Johann Bessler’s Use of Codes and Clues

Over my next few blogs I’ll be posting some more of Bessler’s clues and my interpretation of them, but firstly, a mystery; why did he decide to embed numerous clues and coded information in his publications?  Common sense would seem to indicate that no one would be able to decipher the coded information without Bessler’s help, and that wouldn’t happen until he had received payment for his device.  Logically once he had been paid he could reveal the method of encoding he used, so that everyone could read his explanation and know how his wheel worked.   But that might provoke anger in his purchaser.  He might not want the secret he had paid a fortune for, to be given away freely.  Perhaps his buyer would want a contract requiring Bessler’s continued silence about the machine for an agreed period?t

So even though he submitted to the demands of Karl, the Landgrave of Hesse, and permitted him access to the interior of the wheel, upon the swearing of an oath, and then Karl verified the machine and Bessler’s claim - why did he still need the information embedded secretly in his books? Karl had verified the perpetual motion machine as being genuine so Bessler had no need of a code.

It seems that no one was supposed to decipher that information before the inventor had received payment for his device.  Bessler must have been confident that his secret was safe and his code impossible to break, without his help. But if he sold the machine, again there seems no need for the code. 

When Bessler set out to discover how to design and build a Perpetual Motion (PM) machine, he had read that such a device would be ‘worth a ton of gold’.  But during the long years of research he also spent time considering how to actually obtain a large amount of money for the secret of his machine, should he be successful - sound familiar?

His first and over-riding concern was to keep the secret of his wheel’s construction secure, until he had won his ‘gold’.  Once he had constructed his working wheel he approached a number of wealthy persons of high repute, but he would not share his secret for fear of being cheated, which fact prevented him from obtaining documented verification of his claim. Eventually, as we know, Karl was allowed to examine the machine and verified it as genuine.

Given the amount of effort which is self-evident in Apologia Poetica I believe that for many months both before and after his first successful wheel, Bessler planned a publication extolling the virtues of his machine and an account of his journey to success.  This book, Apologia Poetica, would contain a number of clues and codes and would provide a printed back up of his machine’s design, albeit submerged among the texts. However, without the presence of any drawings the encoded textual message must have been extensive and very detailed.  If needed, he could call upon this message as evidence of the priority of his claim, should the need arise.  The message would have to be readily decipherable so it must have been reasonably easy to do once Bessler revealed the key.

This explains his decision to place coded information about the wheel in his books, long before he decided to allow Karl to see how his wheel worked, and why he put so much time and effort into developing and inserting his coded information, even though subsequently he had his claim validated by Karl.  He seems to have considered the possibility that he might never sell his machine and thus die without ever receiving acknowledgement for his achievement, so it had an additional purpose although not one he would have expected to happen.

The puzzle remains, why bother with such a devious code?  I have suggested that he needed some way of proving that he had found the secret by the date of publication of Apologia Poetica, but this leads to a further confusion. On the one hand he might not have been allowed to release information about his device once he had sold it, if that was the buyer’s instruction, but in that case he couldn’t reveal the code.  If the buyer was open to Bessler sharing his secret, then the codes wasn’t needed anyway. But perhaps the last possibility seems be the right one; if the wheel hadn’t been sold and another inventor claimed to have succeeded, then Bessler would reveal the means of deciphering the code embedded in the dated book, thus proving his priority.

In order to pique someone’s interest about the codes in case of illness, death, imprisonment or some other incapacitating event, he devised a straightforward clue to attract the curiosity of a knowledgeable person with the right credentials who would wish to dig deeper, and so he adopted the pseudonym, Orffyreus.

This he created from his name, Bessler, using a well-known mono-alphabetic substitution cipher called atbash,  originally used to encrypt the Hebrew alphabet.  The Caesar shift cipher was similar as is the modern algorithm known as ROT13.  The pseudonym was further refined by the addition of two extra forenames, Johann Ernst, in addition to his given name, Elias.  ‘Bessler’ was changed to ‘Orffyre’ which became ‘Orffyreus’ - an affectation used among the intelligentsia at that time.

