Instinct or Intuition Will Lead to the Solution to Bessler's Wheel.

During this curious journey we Besslerites travel, we often suffer the hardships associated with long adventures, but ours are not like those normally encountered with such enterprises.  Little physical hardship is encountered, unless it is the occasional injury caused by a unfortunate misguided application of force to a hammer, screwdriver of spanner (wrench) to a tender part of one's anatomy.

No, the tribulations we commonly encounter are the ups and downs of an emotional nature - an intangible kind.  Initially the curiosity and inclination to believe that Johann Bessler really did discover the secret of building a working perpetual motion machine fills us with premature happy anticipation that maybe we can discover how he did it. Then reality takes a swipe at such misplaced optimism, because the mighty scientific institutions which guide our knowledge enhancement, dismiss such ideas with tumultuous scorn.  But then again, you read and reconsider the convincing evidence that Bessler did not lie and you feel that perhaps this is a paradox.  It seems highly believable and yet it simply cannot be, because the greatest scientific minds of the last 300 years cannot be wrong. Absolutely not!

So how can we explain this apparent impass?  At the heart of the matter is a certain vagueness about several defintions which seems to cloud the issue.  The term 'perpetual motion' has an aura of mystery and magic which is attractive and persuasive and if you've seen the strong circumstantial evidence that Bessler's claims were genuine, you may have discussed the issue of perpetual motion and come to the conclusion that in fact the  term is faulty for a number of reasons and perhaps it would be better to call it continuous motion subject to the presence of gravity. Bessler told us that the weights themselves constitute the whole apparatus and therefore, without gravity there would be no motion.  Forget the definitions, they are doubtfull, subject to interpretation and misleading.

The search for a solution is a road with many forks each of which has so far led us up blind alleys, dead ends and cul-de-sacs. Our emotions switch violently from intense exhilaration when we believe we know the answer to the depths of depression when we discover our design was wrong. 

Regardless of this setback we continue with the search because we are of the opinion that Johann Bessler told the truth.  In which case three hundred years of complete dismissal by the elite (a select group that is superior in terms of ability or qualities to the rest of a group or society - they think!) that his wheel is and was impossible, is too big a target to ignore.  Think what a massive boost to the ego of every person who spent much of his or her life, searching for the elusive secret which Bessler found; and being constantly reminded of the foolishness of their quest, to discover that they were right and our teachers were wrong..  How wonderful it will be, to show those nay-saying,  know-it-all, condescending experts that they got it wrong.

The truth is that we all instinctively know that Bessler's wheel was genine.  There is an account in one famous book about the search for perpetual motion which describes the author's discussion about the subject with an experienced engineer, (Perpetual Motion - The History of an Obsession - Arthur Ord-Hume).   The engineer dismissed the possibility of anyone ever succeeding in building a perpetual motion machine because they flouted the laws of physics - and that was the end of the matter, or so the author thought.  A few days later the engineer returned to see the author, and said that even though he knew it was impossible he had done some sketches showing how he thought it might be achieved.  That illustrates the dilemma facing all of us; even though we have been taught that they are not possible we each of us know instinctively that such machine are possible.  It's intuitive that with the correct arrangement of weights a wheel will rotate continuously within the field of gravity.

NB, one commenter requested a picture of the air rifle on the wall in Bessler's portrait.  I am not aware of any such thing, but in the interests of  clarity I have added a copy of the portrait which Bessler looked through because it contains items which could be thought of as an air rifle.

JC

Johann Bessler and the Orffyreus Code

As I wrote previously, I’m temporarily recycling a previous post about the Legend of Bessler’s wheel,  because I need to concentrate on finishing my own attempted reconstruction of his machine.

As you can see from my previous post, there is a lot going on in my life but there is always the odd moment when I could work on the wheel.

At my age I find time seems to be accelerating and weeks shoot past and I seem to have accomplished very little.  I am determined to finish it now so I can prove to myself, at least, that I am right and that there are sufficient clues from Bessler to permit anyone to build his wheel. Success would mean that the design I’m working on would match his, which I know many people doubt is possible.  Obviously I will post the information here first, if it works - or even if it doesn’t.

Please feel free to comment if you wish and I will try to check back daily.

