Tuesday 20 February 2018

Was Johann Bessler the First Successful Perpetual Motionist?

Given that in my opinion, at least, Johann Bessler’s wheel had, as an optimum number, five mechanisms, and  it was therefore designed on a plan of a pentagram, I wondered if perhaps there might be something in the pentagram that might have some association, historically with continuous-turning wheels.

Perpetual Motion machines seem to have engaged man’s curiosity for hundreds of years.  There are written records going back to the twelfth century describing at least one machine, and it’s unlikely that no one else considered the possibility long before that.  There are no earlier written records currently available but maybe something will surface later.

But are we to believe that Johann Bessler was the only man ever to succeed in this ages-long search? I hope that one day some proof will emerge that demonstrates that the matter was researched and solved well over two thousand years ago.  But because the design and concept do not lend themselves to a complete description in prose, we should probably be looking for some kind of drawing depicting the concept of an over-balancing wheel.

It was this thought in mind that many years ago led me to examine and consider, among many others, the yin yang symbol. I won’t go into the various meanings associated with the yin yang, there are many websites providing everything you could wish to know.  I no longer think that this symbol carries anything of significance for the perpetual motion researcher, but I do like the image itself and I use it as my avatar occasionally.

The idea resurfaced recently when I came across some old Freemason images dating back more than 200 years, all based on the pentagram. It reminded me that the pentagram was used in Sumerian script some 3500 years ago. No signs of its use as a machine, but it was also used extensively in Ancient Greece and Babylonia too.

Further reading revealed that the pentagram appears in both Bronze Age and Iron Age art, and interestingly in Neolithic and earlier times.  The Neolithic age began about 10,000 years ago and followed the old Stone Age. It’s appearance in those earlier eras is more prevalent than those following.

The interesting question for me is what was it that generated the idea of the pentagram all that long ago?  Several examples of rock art include images of weaponry along with the pentagram, others show sun and star images.  But none as far as I can tell give any further information about its purpose then.  Later of course the Pythagorean developed a school of thought which included the pentagram and was based on mathematics and mysticism,which influenced Aristotle and Plato, but it doesn’t get us any nearer to why it might have held such interest so long ago.

It seems highly unlikely that anyone could build something as complex as Bessler’s wheel before the early Greek era, although there are reports of some ingenious devices both in early Egypt and Babylonia.

I can only conclude that as Bessler said, he was probably the only person in history with enough free time, ingenuity and perseverance to accomplish the task.

JC




38 comments:

  1. I agree...Perhaps Newton's famous discovery was the spark...

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    1. Possibly. We only know that Bessler read about thow valuable it would be for the man who discovered the secret of perpetual motion. But we don’t know where he read about it.

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  2. Your focus on the number 55 is a pretty clear message that Bessler really did want us to pay attention to it. The basic system with 5 mechanisms on it does lend itself to a good chance that it has merit in our work. From a mathematic standpoint there is a little more help with 7 mechanisms and a tiny bit more in 9. It would appear that there is a basic point with his "and are yet without understanding " 3 is also an odd number and with the correct system it will also provide an easy out of balance condition. I also believe that wheel must be extremely finely tuned in a balanced condition before you start putting on your weights and mechanisms. The weights, as they do their work, provide a temporary condition of being out of balance and surely leads us down a pretty specific design path. Thanks for your good work on this John, looking forward to getting the good news about your daughter....

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    1. Thanks for your encouraging words.🙂

      JC

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  3. Hello John and all,

    About perpetual motion, the old symbol of the triskelion seems interesting —see :
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triskelion

    Almost the same concept lays in the swastika symbol, in the custom of the 'toro de fuego' and in the lauburu (basque cross) —see : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauburu

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    1. Interesting post Michel and your finds remind me of all those ancient symbols I examined over several years. I can’t help wondering how each originated. It must have developed from somethings that was important to the originators of the design, but what?

