Could Bessler have Given More Convincing Demonstrations?

We’ve often discussed Johann Bessler’s predicament; how could he convince a potential buyer that his claims that his wheel could turn continuously with no obvious external source of energy were genuine, without allowing the buyer access to the internal workings of the wheel?  Patent laws were at their very beginning and weak, short lived and open to abuse.  Many patents that were granted were either for unproven designs, or accidentally duplicated for different applicants - and provisionally for ten years, although both Newcomen and Savery had their patents extended before they ran out.

So what are the choices, and how do you prove that the machine is genuine?  Only by demonstrating what it can do; make it as easy as possible to show that there can be no connection with any external source of energy; run an endurance test to prove it can run continuously, provide alternative bearing sets open to thorough examination - and one more thing.  Find a person of unimpeachable reputation, who could not and would not allow himself to be associated with any fraudulent, criminal activity.  Persuade him to examine the machine and if he agrees that it is real, issue a certificate endorsing and approving the inventor’s claims.  Karl, the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel was such a man.  I’m not going to discuss the Karl’s impressive reputation here, it’s in my biography of Bessler, but he was well regarded throughout the various nations in Europe and was a trusted negotiator for peace among the various warring nations of the time.

These ideas came from the mind of Gottfried Leibniz in close discussion with Bessler and seem to have encouraged the inventor to go ahead with the plans in the hope that they would result in a sale.

Bessler was not alone in keeping the details of design secret.  Thomas Newcomen went to great lengths to keep the details of his steam engine design secret.

“In his ‘The Steam-Engine of Thomas Newcomen’, the author L.T.C. Rolt says that drainage in mines was just as big a problem on the continent as it was in Britain, and mines owners there were naturally interested in the Newcomen engine. 'A number of continentals visited Britain and at least one disguised himself as an artisan to discover the secrets of the engine.’”

“ The fame of this excellent pumping engine soon spread across England and many people came to see it, both from England and from foreign nations. All of them wanted to make use of the invention at their own mines and exerted themselves to acquire the knowledge needed to make and erect such a wonderful engine, but the inventors, Newcomen and Calley (Newcomen's original assistant) were exceedingly jealous and very anxious to preserve exclusively for themselves and their children, the knowledge of making and operating their invention, which had cost them such unprecedented toil. Even the Spanish ambassador to the Court of St. James's who came all the way from London with a large suite of foreigners, to see the engine, was not even allowed to enter the engine house however large a reward he offered and had to return very dissatisfied without having seen anything but the wonderful results, that this small engine was able to produce.'

Above quotations from my book, “Perpetual Motion, An Ancient Mystery Solved”.

Could Bessler have adopted a similar method?  I doubt it because his machine was so much simpler and cheaper to build, and whereas Newcomen insisted on providing relatives in the earlier installations to help operate and train the owners while controlling knowledge of the technology involved, Bessler’s machine was simple and easy to build and operate.  We know this because Karl commented thus.

He could only try what he did try, and apart from asking a lower price there isn’t much he could do to improve his chances of a sale.  Subsequently lowering the price might be thought of as an admission that he had asked too much in the first place which might make people think he was just greedy.

What is beyond question is that his wheel was enabled to turn continuously by the force of gravity on the weights.  This is an extraordinary situation; for more than 300 years we have been taught that what Bessler did is impossible.  Clearly it is not impossible and therefore what we have been taught is wrong.  At some point in the future a version of Bessler’s wheel will appear and the scientific institutions will have sit up and take notice.  I can’t wait!

JC

Johann Bessler’s Price for his PM machine was Too High.

When Johann Bessler built his perpetual motion machine, he dreamed of fame and fortune but he struggled to find a formula which would persuade any potential buyers to go ahead and buy it.  Gottfried Leibniz gave him some sound advice which he followed.  

