Primum Mobile or Primum Movens - The Unmoved Mover.

I was reading, yet again, how the force of gravity cannot possibly be a source of energy.  It's not just the world at large who refuse to accept the argument that gravity can be tapped, there are many members of the Besslerwheel Forum who also subscribe to that view.  And yet they can only posit the possibility that there must have been some additional source of energy which Bessler discovered and which we must be able to use as well.

So perhaps we should look at the reason why gravity can be used as an enabler of continuous rotation        .

Almost 2500 years ago, Plato insisted that with inert matter in motion, because it is not the cause of its own motion; its motion requires a moving cause different from itself. This moving cause cannot itself be of such kind that it also requires to be moved from without.  To put it another way There must be an unmoved mover, or  'that which moves without being moved'. 

A prime mover (Latin: primum movens) is a concept advanced by Plato's best student, Aristotle, as a primary cause (or first uncaused cause) or "mover" of all the motion in the universe.  He wrote, 'as is implicit in the name, the "unmoved mover" moves other things, but is not itself moved by any prior action.

He wrote, 'if it is true that when A is in motion there must be some B that moves A, then if B is itself in motion there must be some C moving B, and so on. This series cannot go on forever, and so it must come to a halt in some X that is a cause of motion but does not move itself—an unmoved mover.  Oddly, Aristotle is venturing close to describing a perpetual motion, which he implies is impossible within the context of his argument.

Briefly, then, there has to be an initiator of motion, or ‘first cause of all the motion in the universe’.  "The unmoved mover”, moves other things but is not itself moved by any other prior action. We know of only one unmoving mover - gravity.

So primum movens or primum mobile referred to by Bessler and used in conjuction with his statement that the weights in his machine are the actual cause of his perpetual motion, must apply to the action of gravity upon his machine, and be the sole cause of its rotation.

Gravity is an unmoved mover.  The source or initiator of every other movement in the universe can be traced back to the effect of gravity.  It is not regarded as an energy source because it is a conservative force.  A conservative force is a force with the property that the work done in moving a particle between two points is independent of the path taken. The gravitational force is conservative because the work done by the gravitational force on an object depends only on its change in height.

Because gravity is indentified as a conservative force and because its work done in moving a particle between two points is independent of the path taken, it is understood to rule out gravity driven continuously turning wheels - such as Bessler's.  We know that Besser's wheel was not a closed system, therefore it had access to an external force. There is no other 'unmoved mover' force in the universe as far as we know, therefore the only force which fits the bill is gravity.

Notice how we repeatedly state that gravity does do work. If it does work it consumes energy, but that energy is limitless, so although it expends energy, it never runs out.  It is perpetual, so now we have a force which apparently consumes energy and does work and does not exhaust its energy supply.  If that does not decribe a force which can supply endless energy, I don't know what is.

If we could find other conservative forces which drive mechanical motors then we might understand why Bessler's wheel worked.  Wind pressure and water pressure are conservative forces which drive mechanical motors, but they move, due to various causes among them, gravity.

We know the point of interaction between gravity and the wheel; it is the weights.  They are doing the same job as air molecules do with windmills, and water molecules do with water wheels. or hydro-electric dams.  The weights do the job of interacting between gravity and the wheel, causing it to rotate continuously, if the configuraton is correct.

I will be posting my own thoughts on this as soon as my wheel has been finished and tested  - working or not. 

Please share the following link and donate if you wish to aid my granddaughter's treatment.

www.helpamy.co.uk/

JC

 

My Plans, Intentions and Hopes for 2019.

So often, I am asked a number of questions about my plans and intentions; when will my wheel be finished? What will I do if it works? What will I do if it doesn't work?  So here are my intentions and hopes.  Of course it's always wise to bear in mind the ancient proverb, 'Man proposes, but God disposes', so subject to that advice.....

I will finish the wheel within a few weeks. Sorry I can't be more specific about the time, but there is a lot going on in my life at present which takes away some of the time I could be spending on the wheel, but that is normal life and one of the reasons why Bessler said he succeeded where everyone else had failed; he had no family and no permanent job, so he could spend as much time as he needed working towards the solution to his wheel.  I anticipate that it could be finished before the end of this May, but you know how time slips away and it could be June before I finish and test it.

