Tuesday 11 November 2014

Johann Bessler's clues were ambiguous and he used misdirection.

 I believe that Bessler always wrote the truth but left it to the reader to filter out the ambiguities deliberately planted as misdirection, but not misinformation.  In magic, misdirection is a form of deception in which the attention of an audience is focused on one thing in order to distract its attention from another.

We know that Bessler spent ten years researching and experimenting before he achieved success .  He asked for a large sum of money for the secret.  He seemed almost paranoid about giving the secret away accidentally, remember, he was afraid that a single word might betray his secret?

Is it likely then, knowing that his machine was going to be made available for the most rigorous examinations, that he would simply allow the noises coming from his wheel  to be heard by those many many people who came to see and investigate his claims?  Surely he would find some way of disguising them. Some of those who came to see the wheel undoubtedly admired the device, but others sought to uncover the scam they believed it to be - and there were those who sought the answer for their own purposes, to reveal the secret or claim it for themselves.

Bessler's first wheels were described as noisy. Some visitors suggested that the wheel contained a dog or a cat, because of the scratching noise which came from within.  In a letter to Leibniz, one of his correspondents, Gottfried Teuber, wrote , "upon the cord being released, the machine began to rotate with great force and noise".  Bessler's first certificate of genuineness, issued at Gera,  described how "the machine regained its strong, even and fast rotation each time. The movement was accompanied by quite a loud noise caused by the internal mechanism which lasted until the machine was brought to a forced stop".

I wrote about the Kassel wheel in my book on Bessler, "many people commented on the loud noise it made, and as eight weights fell at every turn of the wheel, one can imagine the effect of say a twenty-four pound weight crashing against the side of the machine four times every second!"  The 24 pound weight was my initial guess but there is nothing to say that it couldn't have been much lighter, I'm sure it was, but the fact is that what ever weight Fischer was hearing was landing four times a second no wonder he wasn't sure how many were falling at each rotation.  Bessler's first machines were described as very noisy and I would suggest that additional mechanisms were included to provide more noise to cover that made by the basic mechanism.

For a long time I have been unconvinced by Fischer von Erlach's description of the "sound of about eight weights landing on the side towards which the wheel turned."  I'm not suggesting that von Erlach was wrong but that Bessler was an expert at providing ambiguous information and the sounds that von Erlach heard were most likely the ones he was meant to hear.

The reason could be that the sounds were either muffled by something such as felt, or there were other sounds which were harder to place but which tended to obscure the ones he thought he could hear.  Those other sounds could have come from the  mechanisms designed to turn the wheel in the opposite direction to the current one.  These would be reversing and therefore possibly they made no distinct falling and landing sounds, but nevertheless there may have been extra noises which added to Fischer von Erlach's difficulty in identifying what and where he was hearing the eight sounds he describes.

If there were merely the sounds of normal operation coming from the wheel, mightn't that be much too big a clue to leave, at least in Bessler's own mind. Isn't it much more credible that he would have disguised any sounds which might lead to someone guessing how the wheel worked?  Suppose there were actually fewer, or more weights in the machine than the eight described, then Bessler would seek ways of cloaking the real sounds and supplying alternative less revealing ones.

Eight weights sounds like the kind of number anyone might suspect as being about right.  Did Bessler choose that number because he felt. that that many would fit in with what people expected, but suppose the actual sounds were quite informative about what was happening. Maybe there double thumps or the sounds of a spring expanding, or sliding noises or chains rattling, which taken together might have provided some clues as to what was happening inside.

 Perhaps; he muffled all the actual working mechanisms and their weights as they fell, or disguised other sounds and added eight loud heavy thumps to divert attention from the muffled noise the real mechanisms made - misdirection!

To make the wheel produce eight thumping noises at each turn would not be that difficult, the only problem being that, adding some or muffling some would create unequal intervals between the eight weight sounds.  This would surely have been noticed but there is no comment to that effect recorded.  That is why I think he muffled all the real sounds and substituted artificial thumps which  could produce the "sound of about eight weights landing on the side towards which the wheel turned."

