Sunday 31 December 2023

Bessler’s Wheel Revealed

Finally I’m going to share what I know, and what I think I know, about the solution to Bessler’s wheel. This will be a bit shorter than my intended document, because today, 29th December 2023, I accidentally deleted several pages of explanations, and I can’t get them back and I can’t remember everything I wrote!

This might not be such a bad thing as the “Big Reveal” was getting too big! I will try to curtail my enthusiasm for giving too much detail.  After all, all you really want to know is “how did Bessler’s Wheel work? And how close to Bessler’s is the design I’m going to share with you?  Is it the same as Bessler’s.  I think at the end you will think that it is a bit closer.

My skills in MS Paint are fairly basic so I’ll combine paint and drawings and text to try to explain what I know.

We know Johann Bessler would rather have died without being paid for his secret, than have given it away because he said so in Apologia Poetica  (AP). He also intimated that the answers could found in his books.  But how would he hide information in books in plain sight without anyone realising and discovering the secret for them selves?

There is a lot of undeciphered code in the books but the most illuminating items are the illustrations in those books. “A picture is worth a thousand words" is an adage in multiple languages meaning that complex and sometimes multiple ideas can be conveyed by a single still image, which conveys its meaning or essence more effectively than a mere verbal description.   In Bessler’s case the opposite seems almost true.  His pictures look bland and boring and inaccurate but they contain real information disguised in an ingenious way.

PART ONE

Bessler took an inordinate amount of trouble to hide the importance of the number five in plain sight.  Despite its ubiquity the majority of people seem to have dismissed its seeming importance and continued on their search for the solution, relying on the witness report of eight thumping noises from the Kassel wheel.

I searched for and found geometric and numerical patterns within all of the inventor’s publications.  I found pentagons in various places. Most significantly in his first two books, Grundlicher Bericht (GB) and Das Triumphirende. (DT) Two of them in DT indicated parts of the mechanism hidden in one segment of the pentagram.

Bessler also buried within his copious amounts of writing, many clues presented almost as an off-the-cuff comments, but deliberately sown into the text to catch the eye of any serious researcher.

