Memo to self: working model only - no paper designs!

Almost since I published my first book, I've had the privilege of being asked for my opinion on other people's designs for gravitywheels, and I have been perfectly willing to take a look at each one.  I have always warned the person in advance that I might not accept that their design was valid but that I could be wrong.  I have so far never received anything I thought held promise and even after receiving both warm thanks and not so warm ones, it wasn't that which decided me against looking at any more.  I have been working on my own design ideas and building model wheel since I was in my 20s and that was a long time ago, and realised that if I was given a design to look at and found that it was similar to one I was currently working on, how could I prove that I had come up with the design myself - and had not taken the idea from anything anyone sent to me?

Once that thought took hold I decided against looking at any more designs, partly to avoid giving people bad news, and I am the first to admit I could be wrong, but also to avoid getting into priority disputes and ensuing accusations and counter-accusations.

However I fell into a trap of my own making this week by over-reacting to comments made on this blog, and my resolve not to consider another person's design  weakened temporarily. The result is that someone who has their own cherished idea of how the wheel worked feels slighted simply because I disagreed with them, even though I could be wrong.

This episode has highlighted something I should have been all too well aware of by now and have frequently urged others not to do - it's no good posting designs for gravitywheels because no-one will accept anything except a working model. So regretfully I have decided against sharing my design for now and will continue to try to build my own working version because I know from bitter experience that no one will accept my design without the proof of principle that validates it.  

I apologise for taking this decision but it seemed to me that I was about to do what I have urged people not to do too many times to count. I can't believe I almost fell in to the same trap I have warned others against so many times!

But my personal opinion remains the same, my design will work!  I had planned to finish it on or around the 300th anniversary but if it's a few weeks late it's only my own reputation that will suffer and the wheel will make its appearance when it's ready.  It isn't that the wheel does not work, but that the mechanism isn't quite achieving what it is designed to do and there are a number of variations available which have to be built in order to see which is the most effective.  I'm happy that the basic concept is right as is the overall design.

Once this current build (which has been going on for months!) is tested and found wanting I will share the information, but I cannot give up the construction of  potentially successful wheel now, just because the anniversary is nearly here.

JC

One Pound plus four Pounds equals five pounds.

Fourth Clue - yeah, I know I said 'no more', but I might as well keep going.  I'll try to make them more interesting ... after this one!

Most of you are aware of the evidence for Bessler's apparent obsession with the number five and fifty five.  I know the reason for it and I will share it later, but for now consider the following extract from his Apologia Poetica.

"He shall be called a great craftsman
who can easily/lightly throw up a heavy thing,
and when one pound falls a quarter,
it shoots up four pounds four quarters. &c.

Two clues here; firstly a heavy thing is thrown upwards - and secondly if one pound falls a quarter and in doing so causes four pounds to rise four quarters, that is another way of saying when a pound falls a quarter it causes another pound to rise a quarter followed by another three each rising a quarter.  Bessler is reiterating that there are five (one pound plus four pounds) pounds falling and rising. Clarification to follow.

JC

6th June 2012 draws ever closer!

With 6th June fast approaching I've been reflecting on what might or might not happen.

If my own model works, then I guess the news will spread quickly and who knows how things will develop.  Whether it turns out to be of any use, I don't know and I doubt anyone can possibly know, until people have built models for themselves.  At least it will be a interesting curiosity if nothing else.

If my model fails then I am even less sure of the future.  I have always said that designs on paper will never convince anyone and only a working model will do that, so my fondly predicted solution, because it's on paper, will probably be nothing more than a damp squib.  However I think (hope?) that perhaps a few of those members of the Besslerwheel forum and those who read my blog, and others of a similar ilk, will read it and understand why I am so certain that I am right, even if I am unable to get the mechanism's proportions right.  One or more among them may achieve what I failed to do, using my own insights, I hope.

I put a time limit on my research as the 6th June this year, and now that that time is nigh a part of me is regretting tying myself down to a date, but I made a promise and I shall stick to it, just in case I am theoretically right and am merely holding up progress towards a working solution to Bessler's wheel by some other more perceptive engineer.

Due to personal circumstances entirely unconnected with Bessler I will not be writing anything for two or three weeks after the 6th June.  As I say, this has nothing to do with anything connected with Bessler so please wait for two or three weeks before assuming anything has befallen me, good or bad.

JC 

LONDON Olympics 2012 - and my clues to be explained.

Many years ago,I used to be something of an athlete, and also did four London marathons, and I always hoped that one day the Olympics would be held somewhere closer to home and I would be able to attend some of the events.  This year it's happening right here in little old England and will I be attending? No.

