Stating the Obvious About Johann Bessler’s Wheel.

I usually prefer to ignore the discussion about the term ‘perpetual motion’, because it has become confusing and the definition has altered between Bessler’s time and today.  I think we all know what we mean by the term, the wheel that speeds up to a certain speed and maintains it indefinitely. Even Bessler questioned the use of the phrase, he said it could not literally be perpetual, because the materials of which it was made could not last, and there would be wear and tear etc.  He called it ‘Perpetual Motion, as they say’ or ‘as it were’, implying that it was called that by habit but was not correct.  His exact wording in AP, ‘Perpetuum mobile per se’, which translated is, ‘by or in itself or themselves; intrinsically.’  In reality I prefer terms such as , ‘continuous or sustained or constant motion’, which doesn’t imply that it’s perpetual, but is non-stop or continuous at a particular moment. 

I think that we have to stop looking for any other source of energy, it’s clear to me that however you look at it, gravity lies at the heart of Bessler’s wheel.  We have endlessly argued that gravity cannot be the source of energy for the device, but there isn’t anything else.  I myself and others have researched, studied, experimented, built models, right from the start, myself for over 50 years, but there is nothing that fits in with what we know of Bessler’s wheel, as he described it except using the force of gravity.

We know gravity is a force, an attraction between objects of mass, for instance, and it gives weights their……weight.  When motionless they retain their gravitational input as potential energy, when dropping they are expending that same energy as kinetic energy.  We also know it isn’t a source of energy, at least not in the literal sense.  But it does supply a continuous force which we routinely use, via streams of water for instance. Water is the connecting medium between gravity and say a water mill and the weights are the connecting medium between gravity and the mechanisms in Bessler’s wheel. 

We work with formulae that can predict the work done by gravity and it sometimes seems as though the weight is inherent within the mass, but it’s not, it’s the force of gravity giving it that weight.  In gravity-less conditions the weights become weightless.  In space it is the attributes of mass which provide it’s amount of inertia or resistance to being moved or being stopped moving. That inertia is acted on by gravity, and the greater the mass the greater the affect of gravity.

In the end Bessler’s wheel used weights to make it turn continuously, gravity caused the weights to fall, the right configuration of the weights allowed the fallen weights to rise to their pre-fall position. It’s perfectly possible and it cannot act contrary to the established laws of physics no matter how much we are told it must.  

One more thing; the wheel was able to do work as well as simply turn.  A distinct gap between the energy generated by the falling weights and that expended in returning each one to its pre-fall position must have been present, sufficient to provide a mechanical advantage .  This extra energy was enough to not only drive the wheel round but also continue to do extra work, i.e. lift heavy weights, drive an Archimedes water pump etc. This is a logical outcome of the inclusion of weights reacting to the force of gravity.  Within the gap the heavier the weights used, the more powerful the wheel; either lifting heavier loads or turning faster. This additional work could be modified by alterations to the internal configuration, while retaining the continuous rotational ability.

So the energy Bessler’s wheel used to make it turn continuously was derived from the falling of the weights, and their subsequent placement prior to their return to their pre-fall position.

The energy was generated by each falling weight, but the particular configuration in Bessler’s wheel, allowed it to raise the weights at less cost in energy than that generated in their fall, hence the supplementary energy available for turning the wheel and doing work.

JC

 

I’ve Decided to Resurrect some Earlier Blogs which I Think/Hope might be of more Interest than when they were First Posted

This blog was originally posted in October 2014.  

This Circular Argument has run for 174 years; Is It Perpetual Motion?

I wrote a poem out of frustration that such an idiotic argument could ever have been taken seriously, don’t worry, I won’t reproduce it here!  Hermann von Helmholtz (August 31, 1821 – September 8, 1894) was a brilliant German physician and physicist but as so often happens, he was credited with discoveries outside of his area of expertise, hence the acceptance of a conjecture so easily disposed of, that the mere fact that it is relied upon to dismiss such theories as I have researched over many years, defies logic.