In one example he wrote, “a great craftsman would be he who, as one pound falls a quarter, causes four pounds to shoot upwards four quarters.”  Note that within the quote he mentions that there are five weights, one plus four, and each one is equal to one pound.  Secondly, one pound falls a quarter.  How do we define what he meant by a quarter? In this case he was referring to a clock - something he also embedded, invisibly, in the first drawings in both Grundlicher Bericht and Das Triumphirende - and a quarter of an hour or fifteen minutes covers 90 degrees.  But how could this single right angle fall cause “ four pounds to shoot upwards four quarters”? 
We saw in the first part that the word ‘quarter', referred to, not just 90 degrees but also to a clock.  In the second part the word ‘quarter' also refers to a clock but this time he has confused us by using the words ‘four quarters’. ‘Four quarter’s equals ‘one whole hour’.  Each hour on a clock is divided into 30 degrees, so the words ‘four quarters’ meaning ‘one hour’ as used here equals thirty degrees.  To paraphrase Bessler’s words, “a great craftsman would be he who, as one pound falls 90 degrees, causes each of the other four pounds to shoot upwards 30 degrees.” 
You might also think it would have been better to have said that one pound falls 90 degrees, causes one pound to shoot upwards 30 degrees”, but that would have removed the information that five weights, and therefore five mechanisms were involved, so it had to be four weights plus the one. 
I should point out that in previous blogs I have shown two other places where Bessler showed the same information, that is, a weight falling 90 degrees, causes another weight to shoot up the same 30 degrees.
In MT Bessler hints that other odd numbers will also work, by creating slightly different page numbers for the ones he was was pointing to.  So in addition to five mechanisms, he included seven, nine and eleven mechanisms. I think it possible that the Kassel wheel had nine mechanism and one of them was silenced with felt, hence “the sound of about eight weights landing on the side towards which the wheel turned”, as reported by Fischer von Erlach.
Why five mechanisms and how does it need such short sharp lift?
In the illustration below you see a wheel divided into five equal portions, a weighted lever in each one. The wheel turns clockwise. The weights fall through 90 degrees.  Each weighted lever is tilted forward 18 degrees.
In the next one the black weighted levers fall from their pre-fall position and once fallen, come to rest at the wheel’s edge.  As the wheel continues to turn the weighted levers begin a retrograde motion, rotating backwards as  wheel rotates forwards
The only problem arises when the weighted lever has fully returned to its starting point; it needs to be pulled outwards in order to be able fall again. It’s locked in and can’t fall.  As you can see in the picture there needs to be a cord connecting the mechanism to pull the locked in lever out by at least 30 degrees. 
Bessler and Wagner had a brief discussion in which Bessler wrote,  “ Even Wagner, wherever he is now, will have heard that one pound can cause the raising of more than one pound. He writes that, to date, no one has ever found a mechanical arrangement sufficient for the required task. He's right! So am I, and does anyone see why? What if I were to teach the proper method of mechanical application? Then people would say: "Now I understand!”
I think the picture below explains Bessler’s view - they were both right.
This looks promising but we all know it won’t work.  Why?  
Because it lacks the Bessler-Collins Connectedness Principle.
PART TWO
When Bessler briefly mentioned the principle we had no idea what it was.  Maybe a prime mover because he said several of the machines in Maschinen Tractate (MT)  wouldn’t work unless they had it included in the design. 
In the following description I decided to add my name to the title of this version for the following reason.  Although he mentioned it in his MT no one knew what it was, but I believe I have discovered the answer by studying and deducing what it must be. I decided to publish my idea but realised that if his own definition of the principle should surface, perhaps through someone deciphering some encoded text, it might be very different or just slightly divergent, I had better add my name to my version.  Because although his principle might be the same as mine, if his description of it turns up at some point, it will be useful to be able to differentiate between the two versions.  Anyway mine might be wrong or just different, but I don’t think it is.
So here is what I believe to be the Connectedness  Principle probably discovered by Johann Bessler, but also by me more than 300 years later.
Firstly, why did he use the word “connectedness”? He could have used a “connection” or “connect”. But those two words suggest a firm connection, whereas “connectedness” has a different nuance, a feeling of variable or intermittent contact.  What does that mean?
Considering the word “connectedness”, I thought that the connections must be between the weight and the pivot, the weight and the wheel or the pivot and the wheel.  It seemed to me that the connection between weight and the pivot as well as the one between the weight and the wheel had been explored an infinite number of times leading to a similar number of failures.  But the connection between the pivot and the wheel hasn’t been explored as far as I know, maybe it has but I haven’t seen it discussed.
In the picture above, all the weighted levers are connected to their pivots and able to swing and rotate about them.  The only variable lies in the position of the weight at certain times. I realised that it might be possible to arrange for the pivot itself to move from one position to another and back again.
The picture below is similar to the one above but I’ve added the results of enabling moveable pivots.  The red weights show the improved positions caused by moveable pivot points.  Notice the red weights have taken up different positions particularly at radius 5 and 1.
The red weight at radius 5 is actually too early and would arrive there when radius 5 is about half way closer to where radius 1 is.
So in my opinion the Bessler-Collins Connectedness Principle requires the designing of an odd number of weighted levers supported by moveable pivot points.  The lever itself should not be extended because the moving pivot will send the weight on its end to reach further back on the wheel’s edge.
Briefly then the pivot is attached to a moveable part of the mechanism.  When the lever begins to fall, it’s pivot begins to move sideways , causing the path of the weight to follow a straight sloping path. The weight lands much further back along the circumference creating more torque.  This makes the wheel rotate further than it would do with the simpler system shown above. 
I must stress that the moveable pivot must be attached to a moveable part of the mechanism not directly connected to the wheel. 
PART THREE
The following pictures demonstrate where and how Bessler provided the necessary information.
The green circle is required and touches the tops of the two supports. It’s encloses the left end of the horizontal part of the ‘T’ shaped pendulum. It also includes the padlock, and touches the bottom and right side of the picture.

The pendulum is too long as it is and the excess needs to be removed.  The remaining part of the pendulum fits inside the pentagon fifth portion.  The red and blue parts show the two positions the weighted lever must reach.  Before we examine this picture we must rotate it 180 degrees.  This is indicated by the apparent typo in the padlock, which is wrongly labelled 42, but should read 24.  I have argued many times that this is a deliberate act designed to inform us to turn the picture upside down.  Now I’ve done it.

