The Legend of Johann Bessler’s Perpetual Motion Machine.
A blog about Johann Bessler and the Orffyreus Code and my efforts to decipher it. I'll comment on things connected with it and anything I think might be of interest to anyone else.
The ‘Bessler’s Books’ button at the top of the right side panel, will take you to a page giving access to all Bessler’s books. Simply click ‘home’ to come back to my blog.
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Saturday, 22 April 2023
Is This the Real Solution to Climate Change? Yes, Absolutely!
Tuesday, 18 April 2023
The Intriguing Riddle of the Letter-Numbers.
I know I’ve said this before but I find it puzzling to say the least, that the sheer ubiquity of the thinly veiled insinuations by Johann Bessler, that somehow the number five is of tremendous importance, seems to be largely ignored. Equally perplexing is the opposite adherence to just one other clue that mentions on a single occasion, “….the sound of about eight weights landing on the side towards which wheel turned”. It’s my impression that Bessler-world spends an inordinate amount of time fixated on this supposed fact, while ignoring Bessler’s admission that he had, on occasion, muffled the sound with felt.
He altered his forenames from Elias Bessler to Johann Ernst Elias Bessler. This, coupled with the adoption of his strange pseudonym, Orffyreus through the application of the ancient Hebrew code, atbash, as it was known, led me to do the same to his initials and convert JEEB to WRRO..
E being the 5th letter of the alphabet, chimed with the pentagram being a circle of fifths, and there were two of them. This also connected with his comment in AP, that his weights operated in pairs.
The letter J, the tenth letter of the alphabet, seemed superfluous, however once I applied the atbash cipher to JEEB and got WRRO, I understood the presence of the J and W. The W can be seen to be composed of two Roman number 5s. Bessler always wrote his Ws as two interlinked Vs, suggesting again two 5s, or two fifths, were working together as a pair.
Notice the names of his sworn enemies, their surname initial and then their whole surname in the above picture from AP, Gartner, Wagner and Bosz.
The letter R is the 18th letter of the alphabet and is also the basic number used in the pentagram. In fact every number in the pentagram is a multiple of that figure - 18, 36, 54, 72, 90 and 108. All of these are used in Bessler’s wheel. Notice there are two letter Rs in the images of his signature below, supporting the letter O. One for each direction.
The letter O, serves Bessler well as a representation of his wheel, with a dot in the middle representing the wheel itself, it is known as a circumpunct,
The above examples of coding that Bessler was able to use have one thing in common, they have proved remarkably convenient and apt for his purposes. How fortunate that the 5th letter E should have as it’s atbash equivalent the letter R, the 18th letter. 5 and 18, the basic numbers of the pentagram. He chose the letter J, the 10th letter because it’s atbash equivalent is W to provide the information that two 5s were interlinked as pairs. The letter O, the atbash equivalent of his B for Bessler, within the same cipher provided the circumpunct, the perfect symbol for his wheel.
These simple facts raised questions in my mind. Was it just coincidence that E/5 and R/18 were each in their precise positions alphabetically, to imply a relationship with the pentagram - or was there some other factor or agent which positioned those two letter/numbers to both be present at the right place? One way to see if there was anything other than coincidence would be to see how long the alphabet has been in the same order.
It seems, from a brief search, that the alphabet order has always been the same. This is because it was taught to children while they were learning to read and they taught their children and so on. Of course letters were added and removed from time to time dependent on the language used. But it can be traced back almost 2000 years before CE and those letters remained in their current position for at least 4000 years - but that doesn’t answer the question.
One theory suggests every letter had a number with it in order to keep it in the right position, and the numbers were dropped over time. But the atbash cipher wouldn’t work if the number/ letters were in a different position, which suggests that the placing was deliberately chosen.
Someone, at some point, thousands of years ago arranged the order of the alphabet and it hasn’t changed much in most cases. It would be interesting to find some confirmation that E/5 and R/18 were placed in their positions for the reason I suggested - or is that a stretch too far and it’s just a coincidence!
