Bessler's BONEZ

[Michael]

Hi. This is something I've comtemplated since about August 31. I won't go into any lengthy elaboration, anyone interested can make their own determination.


When Bessler talks about his interconnected principle maybe he was really refering to an interconnected mechanism.

The toy page (courtesy of Bill) shows serveral interconntected mechanisms with the advice of do it differently.

[Michael]

These mechanisms typically go back and forth but have no mobility side to side. They lack sway. A model in nature that does have all of these features is vertebrae.

[Michael]

Book, Vase and Skull (courtesey of John Collins.)

[Michael]

Book with Vertebrae. I have wondered if the five divisions on the spine of the book are to indicate the Lumbar region of the spine.

[Michael]

Here's what wikipedia says about the Lumbar region.

Lumbar vertebrae
Note: For more detailed information, see Lumbar vertebrae

These vertebrae are very robust in construction, as they must support more weight than other vertebrae. They allow significant flexion and extension, moderate lateral flexion (sidebending), and a small degree of rotation. The discs between these vertebrae create a lumbar lordosis (curvature that is concave posteriorly) in the human spine.

[Michael]

The Crab.
A crab crawls (Moves Slowly.) from side to side; It is sound for it is designed thus.

The dog creeps out of his kennel
just as far as his chain will stretch.
He knows how to please by playing
with his toys and knick-knacks.
He wags his tail,

The cunning cat slinks quietly along
and snatches juicy mice.

Acrobats and shadow-boxers
are as swift and nimble as the wind.

All of these show forms of motion. It is often thought that these words have some hidden meaning to serveral different types of mechanisms in the wheel but perhaps what they are reall all refering to is motion that is only capable of happening because of jointed units. The amount of jointed units determines mobility.

A crab moves slowly beacuse it has very few jointed units. Compare this to Besslers statement that he is able to make a wheel with only one cross section, but it moves very slowly. Compare this to the leg of the crab. A dog creeps out of his kennel, but a dog is a lot more mobile capable of other feats like playing with toys. And a cat is very agile and so is a small mouse. All because they have more elaborate interconnected units than a crab. vertebrae. The acrobats in this illustration are depicted as being the greatest in motion. It is interesting that if you read the poem backwards the crab starts first- that with the least amount of mobility, them comes the dog-which also creeps in this illustration, then the agile cat and mouse, then man at the top.

When Bessler talked of universal motion maybe he was refering to what most forms of mobile life use to get around with, vertebrae, and not planetary motion. This would place his secret in the animal kingdom and not the plant or vegetable kingdoms (Three kingdoms and all things belong to one of the three).

[Michael]

Some ideas.

Bessler said that with one cross section it moves slowly but with several and pulleys he could throw Wagners calculations clear out the window.

[Michael]

Bessler bleached bones for a living at one point.

This might be a stretch but he said his idea came from god. In christian theology man is created in the image of god. This fits the form of the acrobats being placed at the top of of mobile model in the poem.

[ovyyus]

I agree that the toys page might be describing a single connected concept. Interestingly, the number block for the page appears to allow for only a single number, rather than separate numbers for each mechanism (as is the case with the MT110-113 page). Also, the letters proceed across the whole page as though describing a connection between all mechanisms. And of course there's also the intriguing way the mechanisms align with each other.

I've attached the original for those who don't have it...

[ken_behrendt]

Hi, Michael, nice to see you posting again...

I agree that the reference to the crab in AP probably has several levels of meaning that Bessler picked up on. For example, a crab walks on 8 of its legs (the other two have the claws on them and are used to manipulate objects) and these legs are jointed. Since 8 legs provide motion for the crab, this could mean that Bessler's wheels, whether one- or two-directional, were powered by the action of 8 weights in motion. And, of course, a crab can move sideways in one of two directions and Bessler's larger wheel were all two-directions and could turn to either side.

Of late, the following line from AP has particularly caught my attention:

Acrobats and shadow-boxers
are as swift and nimble as the wind.

An acrobat can do a back flip from a standing position and land on his feet. I think this refers to the hidden mechanism in Bessler' wheels appearing to flip over end to end during wheel rotation. Remember, he and Count Karl would have had the privilege of observing the mechanism of the Kassel wheel in motion unobscured by the oiled cloth covering on its drum.

Now, the most important part of this line from AP is the reference to "shadow-boxers". A shadow-boxer is one who casts his shadow against a wall and then pretends to box with it. Boxing involves extending one's arm and its attached fist to strike an opponent.

Could it be that this shadow-boxer reference is refering to a scissor type mechanism within the wheel that, when the mechanism in horizontally oriented, laterally extends a weight (like a fist) farther out toward the rim of the wheel on its descending side? As the wheel rotated through 180°, this mechanism (like an arm) would then retract the weight back toward the axle again. With 8 such mechanisms housed in the same drum, it would be possible to create a rotating array of 8 weights which, even when the wheel was stationary, would always have its CG offset from the axle and located on the descending side of the wheel!

Anyway, I'm starting to seriously explore this concept. Somehow springs will also be required.

ken