First he had to persuade people that his machine was genuine and that he was not a crook, swindler or hustler.  This was difficult in those times with several of the latter sort all competing to extract some pecuniary benefit from every a sucker, dupe, mug or sap.  His hands were tied from the start by his not unreasonable requirement that no view of the inside of the wheel would be allowed before a firm agreement to buy at an agreed price had been established.

He feared that if he allowed anyone to see and understand how his machine worked, they could make a similar device and sell it for considerably less, or perhaps teach others how to build their own version. There were no patent laws available to protect his invention, at least not of any worth.  So his demonstrations had to make it clear that it was impossible for him to be found cheating in some way.  

He devised a few illustrations to show what the machine was capable of. He showed it lifting heavy weights up the side of castle; turning an Archimedes pump; he installed two sets of bearings mounted on their own pillars so that he could transport the wheel from one set to the second set.  This allowed each pair to be examined by the many spectators and examiners to check for any signs of fraud. His last demonstration involved the machine being locked in a room for a total of 54 days.  Karl the Landgrave of Hesse, secured the lock with his personal seal and two guards were instructed to guard the door for the duration of the test.  

The exhibitions drew hundreds of people to witness the demonstrations, examine the machine and the bearings, which were left uncovered during the examinations. There was a lot of interest but the inventor had asked too much for the invention.  One hundred thousand Thalers - equivalent to £20,000 at the time.  This was the figure the British government had offered as a reward to the person who invented a way of establishing a ships longitude .  John Harrison won the prize eventually for his marine chronometer. This figure could only be possible for a Prince or an exceedingly wealthy member of the aristocracy and it was to these kind of people that Bessler addressed his plans.  

As an aside Buckingham palace was built in 1706 at a cost of £7000 and adjusted for inflation this equates to a contemporary sum of £1.8 million!  Of course if it had a market value it would exceed 3.7 billion pounds. But according to the web site at, https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/currency-converter/#currency-result Bessler’s £20,000 would be equal to £2,322,150.  But even in 1717 with his £20,000 he could buy for instance 3717 horses, or 4807 cows!  

It is clear from the many letters we have from that time, that Bessler’s machine attracted a lot of attention and was promoted among the neighbouring kings and princes. Despite the convincing evidence that his machine actually worked just as it’s inventor claimed, no one was prepared to take what appeared to be something of a gamble, and agree to pay the price asked.  Actually there was one man who wished to buy it.  The Czar of Russia, Peter the Great, determined to bring his country up to date by founding universities, school, libraries and importing professors, teachers and craftsmen in the most useful trades, etc, was persuaded to visit Bessler and had made arrangements for payment in full …but unfortunately died on his journey to Kassel.  One wonders how things might have changed if he had succeeded in his plan.

News of the invention and how it was being used would have spread quickly just as Newcomen’s steam engine did and was used extensively to pump water from flooded mines. I’m not sure if it could have survived the steam age but it could have lived on among those few who were attracted to the concept of a free energy machine and awaited it’s rediscovery just in time to help with today’s problems.

In one of his books he says that he was told that if he was able to build a working PM machine it would be worth a ton of gold.  A ton of gold is worth, very roughly, £41,517.000.

In the end I think he asked way too much for his invention.

JC

NB.  Copies of books about Johann Bessler and his own publications are available from this blog.  See the side panel at both the top and bottom.

What If Bessler’s Wheel had Other Benefits?

In my world of limitless imagination I can see a sparkling future for Bessler’s wheel and I’m confident that once someone, me or any of we few stalwart optimists, succeed in revealing to the world a working version of his machine, it can come true.

We all know what is happening and we think we know why.  The majority believe that climate change is happening and it’s due to a gradual increase in the  overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of carbon monoxide, CFCs and other pollutants.  Alternatively it’s a natural cyclic event caused by fluctuations in the sun’s output.  It doesn’t really matter who’s right, may be it’s a bit of each.