So here it is again, 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 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 one of his codes; the simplest one, and I am confident that I have the complete design.  Due to unfortunate family circumstances I am currently unable to complete the build I have undertaken but 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.

JC

The Metaphors in Johann Bessler’s Apologia Poetica, Chapter XLVI

There is an intriguing passage in Apologia Poetica which has been the subject of much debate.  Most of the book is written rhyming couplets, suggesting poetry, but this passage has a more poetic feel not so obvious elsewhere. Bessler uses metaphors for the informatio he dangles in front of us. What follows is my take on Johann Bessler’s intention in writing this confusing but fascinating piece. Original translation in black, my comments in blue under each sentence.

Apologia Poetica, chapter XLVI

1. “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!

Bessler is saying that what ever you may have heard the truth can be found in what follows.

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

Bessler is suggesting that Gartner and Wagner must not be allowed to ruin his work. His wheel is like  a garden or a road -  a finished and working facility that his two enemies want to wreck.

3. For greed is an evil plant.

The word ‘wurzel’ also means ‘root’.  So the sentence should read ‘greed is the root of evil’. According to Wikipedia this phrase was the origin of the modern saying ‘money is the root of evil’, and was associated with the early Jews and Christians. I believe Bessler is saying that Gartner and Wagner act through greed and avarice and envy.

4.  An anvil receives many blows.

The following sentences are designed to convey information about his wheel.  So firstly an anvil receives many blows, which in the context of what follows, suggests that a heavy weight is applied with additional force – gravity plus the smith’s arm strength

5.  A driver drives.

The drives steers or guides a force, so it is not passive but it is not providing force so much as guiding its use.

6.  A runner runs.

A runner runs using his own power, not some external source.

7.  The seer sees. The buyer buys.

A seer sees, (passive) The buyer buys (active)  Examples of passive and active processes.

8.  The rain drips down. Snow falls.

Effect of gravity or heaviness on rain and snow.

9.  The shotgun shoots. The bow twangs.

A physical production of force other than through gravity

10.  A great fat herd of fat, lazy, plump horses wanders aimlessly. 
Unguided and unaffected directly by gravity, just fat and heavy. weights hanging.

11.  The flail would rather be with the thresher than with the scholar.

The flail is forced downwards but ‘prefers’ to fly/bounce back up again. The word for ‘flail’ can also mean ‘oaf’, ‘thresher’ can mean ‘beater’ and ‘scholar’ also mean ‘Doctor’ or ‘teacher’.

12.  Children play with heavy clubs among the broken columns.

Weighted levers, each with a hinge along their length.

13.  Acrobats and shadow-boxers are as fleet and nimble as the wind.

Swift in their actions.

14.  The cunning cat slinks silently along and snatches nice juicy mice.

I think this relates to part of the mechanism in action.

15.  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 knick-knacks. He wags his tail, creeps through the hoop and is rewarded with pats on his paws by the stiff fops who watch him.

Again, I think this relates to part of the mechanism in action.

16.  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.

A wheel, but not like those on a cart etc.  It doesn’t have the iron rims like they do. It spins but you can’t see inside so you don’t know what’s in there.  

17.  Seen sideways or full-face it is as resplendent as a peacock's tail. 
It looks amazing!

18.  It turns to the right and to the left; it spins around in any possible direction, whether laden or empty.

As we know it spins in either direction loaded or unloaded.

19.  All things belong to one of the three kingdoms (animal, vegetable, matter) and - you have the physical evidence in front of you. 
The above comments and those that follow point to Bessler’s knowledge of Alchemy.  There is nothing unusual about the materials of which it is made.

20.  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.

Salt, mercury, and sulphur equate to the concepts of body, spirit, and soul. Body is the physical self. The soul is the immortal, spiritual part. This suggests the continuous (immortal) action of his wheel.
Saturn = lead, Mars = iron and Jupiter = tin. These point to the materials necessary for the weights and bearings etc, the metal parts.

21.  Even the things we eat do not lose elemental influence - for it spreads itself through every limb and sinew of our bodies.

Gravity (or heaviness)affects every part of the body.

22.  A crab crawls from side to side. It is sound, for it is designed thus.

Don’t throw out any designs just because they are not intuitively correct.