JC

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17 comments:

  1. I never ever cared about Bessler's clues, the sounds his wheel shall returned or everything else that could, possibly, imply how the mechanisms could have worked. When I design my own wheels, I just do it from my imagination without distracting myself from all this stuff about Bessler's history. Crazy, isn't it? But to be honest - I believe - this also could be the way to have success.

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  2. In my own research I have found that Bessler tends to throw multiple clues at a reader. It is then up to the reader to try to pick out which ones of them are "relevant" to the interior mechanics of his wheels. No easy task unless one is doing an enormous amount of building and modifying or, in my case, computer modeling and modifying. I still believe that there were only eight levers with end weights in each of his one directional wheels. That provides a lever every 45 degrees and is probably the minimum number needed to construct a smoothly working pm wheel.

    Well, today I decided to give the "acid test" to two of three alternative designs I have for his wheels. Both designs failed to pass that test. As the wheels were slowly driven through a 45 degree segment of rotation, their levers' and a weights' center of mass just slowly sunk down below the axles, slipped over to the ascending side for a brief time, and then shot back to their starting positions again. In other words, the centers did not remain floating on the descending side throughout the entire segment of rotation. It's obvious that this is due to the ascending side levers not dropping and then rising fast enough. Bessler was not kidding when he said that the "weights which hang below must rise in a flash" or something to that effect.

    I have a single design left to test and it is a bit different from the other two. Unlike them it has springs that can be adjusted somewhat and I'm hoping that will allow it to work by causing a more rapid shifting of the levers. I should know in a few more days. If this last design fails and can not be made to work, then I will truly be at the end of the line unless some possible modification occurs to me. It usually has in the past, but this time it might not and then that would be a signal that it's time for my "sabbatical" or "retirement" to begin. Meanwhile, I continue to hear the siren call of permanent magnet motors...

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  3. 5 mechs/weight combo's

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  4. In my humble opinion , letting the witnesses hear the eight impacts per revolution did not give anything away. There are still millions of designs that could cause that noise. That doesn't necessarily mean that eight weights were used.

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  5. "The clattering noise you refer to is, I assure you, a phenomenon caused directly by the real motive power of the machine, and nothing else."
    Bessler said the noise was not a misdirection.

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    1. I have to agree here . It's not like there is definitely a magic number that's gonna work better than another as far as how many weights . Bessler expressed a desire for the " world at large to have knowledge of and possess his device " ... He called himself a proponent . He made assertions that nobody ever gets around to discussing . Thinking in this manner might be a step backward for some of us .

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  6. I too think bessler didn't try to conceal, disguise or muffle the sound...it wasn't really necessary...the sounds wouldn't have given anything away...even if it did it was required to support Besslers claims about the genuineness of the wheel..the scratching noise too was natural....the scratching noises were created during the climb up....and the banging ones while descending....I agree with S.O.P.M...that is the right way to approach....I agree with dougsubous too.......I don't agree with justsomeone and also the anonymous.....eight weights were in fact actually used by bessler....we shouldn't complicate the matter....Bessler was a simple person and so was his wheel.....

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  7. Still have not had time to test my third and final design. But, it's obvious to me that, although all of my moving levers are perfectly "coordinated" by the network on ropes interconnecting them, the problem preventing the design from working involves the spring tensions being used. They must be high enough to support the levers from 10:30 to 4:30, but not so high as to prevent the levers moving from 6:00 to 9:00 from rapidly swinging in toward the wheel's axle. There is a very delicate balance involved here and if one does not have it, then the center of mass of the weights and levers will not remain on the descending side during wheel rotation and pm will not be achieve. I feel like I'm very close now, but I've had this feeling many times in the past only to be disappointed / frustrated when I realized I was wrong. I shall intensify my efforts on this last design.

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  8. John .. as mentioned in a previous comment - Bessler says "The clattering noise you refer to is, I assure you, a phenomenon caused directly by the real motive power of the machine, and nothing else."