There is more to this than meets the eye and it’s something that may help us unravel Bessler’s puzzling “Declaration of Faith” in chapter 55 of his “Apologia Poetica”. He placed 141 abbreviated Bible references at the end of short lines of text, which seem unconnected to the subject matter in the references. Some of the references do not exist; for instance, in some cases the number of verses quoted are more than can be found.
I’m currently investigating the output of Christian Weise, Bessler’s teacher who published ideas about the use of number/letter alphabets; also David Heinichen, promoter of his “Circle of Fifths” and the composer JS Bach and “the Riddle of the Number-Alphabet”. The latter three knew each other, lived within a short distance of each other and at the same time. All three people were involved in the theory of music and the last two wrote extensively on the use of letter/numbers in both music and texts.
JC
Monday, 10 April 2023
Update - Things Are Looking Up!
Finally the builders have left and I’m getting ready to move into my new workshop. Originally they estimated finishing in January, but a few events conspired to cause delays.
There’s one wall of bare plaster which I’m painting, then I’m building a work bench to fix to the end wall. I’ve got some of my wheel parts ready for assembly but I’m going to build a test rig just to test the action of one mechanism, which I’m confident will act as I designed it to. I know how overconfident I sound but the truth is the prime mover is so simple to understand, once you know, it’s a forehead slapping moment…..
I know people are sceptical and I don’t blame them, I’ve been positive so many times before (haven’t we all?) but never like this. For most of the last year, I’ve been writing up details of the clues and the reasons for the meanings I’ve taken from them. My concern is to try to show what and where the information is in the books, and what it means, and try to avoid dubious interpretations. I think that if the wheel works that should remove any doubt, but if it doesn’t, I’m still certain that it is very, very close.
Much of my code breaking has centred on the number five which Johann Bessler appeared to be obsessed with. I think the number five might have been the one word he was worried about accidentally revealing in case it might give his secret away. But that does not appear to have happened and perhaps he wasn’t speaking literally, but meant any accidental slip of the tongue.
Given the very simplicity of his wheel, I half expected someone else to stumble upon the truth about the Prime Mover, before I had a chance to test it out on a model, and although there has been much discussion about certain clues Bessler sprinkled all over his works, and I thought that they were getting close, the focus of the talk moved away.
My one determination is to build and test my design before I release it to the public. I’m not interested in patents, IPs nor am I concerned at someone else using my/Bessler’s design for their own purposes. Having spent most of my life chasing information about Bessler, I would like to think it that I did something worthwhile with my life that would be remembered after I’m gone.
My translations and publications of everything to do with Bessler will still be available for years to come, and probably better translations will appear. But I like the idea that all information currently discussed and quoted from, originated from my hand and was the source most commonly used in this field of research.
So at last, maybe I’ll succeed in building a proof of principle machine.
JC
Saturday, 8 April 2023
The Legend of Johann Bessler’s Perpetual Motion Machine.
Sunday, 2 April 2023
Ink Blots - Clues - Deliberate or Accidental?
It’s my opinion that too much importance is being placed on simple printing errors. These ink spots are leading to wild speculation and I don’t think it has anything to do with Bessler’s intentions. However seeing as people wish to discuss them and their validity, I’m willing to leave the comments public.
The same applies to the numerology comments. But any comparison with Ken’s work will still receive the spam label.
I shall continue to dismiss inkblots and numerology as having any meaning here, but we’ll see how things go. I’m not afraid to consider a well-argued comment in favour of either, but I’m sceptical of my acceptance of either.
The comments on this blog are covering what appears to be subtle clues in the ink block prints. I don’t think they are deliberate, I’m sure they are accidental. What follows is part of an article on ink block printing by a teacher of the subject. Thanks to https://www.recoverie.com/blog/block-printing-mistakes
“ARE YOU MAKING THESE BLOCK PRINTING MISTAKES?
BLOCK PRINTING MISTAKE 1: USING TOO MUCH INK!