23.  Poltergeists often wander freely through locked doors. 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.

A warning to himself to guard his tongue and his temper."

This is not cut and dried, its open to criticism and is just my current attempt to bring meaning to the text. Bessler enjoyed puzzling us with his hints and clues, but all of them are ambiguous and if anyone here feels I've missed something then please share it.

JC

Bessler Really Was Ahead Of His Time.

Johann Bessler invented his perpetual motion machine in 1712.  His timing was unfortunate because it had to compete with the beginning of the Steam era.  Thomas Newcomen’s engine was so much more powerful and clearly it meshed with the then current understanding of steam in the world of science and it too, surfaced in 1712 too,  an unhappy coincidence for Bessler.

The science of steam had a prehistory of successful experiments among whose work Denis Papins stands out. But despite a common curiosity about perpetual motion machines there were no successful demonstration to presage Bessler’s claims.  The age of steam arrived and proceeded to develop at an alarming rate.

Once the steam era had developed to the limit of its own technology, the age of the internal combustion engine took over and the power of electricity dawned and between the three of them poor old Bessler's wheel never stood a chance, even if the men of science had accepted it.  I suppose I should mention nuclear power here but as we shall see, the earlier three sources of power are nearing the end of their useful life unless a purer cleaner form of energy can be found.  The huge effect of pollution from all three resources is considered with some trepidation as global warming begins to make its effect palpable.  Continuously more strident calls are being made for a reduction in the producton of pollution, including the invention of ways of dealing with nuclear waste.  This is believed to be achievable with the introduction of a clean, alternative energy.

So here we are our tiny niche of Besslerites, believing in his perpetual motion machine, and maybe we have the answer at our finger tips.  Whether the solution is found and proven this year or next, it is imminent.  Will his 300 year old invention blossom forth introducing a new era of power from the force of gravity, a clean, low technology available in any location around the world?   Independant of local conditions, flowing water, the wind, the tides, geothermal or any of the old power sources.

Is this coincidence?  If Bessler had not found the solution in 1712, would we have even bothered to search for it today?  If his wheel had been sold during Bessler's life would it have had any effect on the development of the burgeoning steam, oil, electricity and nuclear powers?  Isn't it perfect timing for the solution to be found now when the world seeks an alternative clean, cheap energy to run all those amazing devices which were the outcome of the three earlier stages of power development?

This whole scenario looks like a long planned series of events which are designed to end with Bessler's gravity wheel, but only after hundreds of years of development of the earlier forms of energy.  Would we have got where we are today without the commercial development of steam engines, petrol-driven vehicles, electric trains, ships and aircraft?  Perhaps we had to forgo Bessler's dream in order to get to where we are now, before we could take steps to use our discoveries but power them in a different way to bring to a stop global warming?

What of Bessler's final panagyric to his sponsor, Karl, dated 2019, another coincidence? Was it some subconscious nudge to publish something dated 300 years hence?  It was not a decision taken with any awareness, just a lucky occurence like many coincidences which litter our lives.  How often we note that something almost always insignificant happened and say, "that was lucky!"  But sometimes it almost feels as if some guiding hand was at work.

Few people know of an accident I had in my mid twenties when my car's brakes failed and I went over a very steep and high embankment.  My car flew through the air before it hit upside down and rolled several times.  I was thrown out (pre seat belt days) when the door burst open on the intial impact, and apart from a brief period of unconsciousness I recovered uninjured.  My car was not so lucky and was written off.  For many months afterwards I felt euphoric due to my amazing escape from what looked like certain death and was convinced I was destined for some important purpose. Perhaps that time has come.

JC

After 50 Years, I Still Believe in Johann Bessler - Why?

The search for the secret of Johann Bessler’s wheel has continued for at least fifty years to my personal knowledge and the secret of  Perpetual Motion has been sought for hundreds maybe thousands of years.  So what is it that spurs people on to try to complete this quest despite the considerable amount of evidence that they/we are wasting our time?

