The Orffyreus codes - the Apologia Poetica Wheel

There are many pieces of coded information, buried in this publication, but the Apologia wheel drawing at the end of this book interested me initially because it looked so simple and because of the intriguing and mysterious hint in the accompanying text, which I’ll discuss in a future blog. I first posted this interpretation of the Apologia Wheel back in 2009, and I am, if anything, more convinced than ever that my analysis is what Bessler intended us to understand.

This book was Bessler’s first major published work and is clearly all his own. I cannot be certain but I am of the opinion that he might have done all his own typesetting, always assuming that he could borrow the equipment

I measured the angles at the inner end of the white segments and discovered, as others have found, that the angles are ambiguous – a bit too vague to measure accurately. I noticed that the angles in the white segment formed a point outside the inner circles and that the black segments did not in fact form any measurable angle unless you extended them to a point which came somewhere beyond the centre of the wheel.

 Due to the way things were printed in those times the exact sizes of the angles were difficult to establish. I felt that there must be another reason for the inclusion of this diagram with its cryptic comment above, and Bessler must have made allowances for the irregularities of the printing techniques of his time. If he knew that the angles would be hard to measure then perhaps the exact measurement did not matter? I measured the white angles again and established that they were variously somewhere between 23 degrees and 27 degrees.

I added together each set of the same three numbers forming each of the three angles to see if the sum of the three numbers had any meaning. Using the angles as measured between 23 and 27 degrees, I ended up with several possible totals between 69 and 81. I divided the resultant totals into the 360 degrees of a circle and there was just one number which divided equally into 360 and that was the first real advance in deciphering Bessler’s code.

Three times 24 degrees comes to 72, and 360 degrees divided by 72 is 5. A circle, which can be divided by five, is a pentagram. I decided that Bessler might be indicating that his wheel had five divisions, which might indicate the use of five mechanisms – or it was a clue to further decipherments.

During my research I have discovered that Bessler rarely, if ever, missed an opportunity to include two or three clues or ways of deciphering a clue, within each item that held a clue and the above Apologia wheel is no exception. For those who remain unconvinced that the above diagram does indeed hold a hidden pentagram the following will go some way towards convincing them of this fact.

The above drawing is virtually self-explanatory. Draw a line from ’A’ to ’B’ as in the drawing. Drop a perpendicular through the centre of the wheel from ‘C’ to ‘D’. The length of the chord from ‘A’ to ‘C’ is equal to one chord of a pentagram. Simply fill in the remaining four chords to complete the pentagram. Examples of this system of double clues abounds in Bessler’s work and is a way of confirming what initial findings appear to indicate.

Later I discovered an additional clue hidden in the curiously drawn axle in the centre of the Apologia wheel. It consists of a white dot denoting the centre, surrounded by a solid black circle. Surrounding this in turn is a white circle which is itself surrounded by a black circle and finally another white circle but one divided by three terminations of the three white segments. Just decoration? No.

In the next figure notice the same red lines as in the drawing above.First I drew the red horizontal line (as AB above). Next I drew in the two almost vertical red lines, which begin at the lowest corners of the bottom white segment and rise, deliberately skimming the edge of the solid black circle. Note that they meet at the upper edge of the circumference, indicating the same point as ‘C’ does in the above figure. This allows you to draw in the two upper arms of the pentagon

 

Now observe the two blue lines; starting from the only two points left on the circumference which don’t have lines starting from them, draw two lines skimming the edge of the slightly larger black circle to the far circumference. These end points define the other points of the pentagon.

The edge of the solid black circle provides the two datum points for the nearly vertical red lines which define the top of the perpendicular line through the centre. The not-solid black circle provides the two datum points for the blue lines the lower ends of which define the remaining pentagon points

This not only explains the reason for the elaborate centre circles but also proves the presence of the pentagon.

JC

Johann Bessler aka Orffyreus - Get All His Books From Here.

Johann Bessler’s perpetual motion machine was impossible, that’s what we’ve been taught.  But there is so much strong circumstantial evidence that it worked that it’s time to re-examine the facts; it could be a solution to providing the world with cheap, clean energy.

Gravity’s a force of course, it’s not a source of energy we’re taught, but, I fear, we’re missing something crucial here.