I think the purpose of the codes and clues was two fold.  First he needed to protect his secret, hence the code; secondly he craved acceptance, recognition, respect, and admiration.  He would not stay quiet if someone else claimed to have invented a perpetual motion machine, before his own machine had been sold and this supports the idea that he was desperate for fame and fortune.

He also seems to have enjoyed teasing his audience with a number of ambiguous clues:  ‘look at me, see how clever I am! He seems to say, 

My next blog will clarify a number of factors relating to the wheels which may provide a better  impression of their power.

JC

                                   Copyright © 2021 John Collins

Documents re: Johann Bessler aka Orffyreus - Perpetual Motion.

I’m still in the middle of moving house so finding time to write my blogs and complete my work on Bessler’s wheel, is now too difficult.  Space to work is non-existent and I am staying with one of my daughters until we have chosen our next house.  This means no workshop until after we have moved!  But at least I will be able to continue my account of the codes and clues I’ve deciphered to date.

So in the mean time once more, here are the details about Johann Bessler aka Orffyreus and his amazing Perpetual Motion Machine.  Plus details of how to order his biography and his books which each include English translations.

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, who was able to examine the device, he devised a number of demonstrations and tests designed to prove the validity of his machine without giving away the secret of its design.

Karl the Landgrave of Hesse permitted Bessler to live, work and exhibit his machine at the prince's castle of Weissenstein. Karl was a man of unimpeachable reputation and he insisted on being allowed to verify the inventor's claims before he allowed Bessler to take up residence. This the inventor reluctantly agreed to and once he had examined the machine to his own satisfaction Karl authorised the publication of his approval of the machine. For several years Bessler was visited by numerous people of varying status, scientists, ministers and royalty. Several official examinations were carried out and each time the examiners concluded that the inventor's claims were genuine.

Over several years Karl aged and it was decided that the inventor should leave the castle and he was granted accommodation in the nearby town of Karlshafen. Despite the strong circumstantial evidence that his machine was genuine, Bessler failed to secure a sale and after more than thirty years he died in poverty. His death came after he fell from a windmill he had been commissioned to build. The windmill was an interesting design using a vertical axle which allowed it to benefit from winds from any directions. 

He had asked for a huge sum of money for the secret of his perpetual motion machine, £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 viewing the internal workings. 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.


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 76).  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.

Not long after I was able to read the English translations of his books, I became convinced that Bessler had embedded a number of clues in his books.  These took the form of hints in the text, but also in a number of drawings he published.  Subsequently I found suggestions by the author that studying his books would reveal more information about his wheel.


For some ideas about Bessler’s code why not visit my web sites atwww.theorffyreuscode.com or see my work on his “Declaration of Faith” at http://www.orffyreus.net/

Also please view my video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BWVKtpuzn0

It gives a brief account both the legend and some more detail about some of the codes.


The problem of obtaining a fair reward for all his hard work 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. He implied that he was prepared to die without selling the secret and that he believed that posthumus acknowledgement was preferable to being robbed of his secret while he yet lived.




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 his codes and I am confident that I have the complete design.




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's three published books are entitled "Grundlicher Bericht", "Apologia Poetica" and "Das Triumphirende...". I have called Bessler's collection of 141 drawings Maschinen Tractate, but it was originally found in the form of a number of loosely collected 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 use them in his planned school for apprentices.

You can order copies of the books from my website at www.free-energy.co.uk

Or from the top of the right side panel under the heading ‘Bessler’s Books’.

There are also links lower down on the right side panel.

As I often say, the solution to this device is needed now.  Anything that might help cleanse the planet of pollution and help to reduce green house gas emissions, by providing a clean cheap alternative energy source should encouraged in its discovery and development to counter global warming.

JC

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution."  

Albert Einstein 

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”                                                

Dale Carnegie

Some Time for Me to Think and Write and Plan.

