bessler’s wheel, is now too difficult.  Space to work is non-existent and I am staying with one of my daughters until we have chosen our next house.  This means no workshop until after we have moved!  But at least I will be able to continue my account of the codes and clues I’ve deciphered to date.

So in the mean time once more, here are the details about Johann Bessler aka Orffyreus and his amazing Perpetual Motion Machine.  Plus details of how to order his biography and his books which each include English translations.

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, who was able to examine the device, he devised a number of demonstrations and tests designed to prove the validity of his machine without giving away the secret of its design.

Karl the Landgrave of Hesse permitted Bessler to live, work and exhibit his machine at the prince's castle of Weissenstein. Karl was a man of unimpeachable reputation and he insisted on being allowed to verify the inventor's claims before he allowed Bessler to take up residence. This the inventor reluctantly agreed to and once he had examined the machine to his own satisfaction Karl authorised the publication of his approval of the machine. For several years Bessler was visited by numerous people of varying status, scientists, ministers and royalty. Several official examinations were carried out and each time the examiners concluded that the inventor's claims were genuine.

Over several years Karl aged and it was decided that the inventor should leave the castle and he was granted accommodation in the nearby town of Karlshafen. Despite the strong circumstantial evidence that his machine was genuine, Bessler failed to secure a sale and after more than thirty years he died in poverty. His death came after he fell from a windmill he had been commissioned to build. The windmill was an interesting design using a vertical axle which allowed it to benefit from winds from any directions. 

He had asked for a huge sum of money for the secret of his perpetual motion machine, £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 viewing the internal workings. 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.


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 76).  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.

Not long after I was able to read the English translations of his books, I became convinced that Bessler had embedded a number of clues in his books.  These took the form of hints in the text, but also in a number of drawings he published.  Subsequently I found suggestions by the author that studying his books would reveal more information about his wheel.


For some ideas about Bessler’s code why not visit my web sites atwww.theorffyreuscode.com or see my work on his “Declaration of Faith” at http://www.orffyreus.net/

Also please view my video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BWVKtpuzn0

It gives a brief account both the legend and some more detail about some of the codes.


The problem of obtaining a fair reward for all his hard work 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. He implied that he was prepared to die without selling the secret and that he believed that posthumus acknowledgement was preferable to being robbed of his secret while he yet lived.




It has recently become clear that Bessler had a huge 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 his codes and I am confident that I have the complete design.




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's three published books are entitled "Grundlicher Bericht", "Apologia Poetica" and "Das Triumphirende...". I have called Bessler's collection of 141 drawings Maschinen Tractate, but it was originally found in the form of a number of loosely collected 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 use them in his planned school for apprentices.

You can order copies of the books from my website at www.free-energy.co.uk

Or from the top of the right side panel under the heading ‘Bessler’s Books’.

There are also links lower down on the right side panel.

As I often say, the solution to this device is needed now.  Anything that might help cleanse the planet of pollution and help to reduce green house gas emissions, by providing a clean cheap alternative energy source should encouraged in its discovery and development to counter global warming.

JC

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution."  

Albert Einstein 

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”                                                

Dale Carnegie

Some Time for Me to Think and Write and Plan.

My apologies to my many readers over the lack of comments usually available on this blog.  I’ve decided to remove the comments facility for two reasons.  Firstly I’m in the middle of moving house, currently staying with one of my daughters who lives nearby while we search for our next house.  My time is limited for writing blogs and responding to comments and as I have no workshop I’m unable to continue working on my own wheel project.  I have a plan, a design, a concept - call it what you will - but lack of facilities and space prevents me working on it.  I can’t wait to get back to work and hopefully finish it, but I’m really too busy just now.

The other reason for stopping the comments feature is due to a number of comments berating me for my stance on a book published several months ago.  I find the speculation about Bessler described in the book, marginally offensive because of a large number inaccuracies presented as facts, but mainly worrying as the author purports to have found a number of clues for which their existence is visible almost exclusively to himself.  He then interprets these ‘clues’ and produces a design which he claims is the solution to Bessler’s wheel.  This ‘solution’ bears no resemblance to the little we know about Bessler’s wheel, being anything but the simple design described by the only other person to view the interior.  This is not just my opinion, but common to most people who’ve read the book. I fear that such claims may dissuade others from attempting to solve this age-old problem, believing mistakenly that the solution has been found - it hasn’t.  I have been receiving a lot of emails requesting me to publish corrections to the claims made in the book. 