Bessler said the weights within the wheel were the actual perpetual motion, so it was their actions and reactions to gravity which enabled the wheel to rotate continually.

Gravity is ever present and applying its force on everything of mass, so whether an object is falling or is lying on the ground motionless, gravity acts the same, it makes no difference to the work done.  So ten million Bessler-wheels using the effects of gravity, i,e., making things fall, will have no effect on the force of gravity felt on earth. (That’s for those who worry about such things.)

When weights drop in a wheel such as Bessler’s each one has to be lifted in order to drop again, to perpetuate the wheel’s rotation. There is no good mechanical reason why a certain configuration of the weights and their accompanying levers, pulleys and cords cannot be designed to lift the fallen weight by means of one or more other mechanism within the wheel. This has been known intuitively for thousands of years and just because no one has actually proved it, other than Johann Bessler, doesn’t make it any more impossible than designing and building a heavier-than-air machine that can fly does.

Gravity is an enabler that can cause things such as rivers to flow which can cause water wheels and turbines to turn.  I don’t think anyone has called them gravity wheels even though gravity enables their action through the flow of the river.

Many people from around the world believe that Bessler’s wheel was genuine, I do and I am trying my best to find out he did it, by reading his four books and the many hints clues he left for us, over and over again. He embedded at least two significant chunks of coded information in Apologia Poetica and many of his drawings, any or all of which should help us solve this puzzle.

To improve the situation regarding the codes, I shall post information about them on this blog at regular intervals, in the hope that someone can take what I’ve done and progress it to the solution.

All his books complete with English translations plus my own biography of his life are available from the side panel.  You can find them at the top of the side panel where it says ‘Bessler’s Books’, click on ‘Johann Bessler’s books and a biography’. This will open a page detailing the books and a ‘buy now’ button for each. They are digital downloads.

You can return to this page by clicking ‘home’.

JC

UPDATE for August 2021

This is a brief update on my current position.  I’m looking for a house to move into and ultimately complete my wheel build.  We sold our last house at the end of March and moved in with my daughter, thinking this would put us in a good position to bid for our next house.  Wrong!  There are very few houses on the market at the moment and too many would-be buyers!  But once we find the right one, hopefully we’ll get in there and I can finish this project.

I have a design for Bessler’s wheel which I think will work, but …boy, have I said that before! But I’ve always been optimistic about solving this problem and confidence remains high. There has been little for me to write about that I haven’t covered before, but I have found the enforced idleness conducive to effective mental gymnastics with regard to a solution to Bessler’s wheel and I hope to write some interesting stuff in the future which I hope will surprise all of you.  

I’ve done some work on the two codes which intrigue me - the  684 etc’s with which Bessler infested Apologia Poetica (and none in Das Triumphirende), and the 141 Bible references also in the Apologia Poetica. No success yet but I have proved to myself that they are indeed coded items and therefore hold information of some sort. What information?  Who knows?  One day it will be deciphered and I hope I’m still around when that happens, to find out what Bessler had to say.

I visit the BW forum frequently and enjoy the discussion but I feel that the same ideas are still being recycled, but I can’t offer anything new yet, I need to test my own hypothesis first.  It does seem to me that the number of posts there have reduced somewhat compared to a few years ago, but it’s not surprising.  There is only one thing that would liven the debate and that is a new idea that appears to show the right direction for making progress towards a solution - or the solution itself.

As for my own efforts to work on this problem, even if we were to find the house we seek this week, it might still be nearly November before we could move in, so I’m just going to have curb my impatience to finish my wheel but I’ll  try to get on with it as soon as I can.  

Having found a design which I think will work, I’ve been trying to reverse engineer my design to see if it reveals or confirms anything I can find in Bessler’s books.  Like most other people I have found a number of interesting matches, but they may or may not be relevant and only a working model will do.  

Lastly, please forgive me for including news about my beautiful granddaughter Amy.  You may recall we started a crowdfunding page to raise money to fund special treatment for her and achieved our target of £40,000, which was helped by several kind visitors to this blog. A massive ‘thank you’  to you.

Amy has fought her condition and become an inspirational influencer on TikTok.  She currently has 39.7 million likes and 973,000 followers!  Her latest video has received 40,000 likes! You can see more about her if you just put amyepohl into google.  There are links to her Instagram account as well newspaper reports on her illness and gradual recovery.