      JC

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  4. In the same way, look at the trinacria symbol (in Sicilian flag and Isle of Man flag): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trinacria_wordmark.svg

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  5. And this 'croix pattée' in a circle : doesn't it look like a rotor?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_patt%C3%A9e#/media/File:Cross-Pattee-Alisee.svg

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  6. You can see the Bessler "A" hanging from a symbol:

    SITE:
    http://heraldie.blogspot.com/2012/05/la-croix-en-heraldique.html

    SYMBOL:
    https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IMTGX5i6lZk/UKz7SHOsgWI/AAAAAAAAOfk/O7I8p1mpL9A/s320/Croix+wisigothe-+bizantine.jpg

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    1. Wow, back in the old days before the internet was the mighty resource it is today, I only had the local library to search for old symbols. These links you have provided are amazing. I never knew there were so many variations on the cross! JC

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    2. I wonder what the "A" hanging from the cross represented.

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    3. The first hanging letter 'A' is the alpha letter, the second hanging letter 'ω' is the omega.
      From: John, Revelation, 22:13
      The biblical quote is: “13. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

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  7. Stephen...It goes up, but at the same time goes down... Up toward the sky, and toward the ground... It's present tense and past tense too...Come for a ride, just me and you...
    What is it?...

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  8. Letter 'A' could be the first letter of the name of the cross Creator or just the initials of the company or blogspot...

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    1. Alpha & Omega :

      https://myriamir.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/alpha-omega-jesus.jpg

      https://www.chrisme.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/le-chrisme.jpg

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  9. I was reading Wagner's critique (http://www.free-energy.co.uk/html/wagner_critique_1.html) and I stumbled upon this passage;

    "Almost no clatter and rattle was to be heard with the Draschwitz wheel; the wheel was made up of 8 spokes and was completely empty near the circumference, as one could see through the various cracks in the casing made of thin splinters, but there was not the slightest trace of a rising and falling weight to be heard or seen."

    It looks like Draschwitz wheel was somewhat silent. Strange.

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  10. What do you think about MT137?

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    1. see my web site at:-
      http://www.theorffyreuscode.com/html/mt_137_a.html
      http://www.theorffyreuscode.com/html/mt_137_part_two.html
      http://www.theorffyreuscode.com/html/mt_137_c.html

      It's all there.

      JC

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    2. Thanks John. Impressive analysis I must say! One quick look, I see you think it's related to the number 5 again. I will read all of your analysis. One more question, I remember you said there were no MT142 actually. In the original MT drawings, are there any other drawings without numbers? Does your MT book contains original drawings together with every text (numberings, notes etc.) and drawing from the original book? If so, I am going to buy it.

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    3. You must have heard of something I originally called “the Toys” page? It followed MT137 and at the bottom of the page it is numbered 138, 139, 140 and 141, following that there were two three pages unnumbered. I assume you are referring to them when you mention 142?

      The thing is the book, which I named Maschinen Tractate, was found as a collection of loose sheets in a box. There a couple of attempts to number them, as can be seen in the top corners, but I doubt that it is Bessler’s writing.

      Yes my version includes everything including drawings, notes and numbering.

      JC

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    4. John I've just found and downloaded pdf copy of the original from the University of Kassel website.

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  11. The greatest gift of all........ John Collins has planted inside or our imaginations the greatest of gifts which is an idea. An idea which he has shared out of this love for a dream. A dream which has given me so much joy and happiness as I build and scheme and dream of making a better world. We can change the world if we dare, because it is only by those who believe they can change the world that are the ones who actually do. Thank you John Collins by all of us who dare to share your dream......

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    1. German, Latin, a smattering of Hebrew and possibly some English and Italian. I don’t know if he knew any French, and there is no evidence that he did, but he did have a falling out with ‘madamoiselle’ who must have been French and of course it was commonly used at Court. So maybe you can include that too.

      JC

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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...