I know from my own experience and from others I have spoken with, that despite the firm assurance that a machine that derived its energy from the continuous action of gravity on weights was impossible, we all of us “know” instinctively that the experts are wrong.   There seems to be a personal conviction inside the mind of everyone of us that there is a configuration  of weights which can move under the influence of gravity and overbalance the wheel.  I have no doubts at all that this is possible and that Johann Bessler found the way to do it.

The people who “know” with equal sincerity to ourselves that we are wrong, glibly spout the old arguments against our convictions, without giving the slightest attention to the very strong evidence, albeit circumstantial, that  Johann Bessler’s wheel worked.  A small but vital part of the theories taught as fact are no more reliable than our own beliefs in Bessler, but whereas the evidence that gravity-enabled wheels are only theorised to be impossible we have the much more convincing evidence that one at least actually worked.  If only one machine ever satisfied the requirements of a gravity-enabled  machine, then they are possible and the theories being taught in school are wrong and misleading.

"Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-94), the German physicist, was able to convince the scientists of the world, at the tender age of twenty-six, that the First Law was a valid assumption when, in  1847, he presented before the Physical Society of Berlin a paper entitled ‘On the Conservation of Energy’. He began his analysis by declaring that perpetual motion machines were axiomatically impossible.  Helmholtz did not have to prove his axiom since it was enough to confirm that no one had yet succeeded in building a successful perpetual motion." (Perpetual Motion; The History of an Obsession by Arthur Orde-Hume 1977) "An axiom or postulate is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments". Wikipedia.

Helmholtz published a statement that a machine such as Bessler's couldn't exist because no one had ever made one, and yet we are publishing a hypothesis that they can exist because Bessler made one. From wikipedia. "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, positive evidence is distinct from a lack of evidence or ignorance of that which should have been found already, had it existed".

Bessler sought to prove that his wheel worked as he claimed, using clever a arrangement of weights. The renowned scientist, Gottfried Leibniz, visited the inventor twice and was convinced that  the wheel  was genuine although he did not know if it was perpetual motion, because like most people, he did not believe that it was possible, nevertheless he was satisfied that Bessler’s wheel has something of value in it and said it would be a shame if such a valuable invention should be lost.

Leibniz offered some advice on how Bessler could try to provide the  best possible evidence that his wheel was genuine.  He suggested that the inventor permit a highly respected person be allowed to view the interior to provide unequivocal evidence of the machines validity; secondly he should try to persuade this person to hold an endurance of one month test under lock and key to again add to the proof required; and lastly to arrange an official examination by senior members of the establishment to again add further evidence of the machines validity.  He also proposed a number of demonstrations to run during the official tests. Lastly he recommended the translocation of the wheel during the official examinations so that those present could satisfy themselves that there were no secret connections to some hidden method of propulsion, whatever that might be. 

Leibniz was a frequent visitor to the court of Karl the Landgrave's cousin, Moritz-Wilhelm, Duke of Zeitz, and the offer of Karl's patronage was inspired by Moritz -Wilhelm's many conversations with Leibniz. Kassel is only 117 miles from Zeitz and one often taken in those days by horse and carriage.

All of these suggestions were carried out and it is difficult to imagine anything else he could have done to prove his claims.  It is also difficult to work out how he could have conned all those people without being found out. It has often been commented that even today it would be difficult if not impossible to reproduce all of Bessler's tests and examinations using only the materials available at that time.

The month's  endurance test stretched to two months at Bessler's insistance but it did depend upon the honesty of Karl the Landgrave, as did his verification of the internal workings of the wheel, but his reputation was beyond reproach and he had nothing to gain and much to lose by becoming involved in a scam.

So, returning to the question in the title of this blog; why am I satisfied beyond a shadow of doubt that Johann Bessler's claims were genuine? For all the reason described above, plus an instinctive subconscious knowledge that I know that it can be done.

JC

Johann Bessler’s Bi-directional Wheels.

Following a suggested topic for my blog I have decided to offer my current thinking on Besslers one-way and two-way wheels.

Briefly, when Bessler first exhibited his first two perpetual motion machines, or ‘wheels’ as most of us tend to call them, he was accused of tricking his audience with a device which required winding up.  Proving that this was not true presented  a problem.