My apologies to my many readers over the lack of comments usually available on this blog.  I’ve decided to remove the comments facility for two reasons.  Firstly I’m in the middle of moving house, currently staying with one of my daughters who lives nearby while we search for our next house.  My time is limited for writing blogs and responding to comments and as I have no workshop I’m unable to continue working on my own wheel project.  I have a plan, a design, a concept - call it what you will - but lack of facilities and space prevents me working on it.  I can’t wait to get back to work and hopefully finish it, but I’m really too busy just now.

The other reason for stopping the comments feature is due to a number of comments berating me for my stance on a book published several months ago.  I find the speculation about Bessler described in the book, marginally offensive because of a large number inaccuracies presented as facts, but mainly worrying as the author purports to have found a number of clues for which their existence is visible almost exclusively to himself.  He then interprets these ‘clues’ and produces a design which he claims is the solution to Bessler’s wheel.  This ‘solution’ bears no resemblance to the little we know about Bessler’s wheel, being anything but the simple design described by the only other person to view the interior.  This is not just my opinion, but common to most people who’ve read the book. I fear that such claims may dissuade others from attempting to solve this age-old problem, believing mistakenly that the solution has been found - it hasn’t.  I have been receiving a lot of emails requesting me to publish corrections to the claims made in the book. 

But this is not something I have the time nor inclination to do. But I am taking this opportunity to continue  to complete my book which details all the real clues I have found and how they relate to Bessler’s wheel.  These clues are simple and obvious once they are pointed out.  Once my book becomes available it will become clear that these clues totally negate those described by the other author.

Once I have found our new house and have settled, the blog will return complete with the comments feature switched on.  I hope to publish some of the clues I have found which will hopefully set the record straight and provide legitimate details of Bessler’s hints and clues, where they are and what they mean.

JC

Documents re: Johann Bessler aka Orffyreus - Perpetual Motion.

 I’m currently getting ready to move house again so finding time to write my blogs and complete my work on Bessler’s wheel, is now too difficult.  Space to work is non-existent and I am staying with one of my daughters until we have chosen our next house.  This means no workshop until after we have moved!  But at least I will be able to continue my account of the codes and clues I’ve deciphered to date.

So in the mean time once more, here are the details about Johann Bessler aka Orffyreus and his amazing Perpetual Motion Machine.  Plus details of how to order his biography and his books which each include English translations.

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, who was able to examine the device, he devised a number of demonstrations and tests designed to prove the validity of his machine without giving away the secret of its design.

Karl the Landgrave of Hesse permitted Bessler to live, work and exhibit his machine at the prince's castle of Weissenstein. Karl was a man of unimpeachable reputation and he insisted on being allowed to verify the inventor's claims before he allowed Bessler to take up residence. This the inventor reluctantly agreed to and once he had examined the machine to his own satisfaction Karl authorised the publication of his approval of the machine. For several years Bessler was visited by numerous people of varying status, scientists, ministers and royalty. Several official examinations were carried out and each time the examiners concluded that the inventor's claims were genuine.

Over several years Karl aged and it was decided that the inventor should leave the castle and he was granted accommodation in the nearby town of Karlshafen. Despite the strong circumstantial evidence that his machine was genuine, Bessler failed to secure a sale and after more than thirty years he died in poverty. His death came after he fell from a windmill he had been commissioned to build. The windmill was an interesting design using a vertical axle which allowed it to benefit from winds from any directions. 

He had asked for a huge sum of money for the secret of his perpetual motion machine, £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 viewing the internal workings. 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.


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 76).  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.

Not long after I was able to read the English translations of his books, I became convinced that Bessler had embedded a number of clues in his books.  These took the form of hints in the text, but also in a number of drawings he published.  Subsequently I found suggestions by the author that studying his books would reveal more information about his wheel.


For some ideas about Bessler’s code why not visit my web sites atwww.theorffyreuscode.com or see my work on his “Declaration of Faith” at http://www.orffyreus.net/

Also please view my video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BWVKtpuzn0

It gives a brief account both the legend and some more detail about some of the codes.


The problem of obtaining a fair reward for all his hard work 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. He implied that he was prepared to die without selling the secret and that he believed that posthumus acknowledgement was preferable to being robbed of his secret while he yet lived.