    Bessler also says that he became versed in rhetoric & mumbled like the village idiot to evade direct questions he didn't want to answer - this strategy must have come thru in some of his writings as well - he would have given very direct clues at times & other clues at times that he knew had potential for misdirection - the point being that it was up to the reader to detemine the relative importance of each clue, to sort the wheat fro the chaff so to speak - that is a difficult task without knowing the mechanisms - but in his mind they were all worthy clues, just some more relevant than others IIMO - for instance, sometimes he talks about actual parts of mechanisms & at other times he could be talking about very ordinary & common mechanics found in any rotary device, that just weren't that special - up to you what significance you assign to each 'clue'.

    But back to the wheel noises - if you take him at his word then why not go a step further & ask yourself why he would bother with felt covering in the first place, & then abandon them ? - they diminish impact energy because they absorb energy - so they weren't to assist energy or momentum transfer - they must have had another purpose ? - simply noise reduction - then that leaves you with the what were the levers for then if not to transfer the fullest quotient of energy & momentum ? - IMO they were to transmit force !

    -fletcher

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    1. fletch, I agree with what you say but sometimes I like to act as devil's advocate to put up ideas that perhaps people haven't considered. I'm still inclined towards the idea that there was noise reduction applied to the Kassel wheel, and I have some ideas about the levers and their transmission of force which would not be affected by the felt or what ever material he used to reduce noise. I'll publish it when I've tested the idea.

      JC

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  9. @fletcher I've also wondered about this matter of using felt in Bessler's wheels and also believe they were solely intended for noise reduction. That noise would have been that produced as a cylindrical lead weight made physical contact with a wooden stop on the inner surface of a drum's periphery. However, I am not convinced that the impacts taking place on a drum's descending side had anything to do with driving one of his wheels. In the designs I am working with, the weights landing on their stops on a wheel's descending side are, literally, gently lowered into place as their trailing train of levers all move their weights a bit closer to their particular peripheral stops. But, even with the gentlest of impacts, a lot of sound can be created as lead contacts wood. Those sounds, Bessler feared, could be used to help examiners of his wheels determine where the impacts were occurring and how many per revolution were taking place. Again, more clues Bessler did not want revealed. Eventually, however, he must have realized that these clues, by themselves, were still not enough to reveal the secret mechanics of his wheels and he simply stopped using the felt coverings on the stops. Also, perhaps they were a nuisance because, in a long running wheel, they would eventually become tattered, shred, and then drop inside of the drum and begin tumbling around like clothes in dryer. That might then interfere with the smooth functioning of a wheel or even stall it. This, of course, was something Bessler definitely did not want to take place while he was trying to impress a potential buyer or his agent in the reliability of his giant 12 foot diameter wheels.

    Well, I performed the "acid test" on my remaining design today and...it did not work! The problem with it is painfully obvious: the ascending side levers and their attached weights are just not shifting fast enough to keep the center of mass of all of the weights and levers on the wheel's descending side. This is definitely the problem and the only problem because I discovered that, when I overrode the design and forced the levers to shift properly by activating them with carefully synchronized motors, the center of mass stayed right where it was supposed to. Now all I have to figure out is how to achieve this more rapid shifting without the use of extra motors. The key, I believe, is in the tensions used on the springs attached to the levers. I have been following one major clue that suggested what the spring constant should be for these springs and that value does not work as the "acid test" today unfortunately demonstrated. So, I must once again review the clues I've located and see if I can find one that gives that correct spring constant value. I know it's there somewhere. I've just got to keep searching for it and testing.

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    1. Nice to see you're still at it with the same principle Ken .. I do think your goal of not letting PE reduce is the corrcet one - and if this can be combined with a CG shift to cause torque then all the better - I should think that falling levers & springs are thoroughly explored by now, but to each their own.

