Johann Bessler's Skill Set.

Johann claimed knowledge in a number of skills, indeed he went out of his way to try to learn as much as he could about every known trade in existence in his time.  How much skill in each craft he actually acquired is impossible to know, but he does claim to have been a quick learner.  Although it takes years to develop fully all the skills required in each trade - and particularly in those days, skilled craftsmen had to work through apprenticeships lasting several years - he only wanted to discover enough about each craft to understand what material and what tools were used and how they might answer his needs.  Consequently he travelled widely searching for design ideas as well as tools and methods of construction.  His claimed list of knowledge about various crafts can be seen as below.

His proudest claim seems to be that he could be called a Cleric, a Doctor and finally a Mathematician, but I'm certain these were self-granted titles to demonstrate his assessment of his personal talents.

In his Apologia Poetica he described how he studied mechanics, and ruthlessly picked the brains of anyone who might be of use. He "toiled endlessly at his creations, sculpting, grinding glass, smelting, casting and turning.  Sculpting provided a range of unique tools, and even grinding glass might require some special revolving holding device.  Smelting and casting could provide for the manufacture of lead and brass weights and turning can apply to both brass-work as well as wood.

He acquired skills in clock-making, glass-blowing, painting pictures and copper-engraving. He learned the art of enamelling and wax-modelling. He became knowledgeable about astronomy, and the surveying of woods, meadows and fields. He worked with gunpowder and constructed guns, claiming that he was a good shot himself. He studied music and learned to play some instruments.  Clearly he did have some knowledge of music as can be seen in his design for a carillon for which he even included a musical score.

His teacher, Christian Weise, aimed to prepare his students for employment at the court or municipal offices and as such he gave them the tools to achieve these positions, hence the odd selection of skills he deemed apt.

Was there no end to this man's accomplishments?  Apparently not.  He became temporarily apprenticed to an Apothecary and learned some medicine and several cures.  I believe that he used one of these cures to cure the mayor of Annaberg's daughter, Barbara whom he subsequently married.

It seems that during his travels he picked up a smattering of several languages - he seem to have had some aptitude in such things - and during an extended visit to Prague became acquainted with a Jesuit priest and Jewish rabbi who taught him somee Hebrew, and ancient hieroglyphics, plus "the language of nature and the writings of angels".

Later in Dresden he pretended that he was an apprentice miller and picked up their milling jargon. In the process he learned much about their techniques such as whetting millstones and replacing their bearings.

The final and perhaps most useful craft he chose to examine was that of the church organ maker, and for this he turned to a relative who was an artist, organ-maker and turner. The organ of that period was probably the largest and most complex machine ever constructed to that time. There was an organ that was in the Invalidenhaus chapel in Karlshafen, which was said to have been built by Bessler. The chapel was used by the evangelical community until they had their own church built at Karlshafen in 1960. At which point the organ was donated to the new church - St. Stephanus Church. A new organ was built by Werner Bosch in 1963 incorporating all the usable pipes from the old Invalidenhaus organ. So it seems the old Bessler organ was destroyed to make the new one! Perhaps they kept the rest of the old parts somewhere?

It seems as though Bessler set himself on this path before he actually had an aim in mind and it might indicate a natural curiosity about all these subjects.  His former headmaster, Christian Weise, has an excellent reputation both as a teacher, administrator and playwright and interestingly he has stated that Bessler was his star pupil. 

So one would think that if anybody was going to solve the problem of designing and building a perpetual motion machine it would be Johann Bessler - and he did.

PS I almost forgot his ability to  speak, write and compose poetry in both German and Latin.  

JC

Vertical Axis Gravity-Enabled Wheel?

Johann Bessler's perpetual motion machine took the form of a wheel mounted on a horizontal axle, but it has thought it might be possible to achieve a gravity-enabled wheel mounted on a vertical axle. I'm thinking of windmills on vertical axles (like the one Bessler was building and from which he fell to his death), Savonius windmills, and water wheels where the head of water is low, etc.  