In the above picture the detail contained within the red square on the right shows the similarity to the main mechanism, except that the end of the horizontal part of the ‘T’ pendulum  appears to be attached to a wall.  This I believe indicates that that part in the main mechanism is fixed to the wheel able to rotate about that point.  This suggestion is supported by the picture below, which shows detail from the GB and DT.  The left picture is from DT


There you can see that in the right picture, the semicircle is deliberately drawn wrongly.  

Returning to the upside down picture. The red part is in position to fall and the blue part shows it’s in the fallen position. I compared the lengths of the red and blue portions and they are equal.  But the blue portion finishes just up to the limit of Bessler’s original circle, shown by the black dot at its end. This supports the idea that the pivot must be able to move sideways to bring the weight up to the edge of the green circle.

As I said earlier, extending the lever will not work, the pivot point has to move. The following picture will show the structure of the mechanism which moves the pivot along with its lever and returns it at the correct moment in rotation. The long green rod is supporting the moving pivot and is able to move through an arc.  On the end of this rod is the weighted lever or pendulum that we have seen moving from an almost upright potion, 18 degrees from the radius, through 90 degrees to land on the edge of the wheel some way back close to the following radius.


The purple lever has a purple round weight on the outer end. It’s mass/weight is mainly carried by the green lever, which is anchored close to the axle.

The dark blue lever with the round purple empty weight shows roughly where the weighted lever would be if fully retracted.  It’s pivot point is close to the same point on the end of the green lever where it joins the purple one.

POST SCRIPT

I omitted the following picture which is the most important one as I believe it’s the closest to Bessler’s first wheel.




Obviously this document is abbreviated to accommodate a complex explanation and some not-so-good illustrations.  There are a number of graphic clues I could add, plus of course I’ve omitted all reference to the Toys page.

I have posted the simplest design but there are other, possibly better ones which I’m going to post later in January.  The most important clue in my opinion, is the:-

Bessler-Collins Connectedness Principle

At the moment I don’t know if it’s the same as Bessler’s but I think it must be because it might be the one reason why so many designs have failed so far.

Why the odd number of mechanisms was required has always been obvious to me and I’ve never understood why it seemed as though nobody else agreed with me.

JC

Copyright © 2024 John Collins.

Friday 22 December 2023

This is a precursor to my sharing of what I believe will prove to be the solution to Bessler’s wheel. It’s just to explain how I got to this point and to prepare the ground for my posting of the most important parts of my information.  There are many additional pieces of information which all go towards confirming my findings, but they would fill a book, which is what I’m doing.


Johann Bessler deliberately left a treasure trove of clues which once solved would, he must have hoped, lead to someone finding the solution to his perpetual motion machine. This would give him the acknowledgement he sought, albeit after his death. He wrote that he would rather receive that than just give the secret away during his life.

So how did he intend us to find his instructions for building his perpetual motion machine? First he adopted the name Orffyreus, which was a simple ROT13, or Caesar shift code. This code was a well known cipher that he knew would be picked up but maybe only followed up by those whose curiosity was piqued about the wheel.  That led to more complex coded stuff.  He dropped hints that the secret was available if you knew where to look.

You know the old adage, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’, I believe Bessler left pictures of his machine showing how it worked and he also left written descriptions for two reasons. One reason is that although a picture may contain useful information, it may not be enough to complete the necessary detail, particularly because it has to be disguised so that no one could happen upon it by chance and understand it easily - and more words will be necessary to fill in the gaps even leaving out the fact that the picture had to be camouflaged for security reasons.

He disguised the information that revealed his secret by using a number of different codes both textual and graphic. I always believed that the best ones would be found hidden within an illustration and that is what I found. In my blog dated 8th June 2019, more than four years ago, I wrote,  “The most instructive drawings have proved to be those found in DT. They contain everything you need to know about how to reconstruct Bessler’s wheel - yes, everything”

On the 15th November 2017, six years ago, I wrote, “So the four drawings in Das Triumphirende contain just about all the information you need to build Bessler’s wheel.”

On the 29th May 2012, eleven years ago, I wrote, “In fact only the toys drawings in MT contains useful information. There are additional hints in MT137 and in the letters 'A' which he used in MT, and there are hints too in some of the illustration numbers. The remaining drawings he was referring to are the five which appeared in his Das Triumphirende and of course the one in Grundlicher Bericht and the one at the end of Apologia Poetica. These five drawings hold almost everything you will need to build his wheel.”

