Common misconceptions about Bessler's wheel.

There are three comments made in connection with Bessler's wheel which recur regularly; 

Firstly that Bessler's wheel has been proven not to work;

Secondly that his wheel would go against the laws that Sir Isaac Newton promulgated; 

And lastly that even if the wheel is successfully built we will never know whether it was the same solution as Bessler's.

With regard to the first one, Hermann Helmholtz presented the original formulation of what is now known as the First Law of Thermodynamics, beginning with the axiom. "a Perpetual Motion Machine is impossible", therebye ruling out any chance of there ever being such a device admitted as a possibility.

He suggested that as no-one had ever successfully built one that worked, such machines must be impossible because of some natural law preventing their construction. This law, could only be the Conservation of Energy - his own invention.

Those who don't believe Bessler's wheel could have been genuine 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.  Thanks to Besslerwheel forum for the above concise explanation.

In the case of the second point, that Bessler's wheel would defy the laws that Sir Isaac Newton presented, that is also wrong.  To even suggest that if Bessler's wheel works it will throw out of the window everything that Newton discovered is uttlerly incredible.  It is perfectly obvious that Bessler's wheel would have to comply with the known laws of physics - the alternative is too big a stretch of credulity to accept.  So how would Bessler's wheel fit comfortably among Newton's laws?

I believe that I have the solution to that problem but it is not proven and until I have demonstrated what I believe will be the answer to reconstructing Besslers wheel I cannot say anything about the reason why it won't conflict with any of the laws of physics, Newtonian or later.  As some will know, I have condensed the solution into a single sentence which I include after every post in the form of an encoded anagram.

As for the last point, that we shall never know if our solution is the same as Bessler's, I would strongly dispute that.  If my own research results in a working wheel I shall be able to point to the method I used to develop the right design taken directly from Bessler's clues, both textual and graphic.

I have finally got my workshop back and will begin work on my 'solution' as soon as I practically can. :)

JC

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Gravity is constant and it makes things drop.

Ever since I became convinced that Johann Bessler's machine was genuine, I have been struggling to understand why it is that although such a machine would contradict the laws of physics, obviously his machine did not contradict them..

Instead of trying to understand gravity, I suggest we put the term to one side and instead, look at its effect, and the simple fact that a thing which has mass and is 'heavy', falls or drops, (due to the effect of gravity on it). 

When the weights are pulled downwards by the attraction between the weight and the earth, that attraction is  gravity. Gravity is the effect which appears to give 'weight' to objects of mass. The 'weight' or 'heaviness' of an object is what makes it fall.  

Bessler said that "these weights are themselves the PM device, the ‘essential constituent parts’ which must of necessity continue to exercise their motive force (derived from the PM principle) indefinitely – so long as they keep away from the centre of gravity". It seems perfectly logical, therefore, to assume that the weights were supplying the energy which turned the wheel - something all perpetual motionists have instinctively known for hundreds of years.  The movement of the weights was due to the effect of gravity. 

According to wikipedia, "In physics, a force is any influence that causes an object to undergo a certain change, either concerning its movement, direction, or geometrical construction."  Now you may have been told that gravity is not a force - but according to the above well-established principle.....it is!  Anything that falls downwards due to an influence that causes an object to undergo a certain change, ...concerning its movement, direction, is a force!

Wikipedia continues, "In other words, a force is that which can cause an object with mass to change its velocity (which includes to begin moving from a state of rest).."  If that doesn't describe the action of a weight being dropped from my hand then I don't know what does.

Anything which is moved by an external influence, (such as gravity), can have its resulting action modified by another influence. That 'other' influence can, under particular circumstances, also be attributed to gravity.

Bessler said his weights operated in pairs.  So if a weight falls and in doing so, moves another weight, the second one can overbalance a wheel.

Again this is the principle I outlined at my website at www.besslerswheel.com

(The title is taken from my poem at www.free-energy.co.uk/html/my_poem.html )

JC

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Bessler's wheel update - alone at last!