Often convertion from one form of energy will work for another type.  I have occasionally played with some designs but nothing has really hit the mark.  I suppose one could attach several Bessler horizontal-axle wheels to the rim of a vertical axle wheel but seems a little convoluted!

Here are some pics of standard and not so standard windmills in the UK.  This one below, is one type of the traditional design in the UK

This one (below) is near me and dates back to 1632 and is unique but still working (after major renovations!)

This one (below) is used as a water turbine

 This is the Savonius windmill plan and -

 below an actuall working one

These types of vertical axle waterhweels (see plan below) are extensivly used in India where the head of water is very low.

The oldest vertical axle winmills in the world and still working in Iran.

And finally a reconstruction of Hoopers vertical axis windmill 1891 -1828.  See his detailed drawings at  http://milldrawings.com/html/hoopers.html

Perhaps these pics might generate some thoughts on the possibility of designing a vertical axis gravity enabled wheel?  Interesting that Johann Bessler was building a vertical axis windmill when he fell to his death from it.  I imagine he had considered the possibility of a verical axis gravity wheel but had not had any success.  Against the idea is the fact that it would take up more space I suppose but it might be worth examining the possibility as such technology could be adapted for uses unthought of so far.

JC

You Can't Ignore the Laws of Physics!

Let's face it, you can't avoid, nor can you ignore, the laws of physics.The chief problem we face in making claims that we have discovered how Johann Bessler designed and built his perpetual motion machine are inevitably, the fact that such machines are believed to be impossible, they conflict with the laws of physics and they go against everything we have been taught about such devices.

When you or I succeed in reconstructing his machine, it should have become obvious to us how and why it works, before we begin the build.  Even then just showing the finished working prototype may not be sufficient to convince the diehard  traditionalists.  We have to explain the reason it works.  So getting to that point should not be delayed until after we've built it - in fact it's a vital ingredient of potential success that we fully understand the how and the why before even designing it.  And yet I get the impression that probably more than 90 per cent of perpetual motionists are still seeking the solution without working out a concept which avoids conflict - and that will lead to success.  In other words they haven't formed a convincing argument that will answer the questions raised by the establishment that such machines violate the laws of physics. This answer should be part of the design process otherwise it can only lead to continued failure.

I think I know how to design a work-around that will circumvent those obdurate laws of physics and that is what each of us needs to attain - a believable concept which avoids the usual consequences of the actions and reactions of gravity and mass in a perpetual motion machine, according to the accepted laws of physics.

Bessler warned that when we design a wheel whose weights moved a little further from the centre on the downward side of the wheel, than those on the rising side, it is doomed to remain stationary.  This looks like good advice.

I assume that those who read this are already convinced that Johann Bessler succeeded  in building his gravity-enabled wheel and that he did not lie.

I think Bessler had little knowledge of why his unsuccessful wheels didn't work, but he did not know that what he was trying was impossible, so he kept going.  At some point the solution or at last a way forward must have occured to him - remember the dream.  Once he had the workable concept it was just a matter of time before he was successful.

JC

Some Johann Bessler Information Sources

Here, and on my web sites, I  have always provided links to web sites which in my opinion contain useful information about Johann Bessler and his Perpetual Motion machines.  But from my own experience (and inclinations!) most people ignore the links either because they can't be bothered to look or decide to go there next time - and familiarity with the links tends to lead to their increasing invisibility!

So here is a brief run down on what is on my websites, plus a couple of others containing excellent information and some official sources.

www.free-energy.co.uk  I had a choice back in 1996 of having .com or .co.uk and I chose wrong! This was my first web site.  It contains a brief account of the legend of Johann Bessler plus links to purchase either printed or digital copies of my book plus the four books by Bessler including English translations.  Short descriptions of each book are also provided.