But this is not something I have the time nor inclination to do. But I am taking this opportunity to continue  to complete my book which details all the real clues I have found and how they relate to Bessler’s wheel.  These clues are simple and obvious once they are pointed out.  Once my book becomes available it will become clear that these clues totally negate those described by the other author.

Once I have found our new house and have settled, the blog will return complete with the comments feature switched on.  I hope to publish some of the clues I have found which will hopefully set the record straight and provide legitimate details of Bessler’s hints and clues, where they are and what they mean.

JC

Documents re: Johann Bessler aka Orffyreus - Perpetual Motion.

 I’m currently getting ready to move house again so finding time to write my blogs and complete my work on Bessler’s wheel, is now too difficult.  Space to work is non-existent and I am staying with one of my daughters until we have chosen our next house.  This means no workshop until after we have moved!  But at least I will be able to continue my account of the codes and clues I’ve deciphered to date.

So in the mean time once more, here are the details about Johann Bessler aka Orffyreus and his amazing Perpetual Motion Machine.  Plus details of how to order his biography and his books which each include English translations.

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, who was able to examine the device, he devised a number of demonstrations and tests designed to prove the validity of his machine without giving away the secret of its design.

Karl the Landgrave of Hesse permitted Bessler to live, work and exhibit his machine at the prince's castle of Weissenstein. Karl was a man of unimpeachable reputation and he insisted on being allowed to verify the inventor's claims before he allowed Bessler to take up residence. This the inventor reluctantly agreed to and once he had examined the machine to his own satisfaction Karl authorised the publication of his approval of the machine. For several years Bessler was visited by numerous people of varying status, scientists, ministers and royalty. Several official examinations were carried out and each time the examiners concluded that the inventor's claims were genuine.

Over several years Karl aged and it was decided that the inventor should leave the castle and he was granted accommodation in the nearby town of Karlshafen. Despite the strong circumstantial evidence that his machine was genuine, Bessler failed to secure a sale and after more than thirty years he died in poverty. His death came after he fell from a windmill he had been commissioned to build. The windmill was an interesting design using a vertical axle which allowed it to benefit from winds from any directions. 

He had asked for a huge sum of money for the secret of his perpetual motion machine, £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 viewing the internal workings. 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.


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 76).  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.

Not long after I was able to read the English translations of his books, I became convinced that Bessler had embedded a number of clues in his books.  These took the form of hints in the text, but also in a number of drawings he published.  Subsequently I found suggestions by the author that studying his books would reveal more information about his wheel.


For some ideas about Bessler’s code why not visit my web sites atwww.theorffyreuscode.com or see my work on his “Declaration of Faith” at http://www.orffyreus.net/

Also please view my video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BWVKtpuzn0

It gives a brief account both the legend and some more detail about some of the codes.


The problem of obtaining a fair reward for all his hard work 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. He implied that he was prepared to die without selling the secret and that he believed that posthumus acknowledgement was preferable to being robbed of his secret while he yet lived.




It has recently become clear that Bessler had a huge 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 his codes and I am confident that I have the complete design.




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's three published books are entitled "Grundlicher Bericht", "Apologia Poetica" and "Das Triumphirende...". I have called Bessler's collection of 141 drawings Maschinen Tractate, but it was originally found in the form of a number of loosely collected 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 use them in his planned school for apprentices.

You can order copies of the books from my website at www.free-energy.co.uk

Or from the top of the right side panel under the heading ‘Bessler’s Books’.

There are also links lower down on the right side panel.

As I often say, the solution to this device is needed now.  Anything that might help cleanse the planet of pollution and help to reduce green house gas emissions, by providing a clean cheap alternative energy source should encouraged in its discovery and development to counter global warming.

JC

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”                                                

Dale Carnegie