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 his codes and I am confident that I have the complete design.




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's three published books are entitled "Grundlicher Bericht", "Apologia Poetica" and "Das Triumphirende...". I have called Bessler's collection of 141 drawings Maschinen Tractate, but it was originally found in the form of a number of loosely collected 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 use them in his planned school for apprentices.

You can order copies of the books from my website at www.free-energy.co.uk

Or from the top of the right side panel under the heading ‘Bessler’s Books’.

There are also links lower down on the right side panel.

As I often say, the solution to this device is needed now.  Anything that might help cleanse the planet of pollution and help to reduce green house gas emissions, by providing a clean cheap alternative energy source should encouraged in its discovery and development to counter global warming.

JC

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”                                                

Dale Carnegie

Johann Bessler’s Hidden Codes - Golden Ratio (phi) and MT 137

This blog is based on a draft version I wrote a couple of years ago and I’ve added a few illustrations to help my explanations.  It’s more of an update on work I’ve done but not all of it has been shared before.  I hope it’s of interest.

The presence of a pentagram in some of Bessler’s drawings is well established and it is generally recognised that it is at least an indication of Bessler’s intention to point out at every opportunity his fascination with the number five.  See above for an example of the pentagram in a Bessler illustration.  His frequent use of alphanumeric and the Hebrew atbash and albam codes also reflect this apparent obsession.

The angles in the pentagram are exclusively multiples of the number 18; thus the numbers are 18, 36, 54, 72, 90 and 108 - plus the number 5.  With the the benefit of his various codes, Bessler could manipulate the number 5 as an ‘E’, the fifth letter of the alphabet, or as an atbash cipher, the letter ‘R’, which in turn becomes the number 18.  The letter ‘R’ being the 18th letter of the alphabet chimes nicely with the smallest pentagram number.  This applies to all the pentagram numbers Bessler used.

The Golden Ratio in Merseburg Wheel - 24 squares and 24 rectangles, 24 numbers.

The golden ratio is embedded within the construction of the pentagram and it is also present in all of Bessler’s publications, but one particular place where it seems to be absent is Bessler’s Maschinen Tractate, in particular MT 137.  The illustration is a dodecagram, with no clues as to its role in the MT - it almost looks like an afterthought, with no discernible mechanical design or purpose.

MT 137

My initial speculation which, I still firmly believe is correct, is that MT 137 illustrates something which is used by musicians today. Johann David Heinichen, 1683-1729, a German musician, introduced the concept known as the ‘circles of fifths’ in 1711 (he called it Quintenzirkel). He was born, raised and got married in Weissenfels, the same place which Bessler moved to after Draschwitz, and close to Obergreisslau. Despite his interest in music, Heinichen practiced law in Weissenfels until 1709. However, he maintained his interest in music and was at the samne time composing operas. In 1710, he published the first edition of his major treatise on the theory of music (Thoroughbass). This contained his theory of circle of fifths.

A Modern version Heinichen’s circle of fifths.

Bessler lived in Weissenfels in 1714 and had a history of building organs. In 1717 Heinichen became a colleague of Johann Sebastian Bach at the court of Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Cöthen, then went on to be Kapellmeister to the Elector of Saxony. In 1721, Heinichen married in Weissenfels. In between these events his success attracted the attention of Duke Moritz Wilhelm who appointed him to be court composer at Zeitz. As many who have read my biography about Bessler will know, Moritz Wilhelm’s court was home to many learned men who persuaded the great Leibniz to investigate Bessler’s claims. There is a lot hof correspondence about Bessler between those members of the Court at Zeitz.

So it seems highly likely although not proven, that MT 137 represents Heinrich’s ‘circle of fifths’. This fits in with Bessler’s obsession with the number 5. The ‘Circle of Fifths’ is an easy way to find out which key a song is in. It tells you how many sharps or flats are in a given key. It is called the ‘Circle of Fifths’ because as you go clockwise, you go up a fifth. Even though I don’t claim to know much about musical theory I understand that you start on, say middle C, then count round the edge of the circle five places which brings you to F. This same technique is applied for any note.