One idea which he  took from Leibniz and arranged was the two month endurance test under lock and key and guard, but he needed something more immediate.  His idea was to try to make the wheel able to turn in either direction, and I think he decided to build a wheel with mirror image mechanisms which would be capable of turning the wheel in either direction.

In order to test the feasibility of this idea I constructed a model of a Savonius windmill which has a vertical axle.  This is analagous to Bessler's wheel although using a different force.  Thus the wind blows horizontally turning the windmill in one direction.  The Savonius rotor consists of two or three or more scoops. Looking down on the rotor from above, a two-scoop machine would look like an "S" shape in cross section. Because of the curvature, the scoops experience less drag when moving against the wind than when moving with the wind.  Anemometers, used for measuring wind speed,  are also similar in design, although some have three and four scoops.

Having built the test model I made it spin by placing a fan nearby.  Once I had tested my model, I placed another Savonius rotor on top of the first on the same vertical axle.  This one was a mirror image of the first and designed to turn in the opposite direction.

Once placed in the path of the wind from the fan, both windmills turned in opposite directions at the same time, on the same axle.  The next thing was to link the two windmills so that they could only rotate together, in the same direction.

When linked the two windmills remained stationary, just like Bessler's bi-directional wheel.   But as soon as the combined windmill was given a gentle push in either direction, the whole assembly began to rotate in which ever direction it was started, accelerating to about half the speed of each single windmill when not attached to its twin, again like Bessler's bi-directional wheel. This action mimics perfectly how Bessler’s bi-directional wheels performed.

In a Savonius windmill the concave surface has higher resistance to the wind than it’s opposite blade which presents a convex surface.  With two opposing surfaces facing the wind there is balance with neither giving way to the wind.  But when you give the assembly a push what happens?

Let us assume that you gave the upper rotor a gentle push, so that it moves with the wind while the other one, lower on the axle, resists. Giving it a push allows the side moving with the wind to take advantage of the wind while the opposing rotor is fighting against the wind.  The windmill takes the path of least resistance and so begins to turn faster while the other side resists but is only able apply a braking effect.

The backwards turning mirror image mechanism has resistance on both blades, whereas the opposite, forwards turning other mirror image mechanism, has none on one blade and limited resistance on the other blade. The side which moves with the wind has its convex side moving against the wind while it’s concave moves with the wind.  But the opposite side that moves against the wind is resistant as well - both concave and convex.  

So in my opinion Bessler tested that theory in the same way as I did, with a Savonius rotor. Of course Savonius hadn't invented his design then, but we know that Bessler was familiar with the concept because the windmill he fell to his death from was a vertical axle windmill.  There are some vertical axis windmill still functioning in Iran believed to be at least 1000 years of age (panemones), and for several centuries vertical axis windmills were also in use in China and Egypt..  It's possible that Bessler saw one in Italy during his travels, or even England, or Ireland.

JC

My Blog About Johann Bessler's Perpetual Motion Machine.

I've been writing this blog for nine years and it is becoming increasingly difficult to find something new to write about!  There is only one subject upon which I want to write and it is the one I choose not to do for now; my deciphering of Bessler's code.  I know from the emails I get that many people want me to explain where the clues are, what they mean and why, but I am determined to build a proof of principle machine before I publish my conclusions.  As I have said numerous times, if it fails I will then publish my conclusions because I think they are correct and it is possible that I might have made a simple error and the information will still lead to the correct solution.

I have good reasons for not publishing the information yet.  In the past I have speculated on what the clues might mean and have been criticised for not making it clear that my comments were just conjecture or theory and not fact.  So even though I may believe that I have found the solution, at this point I am not going to publish it, even if I clearly labelled it as speculation because I want it to be taken seriously - and that won’t happen without a working wheel. If, on the other hand, my construction does not work, then, rather than wait until proof arrives, I will publish under the title SPECULATION and explain in detail where the clues are, what they mean and why I think so.  This I will do because I don't want time to slip by again and nothing gets published, ever.

The problem with speculation is that without proof most people prefer their own ideas and tend to dismiss other people’s theories.  I have experienced this many times and have also dismissed the theories of others.  So unless I can present my conclusions as fact backed up by a working wheel - or show that some of the clues I have found can be demonstrated as valid, I will await the results of my Bessler wheel construction before publishing.