With acknowledgement and grateful thanks to Scott Ellis of Besslerwheel forum:-

"In 1847, a 26-year-old German medical doctor, Hermann Helmholtz, gave a presentation to the Physical Society of Berlin that would change the course of history. He presented the original formulation of what is now known as the First Law of Thermodynamics, beginning with the axiomatic statement that a Perpetual Motion Machine is impossible.

Axiom - A statement or proposition that is accepted as true without proof.

No one had ever succeeded, he wrote, in building a Perpetual Motion Machine that worked. Therefore, such machines must be impossible. If they are impossible it must be because of some natural law preventing their construction. This law, he said, could only be the Conservation of Energy.

But a profound reversal of reasoning has occurred in the last century. Helmholtz originally said "Because a Perpetual Motion Machine is impossible, therefore the First Law of Thermodynamics must apply;" while in any physics text book today one will find the statement that "Because of the First Law of Thermodynamics, a Perpetual Motion Machine is impossible."

Skeptics are quick to cite the Laws of Thermodynamics to disprove Bessler's claims. In fact, the argument is circular. 

The Laws of Thermodynamics do not prove that Bessler's machine is impossible. On the contrary, they are deduced from the "leap of faith" of first presuming it is impossible." 

It is often found that people who are recognised for their expertise in one field often comment on areas outside their experience and because of their celebrity their ideas are accepted.

Of course in this case the expert was a 26 year old medical student. Others such as Lord Kelvin in 1895 stated that “heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible” .

Lord Kelvin could not know what would happen in the future, and apparently, Hermann von Helmholtz didn’t even know what had happened in the past, over one hundred years before.

JC

Several glitches in my very old www.free-energy.co.uk web site

It seems that my web site at www.free-energy.co.uk which was my original site proclaiming the legend of Bessler’s wheel, has suffered some glitches over the last few years and I wasn’t aware that the PayPal buttons had been superseded by new ones!  That’s another “oops” from me and I apologise for not noticing sooner.  

It is very old having been born in January 1998 and I just visited the “wayback machine” https://web.archive.org/web/*/Www.free-energy.co.uk to check when I started this online journey - 23 years ago! 

You can obtain digital copies of all five of my books from this blog via the side panel, near the bottom, but I’m going to try to fix the buttons on the free-energy site as soon as I can.  

Printed books are available from my “print-on-demand” service at https://www.lulu.com/spotlight/johncollins

In the mean time I will relocate the links to the books lower down on this page. You can also access the books and the legend through the books page right at the top of the right hand panel here.

Perpetual Motion: An Ancient Mystery Solved?"

 DIGITAL. (2.83MB) £5 to download – click on the adjacent link. 

http://payhip.com/b/7Yvl

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“Maschinen Tractate”
 DIGITAL (53.27MB) £5 to download – click on the adjacent link

http://payhip.com/b/F8ZS

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“Apologia Poetica”

 DIGITAL ( 3.85MB)-£5 to download – click on the adjacent link.

http://payhip.com/b/oz54

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“Das Triumphirende”

 DIGITAL (32.49MB) - £5 to download – click on the adjacent link

http://payhip.com/b/DNUe

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“Grundlicher Bericht”

 DIGITAL (6.74MB)- £5 to download – click on the adjacent link

http://payhip.com/b/dahj__________________________________________

I have withdrawn all the printed copies. But the digital copy is available.

Sorry for this hiccup, but hopefully everything will be put right ……eventually.

JC

Conspiracies, Misinformation, Legal Quagmires? Give It Away!

It’s difficult to think of something to write about every week, except when I explain how Bessler’s wheel worked….and that may be a while yet!  But it’s also difficult to restrain ones self from revealing new ideas and pieces of deciphered code which are so much more meaningful and revealing.  Not that I’m revealing anything I think I know until I’ve built something that actually works.  I’ve been there, done that and proved nothing.  It simply has to work and demonstrably so.