However there is more to MT 137 than meets the eye.  Recently I discovered the reason for MT 137’s inclusion in MT and also why it was placed where it was. First, remember that Bessler had studied clocks and was able to repair them, also I have posted information here previously, about the presence of a hidden clock in two of  Bessler’s drawings.  Next note that MT 137 is a dodecagram, in other words it has twelve points on the circumference not unlike a clock.

So far then we have a clock, a circle of fifths and a possibly missing phi, or golden ratio.  No where have I found any reference to phi being an integral part of the dodecagram and yet… MT 137 is a circle of 360 degrees.  The number for Phi is about 1.618.  If we divide 360 by 1.618 we get 137.5 degrees and 222.5 degrees.  If you look at a clock face and you have the hour hand at twelve o’clock and the minute hand at five o’clock, the angle between them is 137.5 degrees, and the larger angle is 222.5 degrees. 

Examples below of when the angle between the hands is 137.5 and 12.25. There are, in total 44  golden moments, that is, times when the angle between the hands of the clock equals the golden angle 137.5.

I believe that Bessler named and placed MT 137 in this way hoping that someone would make the connection between the circle, phi and the pentagrams.  The number 137, the dodecagram and the golden ratio are too well represented and the connections too obvious once you see them, to be due to chance.

360 divided by 1.618 = 222.5 and 360 - 222.5 = 137.5

I include one more illustration showing the twelve to five line in Bessler’s MT 137 as it would be used in the circle of fifths.  C to F in Heinrich’s version of his circle of fifths.

To recap, MT 137 may represent the musical circle of fifths. 

It is labelled 137 to point to the potential inclusion of the calculation of the 360 degrees of a circle divided by 1.618 which means MT 137 also includes the golden ratio.

In the dodecagram the circle of fifths matches at least one of the golden moments and maybe more than one with twelve o’clock to five o’clock line.

NB. I should point out that in the illustration of the clock showing the time as twelve twenty-five, to demonstrate the two golden angles, the hour hand at twelve would in reality be nearly half way to the next hour  i.e., closer to the one o’clock point in order to fulfil the angle of 137.5.  This point should be remembered in all calculations.  The other pictures are showing the hand positions more accurately. My bad illustration!

PS - I forgot to say that the 24 numbers used in the Merseburg wheel drawing above, plus the 24 squares plus the 24 rectangles adds up to 72 which is the fifth of pentagram, 72 x 5 = 360.

JC

I thought this aphorism most appropriate to our cause.

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”                                                

Dale Carnegie

Documents re: Johann Bessler aka Orffyreus - Perpetual Motion.

I’m currently getting ready to move house again so finding time to write my blogs and complete my work on Bessler’s wheel, is now too difficult.  Space to work is non-existent and I am staying with one of my daughters until we have chosen our next house.  This means no workshop until after we have moved!  But at least I will be able to continue my account of the codes and clues I’ve deciphered to date.

The comment facility is open to anyone so if you would like to make a comment please do so.  I may take a little longer to respond due to on-going house moving keeping me pre-occupied.

So in the mean time once more, here are the details about Johann Bessler aka Orffyreus and his amazing Perpetual Motion Machine.  Plus details of how to order his biography and his books which each include English translations.

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, who was able to examine the device, he devised a number of demonstrations and tests designed to prove the validity of his machine without giving away the secret of its design.

Karl the Landgrave of Hesse permitted Bessler to live, work and exhibit his machine at the prince's castle of Weissenstein. Karl was a man of unimpeachable reputation and he insisted on being allowed to verify the inventor's claims before he allowed Bessler to take up residence. This the inventor reluctantly agreed to and once he had examined the machine to his own satisfaction Karl authorised the publication of his approval of the machine. For several years Bessler was visited by numerous people of varying status, scientists, ministers and royalty. Several official examinations were carried out and each time the examiners concluded that the inventor's claims were genuine.