I am unwilling to close the blog down  until I am ready to publish everything, so if anyone has any ideas about a subject I could write in this blog, feel free to offer suggestions.  After 566 posts, some of which are returns to previous posts, my ideas are drying up.  Once my wheel has been built and tested there will be numerous posts but until then I will probably put the "Legend of Bessler's wheel",  back up but leave space for comments.

If you comment with a suggestion, please do not be offended if I either decline to write about the subject or don't respond with a comment, or there is a delay in responding. My time for all sorts of things are limited by my New Year's Resolution. I am now fully concentrating on building the wheel and after the last year in which I was unable to find the time to spend on it, I am commited to finishing it and airing my conclusions as soon as possible.

I shall be 74 next month and I have found that as I age, time seems to have speeded up and I am worried that I might not finish the build before I am unable to finish it.

I look forward to any suggestions but if there are none I shall be satisfied that I have not neglected anything of importance.

JC

If Johann Bessler had Sold his Perpetual Motion Machine.

I wonder what changes might have occured to the world in which we live if Bessler had sold his machine.  There were only two potential purchasers; the first being Karl the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, and the other, Peter the Great, Czar of Russia.  There was a third, the Baron Anton von Mannsberg, Bessler’s landlord in later years, who ordered the inventor to build another copy of his machine, but once again circumstances beyond his control prevented the examination of the model and it was finally lost to us.

Karl was a clever man, intensely interested in the latest discoveries in science theory and fact.  He financed research into astronomy and numerous other areas of the burgeoning field of scientific investigation, as well as his steam experiments with Denis Papin. Despite his initial interest in Bessler's machine he was more interested in Newcomen’s steam engine and I think he knew Bessler’s wheel would not do to pump water up the 300 metres necessary to feed the cascade. The fact that Newcomen's machine would not have coped either,  was probably realised quite quickly as reservoirs for collecting water at the top of the hill were planned before his death and they are still functioning today.

But Peter, the Czar, was another who looked into the future and sought help in every field of science and technology.  He was on his way to examine Bessler’s wheel when he died. Professor Christian Wolff had been invited to St Petersburg to head up the university recently founded by Peter and one of Wolff’s requirements was that he be involved in developing Bessler’s wheel.  So both potential purchasers failed to complete.

Peter was the best chance of securing the machine for future generations and would have succeeded in developing a useful version with Wolff's help.  Despite the much more powerful machine designed and built by Thomas Newcomen, Bessler's wheel was so much cheaper and more easily constructed, and given the poor state of technology in Russia at that time, it is likely that Bessler's machine would have thrived. During the subsequent 300 years it is inconceivable that new uses and developments would not have ocurred.

Elsewhere, the year 1701 saw the opening of the Navigation School in tMoscow; in 1715 it was moved to St. Petersburg, where it became the foundation for the Navy Academy. Later it was followed with Engineering, Artillery and Medical schools.

The St. Petersburg Academy opened on the initiative of Peter I in 1725 and played a great role in formation and development of the Russian science.  Originally the Academy was mostly based on foreign scientists such as Professor Christian Wolff, who were willing to work in Russia.

It is clear that Bessler's machine would have become something of a workhorse in areas unsuited to the development of the much more complex Newcomen machine.  But what if any, form would it take today and for what purpose?

I would have thought that given the introduction of electricity to Russia in 1876, when the first power station was built, and in 1879 electric street lighting was installed in St. Petersburg, (only a year or two after the the USA, France and England), it would not have taken long for the same development process which was happening around the world, to have taken place in Russia too.

Who knows what additional uses might have been discovered which might have pushed some of the later inventions into a lower position iin the world of technology?

I don't wish to go over old ground too often but here are a few of my previous blog referring to alternative used for Bessler's wheel.

Friday, 27 July 2018                   

Wednesday, 30 March 2016

Friday, 6 March 2015

Thursday, 2 August 2012

Wednesday, 16 November 2011

Friday, 15 January 2010

JC

The "TOYS" Page Reviewed

When Johann Bessler was arrested he destroyed any drawings which explained how his wheel worked, but he still arranged to leave a number of drawings which he felt would lead someone with the right credentials to the solution....eventually.