I would love to be there but getting a seat is harder than winning the lottery. But anyway, I believe that the tickets only give you a four hour slot to watch the events you've chosen, so my dreams of sitting there all day have blown away.  No surprise, given the huge demand for seats.

But actually I shall be sitting at home watching on TV and I'll get a better view than any seat could give me - just the crowd atmosphere that will be missing, but I'll enjoy it where ever I am.

BTW, just received some emails asking if I will be explaining the clues at some point.  So yes, the clues I post will be referred to and listed again, closer to the publication day, and the relevance of each one will be explained.

JC

Bessler found the answer where everyone was looking.

Third clue.

Bessler said in Apologia Poetica, "These foolish ravings of my enemies will be held up to total ridicule by all intelligent people, who, with true understanding, have sought the Mobile in a place no different from that in which I eventually found it."

To paraphrase the above, Bessler said intelligent people had already looked for the solution where he found it.

In hindsight this clue reveals something so astoundingly obvious that I find it hard to believe that no one has independently thought of it - I certainly didn't.  The history of overbalancing wheels shows that the same designs are repeatedly 'discovered' by each person who comes fresh to this subject.

JC

Parametric oscillation holds the key to working Bessler's wheel.

Second clue.

A swing has its centre of gravity below the pivot, unlike a perfectly balanced wheel whose centre of gravity lies at its axle or pivot.

With a child standing on the swing's seat,  the centre of gravity is lower and is closer the seat.  If the child bends his legs he lowers the centre of gravity even more and if he straightens them he raises it again.  If he rocks the swing a little he can make it move back and forth a greater distance by timing the straightening and bending of his legs

But the swing moves to and fro whereas we seek a solution in which the swing moves only in one direction, around and around the pivot. There is a sport known as ‘Kiiking’ in the native language of Estonia where it is practised as a national sport.  In kiiking the ropes are rigid steel bars, enabling the swinger to build up his swings until he passes over the top of the pivot - his feet are of course attached to the seat.

Yes, I know, another elementary clue, and yet a vital ingredient in making Bessler's wheel work.

JC

No wheels exist in nature.

Throughout history, most inventions were inspired by the natural world. The idea for the pitchfork and table fork came from forked sticks; the aeroplane from gliding birds. But the wheel is a one hundred percent homo sapien innovation. As Michael LaBarbera—a professor of biology and anatomy at the University of Chicago—wrote in a 1983 issue of  "The American Naturalist", 'only bacterial flagella, dung beetles and tumbleweeds come close. And even they are “wheeled organisms” in the loosest use of the term, since they use rolling as a form of locomotion'.

Thanks to the Smithsonian, there's a lot more there. -

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/A-Salute-to-the-Wheel.html

The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail.  There is an ongoing hoax about the hoop snake which is supposed to exhibit similar propensities.  It is reputed to be able form itself into a hoop and roll after its prey at speeds up to 60 miles an hour! They can alter their shapes as they go, and even roll up hill.  This reminds me of Fletcher's post on the besslerwheel forum about suggesting to Bessler that he tried out that idea with his own wheel to see if it would roll uphill.

JC

To enable a gravity-wheel to rotate.

First clue.

To make the gravity-wheel react to gravity you need to create an overbalanced situation.

You can do that on a clockwise rotating wheel, by placing each weight further outwards at some point between twelve o'clock and six o'clock, and closer in, between six o'clock and twelve o'clock.

To make the wheel continue to overbalance you need to bring the weight which is further out, back in again, at or close to six o'clock.  Then you have to make it move out again, between twelve o'clock and six 'clock. Elementary my dear Watson.

JC

Bessler's wheels, out-of-balance and set to spin spontaneously.

There's been some talk about whether Bessler's wheel was out of balance and if it was balanced when stationary.  It seems obvious to me that because the first two one-way wheels began to spin spontaneously as soon as the brake was released it must have been out of balance while stationary and it was only the brake or lock or ties which held it motionless. 

I ignore suggestions that the wheel was stopped at an opportune moment so that at that point it was out-of-balance.  It would be too difficult to arrange for those who tested it to stop it at that particular spot - if there was one.  And anyway many people commented on the evenness of its rotation and any unevenness would indicate flat spots and high spots which would be suitable for stopping in an unbalanced position.

If you suspend an object from any point, let go of it and allow it to come to rest, the centre of gravity will lie along a vertical line that passes through the point of suspension. The centre of gravity will generally lie below the suspension point.

So if we wish to make the overbalanced wheel continue to turn, then we have to find a way of raising that point which generally lies below the suspension point. 

JC