There are also links to Christian Wagner's extremely critical reviews of Bessler's wheel, but it makes interesting reading- especially as it was written by one of Bessler's hated 'enemies'.

http://www.theorffyreuscode.com./. This one contains numerous examples of Bessler's codes and their meaning.  I have tried to be objective but where I think my interpretation is more speculative I have said so.  The one thing you can take from this web site is that Bessler definitely used codes and pointed them out, all we have to do is decide whether the other undeciphered codes contain real information which would help us reconstruct his wheel.  From personal experience I can state with complete conviction, yes, there is good information available for those who have the endurance and determination to find it.

http://www.gravitymill.com/. This site is more general and repeats information about the books.  I have included a brief account of my intentions in having the books and web sites which I hope you will read.

http://www.orffyreus.net/  I found so much coded information in Chapter 55 of Apologia Poetica that I had to devote a whole web site to describe my findings.  I know there are people around the world who use this information as a starting point in attempting to decipher the text.

http://www.orffyreus.org/  A few years ago I visited Kassel, Fuerstenberg and Karlshafen and took time to see the windmill which Bessler was building when he fell to his death.  This website contains some of my pictures and some interior ones from an estate agency who offered the original building for sale.

http://www.besslerswheel.com/  I tried to explain as much as I could about my current thinking at the time, about the principles behind Bessler's wheel. I discovered the little known sport of 'kiiking' native to Estonia, which involves swinging on a special device in which a swing is suspended from metal rods, so they are rigid and the rider can swing right over the top of the swing, provided his feet are securely fixed to the seat!  An examination of the rider technique supplies good information which can be used in designing Bessler's wheel.

http://www.gravitywheel.com/    This just a place where I intend to publish my reconstruction of Bessler's wheel - physical or virtual.  In other words if I succeed it will all be here wih video, pictures and explanations, and if I don't then I'll share everything I've discovered that I haven't published - and believe me it's a lot!

http://www.besslerwheel.com/  This is the place to go to discuss all thing Bessler.  It has loads of information as well and numerous links to original sources.

http://www.orffyre.com./  This is the best source for accurate information about the dimensions of each of Bessler's wheels, plus you get access to the reworked and updated digital drawings by Bessler which compose his Maschinen Tractate .

http://www.besslerrad.de/    This the best German language site and is full of information about the people and the times Bessler lived through.  It has pictures of everyone who became involved in the Bessler legend and also includes photos of the various places he visited.

It must be obvious that from the beginning I gathered a few web sites with meaningful names, but it's an expensive game and I have let several go. What's the point of owning numerous domain names, I have more than enough still? 

JC

Gravity, Wind and Water - Conservative or Continuous forces

This subject crops up from time to time.  A regular poster on besslerwheel forum has long maintained that gravity is like the wind and this is an analogy I too have suggested on many of my websites for several years.  But people simply don't get it.

They argue that gravity is nothing like wind and just because wind drives windmills the same cannot be said of gravity.  It is common knowedge that the heat from the sun creates varying air pressures, causing high pressure areas to rush to fill in lower pressure ones, hence the wind.  But how each force originates is not part of the argument. Yes, they are different physical forces, and indeed wind applies force to the external surface of an object whereas gravity applies its force to the atoms which make up the material of the object.

But the important thing to note is the resulting effect is just the same.  If we picture wind as a stream of air moving across the earth's surface, a balloon floating in the air is driven along with the wind.  If you tied the balloon to a piece of string and attached the other end to an immovable object it would remain stationary relative to the wind until it was released when it would again travel with the wind.  You could take the balloon back upwind again, and repeat the same action.

The same thing works with gravity and a ball. The ball falls downwards under the force of gravity.  It can be picked up and put higher up so it can fall again. Gravity is a continuous force and so is the wind at the point at which it interacts with the balloon.

The same applies to a stream of water with a boat in it.  Each force can be shown to exhibit potential energy and kinetic energy. Forget where the water came from or how it and the wind originated, all that matters is what happens at the point of interaction with the object in question. No one knows how gravity happens although there are plenty of theories, but what we do know is gravity causes things to fall unless they are fixed in some way, on a shelf, hanging from a wire or held in your hand.  Streams of wind and water also cause things to move, and also have potential energy because they are continuous forces, and they can also convert potential energy to kinetic energy.