For so many years I studied those illustrations without finding the key.  But over the last year or so, I believe I’ve unravelled the complex weave of hints, red herrings and sleight of hand to produce a likely contender for the solution. Like Bessler I’m going to try to demonstrate my reasoning by using illustrations more than words, but both will still be necessary.

I’m writing a blog containing the information about the design and configuration of his wheel, once it’s done I will post it here and on Besslerwheel forum for anyone to attempt a sim.  I’m also building a prototype but I’m very busy with other time- consuming activities so it might be that the model isn’t finished until some time in January.  But you never know, it’s not a very complex design, maybe I’ll get a chance to finish it earlier. Of course it could happen that a sim proves my design before I finish my prototype - or someone else does.

Finally, if I’m right about the above suggestions about the solution being hidden in plain sight in his published illustrations, and someone finally builds Bessler’s wheel according to the design I’m going to publish, it will prove beyond all doubt that we will be able to reproduce a model of Bessler’s Wheel which exactly replicates his own wheel.

I intend to publish the big reveal either on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day depending on how I am feeling on the Eve!

JC

Copyright © 2023 John Collins)

Friday 24 November 2023

Sharing Info MT 138, 139, 140 and 141- AKA — The TOYS Page

 https://johncollinsnews.blogspot.com/2023/11/sharing-more-info-mt-138-139-140-and.html

This post contains some of my ideas about where and how Bessler intended to reveal the workings of his perpetual motion device, or what is generally referred to as Bessler’s Wheel.  Without a working model this is speculation, but I believe it is based on some sound interpretation of the many clues and hints he scattered throughout his documents.

 I’ve written several blogs about the ‘Toys’ page so this is my latest and best attempt to explain all of it.

The figure below is from the original Maschinen Tractate, which is a name I coined for it because I originally thought that Bessler was referring to this collection of drawings in one of his letters but I think now he was talking about another project.

Underneath this original picture is the same figure cleaned up which is the one I’ll write about and explain what I believe is the true meaning of all the separate figures.




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Notice first that items A and B can be split into five equal parts.  This signifies that there are five mechanisms.  Notice each figure in A looks similar to the two items C and D, this is to provide a hint that their actions very roughly mimic the actions of the actual mechanisms.  Each part of A is linked to the next part with a length of rope.

Items C and D are each labelled twice.  Both sets of figures show two figures working in pairs, which agrees with a statement to that effect by Bessler.  The two C’s have arms but the two D’s don’t. The two C’s show two of the figures working in pairs before they have acted; the two D’s shows the same two figures after they have acted. This implies that C did the work so was active but D was acted upon and was passive.  C lifted it’s paired mechanism and thus D was lifted. Item D has spirals which indicate that the figure is at a different angle to C, because if, for instance, C operates at the six o’clock radius the D is lifted from a different point on the edge of the circle.

It’s worth pointing out that he drew one of each mechanism but then added two D’s and two C’s to stress that the two figures were the same mechanisms working in pairs, but at different points in the rotation of the wheel.

Item B is an interesting one and I only understood why it was drawn in this way a few months ago. The answer lies partly in item E.  You can see in B that it consists of five straight vertical lines with one dot alternately on each side or, if you ignore the five separating lines, it’s a straight vertical line with those dots on alternate sides.

I’ll return to B in a moment, first let us examine item E. The items on the page are numbered 1 to 5, yet there are six, if you count the hand drawn spinning top.  This looks like a late addition to me which might explain why he wrote 5. next to his scribble note. But as someone pointed out to me many years ago, the number 5. with its clearly drawn full stop or period indicates not five items, but the fifth item - the letter E.  The scissor mechanism or storks bill.

Remember Bessler’s frequent use of alphanumerics, in this case his scribbled note in the Toys page, “5. Children's game in which there is something extraordinary for anyone who knows how to apply the game in a different way”, applies in particular to the scissor mechanism labelled E.