If it works, I will take a video of it working, and add explanations showing how it works and provide some of the clues I deciphered to prove that it is the same concept as Bessler's. I have some other ideas which are still under consideration, but there will be no patent application to protect the design.  I have received an offer to freely globalise the design from an influential person which I am considering,  and I shall post on one of my websites more details of the mechanism and more of the clues I discovered which lead me to believe that I have the solution. There will be links to the video and photos of its interior.  

If it doesn't work, and I have certainly experienced that more times than I care to recall, I shall post details of my design and the clues they derived from, in the hope that someone else can take it forward to get to the actual solution that I presumably will have missed.  I really can't delay that information any longer.

At the New Year I reaffirmed my certainty that this year would see Bessler's wheel working.  My reasons for sounding so sure, more this year than previously, was due to the fact that the many clues I had found were so cleverly constructed that, once I understood how they were designed to mislead and got the meaning, I did not have any doubts about their validity. I'm sure many people will think I'm deluding myself, and the wheel won't work, and though that may be true in part, I am confident that when the hidden information is deciphered there will be  a consensus that the clues are real but perhaps I have missed some important feature that is all the mechanisms needs to work as Bessler's did.  But I remain confident that this time the wheel will work.

There will probably be a slight gap betweeen the wheel test and any announcement, regardless of success or failure, as I will need time to assemble the appropriate text and drawings to publish.  Much of it has been already accomplished but there are a few things I need to finish before publication.  In the mean time I will try to post the occasional blog just to let you know I'm still here and working on the project.

You could if you wish donate to or share my granddaughter's crowdfunding site by visiting it at..........

www.helpamy.co.uk/

JC

Bessler’s Wheel 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

Help Our Amy to Walk Again

To my regular readers, I apologise for this post which is completely off-topic!  I have put up a crowd funding page to try to raise funding to get my granddaughter, Amy, much needed rehabilitation treatment. I would not have posted it here as a blog if it wasn’t so important. There follows a brief account of an unbelievable series of events, leading to the fundraising.

Amy before she became ill

In the beginning my daughter, Jo (Amy’s Mum), was diagnosed with stage 4 Lymphoma in November 2017, and was in hospital for many months having chemotherapy, and then 3 weeks of radiotherapy. She, thankfully, finally went into remission in September 2018.

While Jo was an in-patient at UHCW, (University Hospital, Coventry) Amy became unwell with croup, but it was a bad case - and this is where her nightmare began, she got admitted into hospital in December 2017, and ended up in an induced coma.

Then the Doctor didn't insert her cannula correctly and from that she got an infection in her left hand where the cannula had been, and she developed CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome), at the time her mum was having chemotherapy. In fact, they were in the next ward to each other at one time!

CRPS is an extremely painful disease which has affected her left arm. The pain is present 24/7 and is said to be worse than child birth or amputation.  Drugs do not help to dull the pain and although there are many people diagnosed with this disease there is currently no cure.  However some patients can be helped to live with the problem and as Amy is such a fighter, we think she can benefit from the treatment on offer at the STEPS clinic.

The CRPS gave Amy a severe intolerance to dairy products, which have caused her to have several anaphylactic shocks when accidentally given cheese, or milk.  She has to have two loaded epinephrine hypodermics (epipens) within reach at all times.

Amy has been in and out of hospital since December 2017, and presently she has been an in-patient since September 2018, not even coming out at Christmas.

She was a Primary School teacher, with a first class honours degree and she loved her job.  But she hasn’t worked now since December 2017, it’s absolutely heartbreaking for her family to see her this way.

In Amy’s own words:- 

‘I am fighting a few debilitating and very painful conditions, which are unfortunately extremely difficult to treat. The past 18 months have been terrible; with my Mum having stage 4 cancer (thankfully in remission now) and me suffering from multiple disabling conditions. I have mostly been in hospital over this time, spending the majority of it, including now, bed bound in hospital as I can’t use my legs, sit up independently or use my left arm. My CRPS also sadly spread to my internal organs; meaning that I find it extremely difficult to take food and liquids orally, sometimes including my own saliva, so I depend on tube feeding the majority of the time. 

