Johann Bessler

Johann Ernst Elias Bessler (1680 - November 30, 1745) was born in Zittau, Germany. He is also known as Orffyre, a ROT13 encryption of "Bessler", and Orffyreus, a latinized version. Bessler demonstrated a series of claimed perpetual motion machines.

Life and career

In 1712 Bessler appeared in the town of Gera in the province of Reuss and exhibited a "self-moving wheel", which was about 6.5 feet (2 m) in diameter and four inches (10 cm) thick. Once in motion it was capable of lifting several pounds^{[citation needed]}.

Orffyreus Wheel diagram. (Kassel, Germany)

Orffyreus Wheel diagram. (Merseburg, Germany)

Leaving Gera, Bessler moved to Draschwitz, near Leipzig, where in 1713 he constructed an even larger wheel, a little over nine feet (2.7 m) in diameter and six inches (15 cm) in width. The wheel could turn at fifty revolutions a minute and raise a weight of forty pounds (18 kg). Bessler constructed a still larger wheel in Merseburg before moving to the small independent state of Hesse-Kassel (or Hesse-Cassel), where Prince Karl, the reigning Landgrave, offered him rooms in the ducal castle at Weissenstein. It was here that in 1717 he constructed his largest wheel so far, twelve feet (3.7 m) in diameter and fourteen inches (35 cm) thick.

The wheel was examined by many of the leading scientists of the day over several months, who all concluded that there could be no deception. The great Mathematician and Philosopher Gottfried Leibniz (1646 - 1716) viewed the one-directional wheel in 1714 and wrote:-

"Orffyreus is a friend of mine, and he allowed me, some time ago, to carry out some experiments with his machine. It ran continuously for two hours in my presence and demonstrated considerable power. There is something extraordinary about Orffyreus' machine and we must not ignore it, because it could bring tremendous benefits."

Willem 's Gravesande (1688 - 1742), Attorney, Mathematician, and Professor, viewed the bi-directional wheel in 1721, and in a letter to Sir Isaac Newton wrote:-

"You will not be displeased, I presume, with a circumstantial account of my examination. I send you therefore the details of the most particular circumstances observable on an exterior view of the machine, concerning which the sentiments of most people are greatly divided, whilst almost all the mathematicians are against it. The majority maintain the impossibility of a perpetual motion, and hence it is, that so little attention has been paid to Orffyreus and his invention.

For my part, however, though I must confess my abilities inferior to those of many who have given demonstration of this impossibility - yet I will communicate to you the real sentiments with which I entered on examination of this machine... It seemed to me that Leibniz was wrong in laying down the impossibility of perpetual motion as an axiom. Notwithstanding this persuasion, however, I was far from believing Orffyreus capable of making such a discovery, looking upon it as an invention not to be made (if ever) till after many other previous discoveries. But since I have examined the machine, it is impossible for me to sufficiently express my astonishment.

The inventor has a turn for mechanics, but is far from being a profound mathematician, and yet his machine has something in it prodigiously astounding, even though it should be an imposition. The following is a description of the external parts of the machine, the inside of which the inventor will not allowed to be seen, lest anyone should rob him of his secret.

It is a hollow wheel or kind of drum, about fourteen inches thick and twelve feet in diameter; being very light as it consists of several cross pieces of wood framed together; the whole of which is covered over with canvas, to prevent the inside from being seen. Through the center of this wheel or drum runs an axle of about six inches in diameter, terminated at both ends by iron bearings of about three-quarters of an inch in diameter upon which the whole thing turns. I have examined these bearings and am firmly persuaded that nothing from without the wheel in the least contributes to its motion.

When I turned it but gently, it always stood still as soon as I took my hand away. But when I gave it any tolerable degree of velocity, I was always obliged to stop it again by force; for when I let it go it acquired in two or three turns its greatest velocity, after which it revolved at twenty-five or twenty-six times a minute.

This motion it preserved some time ago for two months, in an apartment of the castle; the doors and windows of which were locked and sealed, so that there was no possibility of fraud."

The wheel was locked in a room in the castle on 12 November 1717, with the doors and windows tightly sealed to prevent any interference. This was observed by the Landgrave and various officials. Two weeks later the seals were broken and the room was opened; the wheel was still revolving. The door was resealed until 4 January 1718, whereupon it was opened and the wheel was still revolving at twenty-six revolutions per minute.

Whilst various institutions, including the Royal Society, were debating whether to raise funds to purchase "Orffyreus' Wheel" (for which he demanded twenty thousand pounds), in his letter to Sir Isaac Newton, professor Willem 's Gravesande stated he had examined the axle of the wheel, concluding that he could see no way in which the wheel could be a fake. Bessler smashed the wheel, believing s'Gravesande was hoping to discover the secret of the wheel without paying for it, and declared that the curiosity of the professor had provoked him.