Now in another drawing which I’ll discuss in a later share, it indicates
that the scissor mechanism should be applied in a different way which looks like this one:-

In the above picture I have extracted items B and E because B shows which part of E you need to use. Notice the same dots are there in E but in B half of them have been removed leaving a single line. This shows the alternate swivel pins or joints holding the short lengths of metal at each end together. The middle of each piece of metal shows a pivot which allows it to rotate. If the figure B is accurate, and I’m sure it is, then there is one of these mechanisms in each fifth segment.

This is similar to the picture below which shows a simple mechanism used widely in organ building in Bessler’s time.  

Also remember Bessler’s comment in AP, “ A crab crawls from side to side. It is sound, for it is designed thus.”   This comment is a hint that this mechanism will work best in a horizontal position where there is no lifting required just side to side action.

The two short lines at the top end of the original version of B will be explained later but they indicate two positions of a short lever attached to the end of the zigzag line.

That’s all for now. More later.

JC




Wednesday 25 October 2023

Johann Bessler’s Use of Alphanumerics.

In addition to his search for the solution to designing and building a perpetual motion machine Johann Bessler was also fascinated with the subjects of numbers, alphabets, alphanumerics and chronograms.  This obsession might have been heightened by his visit to Prague where he learned about codes and ciphers.

He used his name to encode information about the number five and fifty-five.  Potentially this clue pointed to the pentagram and/or chapter 55 of his second book Apologia Poetica(AP).  This chapter is full of coded stuff which I go into more on my websites at www.theorffyreuscode.com and www.orffyreus.net

His first two illustrations, one in Grundlicher Bericht (GB) and another version in Das Triumphans…(DT) include a lot of numbered parts.  Using just the numbers 1 - 24, he obtained a total of 660 which divided by 12 gives 55.  Why divide by 12?  Because Bessler cleverly embedded a clock in the same two drawings showing the 12 hours. This is the one from DT.

By drawing the lines of perspective within the illustration you can find a clock.  This is confirmed by the eight o’clock line which includes two items numbered eight. Taking the 660 and dividing it by the clock’s twelve hours we obtain 55 

His next illustration in DT was the Die Andere and Secunda Figua which was one illustration in two parts.  He uses just the numbers from 1 - 10 which totals 55. Addingh all the numbers used on the left side totals 28, but those on the right add up to - you guessed it, 55!  



The last illustration was of his wheel driving an Archimedes screw pump and included labelled parts, but this time he used the alphabet, labelling parts from ‘a’ to ‘t’, plus one part labelled 10, although it also looked like the letter ‘w’.  I checked the list of numbered parts and it did show a 10 and not a ‘w’.  Why not use the letter ‘u’ to follow his use of the letter’u’?

Maybe by using Bessler’s favoured Caesar shift system, we find that ‘w’ is equivalent to the letter ‘j’, ‘j is the tenth letter.  So why? I think it was a hint to read the alphabetic in this figure as both alphanumerics as well as the atbash. Any way the totals are as follows.


There are 39 numbers totalling 355. The letter ‘e’ is as usual missing from the left side, but that was how he highlighting the number. Adding the 5 to 355 to give 360,  and brings the number total 40 - so 20 for each half.  360 divided by 20 equals 18, the basic pentagonal number, snd of course 360 divided by the missing 5 equals 72, one fifth of the pentagon.

I could go on because there’s so much more, but although this is interesting it’s just another pointer to the number 5 and 55, which can point to the need for five mechanisms, and/or chapter 55 in his Apologia Poetica which has the 141 Bible references, and for a look at my attempts to decipher it see my web site at http://www.orffyreus.net/.      

More hidden, more useful,  information to follow.

JC




Monday 2 October 2023

More Information Hidden In Plain Sight

 I have mentioned the “craftsman phrase” on my blog, several times and I suggested that it meant that the fallen weight only needed to be lifted 30 degrees.   Below is another illustration from Bessler’s “Das Triumphant Orffyrean Perpetual Motion” (DT) which repeats the same information graphically.  This one is ingenious.

As usual I have included a pentagon because it’s a vital ingredient in Bessler’s wheel and as you’ll see, it’s presence is implied. Another feature of all the illustrations in DT is his use of the numbering of each part. The first picture in DT, which shows the Merseburg wheel, includes the numbers from 1 to 24, which totals 660.  He embedded a clock within the picture, 660 divided by the 12 hours equals 55.  Yes there it is again, his recurring number 55. You can find several references to the use of the clock in my blog, just use the search box at the bottom of the right side panel.

