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

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

The Legend of Johann Bessler’s Wheel.

This is my new blog, beginning today.  I intend to post details of my reconstruction of Bessler’s wheel here.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the legend of Bessler’s wheel, or as it is sometime called the wheel of Orffyreus, (Orffyreus was his pseudonym) I am posting below a brief account of the story of Johann Bessler.

Before that I must tell you that many people believe Bessler’s claim to have succeeded in building a perpetual motion machine was genuine.  It was driven by falling weights so, it is claimed, it depended on the force of gravity.  I discovered that Bessler had left instructions showing how his machine worked, cleverly encoded in several different ways.  I have managed to decipher much of his hidden information, and it is this which I shall be publishing here.

The Legend of Johann 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, he devised a number of demonstrations and tests designed to prove the validity of his machine without giving away the secret of its design.

After more than thirty years he died in poverty.  He had asked for a huge sum of money for the secret, £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 verifying that it worked.  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.

This problem 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. It is well-known that he was prepared to die without selling the secret and that he believed that post humus acknowledgement was preferable to being robbed of his secret while he yet lived.

The information to be published here will include a video of my reconstrction of Bessler's wheel revolving.  Another video will give a brief account of the codes and where they are.  A book detailing all of the codes and their meaning will follow.

JC

Gravitywheel.com

This new blog is an addition to my other blog which has been running for more than thirteen years.  Here I intend to post details of my current construction of Johann Bessler’s gravitywheel.  It is based on some of the clues I’ve deciphered.  If it works I will share the successful design here and in many other places.  If it fails I will still share everything I know because even if my build fails, I have deciphered many of Johann Bessler’s clues and codes and these may help someone else to achieve more than I have.

Who is Johann Bessler?  What is this Gravity Wheel?

Well, for answers to both questions, visit my other blog at https://johncollinsnews.blogspot.com/

You can also buy the five books I’ve published by following this link, attached to the above one

https://johncollinsnews.blogspot.com/p/johann-besslers-books-and-biography.html

There you can read all about this extraordinary man who built a so-called  Perpetual Motion machine more than 300 years ago in Germany.  He offered it for sale and provided as much proof as possible that  it was real, without actually revealing the internal workings. He offered numerous demonstrations, allowed every visitor the option to climb all over it check if it was being driven in some secret manner.  His demonstrations included raising a 70 pound weight up and down the side of the building in which the machine was situated.  He provided an alternative set of bearings to which the machine could be transferred, both sets were available for inspection before  and after.  He conducted a long term test of 54 days under lock and key.  

He also allowed just one person to see the interior of the machine, his name was Karl, the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel, a highly respected man of impeccable reputation.  He was able to view and understand the workings of the machine and issued a declaration that  Bessler’s wheel, as it has become known, was genuine, it worked and was in fact quite simple.  So much information is available today, it is only a matter of weeks before his secret is revealed.

JC