Unfortunately the hospital that I’m currently in doesn’t have the skills and are not equipped to help me 😢. I have been referred to specialist NHS hospitals but the waiting lists can take 1-2 years. We are very scared that if I wait that long, I will just continue to get worse over that time.’

As the family are very worried at the prospect of waiting 1 to 2 years for specialist help, we have set up a Crowd Funding page to help fund private care at STEPS, in Sheffield, who have an excellent record in the treatment Amy so desperately needs to get her walking again. Currently, it will cost approx. £5,000 per week. I don’t know how long she will be in there, depends on how well she does, I suppose.

These are the links to two sites, there are others posted by Amy on her crowd funding page:-

http://gofundme.com/help-our-amy-to-walk-again

https://www.stepsrehabilitation.co.uk/

Thank you for reading this and if you can recommend a contact or share it on facebook or even make a donation, no matter how small, we would be extremely grateful.  

This is a quick update and probably the only one l'll do here,  until Amy starts her treatment.  In seven days we have raised over £4000, a long way from the £100,000 she needs, but we have been inundated with requests for interviews from newspapers, magazines and radio stations. We have signed with a press agency and they will posting articles and photos etc to every paper, magazine and news media outlet in the country and even some abroad, on wednesday next week.  Hopefully the total will then climb quickly towards the £100,000.

Kind regards

John Collins

https://www.gofundme.com/help-our-amy-to-walk-again

www.warriorprincess.online 

www.helpamy.co.uk 

Johann Bessler's Double Portrait.

In his epic book, Das Triumphirende... (DT) Johann Bessler placed in the frontice-piece a portrait of himself which contained a few items, skull, jar, books - normally representative of a well known Latin phrase, ‘memento mori’ meaning, ‘remember, you must die’.  Also linked to this idea is another Latin word, ‘vanitas’, meaning ‘vanities’; artworks exploring this theme usually contain books, wine and musical instruments, and with the former reminding us of our mortality, the transience of our lives and the futility of pleasures.  Books were also included in the main portrait. These ideas were much discussed in in religious circles in Bessler’s time when this life was believed to a preparation for the afterlife.

However, Bessler included a second portrait of a person in a completely different setting.  This second portrait had had the face most carefully excised with almost surgical precision, allowing Bessler’s face to peer through, as if he was also the person the second portrait.

As far as I have been able discover there are only six copies of DT still in existence, each  containing the two portraits with the missing face in the second, but there are another dozen or so which have also survived but they do not have this unusual additional portrait.

We can make some assumptions about these portraits. Firstly we read on the first page that copies of the book were 'Printed at Kassel in October 1719, and published by the inventor himself, from whom bound copies may be obtained atWeissenstein Castle'.  There were several printers available who were busy printing books, tracts, adverts and music manuscripts.  I considered the possibility that Bessler did his own type setting but concluded that he would not have been allowd to.  Printers were busy and had to schedule time for each project and Bessler's book was 168 pages long with drawings included, plus the two portraits.  Half of the text was in Latin, which Bessler understood perfectly as Christian Weise, his famous teacher, taught in Latin as did most teachers of that time.  So the whole book could have been completed more quickly and accurately in the hands of an experienced printer.

Weise was one of the first teachers in Germany to change to teaching in German rather than Latin, but not until after Bessler had left and he describes himself as one of Weise's favourite pupils, whether that was his imagination or not, he did change his name once he had discoverd the perpetual motion, from plain Ernst Bessler, to Johann Elias Ernst Bessler, perhaps an acknowledgement of his debt to Weise whose own son was called Johann Elias Weise.

Given that Bessler probably had the printing done by a Kassel printer, a woodcut of the mystery faceless person who was installed in front of Bessler's portrait may have been provided by that printer.  This would require someone to do the portrait of Bessler with head and shoulders to the same size as the mystery guest so that he could fit inside accurately.  I'm not sure if there were many copies of the mystery person, but I would have thought it would be quite simple if the printer had retained the woodblock from a previous order, to print extra copies.  However Bessler may have found the task of including perfect versions of the two portraits in his book as being too time consuming, to complete more than say half a dozen.

I think that the two portraits were designed to show Bessler's dual interests; art and science, but I know many people see more detail in the two portraits.

JC

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