Or just visit https://www.tiktok.com/@amyepohl

The newspaper headline is,

“Teacher, 25, left with ‘suicide disease’ after botched operation”.  

https://metro.co.uk/2019/03/26/teacher-25-left-suicide-disease-botched-operation-9023256/

Did she get compensation, damages? Not a single penny!  But if we were in the USA? 

PS - this article has just been published in the Daily Mail, a UK newspaper, it gives the whole story!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9887353/Father-teacher-27-suicide-disease-says-joining-TikTok-given-sense-purpose.html

JC

Could This Be the Solution to Global Warming?

A Potential Solution to Climate Change.

We are being bombarded with news of natural disasters from all around the globe; record high temperatures, forest fires, floods, melting icecaps, hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes.  All of these are happening with increasing frequency and intensity.  The cause is said be global warming.  This is attributed to the greenhouse effect and the blame for that is laid firmly at the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, heat, and transportation.

More often and louder is the clamour for something to be done on a global scale.  Everyone seems to be in agreement, we need a way of producing cheap,  clean energy but what? I won’t cover the multitude of ideas and methods being used or suggested - in my opinion these are all temporary or location critical measures which don’t really alleviate the problem. 

I’ve had this blog since 2009 and I’ve suggested that Bessler’s wheel could provide a source of cheap, clean, low tech energy in at least a dozen blogs over the years but out there in the real world, no one ever takes any notice!  Why? Because they have been taught that his machine was impossible and therefore must have been a fraud. 

There is plenty of excellent evidence that it was genuine which is why thousands of individuals all over the world are striving to duplicate his machine.  This device could generate electricity using just the force of gravity, but of course without a working model to prove it, it is dismissed as wild fantasy, and a chance to start to combat the effects of global warming missed.

But just in case someone, somewhere happens to chance upon this blog and decides to find out more about Johann Bessler, aka Orffyreus, I’m repeating the story of his machine below.  Maybe it might attract the attention of an open-minded researcher who has the backing of an engineering facility. I would be amazed if that happened, but let’s face it; it has to happen some time, and the sooner the better.

In the mean time we lone amateurs continue to experiment, analyse and investigate, building our models on a shoestring, hoping for success, while the world around us continues to burn, flood and shake it’s foundations.

So here is the story of Johann Bessler’s amazing machine.

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.

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

That Gut Feeling Could Help us! We Better Not Ignore it.

We’re all familiar with the expression, ‘a gut feeling’, meaning an intuitive or instinctive feeling about something which is not, at that moment, supported by logical rationale.  It’s a personal feeling almost amounting to conviction about something which may go against current opinion.  It’s hard to justify and equally difficult to explain.  

We who seek the answers to Johann Bessler’s wheel must, by definition, be following our gut instincts and therefore justification is hard to provide and our case goes against the commonly held view.

Sometimes our gut feeling leads us up the garden path with nowhere to go, but there is something special about some ‘gut feelings’, which you just ‘know’ are legitimate. These are few and far between but they could put you on the road to success.  I’ve experienced that magical gut feeling a few times and I’ve had some ‘light bulb’ moments too, which are related to ‘gut reactions’, but not exactly same, but the instant euphoria is similar and both are incredibly encouraging in this difficult path we tread.

The lightbulb moment is that sudden revelation of the answer to a puzzle which has been hovering at the back of your mind.  Gut feeling can sometimes reveal a truth which was previously unknown and it should not be ignored, and in my experience it never is.

‘Intuition’ is another name for ‘gut feeling’ it literally means ‘learning from within’, which seems a pretty good alternative.  Intuition is currently understood to be the ‘subconscious processing of information that is too complex for rational thought’, but the word ‘complex’ doesn’t really cover it for me.  The subconscious information being processed is disorganised and apparently random.  So the organising, refining and clarifying of each particle of data takes place beyond the conscious mind, and in my opinion it is directed by another part of the subconscious which, in seeking an answer to a problem, is analysing all information being received, looking for anything which might have potential relation to one particular puzzle. 

The exciting tingling that happens in your brain when a gut feeling makes itself felt seems a strange connection - so how is this possible? It seems that that feeling in your gut also stems from the same cause as ‘butterflies’ in your stomach when you’re  nervous.