      Best -fletcher

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    2. Thanks for the kind words, Fletcher. Yes, the scientific "orthodoxy" out there would say that a weight driven wheel absolutely can not work unless the center of mass of its weights and the gravitational potential energy that represents drops as the wheel outputs mechanical energy to its environment. But, a genuine imbalanced pm wheel outputs its energy without doing that! The trick to achieving success is finding some means of causing the center of mass of the wheel's weights and levers to rise at the same rate that the wheel wants to allow it to drop so that it remains more or less stationary with respect to the ground outside of the wheel. No easy task this as my now 1000+ experiments demonstrate, But, then again, if it was so easy to do, then we would have developed these wheels long before Bessler arrived on the scene and did exactly that. The secret, I am very firmly convinced, involves the careful use of spring tension applied to the levers and their end weights. Unlike the skeptics, I do not believe everything involving weights, levers, and springs has been thoroughly explored yet and that helps keep me motivated. Anyway, I do believe that I am now very close to having the exact design Bessler used, but one can never be absolutely sure of anything in pm wheel research until and unless he finds something that undeniably works...I have yet to achieve that, but remain hopeful. What amazes me is how low the axle torques were in even Bessler's largest wheels. Only about 40 in-lbs or so. For the Merseberg wheel that would just barely allow a rope wrapped around the axle to steady lift a weight of about 13 lbs. With such a low torque Bessler had to rely upon using mechanical advantages of various types to produce more spectacular effects for his public demonstrations. That's why we read of him using pulley systems, flywheel effects, and counterpoised pendula. I'm also convinced that while these illusions impressed the masses, they did not convince those who were considering spending their deutsch thalers for the secret. They wanted to see the kind of power developed by things like water and wind mills...something Bessler's wheels could not deliver. Despite this, however, I think it's important that we find their secret so that Bessler's tarnished reputation can be restored and he can finally have his rightful place in the history of science as, most likely, the first man to prove an imbalanced pm wheel is possible.

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  10. Another use for felt in machinery is to act as an oil reservoir, still used in some electric motors to this day.

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  11. @STEVO Yes, I remember seeing those felt pieces inside of the "oil ports" on electric motors that one would squirt some oil into and they would then supply that oil, via capillary action, to the bearings in the motor.

    I've come to the conclusion that there were only three types of "bearings" used in Bessler's wheels. There were the two end pivots on the axle that sat in brass journals, then steel pivots that penetrated the levers and were "nested" in brass pieces that were, in turn, embedded in the radial wooden members of a drum, and, finally, some sort of hook-like connectors at the ends of the ropes that would attach them to additional steel pins in the levers and drum frame members. I think Bessler could quickly service these through the various holes in the cloth sheets covering the sides of a drum by just putting a drop of a light vegetable oil (like olive oil) on each of them periodically. These various bearings probably were close to drag free and the major source of drag on a wheel would have been due to air resistance, but even that was minimal. Yes, his wheels were a marvel of craftsmanship. I just wish his widow had saved the shattered remains of the smaller wheel that was found in his home after his death. If she had just shoveled them up and put them in an old chest, we might have them today and possibly would be able to analyze them by using those special computer programs that the archaeologists use that allow them to scan the fragments of an ancient vase and then the program quickly determines what the original piece looked like. I don't see why something like that would not work with the remains of one of Bessler's wheels. I've always wondered what happened to that wheel.

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  12. I managed to get a little bit of work done on my final design today and, as usual, got another surprise. I discovered that the location of that last rope I needed to install on the levers was in the wrong spot and as a result all of the levers were still not perfectly coordinated. I had to hunt around for the correct spot using trial and error and then found one that worked perfectly. But, could I "justify" it with any of the clues Bessler left us? The answer is yes and the clue had been there all along right in front of my eyes but I could not "see" it. So, at this point I can say with certainty that all of the motions of my design's levers are properly synchronized and coordinated. However, I'm still wrestling with the correct spring constant to use for the springs that are attached to the levers. Also, there is a new "wrinkle" that seems to be emerging. There may be more than one spring on each lever and the two types do not have the same spring constants! Bessler did leave several clues about the springs he used, but they are very difficult to find and properly interpret. I still have a lot of work ahead of me even though I am currently working on wm2d model #1042! Hopefully, I'll have some very good news to report this week.

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  13. AP p.326

    "The clattering was not "pro forma" (i.e. just for appearance sake)."

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The True Story of Bessler’s Perpetual Motion Machine.

On  6th June, 1712, in Germany, Johann Bessler (also known by his pseudonym, Orffyreus) announced that after many years of failure, he had s...