This is by FAR the most common block printing mistake I see people making, and really, it's the most unfortunate.
...because the fact is, the amount of ink you use will drastically change the end result of your block prints.
SO:
In order to attempt to remedy this, I decided to break down a few of the most common block printing mistakes I see people making when it comes to block printing.
BLOCK PRINTING MISTAKE 1: USING TOO MUCH INK!
This is by FAR the most common block printing mistake I see people making, and really, it's the most unfortunate.
When you take the time to design and carve out such an intricate pattern, it's weird to think that people treat the ink side of things as such an afterthought...
...because the fact is, the amount of ink you use will drastically change the end result of your block prints.”
I haven’t included the rest of the article because it covers more modern practices, but it does suggest that what some people believe there are deliberate clues which are in fact simply over inking of the wood block.
As I commented in my previous blog,
“ That is just a typical ink block printing error, a little too much ink in one area and you get a blot. These prints that Bessler left us were designed to be used with his students, and the actual wood ink blocks were kept so he could print some for every new class. So the paper prints were kept for his own purposes, showing what each ink block depicted so he could easily see which one he wished to use. A minor print error such as the so-called severed head is just that, nothing more, no hidden meaning, no secret warning. Obviously he would print better copies for his future students.”
Unfortunately the trolls and naysayers have, by their abusive comments, persuaded me to remove the anonymous comments feature. I shall continue to post this blog up to and including the period when I publish my information about Bessler’s wheel. I’m sorry for those who enjoyed commenting, I shall miss them.
JC
Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Numerology - Art or Science?
Sunday, 12 March 2023
The Legend of Johann Bessler’s Perpetual Motion Machine
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 the outside of it, but it’s internal workings were kept hidden. This was because the inventor feared that his design would be copied and someone else might obtain credit for all his years of hard work looking for the solution. He followed the advice from the famous scientist, Gottfried Leibniz, who was able to examine the device, and recommended a number of demonstrations and tests designed to prove the validity of his machine without giving away the secret of its design.
Update - Where Next? A Sim? A Book?
I was getting ready to share more information but I have decided to hold back a bit longer until a sim has been successfully completed.
The reason for this decision lies in the total lack of any sensible critical response to what I’ve posted. My posts contain information which will lead to a successful working wheel and I’m confident that either myself or some other will succeed using the information I’ve supplied so far. The important information which I will share once the sim has been tested includes the prime mover without which the wheel would quickly come to a stop.
I know that my belief that Bessler’s wheel requires five, seven or nine mechanisms to work, is dismissed, but seeing as an even number of mechanisms has so far completely failed to lead to success, maybe it’s time someone looked at a mechanical arrangement combining an odd number of mechanisms in which two adjacent mechanisms work together to achieve what no other configuration has - other than Johann Bessler’s
I’m constantly amazed that despite the ubiquity of Bessler’s references to the number 5 and 55, including changing his name to accommodate the number, that the importance of this number is dismissed, ignored or just overlooked.
I shouldn’t have assumed that people would accept my interpretation of the clues without the full background. This allowed the clues I found and interpreted correctly to be dismissed, discounted and unproven. I was trying to save space and avoid long pages of texts and numerous illustrations, but as someone commented, it was wrong to think I should complete and publish a book explaining everything, as well as explaining it all in a blog - and if possible build a working model too.
Ken took the book route but failed to persuade anyone of the truth of his clues and interpretations; I don’t want to follow in his footsteps by producing a book with no evidence that it is correct, so a sim and a working wheel will follow as soon as possible.
I will just say this once more: when you see the explanation I’m certain you will understand immediately how and why it works - and why I’m so confident.
In the meantime I will continue to post this blog with a mixture of details of my progress, details of Bessler’s books and reminders of my clues which have the correct interpretations.