The term 'conservative force' is vague and conveys a slightly misleading impression.  'Conserve' originally meant 'preserve', so a 'conservative force' preserved its force and power, in other words it was and is a 'continuous force'.  So-called non-conservative forces are brief, explosive forces which cease once they have moved an object.  If I hit a ball with a tennis racquet that sends the ball through the air, it travels onward due to the impetus I gave it but it ceases to move once the energy given to it has been expended.  The same applies to billiards, pool and snooker balls, these are not conservative forces because their force is not conserved.

When I say that a conservative force is a 'continuous force', I mean that it is not a one-off explosive force but rather a lengthy, continuous force and although the length might be very short, it is still not the explosive force of a hit,  but rather an extended push.

So those who claim that gravity is a conservative force and therefore cannot be used in Bessler's wheel are utterly wrong; it has to be a conservative or continuous force otherwise it wouldn't work.

A windmill goes round because the wind applies force to the sails; a water turbine rotates because water pressure is applies to the turbine blades,  gravity wheel rotates because gravity applies force to the weights.  We don't call a windmill a sail wheel, and we don't call a gravity wheel a weight wheel, We refer to diesel, petrol of gas engines because they run on those fuels, but actually it's not the fuel but the internal combustion of that fuel which drives the pistons and hence the crankshaft.  It's not gravity that drives a gravity wheel but the weights which fall under the influence of gravity.

JC

Bessler's Evidence and his Critics.

There are three areas or shades of scepticism about Johannn Bessler's claims; there are those who follow the establishment line, that the scientific laws codified through more than 300 years, prove that such devices are impossible; then there are those who are willing to consider that Bessler's claims, based on the persuasive historical evidence, might be true and that perhaps there is a loop-hole in the physical laws which might permit a gravity-enabled wheel to spin continuously. Lastly there are those who were convinced either immediately or over a short period of time that Bessler's wheel was indeed possible, but who, after countless experimental designs have failed, have finally conceded that the establishment view is correct and they have given up on the project.

There is a small hard core of people who remain convinced that Bessler's wheel was genuine and that if they or someone can succeed in replicating it, it could provide a welcome addition to the sources of energy required today and in the future.  Failure after failure does not dim our optimism and despite numerous setbacks we continue to design, experiment and consider, ruminate and conjecture on numberless hypothetical mechanical arrangements, perpetually seeking that speculative loop-hole in the man-made laws of physics.

The evidence in support of Bessler can be categorised in three ways too.  Firstly the witness reports describing the tests that each wheel underwent.  Each demonstration required a tougher test for each subsequent wheel, and they in turn emerged in a more convincing format, larger dimensions and capable of lifting heavier objects. All of these tests were suggested and designed by Gottfried Leibniz, to convince the sceptics that Bessler's wheel had a genuine potential even if it wasn't technically a perpetual motion machine.  This caveat at the end of the previous senece, lends weight to his personal belief that what ever lay behind its motion, Johann Bessler was absolutely honest about his wheel.

The second category consists of Karl the Landgrave of Hesse Kassel, his personal opinion that the machine was genuine, based on his actual observation of the inner workings of the wheel - a condition of his patronage.  There is no doubt about Karl's integrity and thus no chance of collusion in a fraud, between the two men.  It must also be remembered that Karl was a knowledgeable amateur scientist himself.  He financially supported a number of ongoing experiments including a Denis Papin's steam engine, and the establishment of an observatory and also sent his court engineer to England to obtain information on the Newcomen engine.

The last category is often ignored but for me it is at least equally persuasive of Bessler's sincerity. I refer to his autobiographical account of his search for the solution to perpetual motion and the public reaction to his declaration of success in such a controversial field.  In 1715 he wrote a booklet called Apologia Poetica in which described in somewhat harrowing terms his upbringing, education and his ten year search for the secret of a gravity-enabled wheel.  He then describes the moment when he gained success; followed by marriage to a former girlfriend.  Up to that moment he was triumphant and full of optimism, but that mood didn't last.  The men he continually referred to as his enemies, had hassled him publically from the start of his first announcement that he had built a perpetual motion machine.  They published slanderous tracts claiming to know how the scam, as they saw it, was carried out.  These offensive comments were easily dismissed by examining the demonstrations, but mud sticks and it wasn't until Karl the Landgrave granted Bessler his protection that the public accusations stopped.