The same applies in the following illustration. He only uses the numbers from 1 to 10, but added together they total 55 - there’s definitely a theme here! - and when all the numbers in the right hand picture are added together they also total 55.

In the illustration below, I have filled in the pentagram in red. Originally the two drawings were on adjacent but separate pages. In the crease of the binding there were two rows of black and white lines allowing one to push together the two pages to make a perfect join at their two black borders as in the illustration.

The red line extends the upper right side of a pentagram in the left hand drawing, to coincide with the centre of the right circle. The triangle has a bottom angle of 30 degrees, and an upper right angle of 72 degrees and the remaining one, 78 degrees to complete the triangle.  In a pentagram that triangle has two 72 degree angles and one 36 degree but in this case the small bottom angle measures 30 degrees so the upper right one is 72 degrees which means the remaining one has to be 78 degrees.

Notice that in the the left picture the wheel contains horizontal hatchings and outside of the wheel they are vertical.  In the right picture the hatch marks are vertical and there are none outside the wheel.  The left picture is cut off on the right side. It looks as though we are meant to slide the right one over to the left, above the left one.

 
The elliptical or ovoid shape on the bottom of the triangle is designed to tell us to rotate the whole pendulum around it.  I realised this was necessary because of the three lines coming out of it seemed to suggest this as a possibility. and because we know the 30 degrees is the size of the lift required in Bessler’s connectedness principle.

In the next illustration I have copied across the large triangular pendulum and tilted it so that the centre of the three verticals coming out of the ovoid are located on the centre of the left side wheel and aligned with the hatching lines  The two weights identified with red circles fit precisely on the rope, showing the 30 degree lift. The blue lines demonstrate the position if we ignore red circled weights, which I think shows that they shouldn’t be ignored.  



The 30 degrees indicates the 30 degrees the weight must be lifted. As was usual with Bessler’s clues, he provides confirmation that the interpretation is correct, by including an additional clue. So the 72 degree angle in the upper right of the triangular pendulum suggests the presence of a pentagram and the top bar on it, once rotated, aligns with the extension of the pentagram from the left drawing. In confirmation that both drawing should be taken together, using all the numbers used to label the parts, 1 – 10 total 55. 55 is the number that Bessler uses everywhere to point to his five mechanisms, via the pentagram.

JC

                                                                 Copyright © 2023 John Collins. 

Saturday 23 September 2023

Bessler’s Gravitywheel - The Next Step

I said I wouldn’t show any pics of previous builds, and in fact there aren’t many left but this one (slightly out-of-focus!) was handy.  It was taken in 2016 just before moving house.  You can see the familiar five mech set up.  (Best ignored!)



There follow a few examples of Bessler’s ‘hiding in plain sight’ technique.  The picture below appeared in Johann Bessler’s Das Triumpant Orffyrean Perpetual Motion book. It was a second version of the original design which was included in his first booklet, Grundlicher Bericht. There are a few differences between the two versions but mostly I use the second drawing to illustrate my finds.

In the picture note the six columns or pillars, not including the main one supporting the wheel.  Two are drawn in three dimensions, numbered 4, but the other four, numbered 12, are two dimensional and their tops are indicated by my short red lines. The latter act as datum points. The two on either side of the central pillar provide pointers to enlarge the circumference of the wheel. 

The green line which is extended from the left side of the picture and aligns with the centre of the wheel, indicates one of two possible diameter lines. Two lines each drawn 18 degrees apart from the lower end of the green line conform to Euclid’s pentagram construction advice.

Confirmation is provided by the other two datum points which align with the purple 18-degree line and the hatching lines on the wheel and the capital letter M. If you draw a line similar to the purple line but aligning the left sides of the two red lines, the alignment is perfect with the hash marking in the wheel. I think that both lines finish in the same place but obviously they can’t both do that as well as align perfectly with the hash markings.

Notice that the outer circle now includes the left side of the ‘T’ pendulum, the point of the padlock and touches the bottom and right edges of the rectangle.

Below is a pic of how I worked out the correct position for the two circles



You might think I drew the inner circle first, placed the pentagram within it with five radii extended to the outer circle. But if you do that, you don’t know exactly where the inner circle will be so you have to draw in the outer one first before you can calculate exactly where the inner one will be. To calculate remember that all angles are multiples of 18.   Remember that Johann Bessler actually altered his forenames to include the number 5 and 18.