It has been suggested that when you’re nervous, you’re likely getting signals from an unexpected source: your second brain. Hidden in the walls of the digestive system, this “brain in your gut” is revolutionising medicine’s understanding of the links between digestion, mood, health and even the way you think.  

(https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/the-brain-gut-connection)

“Scientists call this little brain the enteric nervous system (ENS). And it’s not so little. The ENS is two thin layers of more than 100 million nerve cells (200-600 million nerve cells in another paper) lining your gastrointestinal tract from esophagus to rectum, which measures about 9 meters (almost 30 feet) that’s more than in either the spinal cord or the peripheral nervous system.

Unlike the big brain in your skull, the ENS can’t balance your checkbook or compose a love note. “Its main role is controlling digestion, from swallowing to the release of enzymes that break down food to the control of blood flow that helps with nutrient absorption to elimination,” explains Jay Pasricha, M.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Neurogastroenterology, whose research on the enteric nervous system has garnered international attention. “The enteric nervous system doesn’t seem capable of thought as we know it, but it communicates back and forth with our big brain—with profound results.”

This ‘gut-brain’ alliance has raised consciousness and is a contributor to subconscious processing of all data.

In my humble opinion, the gut feeling is induced by the brain’s subconscious, trying to make contact with the conscious.  The subconscious is the part of the mind of which one is not fully aware but which influences one's actions and feelings. We should be aware of rumblings, butterflies and other gut actions in case they are our subconscious trying to grab our attention! 

“The concept that the gut and the brain are closely connected, and that this interaction plays an important part not only in gastrointestinal function but also in certain feeling states and in intuitive decision making, is deeply rooted in our language.”

 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3845678/?_escaped_fragment_=po=2.13415

And here also, fascinating!

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/gut-second-brain/

JC  🤔

A Reminder of some Facts about Johann Bessler’s Machines.,

We have discussed the various perpetual motion machines, aka ‘wheels’, invented and exhibited by Bessler, so often and for so long, I think we have become blasé about their extraordinary potential, so here are few reminders which I hope will inspire you (and I) to greater efforts in our search for the secret of his success.

First wheel at Gera, 50 RPM, unloaded. Only 4.6 feet diameter, 4 inches approx thickness. Rotated at almost one turn per second!

As did the second wheel at Draschwitz, 50 RPM, unloaded.  Only it was 9.3 feet diameter, 6 inches in thickness and twice the size of the Gera wheel yet they both spun at 50 RPM!

Even the third wheel at Merseburg, 40 RPM ‘or more’. Increased to 12 feet diameter, 11.15 inches thickness. Almost hit the 50 RPM speed and it might have done so but we don’t have accurate records of its speed.  This one was three times the size of the first one!

Fourth wheel at Weissenstein Castle, Kassel. 26 RPM unloaded. 12 feet diameter, 18 inches thick.  It was thoroughly examined by Baron Fischer who described the sound of about eight weights landing gently on the side towards which the wheel turned. This wheel was designed for the long endurance test so was designed to rotate at half speed.

It would seem that size doesn’t necessarily limit its speed of rotation nor its ability to lift heavy weight, which is what Bessler said.

Going back to the first wheel spinning at 50 RPM, almost once every second.  As many will know, I have always maintained the belief that there were five mechanisms within the wheel. Others think there were 8 mechanisms.  This wheel turning at almost one second per rotation made a lot of noise, as was reported many times.  Five weights hitting the side of the wheel during each second, as it turned would indeed make what Bessler refers to as a ‘loud clattering noise’. In later versions of his wheels he attempted to reduce the noise by using felt and/or springs. NB - 8 weights would make even faster ‘clattering’.

The Kassel wheel is believed to have 8 weights, according to Count Fischer, but how many mechanisms? I ask because I believe there were also five mechanism in this wheel, but the Kassel wheel and its predecessor, the Merseburg wheel were both bi-directional, or two way wheels.  This may complicate the mechanisms and could potentially lead to incorrect assumptions.  But just considering the sounds of eight weights hitting the side of the wheel, we can understand why he could only say ‘about’ eight weights.

It turned at 26 RPM which is one turn every 2.3 seconds, so 8 sounds per turn of 2.3 seconds, or 4 sounds in just over one second might well have been difficult to count, especially when you take into account other sounds which might have been made by the counter rotating  part of the mechanisms. But it was still able to lift the same amount of weight  as the Merseburg wheel.  Perhaps it was made thicker to house internal weights which were both heavier and larger.