Whatever the cause, pollution is an obvious problem causing millions of deaths yearly and therefore it is an urgent issue which needs immediate attention.  Reducing carbon emissions is a small step, which only leads to other problems.  Alternative energy sources are limited to other pollution producing technologies. The means by which we obtain and access electricity is another source of concern because of the many rare and not so rare earth elements used in that process.

Rare-earth elements are special minerals used in a wide variety of consumer and industrial products. Though they have exotic-sounding names, such as neodymium, scandium, and dysprosium, they are abundant right here on Earth. They are considered rare, however, because they appear in very small concentrations.

In addition, the process used to separate them from the rocks in which they occur is extremely difficult, because the elements have the same ionic charge and are similar in size. Typical separation and purification processes often require thousands of extraction and purification stages to be carried out. As such, there is a significant premium attached to these materials, and several market and geopolitical forces may cause them to escalate in value.

It may seem as if I’m warning off the use of electrics in their entirety, but I’m not.  I’m just wondering if Bessler’s wheel might be used in some cases in the same way it was planned 300 and more years ago.  Not necessarily for generating electricity, but pumping water for irrigation, dealing with flooding, air conditioning etc.  This suggestion might seem unnecessary given the massive use of electricity but surely there are advantages of cost, maintenance and any reduction in the mining of rare elements is any advantage to be welcomed.

I’m sure there are other possibilities where Bessler’s wheel might be of use in a way which avoids electrics.  Is there, for instance, any way that heat could be produced simply by having a continuously rotating device?  I have some vague ideas but nothing that seems practical but it would be a real bonus if a method could be found. Heat pumps seem a possibility ?

Heat pumps work by pumping or moving heat from one place to another by using a compressor and a circulating structure of liquid or gas refrigerant, through which heat is extracted from outside sources and pumped indoors. I assume something on a large scale could be devised. Other ideas not requiring the power of electricity?

JC

Is Johann Bessler’s Secret to be Found in Maschinen Tractate?

I think that the arrival of a working version of Johann Bessler’s wheel is imminent.  There is so much new research into his Maschinen Tractate (MT) going on, particularly in the Besslerwheel forum, that the chances of success have never been higher.  The whole purpose of the drawings and notes in that document was for the education of apprentices attending Bessler’s planned school for teaching various trades.  Given his obvious intention to leave clues to his wheel extant after his death, plus of course the hastily scribbled note on the front of the document, it is clear that the answer can be found within those pages.

The note on the front cover, famously read, “ NB. May 1, 1733. Due to the arrest, I burned and buried all papers that prove the possibility. However, I have left all demonstrations and experiments, since it would be difficult for anybody to see or learn anything about a perpetual motion from them or to decide whether there was any truth in them because no illustration by itself contains a description of the motion; however, taking various illustrations together and combining them with a discerning mind, it will indeed be possible to look for a movement and, finally to find one in them."

There are other indications of his plan to encourage the reader to study the various drawings and through a comprehensive study of all them,  discover maybe one real movement or action which will lead to the solution. There are 141 drawings in total with the first 55 accompanied by brief notes each one about the adjacent drawing.  

I have made much of the clues and hints in his other three books, but have paid less attention to those in MT, but the current discussions about the drawings has raised considerable interest and I’m now pursuing a more thorough investigation of the MT drawings. There are a number of additional clues which seem to indicate something important but although you can make sense of what they could or might mean, it’s hard to confirm. I’ve discussed some of them in my web site at www.theorffyreuscode.com

Such urgent action by Bessler must have been caused by something that he felt endangered his secret and therefore he might have lost sole possession of the one thing that gave him hope for a his school, sound financial future, and fame.  He declares that it was due to an arrest, but having been written in May 1733 doesn’t necessarily mean that he was arrested at that date but could have been responding to an earlier event which made him reconsider what information might be found in his files.

You can acquire a copy of MT plus English translation from the panel on the right, towards the bottom or from the top where is says “Bessler’s books and a. Biography” .

JC