Below I’ve included a picture of my wheel’s baseplate upon which the mechanisms will eventually be attached. The pentagram is drawn in and you will notice an inner circle is included.  It is upon this circle that the five pivots are positioned. The drawing is not 100 per cent accurate but will suffice.

www.gravitywheel.com

The next bit is to drill the pivot holes, ready for the the five pivot stubs.  The levers are mounted on the pivots.  Their range of movement of each weight covers an arc of 90 degrees. There is more to be taken into account here and it’s not visible in the above picture. As the build progresses I’ll show more.  Although I’ve shown this configuration before, it still lacks a number of details so far.

For more evidence of the ubiquity of hints about the importance of  the number five visit my website at The Orffyreus Code

JC

Thursday 14 September 2023

Bessler’s Gravitywheel - first steps.

The configuration of the build that I will share here is based on my interpretation of many of the clues Johann Bessler left for us.  Sometimes I might not show how I arrived at a feature of the design because it would take up too much space to explain and I think most people would prefer to see the progression of the build.  Having said that I will show some details to help understand why a particular part of the design is the way it is.

As for the clues, one of the clearest indications that Johann Bessler left coded information lies in his use of a pseudonym, Orffyreus.  This device was a well-known system of coding, known in ancient Hebrew times as atbash or in later times as the Caesar shift, it involved alphabetic substitution.  Using this simple code, Bessler changed his name to Orffyre which he then Latinised to Orffyreus. Why use such a simple easily identified code?  His purpose in adopting a pseudonym was to draw attention to the possibility of further coded information.  I followed the hint and found numerous examples of codes and latterly I found the really useful information which was designed to reveal his secret to anyone with the determination to follow the path he laid in various places.

There is much that still eludes my amateur skills in this field but I’m certain that once his secret is exposed to the world, his other ciphers will be broken and more information will be published by those whose expertise puts my own efforts in the shade.

This subject has been discussed numerous times on my other websites, see the links in the side panel. My publications are also listed there.

The most obvious clue obtained right from the beginning is the importance Bessler attributed to the number five, and through a process of deduction from many other clues, I found that his gravity-enabled wheel had five compartments each containing a single mechanism; that each fifth segment contained one mechanism and one weight; each weight being of equal size - and that the mechanisms operated in pairs.

Each mechanism was paired with its adjacent one, and as a weight fell, it lifted the previous fallen weight back to its former position easily.  A clue to this action lies in one of Bessler’s more obscure clues.

He will be called a great artist if he can easily throw a heavy thing high and if a pound falls a quarter it will shoot up four pounds four quarters.

alternatives to “shoot up” are given as leap, bounce, jump.

Note that within the quote he mentions that there are five weights, one plus four, and each one is equal to one pound, and one pound falls a quarter.  
NB When he says one pound falls 90 degrees it will lift four pounds four quarters, he means as each pound falls it lift each of the other pounds 30 degrees, in turn.
In the first part the word ‘quarter', referred to, not just 90 degrees but also to a clock.  In the second part the word ‘quarter' also refers to a clock but this time he has used the words ‘four quarters’. ‘Four quarter’s equals ‘one whole hour’.  Each hour on a clock is divided into 30 degrees, so the words ‘four quarters’ meaning ‘one hour’ as used here equals thirty degrees.  To paraphrase Bessler’s words, “a great craftsman would be he who, as one pound falls 90 degrees, causes each of the other four pounds to shoot upwards 30 degrees.”
This looks unremarkable but it will become apparent why this worked, it and certainly made the weight “shoot upwards”. He provides confirmation of this fact in two other places, “hidden in plain sight”.
So we need a configuration with five equal segments, as per a pentagram. We need to know where the pivots from which the weighted levers are suspended.  We need to know their arc of travel and we need to know how each pair of mechanisms were connected. Plus we need to know what makes a design similar to this different to anything any of us have seen before.
Bessler showed us how to find the position of the pivots - but like many of his clues again, “hidden in plain sight”.  I will reveal several other hidden clues over the next few blogs.  Progress on my construction will be reported occasionally as it develops.
JC