It is absolutely clear from Bessler's writing in Apologia Poetica, that Bessler was desperate to prove these enemie's accusations were lies.  His life was full of stress and he must have been in a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from these adverse and demanding circumstances.To us reading the words of all parties involved it is clear that Bessler felt humiliated, offended and desperate to clear his name, a requirement which should not have been necessary given Karl's verification and the demonstrations suggested by Leibniz. Nevertheless, although their criticism was muted while under Karl's protection, as soon as Bessler left Kassel to live in Karlshafen, they re-emerged with the same public complaints, this time trying to get Bessler arrested on a trumped up charge of fraud.  This was dismissed immediately by Karl who knew the truth.

So is it any wonder that his language in Apologia Poetica was from time to time full of bitterness and bile, hatred for his enemies and frequent appeals to God to witness his appalling mistreatment?

JC

Update

I'll be away in Spain for a few days but will still be able to comment etc.

I've built this new log cabin in which I originally intended to have as my new work shop but my wife thinks it's too good for sawing wood and drilling and cutting metal so I shall be using it to do the wheel design and write blogs etc, but the actual work will be carried out in the garage, now somewhat truncated as a part of the building alterations we have undergone in the last six months.

Here are some picturs of my log cabin under way so-to-speak .

There's nothing much in it yet, other than an old PC which has a lot of drawings on it.  But it will do for writing scripts.  The log cabin will be the place to make the video and I have begun to write the script.  The need to include plenty of images means I can use some for the paper I'm writing.  I call it a paper but really I just intend to publish it maybe as just a digital download or possible in hard copy, so it could be a book, and/or a website.

I've been drawing the wheel design onto a three foot MDF disc so I can drill the holes in the right places and attach the various levers and weights.  Although the garage is shorter than it was, I'm creating an additional storage area at the side of the house where I can put all the stuff which is taking up too much room in the garage at present.  It's not ideal, being long and narrow but it'll do and I'm putting a translucentt roof on, so I can see what's in there in a few months time when I've forgotten what I originally stored there!  It seems as though more work produces more work before I can begin the real wheel work!  

Even at this late stage in my Bessler research I had one of those blindingly obvious revelations which cleared up a question I had which had been bothering me for a long time and which now seems so simple I cannot understand why, after so many years of study I didn't see the reason for its presence.

These breakthroughs both small and miniscule add up to a significant amount of information which, if I had published back in 2008, without the new stuff, would have missd the mark by a mile and probably have been of little help to anyone.  Hopefully the new stuff will galvanise everyone into action!

I'll be back soon.

JC

Visitors to this blog, and a personally shocking discovery.

I was looking back at some early blogs I posted and noticed with something of a shock that eight years ago on February 27th 2009, I wrote, "I am completing the video about Bessler and I'm completing the paper which contains everything relevant to building Bessler's wheel, which I have discovered over a number of years".  OMG - how time passes and nothing gets finished!  I am a serial procrastinator! The video and the paper is going to have to be redone.

Since those days in 2009, I have made a number of discoveries about Bessler's codes and I believe I've made a lot of progress towards the solution, but of course back in 2009 I also thought the same.  I even placed a coded message at the bottom of the blog page which contained, or so I thought, the secret to Bessler's wheel.  How we delude ourselves!

I cannot afford to wait any longer, I'm 72 years of age and so I'm going to speed up the building of this wheel and then get straight on with finishing the paper and the video and publishing them.  Not that I fear anything terminal happening, just being careful!

On a different subject, I was looking at the stats page for this blog and I thought I'd include a few pieces of data while I compose my next blog,  I hope it makes for a brief but interesting read, for instance:-

Page views by country for March 2017.