My temporary lodgers, my daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren, have finally left to take up residence in their new home and we are slowly bringing our lives back to normal.  They were with us for four months in our home and we are still talking to each other, which is pretty amazing!  I love them to bits but they are so big and so loud! My workshop is now bereft of its two powerful motorbikes, four pedal cycles, two standing toolboxes, metal shelving, a cabinet full of leather motorcycling gear, helmets, gloves, boots which look like something from the the starwars movies propshop, and numerous appurtinances connected with motorcyling.  So now all I have to do is tidy up, rearrange the part of my workshop which was my wheel-building area and get back to work on my own personal wheel project. But first we must finish wallpapering some of the rooms in their new house!  Actually it's all but finished, so I could be in wheel action again next week, fingers crossed.

My wheel is still based on the principle I outlined on my web site at http://www.besslerswheel.com/  The design is aided by the clues I've found in Bessler's drawings.  There are confirmatory clues to support my conclusions but I'm experienced enough in this field of endeavour to know that I may be convincing myself and misreading those, oh-so-subtle clues - but I think not.

Although I can't resume work on the project until I can tidy up and make some room, I have a clear idea of the way ahead and I know exactly what is to be done next. It's so frustrating! I can see the work I've done so far, but there is a cross-trainer in the way and some cabinets and shelves which have to be moved back to their former positions, and until that is accomplished I can only stare at my wheel from a distance.

This hiatus has been useful.  Sometimes I think we get too close to the subject and we can't see the wood for the trees.  We need to see the thing as a whole, to understand the detail; we need to stand back; take a holiday.  So now I think I see things from a better perspective and I see where I maybe went off on a diversion that ended in a cul-de-sac.  Too many metaphors?  Yes I guess so, but you get my meaning.

Anyway back to things-Bessler with my next post.

JC

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Was Bessler's sales strategy wrong?

When Johann Bessler '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', it was after having spent a considerable amount of time and effort learning about all the different trades and crafts of his time.  He had travelled through Saxony, into England, Ireland and Scotland before returning to his homeland.

He had dabbled in treasure hunting, watch-making and medicine before comitting himself to the search for a solution to perpetual motion.  It seems to me that he sought wealth and fame from the very beginning but having found the solution to the perpetual motion machine, went about profiting from it in the wrong way.

Thomas Newcomen, who invented the first practicall steam engine  just a couple ot years before Bessler exhibited his first wheel, took a different approach to selling his invention.  He kept the secret within the membership of his family and they went around Europe building and installing their machines.  75 of them were in operation by the time he died.

That Bessler wanted riches is beyond doubt but his problem was the his machine required little more than standard ability to build and run, whereas Newcomen's was a far more complex machine requiring expertise and the training of its operators to function properly.  Even so Newcomen's engine cost about £1200 to buy - a huge cost in those days but compared to Bessler's request for £20,000 - a much better deal.

I think that Bessler could have offered his wheel at a much lower price and built and installed them himself.  If Newcomen, with the help of his family, was able to build and install 75 of his engines, before his death, I'm sure Bessler could have built even more than that and made a good living doing a similar service for people at quarter of  the cost of a Newcomen engine.  

Of course people would have copied them and built their own but I think the celebrity of having the original inventor build and install his machine would have generated enough sales to reach, say, 75 wheels at £250 each before he retired, and he would have earned money close to his desired £20,000.  John Rowley, Master of Mechanics to King George I, sold his Orreries for more than £500 each. Asking princes to commit to buying such an expensive machine as Bessler's was, with no chance to examine it's workings first was too much of a gamble for them.

Bessler was a born salesman, theatrical, passionate. and convincing.  I'm certain he could have succeeded and we would have the descendants of that machine with us today.

JC

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Is this the end?

I think this blog has come to the end of its useful life.  I've enjoyed writing and posting stuff but the lack of response now I've made it necessary to sign in to comment has stifled all communication (except for you kind diehards!) and I must now decide whether to give up now or revert to allowing anyone to comment without any control, other than my abiity to delete.  I could continue with that but there is also the problem of spam which requires deleting several times a day and I'm not sure I can be bothered with that.

I think the only thing I can do is open it up for anyone to comment for now and see what happens.

Wish me luck and thanks.

JC

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Bessler's alphanumeric and alphabetic-substitution clues.