The torrent of text speculating about something he wrote or drew and what it might mean, is fascinating but in my opinion, so far from the inventor's actual meaning and ultimate intention as to be beyond any likelyhood of revealing the solution.  There are clues written within the text but they are ambiguous and hard to make sense of but I’m certain that in the end they will be found to make sense within the laws of physics - they have to, because there cannot be any reason or sense in trying to circumvent them.

In Das Triumphirend, Bessler makes some interesting comments which may have been largely ignored.  I have added my own theory about the meaning of the 'Toys' page after the following.  He wrote.

"In a machine such as mine, ..... the motive force, the ability to move itself and drive other objects makes up the FORM of the device, without which its framework is just any old heap of material, which has completely lost its essence.  To cause the machine to stop requires the application of a greater external force, and can be accomplished without difficulty whenever one requires it, e.g. for the machine’s longer conservation.  Such a cessation can also occur through the (page 216) wearing-out or breaking of the machine’s parts.  The first is a “moral accident”, the second a “material accident.”  As an example of the ideas I am discussing, consider the case of two small metal spheres, one of iron and one of lead.  For both of them, their FORM consists in their regular sphericity.  But we find that, placed in a furnace, one loses its shape quicker than the other.  Therefore the greater or lesser “meltability” of such spheres is not the result of “sphericalness” – common to both – but of the physical characteristics of the two materials.  And it is this “material accident” which is the FORMAL CAUSE of the difference.        

"I must stress that if a Perpetual Motion machine of the type I have described really is in conformity with the demands of the most eminent mathematicians and (page 76) engineers, then it really deserves to have the Perpetual Motion appellation no matter how fragile the material from which it is constructed.  The case is no different from that of a leaden or even waxen sphere.  They are both as perfectly deserving of the description “sphere” as is an iron one, despite the fact that the latter will withstand fire and other attacks better than the two former.  For form gives the essence of the thing."

So what can we glean from these comments? It is interesting that he capitalises the word FORM and uses bold type to reinforce the idea.  He implies that FORM can be more important than the material it is constructed from.  My own efforts to make sense of the "Toys" page, sometimes referred to recently as MT138 although it is actually MT 138,139,140 and 141, have led me to believe that the figures shown on the page simply show the FORM.  He actually uses the word 'FORMA' in both the German and the Latin text which translates into FORM or SHAPE or APPEARANCE.

So, examining the "Toys" page, in my opinion, it is wrong to assume that item 'A' represents a Jacob's Ladder.  It is actually telling you that there are five mechanisms each having a form or shape, similar to that of items 'C' and 'D', but not working as they do. Each of the five items in 'A' are not part of what appears to be a Jacob's Ladder. Item 'B' has no connection with item 'A, even though it may appear to. It is telling you that each of the five items' in 'A' have a single twist to their design.  The same information is repeated in items 'C' and 'D'. 'C' shows you the form of the mechanism and 'D' repeats it with the same twist. 

Item 'E' includes an additional piece of information about the form. It's form or shape is present in the final mechanism shape, but as Bessler states in a handwritten note, " 5. Children's game in which there is something extraordinary for anyone who knows how to apply them in a different way."  The number 5 refers to the five labelled parts 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D' and 'E', and his comment relates to those same parts.  This supports my conclusion that the figures shown are not intended to be used as you see them, but they should "be applied in a different way". For more on this see my blog of  Wednesday, 22 March 2017.  (Johann Bessler's Graphic Clues)

 In his quote above Bessler says that the two spheres are made of two different materials but they are still spheres.  Their differences are not apparent at first sight, but they each have different characteristsics and behave differently under certain circumstances, so at first sight might be misconstrued.

So in my opinion he is saying that FORM or SHAPE is important but two similar shapes may have different characteristics or to put it another way, is, use the SHAPE you see on the paper but don't assume that you understand the way that shape will function and is the way the inventor intended.  This is hard to explain. Just because item 'A' on the 'TOYS' page looks like a Jacobs ladder, don't assume that is what it is.  Separate the component parts, try merging them to get the intended design but retain the obvious differences.

This digression in DT is there for a reason and I think it is a hint to look at the drawings but don't make any assumptions abut their actions.

JC