At this point I wished to insert a couple of metronome links illustrating the high speed of the sounds of the Gera wheel and the Kassel wheel but I had some problems, but here’s one which hopefully demonstrates the sound of the 300 beats per minute of the Gera wheel

https://youtu.be/EEVko0Rnf5Q

The Kassel wheel diameter 12 feet, circumference 37.7 feet,  speed 26 RPM, or 140 revolutions per mile. The rim speed was 11 mph.  A cyclist peddling at 11mph would feel a moderate breeze; walking in a 11 mph breeze is noticeably strong. Standing by the Kassel wheel which was as wide as your living room but a third higher than the ceiling, you would certainly feel the draught coming off the wheel, just as you would if a runner ran past you at the same speed - only a much stronger draught. The amount of vibration felt in the room would have been impressive, with all the thumping weights and the massive rotating drum, spinning with enough energy ‘to lift a man off his feet if he were to grab hold of it’.

The Merseburg wheel lifted 70 pound weight up the outside of the castle, and whether you take account of the pulley system or not, that is a sizeable lift, but as I’ve pointed out before, the pulleys were used to slow the demonstration down.

Demonstrating his device in front of a lot of important people required good organising.  If, for instance, the Merseburg wheel lifted the 70 pounds weight 50 feet to the top of the castle wall, as reported by professor Wolff, it would be over too quickly.  The 6 inch axle turned at least 40 times a minute.  19 inch circumference would lift the stones the 50 feet in less than a minute, but slowed four fold with pulleys would provide a longer lift and give the spectators time to move to the windows and watch about 4 minutes of lift.

My point is that there have been several attempts to estimate the energy output from Bessler’s wheel, and yet there is no way of accurately establishing its potential output.  We don’t know how many weights were used, nor their heaviness.  We don’t know the structure within the wheel, but we do know that the first three wheels could spin at about 50 RPM, later ones could lift a weight of 70 pound, and finally run for at least 54 days. We don’t know if the bi-directional wheels had less potential than the uni-directional ones. We might assume that there was little difference if the three early wheels could all rotate at 50 rpm, including the two-way Merseburg  wheel. We know the wheels were scalable up to massive sizes because Bessler tells us so, and common sense supports him.

In his Apologia Poetica Bessler writes ‘ with the help of good assistants I would have thought that something well over 20 ells in diameter would be possible, should anyone think such a thing desirable, and if the Lord should grant me the necessary strength and health’.

22 Ells is equal to 37 feet diameter!  Imagine a wheel of that size and then try toconvince everyone that it only has a small energy output.  Bear in mind that Bessler implies he will be available to help build such an enormous wheel should the need arise.  One of the largest water wheels ever built is the Laxey wheel, built in 1854 - 72.6 feet in diameter turned 3 times a minute.  According to the Domesday book, in 1089, there were over 6000 water mills in more than 3000 locations in England and Wales. Most of them were small, although wheels of more than twelve feet in diameter were plentiful in the later medieval times, so the technology and ability to build large were readily available.

One curious thing is that despite the above information there seems to be a reluctance to suggest that his wheels might have had a much larger energy output than anyone here or on BW forum might wish to be associated with.  Why I don’t know, but most machines can be made larger to achieve more and this wheel certainly fits that fact. But look at this statement from Bessler, ‘ If I were to place, next to a 12-Ell wheel, one of 6-Ells, then, if I wanted to, I could cause the smaller one to revolve with more force and useful power than the large one. I can, in fact, make 2, or 3, or even more, wheels all revolving on the same axis. Further, I make my machines in such a way that, big or small, I can make the resulting power small or big as I choose. I can get the power to a perfectly calculated degree, multiplied up even as much as fourfold.

Finally, I noticed a curious coincidence, well almost a coincidence. The first three wheels rotated at 50 RPM, one might almost think they were striving for a 60 second spin speed, only friction preventing it.  The Kassel one’s speed could be regarded as just half that of its earlier brethren.  With no load and no friction might they have automatically measured the full minute?  Just a coincidence I’m sure, but interesting, especially as there were comments about the remarkable regularity of the turning of each wheel, like clockwork.

JC

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