Something I wrote in a comment was wrong!  I said that the two letter 'R's which, in Bessler's alphabetic substitution code, stands for the two 'E's, which are the initial letters in two of his forenames, could also represent the number 18, the base angle in a pentagon - because ithe letter 'R' is the 18th letter in the English alphabet.,  Oops!  Bessler's German alphabet consisted of only 24 letters, I/J and U/V being alternatives - which means the letter 'R' is the 17th letter not the 18th!  So it has nothing to do with the pentagon.

Johann Ernst Elias Bessler - J.E.E.B., through the ATBASH cipher transposes to W.R.R.O.  So, I think that the two 'E's can be taken as representing the letter 5, being the fifth letter of the alphabet and also because Bessler has used that same alpha-numeric code in numerous other places.  In addition I think he intended the letter 'E' to point to the letter 'R'  because he used alphabetic-substitution in many other places too.

His name, Johann, added at the time he added Elias, seems a mystery addition unless you accept that  with alphabetic-substitution Bessler meant to point us to the letter 'W', which also has no alpha-numeric meaning either, being the 21st letter of the German alphabet - but it is a useful pointer to the number 55. This is because of the way Bessler always wrote it - as two overlapping 'V's, as in Roman numerals, which he also used frequently.

So the letter 'J' itself, seems to have no underlying meaning but what about the the letter 'R'?  Maybe the 'R' does have a meaning.  Bessler always signed his name accompanied by a little avatar or logo.  It consisted of a circle with a dot in the middle supported by two letter 'R's each facing away from the circle

They are not complete 'R's but you can see that the two curved figures are meant to represent the letter 'R'. It looks as though there is no alpha-numeric meaning to be extracted from the 'R', but it does seem to have purpose, I think it shows a movement of a part or all of one mechanism. Here's another example from maybe 50 which I have and although there are variations in them most have the two 'R's and a circle.

But the letter 'J' really doesn't seem to have an additional meaning - unless I have missed something?

In summary, J = W = 55 and E = 5 = R = ?  Not much information there, and yet it's in such an important place, i.e., his name - it must be of importance.

JC

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King Richard III and Johann Bessler - their graves.

I watched a documentary on TV the other night about the discovery of the remains of King Richard III, the last of the Plantagenet Kings of England.   The burial was discovered just over two feet beneath the surface of a car park in Leicester.  A DNA test was carried out on the bones and compared to a 17th generation descendant, Michael Ibsen, a Canadian-born carpenter living in London, and found to be a perfect match.

Now you can probably see where this is going!  Bessler is believed to have requested permission to construct a family grave in his own garden at his house in Karlshafen.  There are conflicting stories about what happened to his body after his fall from the windmill in Fursteberg.  Local people say his body was buried in a grave in the forest which was apparently traditional in those days. The forest is about two hours  walk away and is apparently full of graves, some of them very old and with writing which is all but illegible.  However given his preparations for his burial in the family grave, and the existence of his wife and children plus their strong religious convictions most peope share my belief that he was buried as he requested in the garden of his house.

We know which house he lived in and the small town has hardly altered since his day and a correspondent who lived locally at the time carried out some research for me and came to the conclusion that the garden behind Bessler's house is now a car park!

I'm sure that when the solution to Bessler's wheel is found the local authority in Karlshafen will sit up and take notice, because they were very interested at one time in publishing my biography in German to encourage tourism, but they were in financial straits at the time and decided against publication.  Anything which will bring tourists to this little place will be welcomed by the town council and there is an antiquarain bookshop, right next to Bessler's house, whose owners will probably be happy to help foot the bill to dig up the carpark.

The reason I think it will be useful to try to find Bessler's grave is because, to me it is inconceivable to think he would not have taken the opportunity a grave gave him to leave a message for us.  He specifically requested permission for a grave to be placed in his own garden, something that went counter to local tradition.  He left a million pieces of clues about his machine and his encoded messages were spread throughout his papers, he sought post humous recognition for his wheel and what better place to leave it than on his grave.

One more thing.  Bessler's brother Gottfried was also buried in the same grave in 1765, twenty years after Bessler.  So it must have existed in its own right for many years.

JC

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