There has been discussion about how to obtain financial reward, without losing control of the secret.  There has even been the suggestion that patenting it might be open to theft, either by a trusted patent lawyer, or he or she sharing the information, or selling it, or the government, under the guise of protecting national security, burying it.  If any of those possibilities, however remote, concerns you, there is only one option. As someone said here recently, spread the design world wide, freely and without restrictions, so that anyone and everyone can make it, sell it, share it or even go into manufacturing it. It would be better to be acknowledged as the one who succeeded after Bessler and earn nothing rather than not be acknowledged because some else stole it and you still earned nothing.

However, you can either ignore the above paragraph and get a patent or, if it worries you, you can ignore it because you believe, as I do, it’s just a load of conspiracy theories without foundation.  Actually the easy way through all the hassle, worry, costs, time-wasting, legal jungle, …give it away freely, as I would.

JC

The Strange Attraction of the Perpetual Motion Machine

At first sight it seems remarkable that Bessler  became so committed to searching for the answer to a perpetual motion machine (PM) that he spent ten years or more trying.  This despite the established opinion, even back then, that such devices went against the laws of physics.  But actually he was not alone in this endeavour, as proven by the work of Henry Dircks who described the history of the search in his huge two volume masterpiece. He listed literally hundreds of attempts and failures both honest and not so honest, going back into the dim and distant past. Henry Dircks, Perpetuum Mobile: Or A History Of The Search For Self-Motive Power From The 13th To The 19th Century

Nothing has changed today, we still search for the magic arrangement, despite the weighty opinion against us.  Why do we continue?  Well, two reasons, firstly we and all of our predecessors know that a PM machine is possible, as long as we accept that it is gravity enabled.  How can we know without any evidence?  I can’t explain it, but it is an intuitive and instinctive piece of knowledge, something which formed an intrinsic, perhaps primitive response to a problem who’s solution appeared simple.

The second reason is founded on slightly firmer ground; we have the evidence of Bessler’s wheel, circumstantial it’s true, but it’s very strong, and the only counter argument is the traditional one which claims that it’s impossible.

Over many years I have discovered and discarded numerous ideas, designs and configurations, none worked, but lately I have come to understand just how clever Bessler was, and how ingenious his clues are despite the sheer simplicity of his concept.  He explained exactly how his machine worked and we failed to grasp the true meaning of his words. Everything he wrote had more than one meaning and was so ambiguously phrased that we are confused as to exactly what he meant. I believe I have made the intuitive leap that he made more than 300 years ago, this came about while I was going through his textual clues for the umpteenth time - and I got it….finally!

When I complete our house move I shall test my idea and see if, this time, I got it right. Of course, as I always say, I’ve been here before, many times, but this time I’ve arrived by a different route. I was going through the same old clues and hints trying to read each one in alternative way, trying different words to convey the same information.  He did after all write in a different language to English and in a time 300 years in the past, so sometimes the meanings of words can alter subtly. I don’t mean that our understanding of the words he used is wrong, but the exercise promotes a subconscious re-evaluation of the meaning - I guess! 

JC

Bessler’s Wheel in the Future.

When someone finds the solution to Bessler’s wheel I don’t know how, or even if, it will affect the world we live in, but I do know that concerns regarding the changing climate could introduce a whole new raft of requirements which our existing technologies will struggle to deal with.

We are constantly being urged to reduce consumption of fuel, of all kinds.  This, it is suggested, will help diminish the amount of greenhouse gas currently being produced and consequently warming the planet. This potentially leaves a huge gap in the right kind of energy being generated. We know it’s got to be clean and cheap and at some point I think Bessler’s wheel will be considered as an option, but not until it’s proved viable.

Most of us believe in Bessler’s claims and if a working model is produced, it may cause some indigestion initially among the scientific community, but once they’ve swallowed their antacids they will pounce delightedly on the new (old) technology and take it to heights undreamed of by our mechanical selves.  

By that I mean that the mechanical answer to Bessler’s wheel might be translatable to other systems unallied to gravity.   Don’t ask me to be more specific, I don’t know exactly, although I have some ideas, but I know that a simple mechanical design which converts linear motion into circular motion has the potential to be included in other systems and I look forward to seeing if I’m right and what they might be.