JC
Friday, 3 March 2023
Sharing Information - Part One
1) As planned I’m sharing information both here and on the Besslerwheel.com forum Besslerwheel forum . So here is the first part. All of the clues originate from the drawings and text in Grundlicher Bericht, Apologia Poetica, Das Triumphirende and Maschinen Tractate. I will try to keep the details brief and to the point so I won’t be showing where and how I obtained the answers but you can probably work out some of them.
I have always thought that there were two hard facts established about the internal workings of Bessler's wheel and one of them was that there were five mechanisms. The other was that the weights worked in pairs. All else is open to conjecture. But one certainty is that Bessler thought that this piece of information was extremely important and even encoded it in his name right from the moment he adopted the pseudonym, Orffyreus.
I’m well aware that many people dismiss my belief that Bessler used five mechanisms in his wheel but in fact I would go further than that and state that he designed wheels which all had an odd number of mechanism. In [i]Maschinen Tractate (MT)[/i] he suggested this with the following number system, see below:-
He identifies the odd numbers as you see by placing a ‘Z’ next to the odd numbers to provide a clue. There are other clues offering the same information that he used 5, 7 and 9 mechanisms.
The plethora of references to the number five also include a number of pointers to the pentagram. The geometric figure is embedded in many drawings and I’ll show one below. Bessler was familiar with the books by Euclid and in this case he referred to Euclid’s 11th proposition, which ran thus::-
“To inscribe an equilateral and equiangular pentagon in a given circle….”
….and his alternative method, and note how the red and blue lines are designed to skim the edges of the two inner circles. Finally the white angles are 24 degrees. 24 x 3 = 72, 5 x 72 = 360.
JEEB using the Caesar shift becomes WRRO. R is the 18th letter. W 23rd letter which may only be there for the following reason, W is composed of two Roman numerals, V meaning 5.
He often, (dozens of times) hand wrote the letter W as shown below, as two Roman numerals linked together, and you can see it twice in the accompanying passage. They are linked to point to them as pairing, but not in the same 5th segment of the wheel.
Bessler used any opportunity to put a veiled reference to these numbers. I should also point out that the 2G’s, refers to his enemy in chief Andreas Gärtner. The 2 W’s refers to another enemy, Christian Wagner, the two B’s refer to the third enemy, Johann Gottfried Borlach.
First there are the four numbers added to the bottom left corner - 138, 139, 140 and 141. Was Bessler trying to reach the number 141 to get the only factors. 3 x 47, which might link to the three images on MT47?
Was he pointing to Euclid’s 47th construction i.e, “in any right triangle, the square of the two sides connected to the right angle is equal to the square of the third side called the hypotenuse?” Also known as the 3-4-5 right angle?
Or was it the total of 558? 558 seems meaningless unless you simply add them together to get 18. 18 being the basic number upon which all the others are multiples of, in the pentagram, thus number 5 again.
Secondly there is the carefully drawn number 5. placed near to the comment about children’s games. The fact that it has full stop or period with it means it’s a standalone clue or hint, it doesn’t really relate to the number of children’s games. This is also linked to the pentagram.
Thirdly the figures in the Toys page can be divided by 5, see the image below.
Bessler says (paraphrased) that the weights work in pairs. That means one weight from each of two adjoining segments work together, but only when they are at the lowest point in rotation. This will be shown to be part of Bessler’s “connectedness principle”, but there is more to know about that.
The reason for the inclusion of figures C and D is that they form a pair at each advance in rotation of one fifth. When C falls, it pulls D back up a little.
The second figure D, has no arms so although it has weights i.e. an axe, it cannot move of itself, because it has already fallen - so has to be moved by another similar figure, i.e. figure C. Note that figure D has spirals around its body, this is to show that it lies at a different angle to figure C, because it is in the adjacent 5th segment. There is a length of cord running between each of the figures in A, when the active figure C, falls, he pulls the inactive fallen figure D upwards towards its former position.
One of Bessler’s asides includes the following:- a great craftsman would be he who, as one pound falls a quarter, causes four pounds to shoot upwards four quarters.”
Johann Bessler’s Perpetual Motion Mystery Solved.
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