Over several years Karl aged and it was decided that the inventor should leave the castle and he was granted accommodation in the nearby town of Karlshafen. Despite the strong circumstantial evidence that his machine was genuine, Bessler failed to secure a sale and after more than thirty years he died in poverty. His death came after he fell from a windmill he had been commissioned to build. The windmill was an interesting design using a vertical axle which allowed it to benefit from winds from any directions. 

He had asked for a huge sum of money for the secret of his perpetual motion machine, £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 viewing the internal workings. 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.


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 76).  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.

Not long after I was able to read the English translations of his books, I became convinced that Bessler had embedded a number of clues in his books.  These took the form of hints in the text, but also in a number of drawings he published.  Subsequently I found suggestions by the author that studying his books would reveal more information about his wheel.


For some ideas about Bessler’s code why not visit my web sites atwww.theorffyreuscode.com or see my work on his “Declaration of Faith” at http://www.orffyreus.net/

Also please view my video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BWVKtpuzn0

It gives a brief account both the legend and some more detail about some of the codes.


The problem of obtaining a fair reward for all his hard work 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. He implied that he was prepared to die without selling the secret and that he believed that posthumus acknowledgement was preferable to being robbed of his secret while he yet lived.




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 his codes and I am confident that I have the complete design.




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's three published books are entitled "Grundlicher Bericht", "Apologia Poetica" and "Das Triumphirende...". I have called Bessler's collection of 141 drawings Maschinen Tractate, but it was originally found in the form of a number of loosely collected 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 use them in his planned school for apprentices.

You can order copies of the books from my website at www.free-energy.co.uk

Or from the top of the right side panel under the heading ‘Bessler’s Books’.

There are also links lower down on the right side panel.

As I often say, the solution to this device is needed now.  Anything that might help cleanse the planet of pollution and help to reduce green house gas emissions, by providing a clean cheap alternative energy source should encouraged in its discovery and development to counter global warming.

Here are the drawings from Giuseppe Pelotti:-

JC 

Reviewing the Power of Bessler’s Perpetual Motion Machine

Many people have calculated the potential power of Bessler’s wheel and concluded that it wouldn’t amount to much, however I’m not convinced that this is true.

Consider the 70 lbs chest of stones lifted by the two-way wheels.  If you’ve ever physically lifted a 70 pound weight you’ll have a good idea how very heavy it is.  Most airlines have a limit for passenger luggage of 23 kg, which is 50 lbs; adding another 20 pounds to make 70 lbs would be as much as most people could manage to lift comfortably.  Bessler’s wheel routinely lifted it up and down from the castle yard several feet, probably more than 50 feet.  

Professor Christian Wolff gave an account of his attendance at the Merseburg wheel examination. He wrote;

At the moment it can lift a weight of sixty pounds, but to achieve this the pulley had to be reduced more than four times, making the lifting quite slow."

The official certificate issued, described the weight as being seventy pounds and no mention was made of the four-fold pulley, I wonder if the reason for the use of the pulleys was, as Wolff commented, to slow down the lift to make it last longer, and extend the time of each demonstration. On the other hand the Kassel wheel was actually designed to rotate about half the speed of the Merseburg wheel, because it needed to run for four weeks or more.  It rotated slowly to save wear and tear.  It ran for 54 days before it was stopped.

If we take the Merseburg wheel for example, say the axle was six inches in diameter and the wheel turned at 40 rpm when under load, and the distance from the outside yard to roof, some fifty feet.  The circumference of the axle was close to 19 inches.  With the rope wrapped around the axle, one rotation lifted the chest of stones just over a foot and a half, fifty foot would take just over 30 seconds; not much of a demonstration. Using pulleys to reduce the load would also extend the time to perhaps a couple of minutes, just about long enough for all the spectators, of which there were said to be many crowded into the room, to view the lifting process, through the two windows.