JC

Johann Bessler’s Long and Valuable Apprenticeship

It seems as though Johann Bessler had thought long and hard about his gravity-enabled perpetual motion wheel for many years.  

He mentioned the bikes and toy spinning tops his father made him when he was four and a half which gave him the greatest joy.  

Later as an adult, after returning to Germany, from his journey through England and Ireland, he, “read that a thing to be prized more than a ton of gold would be the invention of a Wheel which could turn of its own accord.” 

Then he “visited a monastery where I happened to notice a spit turning, and immediately fell to wondering how it could carry on doing so, seemingly all by itself. It had the power continuously to rotate, like a clock that could wind itself up.”   

Later he journeyed “to Prague, and “began as early as my first night there to think of the Primum Mobile. For the vision of the roasting-spit would not leave my mind. I thought it might be possible, on mechanical principles, to devise a better machine, and shut myself up to study the matter.”

He describes his conversations about perpetual motion with the Jesuit priest in Prague and I think that was probably the beginning of his serious search for the solution. He went from there, to visiting various businesses, trying to learn about all the different trades that were practised in those times, with a view to extending his considerable knowledge about how things worked.  

It is clear that he had only one objective in mind and devoted himself solely to finding the solution to his perpetual motion machine.  He had learned a great deal about codes and ciphers while in Prague and like ourselves, may have considered what to do if and when he had made a working perpetual motion device.  Once he had a working model he used some of the codes he had learned, to hide information in his books.

Why hide information in his books?  I think one reason was to show that he had found the solution by the date of publication, in case anyone else made a similar claim subsequent to his own.  Of course he would need to explain all the clues found in the books, and this might require another book, but it’s more likely he would give some lectures, being something of an actor! He records his success in acting, which was strongly promoted and encouraged by the school’s rector, Christian Weise.

 A second reason which he hinted at, was that it would provide a means to obtain acknowledgement and respect after he died. But the codes are so abstruse that it is hard to believe he thought anyone would solve them without additional help. This of course was the plan and no one was meant to solve it during his lifetime. But I don’t think he seriously believed that he wouldn’t sell his machine for the large sum of money he sought.  His publications were dated 1715 and 1716, so he was ensuring his priority through the books, and the implied post-mortem recognition, was simply playing to the audience.

JC

Johann Bessler Struggled to Sell his Wheel - He’d Sell It Now!

I think Johann Bessler’s wheel was doomed from the start, because he was way too soon.  And there were events happening which were destined to impede his progress.

Johann Bessler first demonstrated his remarkable gravity-enabled perpetual motion machine in Gera, on 6th June 1712.

Thomas Newcomen demonstrated his amazing steam engine in Tipton, near Birmingham, England in 1712 too.  

The latter was based on the work done by Denis Papin’s steam digester and pressure cooker, who died just one year after the two demonstrations took place - in 1713.

Denis Papin worked with Karl the Landgrave of Hesse, who supported his steam experiments.  Johann Bessler also benefitted from the Landgrave’s patronage. Newcomen benefitted from Papin’s work with Karl.

Karl also attempted to get information about Newcomen’s steam engine, but the inventor was as close-mouth about its workings as Bessler was. 

The two types of machine were obviously different, and one, the Newcomen, was clearly effective at pumping water.  Bessler’s machine was never going to have the capacity to pump as much water from such a depth as Newcomen’s steam engine.  Bessler demonstrated his machine’s lifting ability but apart from pumping water for fountains, the Carillon and a submarine with an air pump, it was difficult to find a genuinely beneficial use for it.  Bessler himself initially thought his machine would be able to pump water out of flooded mines, something that the Newcomen’s engine had show itself as far more proficient.

The Newcomen engine was developed into James Watt’s much improved and highly successful steam engine. Andrew Gordon, a Scottish scientist described an electric motor in his paper, Philosophia utilis et jucunda (1745), the same year that Bessler died, and the invention developed slowly along side the steam engine.