Bessler and his machine vanished into obscurity. It is known that he was rebuilding his machine in 1727 and that s'Gravesande had agreed to examine it again, but it is not known whether it was ever tested. In 1727 Bessler's maid, Anne Rosine Mauersbergerin, testified that his machines had been turned manually from an adjoining room. s'Gravesande wrote that he believed Bessler was "mad" but not such an obvious fraud. Bessler died in 1745, aged sixty-five, when he fell to his death from a four-and-a-half-story windmill he was constructing in Fürstenburg.

Evaluation

If the axiom (circulus in probando) is accepted that energy cannot be created or destroyed, then it must be concluded that either the wheel was a well-disguised fake or that it used an undisclosed energy source. One contemporary stated that Bessler had been a clockmaker at some point, and suggested that some sort of spring mechanism was hidden inside the axle of the wheel - although this accusation was never proven through a replication of Bessler's demonstrations. The possibility of a man being concealed inside the wheel is ruled out by the test in which the wheel was left running in a sealed room for three months and by the fact that Bessler's early wheels were too thin for such concealment.

In 1719 Bessler himself published a pamphlet, entitled The Triumphant Orffyrean Perpetual Motion (original text), in which a vague account of his principles is included. He admitted that the wheel depended upon weights, placed so that they can "never obtain equilibrium".

If the Orffyrean device is an "overbalancing wheel", it may possibly be a wheel with two rims, one inside the other, where weights move between the rims.^[1] The weights on the outer rim outweigh the weights on the inner rim on the opposite side, so that side descends. As the weights begin to rise again under their own momentum, some mechanism transfers them onto the inner rim, where they are nearer the centre of the circle and thus lighter in effect than those on the descending outer rim. The weights rise to the top of the wheel, where they are again transferred to the outer wheel. However, the Marquis of Worcester (who originally thought of the idea) overlooked one basic point. The outer rim is of course longer than the inner rim, so there is less weight on the descending rim than on the other side. So the two sides counterbalance each other, causing the wheel to soon stop spinning.

Johann Christian Wolff (philosopher) who viewed the wheel in 1715 wrote that: "... he did not disguise the fact that the mechanism is moved by weights. Several such weights, wrapped in his handkerchief, he let us weigh in our hands to estimate their weight. They were judged to be about four pounds each, and their shape was definitely cylindrical..."

Also Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach (1693 - 1742),Draftsman, Illustrator, and Architect to the Emperor of Austria, who viewed the bi-directional wheel in 1721, wrote; "...It is a wheel which is twelve feet in diameter, covered with an oil-cloth. At every turn of the wheel can be heard the sound of about eight weights, which fall gently on the side toward which the wheel turns. This wheel turns with astonishing rapidity, making twenty-six turns a minute when the axle works unrestricted. Having tied a cord to the axle, to turn an Archimedean screw for raising water, the wheel than made twenty turns a minute. This I noted several times by my watch, and I always found the same regularity. I then stopped the wheel with much difficulty, holding on to the circumference with both hands. An attempt to stop it suddenly would raise a man from the ground...." So there have been speculations that these heavy cylindrical weights imparted intermittent centrifugal force to the angular momentum of the device, by virtue of rolling through a curved profile track. There may have been a ratchet mechanism that prevented the counter rotation of the wheel as the cylindrical weights rocked in a simple harmonic oscillation back and forth. The motion of these weights effectively imitative of a pendulum. If the increased weight of these rolling cylinders, perhaps following the famous brachistochrone curve, imparted a force vector that exceeded the mass of the cylinders on the opposite side of the wheel, then momentum would be intermittently maintained, provided reverse momentum was restricted by a ratchet mechanism. This phenomenum can be very simply demonstrated by rolling a large cylinder or ball bearing in a curved track mounted on just one side of a beam, supported on a fulcrum (see-saw) whilst a similar 'stationary' mass is used to counterballance the rocking weight at the opposite end of the beam.

The true motive power behind Bessler's demonstrations, and the method, mechanism and energy source which moved the wheel's internal weights, remain unexplained.

Coded papers

Recently, a series of coded features has been discovered among various papers published by the inventor. Research by Bessler's biographer, John Collins, has revealed that these codes contain clues as to the construction of his wheels. It seems he intended, from the beginning of his career, that his notoriety and efforts to construct a self-moving wheel would not die with him.

Bessler constructed a variety of codes, which would in time, collected together, reveal his secret. The clues to these codes range from very simple to quite complex. Collins claims to have deciphered some of the clues. He details these in a self-published book, Perpetual Motion: An Ancient Mystery Solved?, Permo Publications 1997 ISBN 1-4116-7636-X, and also discusses many others which to date remain undeciphered.

Notes

^ Randall Woods. "PMMs Based on Principles of Classical Mechanics". Retrieved 2007-05-21. (ed. this site describes wheels with pivot arms and pendulums, but may not include devices constructed as shown in the diagrams.)

[1] Randall Woods. "PMMs Based on Principles of Classical Mechanics". Retrieved 2007-05-21. (ed. this site describes wheels with pivot arms and pendulums, but may not include devices constructed as shown in the diagrams.)

[1]

Life and career

Evaluation

Coded papers

Notes

External links