There are several other considerations to bear in mind.  Firstly the demonstrations which showed the lifting task surely required some organising, and someone below in the castle yard to signal the lift could begin, or maybe Bessler had his brother Gottfried watching out of the window to say when the lift could begin. Was there slack in the rope attached to the axle or to chest of stones to reduce the effect of a sudden jerk?  Such a jerk could dismount the wheel from its supports if it was too strong. A rope loosely wrapped around the axle, two or three times would allow the axle to begin to rotate, while slipping the rope. Once the wheel was turning, a gentle pull on the rope would cause it to begin to grip the axle as it turned, thus beginning to wind up the chest of stones. Relaxing the rope as the chest neared the top would be more difficult, but perhaps a brake was applied to bring the wheel to a stop.

The pulleys would make lifting heavy loads easier and last longer. Bessler was a showman, and a slow lift with a very heavy load would be more interesting to the spectators.  It could not be helped if the pulleys conveyed the impression that the wheel was not as powerful as it actually was.  It was showtime and Bessler was a consummate master of ceremonies!

JC

Johann Bessler’s One-way and Two-Way Wheels.

When Johann Bessler, aka Orffyreus, first demonstrated his perpetual motion machine, he showed that it would begin to rotate as soon as a brake was released. It measured 4.6 feet in diameter and only 4 inches in thickness, and would accelerate up to its maximum speed of about 50 rpm.  Although subsequently he demonstrated much larger wheels which could turn in either direction, they were motionless until they were given a gentle nudge in one direction or the other, at which point they accelerated to their maximum speed in two or three turns.  The instant over-balancing feature of the early wheels indicated that their internal mechanical arrangement was in a state of perpetual imbalance, hence the need to apply a brake and locking attachment.

It has been argued that the wheel was stopped at a certain point at which it was out of balance, but in my opinion this is unlikely.  Witnesses were encouraged to adjust the speed of the wheel by screwing and unscrewing a bolt and I’m sure that some people would have brought the wheel to a full stop or at least slowed it down almost to a stand still.  It would quickly have become obvious if there were any points during rotation where imbalance was not detectable, or to put it another way, they could stop the wheel at a point at which the wheel didn’t continue to rotate. 

Bessler himself described the action within the wheel, as if it was constantly hunting or seeking balance,  but not finding it, and I believe that without this feature perpetual rotation wouldn’t happen.  The later two-way wheels were invented in order to dispose of the suggestion that they were wound up.  Whether or not they were as efficient in their use of the same mechanical advantage as the first two wheels remains to be seen, but they must have been more complex in their internal arrangements and therefore more likely to suffer break-downs.

I have always believed that Bessler sought to make the latter two wheels rotate in either direction by installing a mirrored version of the original wheel.  The idea being that both directions would cancel each other out thus leaving the wheel motionless.  Giving the wheel a nudge would engage which ever drive would propel it in that direction, leaving the alternative drive to either work in reverse, or lock up.

I tested this concept using two Savonius turbines on a single axle but with each designed to turn in opposite directions and I placed them in the path of the wind from a powerful fan, they did indeed spin in opposite directions.  With both turbines on the one axle but now connected to each other neither moved, predictably, but with nudge in one direction, they began to rotate, one forwards and one backwards, but only achieving half the speed of the two disconnected ones.  I have a video of the experiment which I will post when I find it! This supports the conclusion that mirror imaged mechanisms might hold the answer to the two-way wheels.

I know that other people don’t accept the mirror image design, speculating on a few alternatives, but I think this principle is something that would occur to Bessler first of all; two wheels on one axle each designed to turn the opposite way, but linked together.

Alternative  ways of producing wheels which turned in either direction required some kind of mechanism designed to make the internal mechanism change direction and I think this would be difficult to achieve, especially as there are no reports of Bessler operating some kind of lever to engage or disengage the internal mechanism.  Reports just say that the same technique of gently starting the wheel in a desired direction worked equally well for each direction. This leaves just an automated reaction to the change of direction of the wheel.  This in my opinion complicates the mechanism too much.

I know many people are working on the idea that there were about eight sounds being emitted from the side of the wheel towards which the wheel turned.  This sound was described as a “weight landing gently”, but what ever the cause of this sound, it was only with reference to the two-way wheel, and not the earlier one-way wheels.  I have asked the following question many times without ever receiving a simple logical explanation. “Why try to build Bessler’s two-way wheel, which are likely to be more complex than the one-way ones? The eight sounds of weights applied to the two-way wheels, but I know some are incorporating the eight sounds into their one-way wheels and that seems to me equally inexplicable.