The internal combustion arrived in 1876, and also ran along side the steam engine and the electric motor.  Then the steam engine gradually gave way to the gas engine, and the electric motor went it’s own way, until very recently.

Bessler’s machine arrived more than 300 years ahead of its time.  It couldn’t compete with steam, coal or petroleum.  But now oil is running out, the climate is getting warmer because of steam, coal and oil……now it’s time for Bessler’s machine.

There wasn’t a need for his wheel when he demonstrated it and there hasn’t been  one between then and now. With fossil fuels on the way out, alternatives too costly, not available globally, there is only the one solution.  Bessler’s wheel’s time has come.

PS, in light of my decision to delete any further comments by Ken B where he promotes his book, or his videos, I am putting a clickable link to his website.  I hope he accepts this and stops promoting his book here.  https://cosmicvault.tripod.com/page06.html

JC

Some Small Clues in Connection with Johann Bessler’s Wheel.

People have asked for clues, so I’ll try to offer some more.  Here’s another clue which may be helpful.  

In Apologia Poetica XLVI, page 296, Bessler comments thus, “ A crab crawls from side to side. It is sound, for it is designed thus.”

This implies a horizontal movement which is a design feature of a mechanical arrangement. One thinks of the storks bill.  

In MT 47 he wrote, “ No. 41: This is yet another stork's-bill model. It is not necessary first to explain the letters. There is only this to mention: the present horizontal application of the stork's bills is always better than the machine with the vertical application, which constantly has more friction. I can assure the reader that there is something special behind the stork's bills. Whoever knows how to construct them will note that the figures sketched here are not exactly the correct artistic application."

This suggests a horizontal action is needed, which is not an amazing thought but a useful one if you know it is a vital ingredient.

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A wheel appears on the scene - is it really a wheel, for it does not have the normal type of rim.

Corrected translation of the above, “You see a wheel, but is it a wheel, for it has no tyre(tire)?  

Cart and carriage wheels had rims of iron.  Etymology late 15th century (denoting the curved pieces of iron plate with which carriage wheels were formerly shod): perhaps a variant of archaic tire, shortening of attire (because the tyre was the ‘clothing’ of the wheel). Oxford languages.

This isn’t a clue, Bessler is just explaining that everyone refers to his device as as a wheel, but it isn’t like a cart wheel because it doesn’t have a tyre or rim. I think he is saying that it isn’t strictly speaking, a wheel and I have often thought this too.

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The word ‘Kreuz’ appears in Apologia Poetica, XXXIIIb, Bessler talks thus, “ If I arrange to have just one cross-bar in the machine, it revolves very slowly, just as if it can hardly turn itself at all, but, on the contrary, when I arrange several bars, pulleys the machine can revolve much faster”.

Google translates it thus,

“In a work with just a cross, as it were, then you will see it very slowly hardly turn around by itself; On the other hand, when I cooked up many crosses, trains and weight ’,then the work can run much faster; ‘

It was translated as “cross-bar” but that would be a different word in German.  During my research I found that the word kreuz can mean, cross, intersection or, crossing and can also be used to mark a document with a cross or X.  When attached to another word it can mean many different things. Bessler may also have meant either just one cross, or a cross, meaning one cross with four arms, which was insufficient for the wheel’s rotation.

But interestingly, the phrase used here and which is often used by Bessler, “as it were” means “sometimes said after a figurative (= not meaning exactly what it appears to mean) or unusual expression: For example: If he still refuses we could always apply a little pressure, as it were. Figurative use of language. Cambridge English Dictionary.

So Creuz just describes something which might be thought of as a cross but isn’t actually that.

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There is an abundance of clues for those who want to look, and I am confident that I have found and correctly deciphered most of them, but I must, for my own satisfaction, try to build the wheel before I share it.  This will have to wait ‘til I’ve moved into my new (old) house, which is likely to be in November.

Remember there are loads of other clues on my web site at The Orffyreus Code, plus many discussed over several years right here on this blog.

JC