United Kingdom  1335

France                  1057

United States        713

Belgium                340

Ireland                   94

India                      87

Turkey                   60

Germany                59

Australia                39

Indonesia               38

Canada                   36

I'm pleased that the UK is number one, and I'm surprised that France ranks as number two, I thought the USA would be there.  But it changes every week and other countries sometimes appear briefly, such as China and Japan among others.

The most commonly used browsers use inluded:-

Chrome used by  48%

Firefox                27%

Safari                  12%

Internet Explorer 7%

I'm also surprised that Internet Explorer has fallen so far in popularity, although I use Firefox in preference to Chrome anyway. There were several others, some of which I had never heard of but all of low percentage

Operating systems : -

				Windows    3210 (54%)  Macintosh  1360 (23%) Linux      578 (9%) iPhone     235 (3%) Unix       227 (3%) iPad       140 (2%) plus assorted mobile systems. Windows are still in there, but Apple is getting a good chunk of the rest.  I have one imac and two windows and for me the Apple involves a fairly steep leaning curve and I wonder if that is why it hasn't taken more of the windows market. Google have provided almost all of the referring URLs, and almost as many referring sites apart from my own web sites. Commonly used search keywords:- Bessler, Orffyreus, perpetual motion, secret drawings, free energy, continuous motion, circular motion, Maschinen Tractate, Bessler's code, Apologia Poetica, Das Triumphans, Collins, gravitywheels..................... I don't know how old these are but I assume they were references recently. Page views all time history  912,547. Disppointing really given how many years and how many blogs I've written but then this is a niche subject and I struggle to put up new blogs without giving away the work I've done so far.  Still the total breaks down to over 300 daily, so perhaps I should be satisfied. JC

After the Construction of Bessler's Wheel?

When Bessler's wheel finally materialises and the accompanying furore has died down, the world will be looking for ways to use it.  We have discussed many times the potential for energy generation and there are as many doubters as proponents of the potential for useful electricity generation.  For me it's simply a matter of scale; if you can produde a tiny amount of electricty from a small machine then a bigger one will produce more.  How much bigger the wheel would have to be remains to be seen, but as I have often said, several wheels on one axle obviously has a much larger capacity to produce multiple amounts of power than a single wheel could.

I'm interested in other possibilities for its use.  In third world dry climates there is the potential to pump water from wells, irrigation of crops, greening of deserts, air-conditioning and refrigeration units.  In cold climates I suspect a way may be found to produce low level warmth into suitably insulated buildings. But what of the actual mechanical design, might it be adaptable for other mechanisms?

I mentioned many years ago that as a device for changing linear motion into rotary motion there could be potential for using the Bessler mechanism in a similar but alternative way.  I'm thinking of an inertial thruster but not a reactionless drive.  It has to be open, not a closed system. So the mechanism is driven in reverse by, say, a small electric motor which rotates it, creating a linear force on one side of the rotating mechanism.  Such a device mounted on wheels should cause it to move in the direction of the force.  It might even offer a space drive. Who knows if it would work, but logically if Bessler's wheel worked then so should this.

Once the technique Bessler invented is known, better ways of achieving the same thing may well  be invented and his design relegated to the history books, but that is progress and highly desirable. I'm working on an idea I've had for some time which I believe could be the solution to Bessler's wheel; it's what somone called 'a workaround'.  It doesn't conflict with the usual well-known problems and if I'm right then there are probably other ways to achieve the same result.

Curiously just such a thought was posted on my previous blog, and such coincidences can make your hair stand on end (those of you who have hair!).  Is someone reading my mind? I hope not! I've wondered if there were alternative ways of making a gravity-enabled wheel for some time, because although I have tried to follow Bessler's clues in my design, fitting it in with my own thoughts, perhaps I've misunderstood the clues and I'm trying to achieve the same result as he did but in a different way, and not deciphering his clues correctly.  In the final analysis the path doesn't matter as long as the desired end is reached.

JC