Finally I have also reminded people that Bessler admitted that he had on previous occasions muffled the sounds coming from the wheels obviously with the intent to confuse or deceive the impressions of the design of the mechanisms within the wheel to the audience.  The same technique could have been applied to the two-way wheel. Added to this we should not rule out additional sounds made by extra weights installed to further confuse.

But in the end I know almost everyone has their own ideas about Bessler’s wheels and I just hope someone proves to be right and soon - I just need to know how he did it!

JC

Documents re: Johann Bessler aka Orffyreus - Perpetual Motion

I’m currently getting ready to move house again so finding time to write my blogs and complete my work on Bessler’s wheel, is now too difficult.  Space to work is non-existent and although we expect to be out of this house by the end of March, I will then be staying with one of my daughters until we have chosen our next house.  This means no workshop until after we have moved!  But at least I will be able to continue my account of the codes and clues I’ve deciphered to date.

The comment facility is open to anyone so if you would like to make a comment please do so.  I may take a little longer to respond due to on-going house moving keeping me pre-occupied.

So in the mean time once more, here are the details about Johann Bessler aka Orffyreus and his amazing Perpetual Motion Machine.  Plus details of how to order his biography and his books which each include English translations.

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, who was able to examine the device, he devised a number of demonstrations and tests designed to prove the validity of his machine without giving away the secret of its design.

Karl the Landgrave of Hesse permitted Bessler to live, work and exhibit his machine at the prince's castle of Weissenstein. Karl was a man of unimpeachable reputation and he insisted on being allowed to verify the inventor's claims before he allowed Bessler to take up residence. This the inventor reluctantly agreed to and once he had examined the machine to his own satisfaction Karl authorised the publication of his approval of the machine. For several years Bessler was visited by numerous people of varying status, scientists, ministers and royalty. Several official examinations were carried out and each time the examiners concluded that the inventor's claims were genuine.

Over several years Karl aged and it was decided that the inventor should leave the castle and he was granted accommodation in the nearby town of Karlshafen. Despite the strong circumstantial evidence that his machine was genuine, Bessler failed to secure a sale and after more than thirty years he died in poverty. His death came after he fell from a windmill he had been commissioned to build. The windmill was an interesting design using a vertical axle which allowed it to benefit from winds from any directions. 

He had asked for a huge sum of money for the secret of his perpetual motion machine, £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 viewing the internal workings. 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.


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 76).  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.

Not long after I was able to read the English translations of his books, I became convinced that Bessler had embedded a number of clues in his books.  These took the form of hints in the text, but also in a number of drawings he published.  Subsequently I found suggestions by the author that studying his books would reveal more information about his wheel.


For some ideas about Bessler’s code why not visit my web sites atwww.theorffyreuscode.com or see my work on his “Declaration of Faith” at http://www.orffyreus.net/

Also please view my video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BWVKtpuzn0

It gives a brief account both the legend and some more detail about some of the codes.


The problem of obtaining a fair reward for all his hard work 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. He implied that he was prepared to die without selling the secret and that he believed that posthumus acknowledgement was preferable to being robbed of his secret while he yet lived.




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 his codes and I am confident that I have the complete design.




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's three published books are entitled "Grundlicher Bericht", "Apologia Poetica" and "Das Triumphirende...". I have called Bessler's collection of 141 drawings Maschinen Tractate, but it was originally found in the form of a number of loosely collected 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 use them in his planned school for apprentices.

You can order copies of the books from my website at www.free-energy.co.uk

Or from the top of the right side panel under the heading ‘Bessler’s Books’.

There are also links lower down on the right side panel.

As I often say, the solution to this device is needed now.  Anything that might help cleanse the planet of pollution and help to reduce green house gas emissions, by providing a clean cheap alternative energy source should encouraged in its discovery and development to counter global warming.

JC